New York 22 March 1981

 After listening to recordings from more modern times recently, I have today decided today to dig back to 1981. I like these early shows- no Purple Rain, no dancers, no sampler sets- just the music. The word that always comes to mind is ‘raw’ and although it’s almost a cliché, it is entirely true. Prince is raw, both musically and visually, and I can connect to the younger him on stage. I will be watching a show from 1981, and there aren’t too many shows circulating on video from this time, it’s certainly not like nowadays when there seems to be a camera at every show. I love this show, but it’s been some time since I last saw it, so I look forward to reacquainting myself with it. 

 

22 March 1981, The Ritz, New York 

The first thing I hear is the bass snap of “Do It All Night” and the simmering synth riff. Prince appears bathed in dry ice, and I already love this show. It’s got such a classic feel to it, it’s hard not to be swept along on a high. Prince’s vocals are nice and pure, and the bass in particular sounds great. The whole recording is very clean, it is a treat to listen to. The band certainly looks like they are ready to rock, however, the song doesn’t require it and they are nicely restrained. There is a cool moment in the show when Prince calls Andre and Dez to walk and the three of them pull a nice little move off together. Prince is a little quiet, that is by no means a criticism as his vocals are so crisp. 

 

The rock part of the gig starts next as Dez throws himself energetically into “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad.” There are a few squeals from the crowd as Prince sings his lines, but it’s at the chorus that the song takes off. Both Andre and Dez put a lot of energy into it, and I feel it elevates the song considerably. There is also a nice moment as Prince and Dez strike their classic guitar gods pose. I can just about sing Prince's guitar break note for note as I have heard it so many times, and it gets my heart pumping now just as much as it did 30 years ago. It has been a good while since I last heard this song, and I had forgotten how much enjoyment I get out of it. Prince’s second guitar break is more interesting, he is backed by the keyboards, and they ably match him. The song isn’t as long as I have sometimes heard, and it leaves me wanting more as Prince brings it to a close. 

 

“We’re going to do something for the rude people” has me wondering what he is going to play next, and I am pleasantly surprised as Prince croons his way through “Gotta Broken Heart Again.” Not only is his singing gentle on the ear, but there is also some delicate piano and guitar play which has me paying close attention. The song doesn’t contain anything in the way of surprise, and that is a surprise in itself and Prince keeps it simple. He does indulge in some vocal play at the end of the song before it comes to a close with that piano again. This song is great, and I’m doing it a disservice by not writing more about it. 

I wrote about “Broken” when I covered his 81 show at Sams Minneapolis, and here it once again appears. Its rockabilly style feels a little out of place, but in retrospect, it’s nothing like the stylistic jumps later in his career. I like Prince's vocals, his singing at this time is a nice falsetto, it’s just the music in this song is so slight it leaves me feeling hollow. 

 

Bobby Z gets to play a nice long intro to “When You Were Mine,” before Prince comes in with his guitar. The song isn’t as strong as I like, there are certainly much stronger versions floating around. It’s played well though, and I can’t fault it in any way. Prince looks incredibly young, and it’s hard to believe he’s lived the experiences he is singing about. The breakdown is normally longer than what we hear on this recording, and after a quick line Prince jumps back into the song. It’s all very fine, but I get the feeling that something needs to be turned up to 11 to make the song jump. 

 

“Gotta Stop Messing About” sounds good, so I am surprised to see how static the audience is. Andre’s bass is the star for me throughout this song, he has a nice pop going in my left ear. Dez and Andre both contribute backing vocals to Prince and it does add a more manly sound to the song, although the synth squiggle undoes some of that. Prince does bounce and bob, and yet the song never really ignites and comes to an end leaving me wishing it was something more. 

I hear a funky guitar play and the rhythmic pattern of “Sexy Dancer” played on the cymbals and my spirits lift. The main elements of the song are Prince's guitar and his vocals, and that’s no bad thing at all. There is a keyboard solo, but I find myself still listening to Prince's guitar as it plays. The song becomes a dance after about halfway, with plenty of bass, guitars, and a nice easy chant rolling over and over. There is a brief guitar break from Prince that becomes more and more and we get a good couple of minutes of him playing rhythm guitar center stage. I was about to dismiss the rest of the band, but Dr. Fink plays a cool solo, complete with bobbing head and jerking motions. I love ya Doc! 

 

I don’t recall the last time I listened to “Sister.” Some days I love it, and some days I dismiss it as a throwaway piece. I like seeing the performance here, but truthfully I could probably live without it. It’s hard to be critical of something so brief, so it’s with pleasure we move to the next song. 

