Minneapolis 6 September 1999

 1999 is an odd year in the world of Prince. No tour this year, just a steady stream of one-off shows and appearances. Prince was well off my radar at this stage, I had grown weary of his output, and found it lacked the excitement and creativity that I previously enjoyed. But looking at my recordings I see that I do need to have a dig and look at something from this era. I have chosen a recording of his appearance at the Mill City festival. The setlist looks slightly interesting, and with Larry Graham in the band, the stage is now set for the next change in his life and music. 

Mill City Festival 6 September 1999 Minneapolis 

The lone notes of Prince’s guitar begin the recording. His tone is unmistakable, and there is a nice minute of just his playing alone. The beat begins as the guitar whines its final note, and I am immediately enthused as “Sign Of the Time” starts. The sound of his guitar playing at the beginning adds a lot to it, and my excitement. His playing through the whole song is great, very nice and fiery. It’s a good contrast to Prince's vocal, which is suitably detached. This song works great live, and I am surprised it doesn’t get played more often. As the title track of one of his most critically recognized albums I feel it should get a little more love. For all the great lyrics in this song, and the fantastic beat, it is the guitar that dominates in this live version, especially later in the song, before it finishes very sharply. This was a great start to the recording. 

Another Sign Of The Times song follows, as the steady drumbeat of “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man” begins. Prince takes his time to thank the city and festival and then brings out Larry Graham to the stage. He tells us that he has a few surprises lined up later, and then comments on the crowd. It’s a good minute and a half before he starts playing on his guitar, then after a brief moment the band jumps in and the song starts properly. What I enjoy about this one, is I can hear the organ very well, and it helps fill out what is a somewhat thin recording. Prince seems to understand what the main attraction of the song is, and after a brief verse, he jumps straight to the guitar break. It’s sounding good, but nothing great or off the wall here. I enjoy it much more when the band falls silent and Prince draws out a longer more mournful guitar break. He never returns to the song and it ends with him playing guitar like this. 

There is a small break again between songs as Prince delivers a spiritual message. It’s well-intentioned, and leads us appropriately enough into “The Christ.” Although I don’t like the fact that Prince is trying to rewrite his history, I do respect his beliefs and admire that he is prepared to stand by his convictions. However, this song will always be ‘The Cross’ to me. It seems that it would be impossible to play a version of this that I wouldn’t like, but here it comes close. Larry Graham sings the second verse, and although I love his voice – love, love – here it sounds out of place to me. Prince’s vocals sound a little messed up when he returns for the next verse. I am not sure I can blame the quality of the recording for this, it sounds like he is ad-libbing at the mic, buts it’s not very clear, and sounds a little amateurish. He does serve up another guitar break, but again it’s nothing spectacular and is a little truncated. 

 

“Thank you very much hometown,” Prince says before the keyboard intro of “Let's Go Crazy” begins. The guitar sound here is fairly neutered, and the song has lost the power it had during the Purple Rain era. This is a pretty standard run-through of the song, it has a couple of verses cut, and even the guitar breaks fail to lift it to anything special. I thought it might have picked up when Prince played his last guitar howl, but even this is a damp squib. 

“She’s Always in My Hair” is a dead-set classic, and its appearance next raises my interest considerably. Both the guitar and the keys via for my attention, before Prince closes the deal with “Can I play my guitar?” The guitar break is everything I could ask for, and although not stratospheric, it’s exactly what I need. The song seems to be very short, only the first verse and chorus are played before the guitar break, and the song ends immediately after the guitar solo. Short and sweet as they say, I could have done with a little more for this one. 

Keeping with the rock theme the next song played is “U Got The Look.” It has good energy and simmers along nicely. The setlist so far has been crowd-pleasing, and heavy on guitar songs from his most popular albums. “U Got The Look” has a very clean sound to it. Sure, there is some nice throaty guitar, but it still sounds well-polished throughout. I was wondering if they would do something different with it, but it’s very much as heard on the album. It is enjoyable, but nothing to write home about, or indeed to write a blog about. 

