Copenhagen 26 October 2002 (am)

 I am going to go out on a limb here. This recording, in my opinion, is the greatest Prince bootleg of all time. The default setting for most Prince Fans is to say Small Club is the greatest bootleg, but I feel this one slightly edges it. There are a few reasons for my opinions on this. Firstly the quality of the recording is fantastic. It's a soundboard, but it is better than 90% of the other soundboard recordings I have heard, the mix on this is outstanding. The band and the playing are excellent, and the setlist contains a great mix that showcases all of Prince’s styles. The first part of the gig is guitar-heavy rock before he moves through funky jams, ballads, and ends with a knock-out version of “Dolphin.” Top-notch in every aspect. This recording is not my favorite bootleg, but it’s definitely the best out there. So let’s have a look at ‘The Greatest Of All Time’ 

 

26 October 2002, Copenhagen 

The recording starts with the end of the DJ's set. It’s a nice touch and sets the scene for what will follow. Even this part of the recording is pristine. The DJ spins “Gett Off,” “Poom Poom,” and then a hip hop song before a flurry of guitar work has Prince warming up his fingers. He plays fast and furious from the start, and after a minute of fretwork the band begins with “Who Knows.” It is, as you might expect, just a showcase for Prince to dazzle us with his guitar work and he delivers. I have found throughout writing this blog that it is impossible to properly express the sound of his guitar. Let’s just say, that in this case, it’s hot. 

Keeping with the guitar-based songs he follows up with “Bambi.” The band sounds very strong behind him, he is way out front with the guitar sound, but the band is pushing it along – especially the drums and bass. I feel the buzz in the room when Prince calls “Turn me up Scotty, want to feel it in the whole house” Cue more guitar heroics. The guitar comes in waves before it pulls back to give Prince space to sing “All your lovers look just like you”. This bit is quite enjoyable as Prince sings it in his deeper speaking voice, something I want to hear more of. 

The song segues straight into the main riff of Led Zeppelins ‘Whole Lotta Love.’ I love this intro, especially as the riff blasts out, in the left speaker you can hear someone lose themselves in the moment and yell “Whhhooooaaaa” I love that! If I could have been there I think I would have done the same thing. The guitar is deep and throaty and it's a nice contrast with Prince singing in his usual falsetto. A couple of verse-chorus and Prince pulls out not one, but two spectacular psychedelic guitar solos. You gotta hear these. I’m still flying as the crowd gets a quiet moment to sing along with “A whole lotta love” Prince ends their moment with a “Turn it up!” and yet another (short) killer guitar solo. 

The pace is brought down a lot following this when Prince plays the opening refrains of “The Question of U.” The keys enter and the whole mood and tempo of the evening are changed. As he sings “What is the answer to the question of you?” I realize just how great this recording is. The quality is apparent when I listen to him sing, you can hear just how great his voice is, perhaps the one instrument people forget that he is most proficient with. After the verse, I half expected another guitar outburst but instead, we are hit with sublime piano playing. There are a good variety and variation throughout this show. Of course, there is an inevitable guitar break after the piano, but again he surprises me by moving on to singing “The One”. This is one of my favorite sons, and I think it is one of the most underrated songs in his catalog. For me the lyrics are fantastic and heartfelt, I feel every word. My pulse quickens when Prince says “Go ahead Eric”- any band that has Eric Leeds in it is alright by me! The sax here is very nice indeed, and Eric demonstrates that less is more. Very delicate, and missing the “Honk” that I usually associate with Eric Leeds. (I mean that in a good way!) 

“On the one” Prince stops the band in an instant. “Didn’t they tell you no cameras?” he asks the audience. I wonder what is about to unfold as Prince chastens the crowd for taking photos. I laughed when he said “I got a nice warm hotel bed waiting for me” then instructs the crowd that next time someone takes a picture the person next to them should grab them and twist their neck. After saying one more time “No pictures please” the band resumes with another verse before Candy Dulfer has a chance to shine with a sax solo. It is better than I am making it sound, trust me. Prince sings a couple of lines of “fallin” by Alicia Keyes, which I think is a nice touch. The horns and piano then take center stage and we have “Take Five” played into the mix, you’d be surprised by how good it all sounds. The song then ends with a drum solo. How about that, a bit of everything! What a sequence, the last ten minutes have been amazing. 