“I Want To Be Your Lover” is a slab of pure pop, and it’s hard for me to reconcile between the look of Dirty Mind era Prince and the pop sound of the song. In later years he would joke with the lyric “Ain’t got no money (now that’s a lie)” but I have to say looking at him here, he looks like he’s got no money. As good as his vocals sound, for this song it’s the rhythm guitar of Dez that I focus on. Not just the chorus, but also the verses his guitar sound is fantastic. I don’t think I had noticed it earlier, but now it’s all I can hear. As befitting a pop song it finishes after three minutes and we move on to something much darker, and funkier. 

 

There is no better sound than that of Prince and the band grooving on the intro of “Head.” That opening synth stab and the delicious sound of the guitars before Prince intones his opening lines, all of it is great for me. I would love this even if it was a bad performance, but then again how often does that happen? This one is great, and right at the start there is a fantastic shot of a very young Lisa Coleman singing her lines, the show is worth seeing just for that alone. Another highlight is seeing Dr. Fink doing what he does best, and I swear one day I am going to learn how to dance like that. Prince looks somewhat like Mick Jagger as he leads the crowd into singing “head”, and there is plenty of strutting and prancing. The band hit their straps at this point, and all of them look like they are feeling the groove as they play. Andre in particular puts on a great show. For many years the highlight of this song has been the second half as Prince engages in his guitar noise and showmanship. Seeing it as well as hearing it is a bonus, and even though I have heard it a lot I still find myself watching transfixed as Prince plays. The last few minutes are epic as Prince plays lead, rhythm, and masturbates with his guitar. I can’t help but think of the word ‘raw’ again. And ‘awesome’ 

 

Things take another change as “Still Waiting” is the next song played. Dr. Fink again is a star with his piano playing carrying the song early on. Prince is once again at his crooning best, I may not catch all the words but I catch his meaning. The song has a gentle elegance to it during the chorus and the lights come up slightly as the music rises. Prince steps out from behind the microphone stand and engages with the audience with his looks and vocal performance, and I find myself warming to him much more here. Prince shows more of his star power as later in the song he sings under a single spotlight and we hear some of his great falsetto. Prince directs the band to finish the song and with a final vocal flourish it ends. 

 

The show does go for longer, but sadly the video footage ends here, and so must my blog entry. 

It’s very hard for me to write objectively about any show from this time. I am a lifelong fan of Prince, and I listen to all sorts of shows, but some years are better for me than others. Give me anything from 1981, 1986, or 1995 and I am about as happy as I can be. This isn’t the best from this time, but seeing it does give it some extra merit. There are only a few shows documented on video from this time, so I do treat this one with reverence. A good show, and a nice video, it’s got plenty going for it, it’s just a shame it wasn’t the whole show or a more impassioned performance. A worthy addition to the collection and worth watching a couple of times a year. 

Minneapolis 9 March 1981

 Looking through my collection, I see that 1981 was a pretty good year. Prince was evolving fast, and there is a nice spread of recordings from this year to document this. There are DVDs capturing both Dirty Mind and Controversy shows and plenty of audio recordings of both tours. I have gone for a recording taken earlier in the year of 1981 for today’s blog post. It would have been very easy to pull the excellent Houston gig from the Controversy tour later in the year, or a DVD of one of the Dirty Mind shows, but I have instead taken a listen to a show from early March. It is a recording taken in Prince's hometown, and although the quality isn’t as good as some of the other shows I have mentioned, the fact that it is in Minneapolis is interesting for me, and I am hoping that we get something special due to this fact. 

9 March 1981, Sams, Minneapolis 

Prince immediately acknowledges that this is a homecoming gig- when the recording begins the first things we hear him say are “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”. The recording is thick and I do initially have trouble making out what he is saying. However, it’s by no means unlistenable, and once the music starts it’s not too bad, the music is nice and deep and strong, but disappointingly the vocals remain incomprehensible. But for an audience recording of this age, I can’t say it's a surprise to me. The first song played is “Do It All Night.” It has a nice aggressive start, with several thrusts before it begins proper. The guitar and drums are what I can hear best, but during the chorus, the noise pulls back just enough for me to hear the keyboards. There is a drum break and Prince gets the crowd to sing along “do it all night”. They sound full of energy, and it’s an enjoyable moment. Bobby Z closes the song with plenty of cymbals and we move easily into “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad. “

 

Prince’s vocals become clearer on this part of the recording, and I think the recording picks up his lower register much better than his falsetto. This is bared out when he gets to the chorus and again the vocals distort. The interaction between the bass and guitar is worth listening to, you can hear them intertwining and it’s something I hadn’t noticed before. The first half of Prince's guitar break is the same as I have heard plenty of times, it sounds good, but I don’t pay it too much attention. But immediately after he says “Why you wanna treat me so bad, bitch!” the guitar really heats up, and this grabs me straight away. It’s aggressive and loud, and it is the stomping sort of solo that I like to hear. Bobby Z adds weight to this with plenty of crashes late in the break, before it all stops for Prince to give us another 30 seconds of guitar howl to end the song. A slow start, but excellent finish- this one surprised me. 

