Detroit 13 January 1997

 

The year is 1997, and four years on from his last concert in 1993 and things have changed. Prince has changed, his music has changed, and recording technology for bootleggers has evolved. This week's bootleg is again an audience recording, but it sounds considerably better than what we have heard in the last few weeks. It has more depth than what we have previously heard, and even if we still have heard some rumblings from the audience, it is still a much more pleasant and satisfying experience. The music Prince is presenting is a happy medium between crowd-pleasing favorites of his colorful past and his current studio output at the time. I haven’t visited this period for quite some time, but I can see from the setlist that I will be listening to some material that doesn’t perhaps get as much praise as it should, and a few of my personal favorites that I haven’t heard for a while.

13th January 1997. The State Theatre, Detroit

The first screams we hear on the tape suggest we may be in for a crowd-heavy recording as per the Detroit show of 1993, but things quickly quieten as we settle into “Jam Of The Year.” The depth of the recording pays immediate dividends with the jam nature and pure groove of the song highlighted in the solid bass and some sparkling keyboard work. The live performance sizzles far more than what we hear on the album version, and this is a good opening number to get the Detroit cooking, and the bootleg off to a fine start.

There is an organic transition to  “Talkin’ Loud And Saying Nothin’,” the song a natural pairing to the previous “Jam Of The Year.” The band continues to stew in this type of jam, and although the crowd never boils over, they are warming up. The tape remains an easy listen, giving this recording an immediate edge over the other Detroit concerts I have listened to.

“Purple Rain” comes as a melancholy postcard from the past, its previous glory faded and tatty against the smooth sheen of the opening numbers. Even with its revamped and muscular guitar solo, it still feels like a song that is too weak to scratch the surface, and rather than digging deep under my skin and injecting some raw-edged emotion it instead leaves me feeling a sense of loss for a more emotional and engaging Prince.

 

All is forgiven with “17 Days.” It’s not the Revolution, and it’s not 1984, but it’s a close enough facsimile of the beloved funk classic for me to buy it. Some choppy guitar and swirly organ lift it to a late 90’s sound, while the rhythm section keeps us firmly in the Purple Rain era. It’s kept short enough that I don’t dwell on nostalgia, and that’s a good thing as it keeps the concert moving forward and focused on his newer material.

Although the opening of “Get Yo Groove On” initially has me interested, there is not enough meat on the bones to hold my attention, and despite the appearance of “Six,” the rest of the song remains devoid of anything to latch onto and enjoy. I could get my groove on listening to it, but it isn’t a demanding dish and slides by without making a lasting impression on me.

“The Most Beautiful Girl In The World,” loses some of its beauty in this recording. Listening to it is like seeing a beautiful woman without makeup, recognizable enough as a beauty, but not as striking as we have become accustomed to. I usually derive pleasure in the sharpness of the band for the mid-song break and re-entry, on this bootleg I find it tiresome and breaks the flow. Maybe I am particularly grumpy and tired tonight, but this time it just doesn’t work for me.

The extended treatment is bestowed upon “Face Down,” and this gives us plenty of time to indulge ourselves in the pure pleasure of Rhonda Smith’s bass. Rumbling angrily beneath for most of the song, the final minutes see her break cover to “play that motherfucking bass,” in one of my favorite moments of the concert. It’s undone a little by the recording, but there is enough fleshed out there for me to put myself in the moment and the arena.

 

“The Cross” retains its fierce intensity despite its somewhat pared-down sound on the recording. I do hear a storming version, but due to the tape, it does sound one step removed and not quite as upfront as I would like. There is no doubt that it is the final guitar frenzy that holds the most interest, and several whoops from the crowd suggest that this may be one to watch as well as to listen to. However, we only have this audio recording, so that is merely surmising.

The inclusion of “One Of Us” is timely, and a nice companion for the previous song. It comes neatly packaged, Prince’s forceful guitar line the hook that adds a sense of drama and show to the moment. Without that it remains firmly Joan Osbourne’s song, but as Prince lets loose later in the song he makes a strong claim for the song as he briefly turns it into one of his.