Things take a funky turn with the bass taking a prominent stand. First, we have “Brick House.” The bass leads in before the horns and band join in. Prince is singing, but it’s the bass and horns that are the heroes here. Prince name-checks Eric for a solo and then we stay in the funky vain as the band starts playing “Skin Tight.” Another favorite of mine from back in the day, this version is just too short for me, I want more, more, more. Prince's singing has a funky sound to it, especially as he sings “She’s a bad, bad lady, in skin-tight britches.” Another call of “on the one” and the bass plays the distinctive intro to “777-9311.” But before I disappear into a cloud of excitement they quickly move into Hair. Oh such a shame, I would kill to hear a full version of “777-9311.” The song “Hair” itself is good enough, and it does have a very fine trombone solo (it is not very often I get to write those words), and Candy also gets another chance to do her thing. The song ends with a very distorted prince guitar drowning out everything else. Again it’s another spectacular ten-minute sequence that leaves me hungry for more. 

The next songs begin with a steady drumbeat and surprisingly some record scratching and sampling. It’s not a bad thing, and I enjoy it. To hear it, I could have never guessed what song was coming next. The band enters and there is a nice groove going, the horns play a very good rising line and then Prince hits us with “One more jam, one more Jam, for Prince and the band” The crowd immediately takes up the cause and keeps the chant going. Candy starts to play, and I still have no idea where this song will go next. I can’t help but laugh when he says “Ain’t you gotta go somewhere tomorrow, Ya’ll as crazy as me!” “It ain’t over, it ain’t over” The crowd loves the “It ain’t over” chant and keeps it going. They definitely don’t need any encouragement from Prince. 

Finally, Prince plays the main riff of “Peach” and I know where this is going. Normally I ain’t a fan of “Peach”, but of all the recordings of it, this is my favorite version. This one is not so saturated in guitar, the verses have plenty of horns, keyboard, and sampling, the guitar only really dominates at the end of each chorus when Prince lurches into a solo. The solos are excellent, as always. The solos end, and the band groove on and on. Prince leads the crowd into “Copenhagen, we be shaking” while there are a couple more solos from the horns. The groove sounds effortless, and I could listen to it all day. There is some very funky sax to be heard here. With a “From NPG we love you all, good night” from Prince and the song comes to its climax and ends. 

 

But it ain’t over! The crowd claps and chants “Copenhagen, we be shaking” for two minutes, without pause. It is impressive and adds to the feeling of this whole recording. The band obliges and the drums take up a new beat, supported by some sort of sampler and scratching. Prince sings “Prince And The Band,” but to be honest it’s a little disjointed and messy. There seems to be some sort of problem and a couple of times the song breaks down. I always have liked this song, but this version is one to forget. I’m not sure who’s playing what, or why it doesn’t work. It is obviously distracting to Prince who loses his flow a couple of times. For all that though, I think it doesn’t detract from the recording. It’s good to see that even Prince can have his problems on stage, and he is at the mercy of temperamental technology. Phew, I’m not the only one! 

“All The Critics Love You In Denmark” follows up. Although crowd-pleasing by title, it hits my sweet spot too. The long groove gives plenty of time for the horns to play their thing. The track isn’t too busy, and Candy plays some very nice sax on it. I find that I am not writing much, I am too busy drumming along with it on my desk. Sometimes it’s good to just enjoy a song rather than overthinking it. The keyboard in this song was outstanding, and it was nice to have something not so guitar-heavy near the end of the show. 

I failed to pick “Dolphin” when it first began to play. It starts very slow with some nice gentle guitar playing. The whole song is played in this way, slow and minimal. For me, this is an outstanding performance on the recording. I don’t normally enjoy Dolphin, but I find this more slow and more soulful version very moving. It suited the lyrical content much better, and one can feel Prince’s emotion in it as he sings. I think the best word to describe this song here would be beautiful. It’s overused, but in this case, this is one very beautiful song. Prince’s guitar solo that closes the song is retrained and right on the money. A great way to end the show. 

For me, this is the greatest Prince bootleg. I know 90% of people would disagree with me, most choosing Small Club over this. But by the time this had finished, it did feel like I had been on a musical journey. I feel this had a better variety than small club, the recording quality was about the same, but the audience is more in the mix giving it a better live feel. Some might say that the disastrous performance of “Prince and The Band” detracts from it, but to me, it adds a more human aspect to the show, it is a bit more Rock n Roll. Also having the horns on this give it more color and again shows another aspect of Prince as the bandleader. 

In fairness, I will look at Small Club next week, something that I don’t listen to too often having overplayed it when I was younger. Another knockout show, it’s something I will look forward to writing about.