“Gotta Broken Heart Again” subdues the mood, and it feels very calm and smooth after the previous song. The piano is lost in the recording somewhat, and it’s all Prince and the bass that I can hear. I do catch snatches of the piano, but I have to listen carefully. The song itself does sound good, and Prince's vocals are better on this than in the previous two songs. The song gets better as it goes, and there is some nice guitar and cymbal interplay. Again it heightens my appreciation of Bobby Z and how much he was part of Prince’s set up in the early days. There is a long gentle finish with Prince singing with only piano, and it does have a better sound to it than the first part of the song. 

Next, we get “Broken,” a track that has never been released by Prince. It was played several times on the Dirty Mind tour, but here is its first live appearance. Over hand claps Prince sings the opening few lines before a rockabilly piano enters and the energy jumps up. It sounds slight, and awkwardly out of place. But I do like it, especially the backing vocals of the band and their call and response with Prince. As with all his songs in this style it is short, there’s just enough time for a piano break before the song quickly ends. 

 

I am back in the more familiar territory next with the sound of the drum intro to “When You Were Mine.” The guitar comes on board, but due to the recording it doesn’t have the crisp clean sound I am used to, and the same could be said for Prince’s vocals, I know what he is singing, but I have to listen very carefully to make them out. As always, the keyboards sound joyful and full. The solo is a little quiet for my liking, but it’s still good. Prince doesn’t dwell too long on the breakdown as he does on some shows, and the song moves along at a good pace. It doesn’t have the passionate howls near the end as we get on the Controversy tour, it’s a nice rendition, but better was still to come later in the year. 

Some nice rhythm guitar followed by a Prince scream begins us into “Sexy Dancer.” The tone and attitude are just right on this one, and the music itself does sound like a sexy dancer. The music is strong, but there is a nice funk guitar slithering underneath that gives it a sexy feel. There is a lot of crowd noise, and I guess Prince is doing some sort of sexy dance. It doesn’t matter that I can’t see it, as there is plenty for me to listen to. There is plenty of time for a keyboard break and some more funky rhythm guitar. The rhythm guitar is a little low when it gets its break, but I can still hear it OK. The piano keyboard that follows is the best part of the song for me, it plays for a while, both doing its own thing, as well as interacting with the rest of the band. The song ends right after this with a bubble of electronic noise. 

“Sister” takes us in another direction entirely, it's upbeat, noisy, and brash. Again Prince's vocals are loud but I can’t make out his words, and it's probably just as well in this case! The rest of the band plays with energy, and the song is over in less than two minutes. It was almost a diversion rather than a song. 

 

The pop sounds of “I Wanna Be Your Lover” follows next. I have always preferred the live versions of this compared to the album version, they seem to have more intensity and grit to them. This is no exception, the crowd loves this one, and the band does play it well. The bass and Prince are picked up best by the recording, so the keyboard sound is secondary to the bass. I’m sure that’s not the case, but on this recording that’s what I can hear best. It’s not a bad thing I do enjoy grooving along to the bass, and Prince's vocals almost have me singing along. The coda is relatively short and it’s a nice lead-in to what I know is coming next. 

A blast on the keyboard signals the beginning of “Head.” I have never heard a version of “Head” that I didn’t love, and this one is no exception. Right from the start there is plenty of screams and yells from the crowd and I am right with them. Even on audience recordings “Head” still pops out of the speakers at me nice and strong. The keyboard stabs are captured well by the recording and of course the bass and Prince vocals. The audience sings enthusiastically throughout, and at one stage are chanting “head, head, head, head, head” There is an interesting little drum roll into a quirky keyboard break that I hadn’t heard before. It’s after Dr. Finks's main solo, and I can’t explain it well, but I do like it. The song quiets down to just bass and cymbals, and the crowd can be heard chanting ” you gonna have to fight your own damn war, we don’t want to fight no more” A very cool moment before some keyboard stabs and Prince's guitar begins. After some guitar noodling the keyboard comes faster than I had heard before and again it’s an interesting variation on a song I have heard plenty of times. It ends not as I expect with the strong sound of Prince's guitar, but instead just sort of fades to an end. Surprising, but very enjoyable. 