The seduction suite is next on the setlist, a medley that contains “Do Me, Baby,” “Adore,” “Insatiable,” and “Scandalous.” The opening line of “Do Me, Baby” brings a roar from the crowd, this is what the Detroit crowd is here to see. Prince gives a surprising rendition of “Do Me, Baby” opening with a couple of minutes of intense and lusty guitar that sets the mood just as much as Prince’s lights-down vocal performance. The vocals arrive long past the five-minute mark, by which time I am wondering why I don’t play this a lot more than I do, it is a performance to speaks to me in the raw language of love and music. The other songs in the set don’t get long in the sun, “Adore” rolls quickly into “Insatiable,” “Scandalous,” and a single line from “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore” before Prince bookends it all with another verse of “Do Me, Baby.” Just when I think it can’t get any better Prince unleashes several of his screams of passion that mark this out as the best song on the recording.

“Sexy M.F.” is loud and proud, especially the guitar that greases it in the first minute. I’m not totally convinced by Prince’s rapping, but the funk and sing-a-long chorus is more than satisfying and this is just the song to bring the concert back to full speed after Prince’s dip into velvety seduction in the previous song.

The wheeze of the organ at the start of “If I Was Your Girlfriend” has me hoping the rest of the song will go the same way, but the recording undoes this heavy oppressive curtain of keyboard with its mix that brings the bass to the fore, leaving Prince’s vocals and Morris Hayes keyboard too far back for my tastes. Not that it matters too much, after all this is still “If I Was Your Girlfriend” we are talking about, and the song still stands strong as its own man in the setlist.

 

Prince teased earlier with a single line from “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore,” and here he returns to the moment. He may be alone at the piano, but he certainly isn’t alone with his vocal performance as the Detroit crowd out-muscle him on almost every line. Prince rides the song and the audience throughout, the song never quite settling as it passes back and forth between Prince and the audience.

The double pop punch of “Take Me With U,” and “Raspberry Beret,” hit the right notes with the audience again, and they are more vocal here than at any other point of the concert.  As jaded as I am by this combination, I can’t help but be energized by the Detroit crowd's embracement of the songs, and a youthful glow descends upon me as I listen.

I want to get on board with “Mr. Happy,” but on this recording, I just can’t. There is a power in the bass that I am drawn to, but the bulk of the song remains beyond my reach with the recording negating some of the power. The Detroit crowd does save the moment for me, their chanting of “If you’re 18 and over, I wanna bone ya” has me laughing out loud and enjoying it for what it is.

“Somebody’s Somebody” was only ever played occasionally in concert, and that s a shame as listening to it here brings delicate beauty to the concert after the brutal “Mr. Happy,” “18 And Over” combination. It does sound very much of its era though and roots the concert firmly in 1997. It has an easy glide to it, only gleaming at the last minute as Prince burnishes it with a light guitar solo.

“The Ride” rolls in with an easy gait, the first minutes merely a deception before Prince brings it to a climax with his guitar flickering before bursting into a scorching solo. It doesn’t contain any surprises but is a good demonstration of Prince building solo up from nothing into epic proportions, and I am more than happy to wallow in his indulgence.

 

The tempo increases with “Sleep Around,” a song that runs on a groove and very little else. Whatever else there is to the song is lost as Prince strips it down mid-song, providing the Detroit crowd another chance to fill the void. I want to like it more than I do, but there just isn’t enough there for me, and even as it runs to five minutes I find it leaves no impression upon me.

The final song of the night is “Johnny,” a song that sounds neutered in this context, especially in comparison to some of the renditions in previous years. I do warm to the piano lines, but overall the final two songs make for a weak ending to what has otherwise been a good concert. There is no doubt that “Johnny” is a great song, but to my ears, it works better at one of Prince’s late-night after-shows, rather than a closer to a main show. The one good thing about it is that it ends the concert with the crowd chanting “N.P.G. in the motherfuckin house,” something guaranteed to always get a smile from me.