I was wondering where Prince was going next, as over a steady beat he addresses the crowd, and especially the ladies in the audience. It all becomes clear when he says “Ladies, do you know how to kiss?” There is a brief moment of sampler and scratching before the very familiar guitar line of “Kiss” begins. There is some sampling and horns in the song, but they fail to add anything to it, and if anything they detract from its minimalist charm. There is an interesting moment when the band stop and just Prince and the crowd sing. OK, so interesting might be an overstatement, but it is a nice variation in the song that wasn’t doing much for me. 

The scream at the beginning of “Gett Off” has me reaching for my phone to check my messages (I have the scream as my ringtone), but it’s the real deal and the recording takes a more interesting turn. The song takes a long time to begin and is much more of a jam. There is a lot of interaction between Prince and the crowd. There is a few sounds and sample thrown into the mix and keeps me listening trying to catch them all. Prince's vocal delivery is very laid back, and smooth sounding. He sings rather than speaks the lyrics, and it’s very enjoyable. There is a low-key guitar break before some funky chanting “Come And Dance With Me” This is very cool, and funky before things heat up. There is an upswing in tempo and the band begins singing “I Like Funky Music.” The beat has a Latin feel to it, and Prince introduces Maceo Parker to the crowd. Maceo delivers immediately and delivers a fast and funky sax solo. Prince begins to sing “I like funky music” and I have to agree, I do too! The song continues in this vein for some time, and I enjoy every second of it. From here on it’s very much a funk jam, with Prince directing the band and Maceo, there are a few minutes of stabs, funky rhythms, and percussion breaks. 

Things stay on the same track as the band slip into “Talking Loud and Saying Nothing.” Here the horns come to the fore. I was just thinking how good they were sounding when Prince calls them out, and they do a fantastic break. I am not a horn guy, but this is very good, and I enjoy it immensely. Prince is again directing things and the band is tight right through. I can hear some calls, and I am sure if I could see it he would be directing things with his hands and movements. 

Without pause we get “Let’s Work,” and it’s nice and horny -with horns that is. They pump it up a lot, and it's one of Prince’s songs that I find works well with real horns playing over it. Prince’s vocal is sounding good as ever, and it has a bit of pop to it. This song got me moving, it was sounding great. I was expecting it to go for longer, but just as it is beginning to groove the band transitions into “Delirious.” 

“Delirious” also gains from having live horns played over it. Not a favorite of mine, I find this recording quite refreshing with the horns playing on it. There is even a horn solo, which I presume is Maceo, and that too is awesome. “Delirious” is always a slight song, and here it slips by very quickly, but well worth the listen. There is an instrumental section that plays it out, featuring some guitar work- but it’s neither here nor there and doesn’t add anything. 

Next, there is a short pause when Prince engages the crowd. There’s a bit of “You don’t love me… You love Larry Graham, but you don’t love me”. The crowd responds as you might expect, and then after half a minute of this, there is another break. 

The beat then resumes, and Prince tells the crowd that his new single “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold” is on sale next month. No surprise as he next begins to talk of record companies and being free. He then sings a smooth version of “Everyday Is A Winding Road.” It's nice enough sounding, but it is not very distinctive until the chorus, then it picks up a lot. There is a nice organ in the background, and Prince is singing nice and strong. The whole song gets stronger and stronger as it goes on, and after Prince acknowledges that it was written by Sheryl Crow the band moves into a long groove with it. Well, not too long, it finishes up just a minute after this, but it is enjoyable as it lasts. 

The seductive beat of “Love Thy Will be Done” draws me in slowly but surely. Prince delivers a spiritual message for a couple of minutes over the beat, but this time it seems to work well. Then when he does begin to sing over the same beat, it is not “Love Thy Will Be Done,” but ”Do Unto Others.” It has a nice groove to it, and my head is quickly bobbing. There are plenty of organs and Prince sings with Larry Graham. 