“Still Waiting” lacks the intensity of the last two songs, and the audience can’t be heard as much either. It seems lackluster after listening to 10 minutes of "Head." But it’s not a bad song, so I am beginning to question its placement in the setlist. The sound is better on this, I find it easy to listen to and Prince's vocals sound sweet, although I still can’t understand what he is singing. The song takes a big upswing halfway through, the recording changes, as Prince screams and the drums crash over the top. There is then another quiet passage of just Prince and the band singing, which is pretty much as good as it gets in this song. It’s a cool moment, but then the rest of the song doesn’t do much for me as the recording deteriorates. 

 

“Partyup” has a much tighter feel to it, and isn’t as bass-heavy as other songs on the recording. The keyboards are more to the fore, and although I can’t hear the guitar as well the vocals do sound better. The song is played as we know it from the record, so there aren’t any surprises to be heard. There is plenty of noise, and a keyboard from Dr. Fink and the drums are nicely in the mix too. It’s played for what it is, an audience pleaser, and you do hear the audience chanting near the end, and all the while Dr. Fink keeps the keyboard noise going. It does sound just like on the album, but it runs out to eight minutes here, as the end is played out and the crowd begins chanting, although you can barely hear them due to the glorious racket the band is making. 

There is a brief pause and then the band returns with “Uptown.” I have always thought that “Uptown” is thematically very similar to “Partyup,” so I was surprised to hear them side by side on this recording. Uptown is much better than “Partyup” here, and I enjoy it much more. It’s got a clean sound and is very danceable. There is some excellent guitar work and a great solo. Unfortunately, it’s very quiet on the recording, but it does sound fantastic. The band stops and there is plenty more guitar that I can barely hear. A shame, but that is the way with audience recordings. There is a drumbeat that begins some more guitar playing, but it all sounds like it’s far away. 

The ever-reliable Bobby Z plays us into “Crazy You.” A song I very rarely listen to, here I find it a real high point. The keyboard and bass bob along just nicely, and even though again I struggle to hear Prince I do like the melody. There is some gentle guitar playing which I do hear better, and it lures me in well. In the second half, the song moves along faster and louder but still retains its nice groove. There isn’t much in the way of singing, but I do like all of it. The guitar plays over the groove for a good two or three minutes and it’s excellent. 

“Gotta Stop (messin about)” doesn’t sound as fast as it does on record, and it is much better for it. The raw guitar tone and the steady drums rolls work well. The keyboards aren’t as strong as they were earlier. I like Prince’s vocals, but the lyrics do start getting repetitive, but I could listen to the groove all day. I am surprised when it suddenly ends, but I see that it was played for quite a while, I must have been lost in the music. 

The pounding beat of “Dirty Mind” next, and that great driving keyboard riff. The recording lacks the intensity and energy of other shows, Prince’s vocals are too lost in the mix, and I can’t hear any guitar. Even the parts where I know he is yelling in the microphone still sound very quiet. To compensate though, Bobby Z and his drums sound great, and I especially like the hard electric noise he gets from them. The song lacks something without the guitar sound, and it’s one of the weaker recordings I have of this song. I can hear the guitar later in the song, but it’s mostly Bobby Z that I can hear with his drums. 

Prince tells us “we are running out of songs” before he plays “Everybody Dance.” As with “Broken,” this song never made it onto an album and was only played at a few shows on this tour. There isn’t too much to the song, just a keyboard lead groove, and Prince sings “everybody, everybody dance” He does mix it up a little with lines such as “everybody, everybody say yeah” but there is nothing more in the way of lyrics. Even the groove doesn’t vary much and I can see why we didn’t hear much more of this song. But it is good to hear unreleased songs from this era, and I do enjoy it for its novelty value. It does outstay its welcome by a good couple of minutes, and there are no tears from me as it ends. 

 

The grinding guitar of “Bambi” takes us to the last song of the evening. The power of the song is neutered by the recording, but it’s still good to hear it. With the recording being weak, it’s mostly Prince's vocals that I listen to, he is finishing the gig strongly, and his voice is standing up well against the drums and guitar. The first half of the song sounds a little mundane, but things pick up later when Prince begins to play his solo. Unfortunately, the recording ends here, and we don’t get to hear the end of the song. 

There was plenty to like about this recording, and plenty to dislike. I did enjoy the fact that there were a couple of rarities in the setlist, and the hometown crowd added a warm atmosphere to the show. However, at times the limitations of the recording did mar my enjoyment of the show. I have listened to plenty of audience recordings, and this one is by no means terrible, but there are some songs where I didn’t quite get all the sounds that I might have otherwise wanted to hear. A good show, with a less-than-average recording, it was still worth a listen. Something I would listen to once every few years rather than something I would give a high rotation to.