A highly enjoyable concert, this one did lose me in the final minutes. As with previous bootlegs coming out of Detroit, the crowd certainly brings the best out of Prince as he provides another show full of vim and vigor. It is easy to overlook 1997 when there are so many bootleg gems from the 1980s, but I recommend this as a solid audience recording that provides a tidy snapshot of where Prince was at that time.

Pennsylvania 7 January 1997

 

“Great men, it’s been noted, die twice—once as great and once as men.“
– Mark Kram

Prince’s greatness wasn’t dead in 1997, but it did seem in terminal decline. His most recent burst of creativity in 1995 already felt a lifetime ago, and the 1980s seemed to belong to another Prince entirely. It is often said that form is temporary while class is permanent, but by mid-1997 it was hard to remember just how classy Prince had once been.

The Love 4 One Another charity tour is undoubtedly well-intentioned, and a reminder that Price was a great man aside from music. But as a celebration of the Emancipation album, it was uninspired and lacked a sharp focus, a criticism that could equally be leveled at the album itself. The sheer sprawl of the album buries any interesting ideas or musically challenging moments as Prince’s productivity works against him. Likewise, the live setlist suffers the same problem, no enduring theme or concept is holding the show together, and the setlist does at times look like just a random list of songs rather than a coherent whole. If the Lovesexy tour was the pinnacle of Prince putting together a cohesive show, then this comes as the complete opposite, a dire moment in the live canon of Prince's performance history.

 

7th January 1997, Tower Theatre, Pennsylvania

Prince sets out his stall early with the first track of the Emancipation album opening up the concert. “Jam Of The Year” sounds great for cruising in the car during summer, but at this concert it feels forced and tense, undoing any previous summery vibes that may have been associated with it. The biggest problem is one common of this era, it has no firm core or focus. The song sprawls as the band takes solos. Normally I love to see the band stretch like this, but this is the wrong song, and none of the contributions build the song to any more than what it was before. Kept to four minutes and this could have been a punchy opener, instead, it becomes a disappointing introduction to what will become a trend for the next few songs.

“Talkin Loud And Sayin’ Nothing” fits better in aftershows. The intense swirling keyboards and funky beats belong in small clubs, not the larger venues such as this. However, I do enjoy all the elements. Mike Scott and Morris Hayes are not men to be taken lightly and they contribute mightily to the groove that Prince builds this part of the show around. But with no firm direction, the song begins to meander and once again is too long for so early in the concert.

Prince continues to persist with these longer songs, this time dropping “Purple Rain” as the third song of the night. There is no sense of build-up in this concert, and “Purple Rain” feels empty and throw-away because of this. Prince is drawing from his history, a history that feels far removed at this concert, and “Purple Rain” beams in as an alien at this stage. Empty and dead-eyed, this is a hollow imitation of the song. It only highlights Prince’s rapidly fading greatness and the weakness of the new material. Emotionally barren, there is a relief as the final notes fade and Prince returns to a song that has something to say.

 

“17 Days” is a short sharp shock that casts the concert back in sharp relief. Prince’s greatness continues to shadow him, taunting his current music at the time, but in this case, he embraces the song for what it is and briefly engages with the material more than we have previously heard at this concert. The tightness of the song works in its favor as it keeps Prince on the straight and narrow, here he is a slave to his music rather than the music playing on his whim, the song remaining the center of attention rather than the performer.

Light-hearted and focused, “Get Your Groove On” keeps the concert in equilibrium. After the drifting opening numbers, the concert is now moving rapidly through the music with Prince’s songcraft to the fore. With the band taking a back seat, the show becomes all the more enjoyable with the solos enhancing the music rather than distracting from it.