 

I am feeling it, and then it gets even better as Prince sings “Sometimes I feel Like A Motherless Child.” It’s very much a favorite of mine from the period, and Prince delivers it with plenty of heart and passion on the recording. His singing sounds like he is pouring himself into it. There is then a trombone solo, which doesn’t derail the song at all, and it brings a lot of color to it. The band then returns to singing “Do Unto Others,” while Prince busies himself on the guitar. There are plenty of squeals and wailing, all the while that steady beat keeps plugging away underneath. There is a false ending, but just as I think it's done Prince comes back on board with his guitar, and there are another couple of minutes of him blasting out another solo. He is warmed up by this stage, and the whole thing sounds great. The song ends quickly after, but it’s already made an impression on me- I will be coming back to this one. 

Prince begins “Prettyman” by telling the crowd that he wrote it for Morris Day, but it was so funky he decided to keep it for himself. He then goes on to do a spoken intro, speaking the lyrics until the band gets on board after a minute. It is indeed funky, and Maceo is all over this one. After Prince's intro, I can imagine Morris singing this one, but Prince is equally adept at delivering such lyrics. There is a lot of character as he sings, and the lyrics are hilarious. Things get very funky when Prince calls for Maceo to blow his horn. As you might expect, Maceo more than delivers. All in all, it’s the funkiest song of the show. 

The band jumps straight into “Purple Rain” after this, and initially, it’s a little jarring after the funkfest we have just heard. But there is a nice long intro which gives me plenty of time to calm down and sit back to enjoy it. And it is very enjoyable. Not one of the great versions, but Prince gives the song plenty of room to breathe, and during the introduction, he introduces his new guitar, Hibibi, and then treats us to a minute of nice guitar noodling before we get to the meat of the song. Some nice low-key horns are playing in the song, and it adds a little bit of sharpness and stops it from becoming just like any other version. There are also some nice lyric changes from Prince, nothing too much, but again it keeps me listening. When Prince unleashes Habibi on us for the guitar finale it's well worth the wait. He plays the standard solo, but the guitar has a fantastic tone to it, and even though I have heard it plenty, this one still manages to excite me. The reprise has more of the saxophone – I am assuming it's Maceo, and it takes the song to another level. By the fade out I am pretty happy that this one is more interesting than a lot of versions of “Purple Rain” out there. 

I had forgotten about the song “Come On,” until it came on. I enjoy the live versions of this one far more than what’s on record, so even though this isn’t great it’s still an improvement. It gets the full funk treatment here, a nice long intro, with calls for hand-clapping hand waving. There isn’t too much that can be said about this recording, aside from the fact that I like it. I could well imagine this going on for a good 10-15 minutes, but it finishes surprisingly quickly after just 5 minutes. With the long intro, it didn’t leave much of the rest of the song for me to enjoy. 

A pounding beat and “oh way oh” starts us into “Baby I’m A Star.” It’s not quite how I remember it from the Purple Rain days. There are lots of horns which is good, but they do swamp the song that I know. But the song is a Trojan horse and after a minute it’s over and we are into 1999. 

1999 gets the Vegas treatment. The horns are again to the fore, and the song is treated as a fun sing-along. There is very little in the way of verses and chorus, just a lot of yelling and chanting with the crowd. It’s all very shiny and light, and somewhat showy, but I find that I don’t enjoy it too much. I can see that he is going for the party vibe but, as is the case with many of these gigs, it doesn’t translate well to the recording. There is no substitute for being there. 

The set ends with Prince being presented with a key to the city. At least I think that is what happens, it’s not overly clear. After this, there is a Larry Graham set, with Prince guesting. I am not going to write about that here- or this post will take days to read. 

I am not sure what to make of this recording. It has a good setlist, but overall comes across as a little weak. I enjoyed it overall, but Prince seems a little unsure of what he is at this time. Coming off the slave era, and moving towards the legacy era, this is a time where he doesn’t seem to have an agenda to push, musically at least. For all that, this recording is solid, it was a good diversion on a Sunday afternoon.