Prince’s recently glories get an airing with “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.” It has a tenderness not heard elsewhere at the concert and is one of the two high points for me. It has an authenticity that serves it well, the song connecting immediately with the crowd and with Prince. As a radio hit it has an important place at this concert and is the rock that dominates the center portion of the show. Other songs may rise and fall against it, but it remains firm in it’s solid pop joy.

 

Muhammad Ali once told Elvis “Elvis, you have to keep singin’ or die to stay big.” In “Facedown” Prince is that man, still singing to stay big, and appropriately name-dropping Elvis throughout. The first portion of the song is the beat and gives the crowd too little to engage with, but once the band enters the song lifts immediately as Prince makes his angry statement through music. Not normally a fan of this singing style, but I do like the sharpness of it and its intent. There is steel to Prince that he reveals through this song. His anger briefly flashes to the surface, and the song takes on an intensity that isn’t heard anywhere else in the show.

After the pop of “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” and the anger of “Facedown,” Prince engages us at the spiritual level with a reverential rendition of “The Cross.” It is a thin, weedy version, and despite the religious heft Prince wants to install in it, it remains pale compared to other live renditions. Morris Hayes's keyboard work matches Prince’s guitar in thickness of sound, but neither can prop up a song that is ten years past its best.

From the same spiritual well, “One Of Us” holds up much better. After the climax of “The Cross,” it is a paired back sound, the music given more room to breathe in this refined atmosphere. Princes’ guitar gains the most from this, it’s call clearer in the stripped-back setting. Prince’s vocals wash over the song, it is the guitar that brings the music to a fine point, a point that holds your attention and draws the threads of the song together. As a religious moment, this is as close as Prince comes in this particular concert, and the vocals and guitar combine to give it a religious vibe, even if the vocals aren’t always distinctive.

 

“Do Me, Baby,” sucks us back into Prince’s past. The concert is cast in a new light with guitar spilling and flowing over the first minute of the song as Prince touches on his greatness. The enthusiastic crowd response breaks this spell cast by the guitar, and the rest of the song fails to live up to these first moments. Sadly the hint of vulnerability that carried the song in its first years is gone. Prince’s vocals are just too clinical and dry in this context. Prince is no longer a yearning young man, but rather a man who has conquered the world and as such carries the confidence of someone who has done it all.

This confidence is well placed and on full display for the following “Sexy M.F.” In this era, and with this band, it works well and goes over well with both the audience and me. The band has just the right amount of funk and sass to make it believable, and the song matches the general mood of the performance.

Unfortunately, “If I Was Your Girlfriend” does not match the mood of the times and feels out of place. A song that is tangled in Prince's past, the rather plastic rendition here does no favors to the song, nor my memories of it. Resting on name value alone, the song fails to deliver the emotional gut-punch I expect and is rather emblematic of this concert and tour in general. The songs are still there, but they have been strip-mined of their greatness. Prince is playing little more than cover versions of his songs.

Likewise, “The Ride” is a light ramble, rather than a smoldering dark diversion, and Prince’s guitar work repeatedly fails to capture the intensity or excitement of previous years. It lingers long, but never demands you sit up and listen. All the pieces appear to be here, yet they aren’t connecting and the song never becomes greater than its sum of parts.

 

Things return to an even keel for “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?” It’s an unhurried version, yet this time I’m happy to indulge Prince in his musical ramblings and wanderings. The piano drifts into organ and back again, the guitar and drums lightly touching the song in places to remind us this is a band performance. Prince’s vocals are outstanding as he hits all the heights expected of him. The audience is appreciative as he goes through the same routine as the previous fifteen years and there is a comfort in the familiarity and sense of stability in a concert that has otherwise been a shotgun blast of songs and styles.

The particular recording I’m listening to finishes midway through the concert at “I Feel Alright.” It sounds like the audience is well involved by this stage and lapping up all Prince can give, although there is not enough of the song for me to get a good handle on it.

This concert does nothing to dispel the notion that by 1997 Prince’s star was on the wane. Listening now, there is very little to signpost the renaissance and second flourish his career will take with the release of “The Rainbow Children” and “Musicology.” There are glimpses of his greatness, an occasional flash of guitar or vocal flourish, but for the most part Prince’s greatness remains buried, and if not dead already at least on life support. A great man dies twice, but only Prince can arise from that death and reassert his greatness with a string of creative and exciting albums in the wake of this nadir. Critics may have been ready to pronounce Prince dead, as he did in the mid-Nineties, but he was anything but. Think of this as hibernation rather than death.

Chicago 21 November 1996 (am)

 Today’s show is a plan B for me. I was intending to write about another show that someone spoke highly of online, but when I started to listen to it, I found that it was very similar to another show that I had written about a couple of months ago. This aftershow from 1996 has been on my radar for some time, but I have never quite gotten around to listening to it. It sounds interesting from what I have previously read, the big downside is that it is a low-quality audience recording. Not to be deterred, I decided that it was just too intriguing and I had to give it a listen. 

21 November 1996, Chicago 

Rather aptly the show opens with “Jam Of The Year.” I am going to lay my cards on the table right from the start – I rather like the Emancipation album. Despite its plastic production values, the songs are still there, and there are plenty of them. This rendition of “Jam Of The Year” is quite interesting, the first couple of minutes it’s only instrumental, and has a good groove to it that bounces along nicely. I am not going to carp on about the audience noise throughout the recording, but be aware, that this recording has plenty of crowd noise, and there are plenty of times when Prince and the band sound secondary. The guitar plays a nice figure, and there is a loud cheer when Prince rather obviously appears at the two-minute mark. However, his appearance doesn’t move the song along at first, and the groove continues for another minute with plenty of cheers before he begins to sing. The bass line is well worth the effort to listen to, it’s tight and has a good bounce to it. The song ends after five minutes, it could have easily been stretched out much longer. 

 

Is that the opening chords of “Purple Rain” I hear? It is indeed, and the crowd noise increases several decibels. There is a long piano intro while Prince speaks directly to the crowd, several times referencing emancipation (the word, not the album). Some might find the crowd noise off-putting, but it does give it an intimate feel, and there is a sense of togetherness that the recording seems to capture. Prince pulls into his guitar break, and there is that sense of release that I often feel as he throws his head back and begins to play. It’s a shame therefore that the recording is thin at this point and the guitar sounds weaker than I would like. I know it’s the recording rather than Prince, and things get better as he slows it down and plays a more relaxed solo, the likes of which I hadn’t heard before. Any doubts I had about the recording fade at this stage, the quality of the show easily surpasses the quality of the recording. There is a further surprise, as the crowd begins to sing “ooww, owww, oowww” Prince starts to sing the first verse again. His guitar plays along, and I find it to be a touching moment. He is still finding emotion in a song that I thought had been emotionally wrung out. Again he plays into the beloved solo, and this time he pushes on with it and keeps his guitar wailing. There is the final reprise of “ooowww owwww oowwww” and my girlfriend is now looking at me oddly as I wave my arms from side to side. 

We are swept up into the here and now as a rather plastic-sounding “Get Yo Groove On” starts. This song is too smooth for its own good, and it’s easy to dismiss it as something that Prince could do in his sleep. But listening to it carefully now I can see that it’s well crafted, and Prince is making it look all too easy. There is nothing wrong with a smooth, well-crafted pop song, and that is what this is. The first half of the song is a bit of fun, and it’s only as it goes on do I find it’s a little devoid of fresh ideas in the second half. However, there is a brief guitar break by Prince that shakes things along. I do like it when the band throws “Six” into the mix, I hadn’t expected to hear that at a 90s show. The song finishes and part of me regrets praising it earlier on, there wasn’t as much there as I had initially thought. 

“The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” has a joyful opening, and it’s not hard to get caught in its charming web. Prince begins to talk to the crowd and then suddenly stops the song without singing. It’s disappointing, and I briefly frown, that is until I hear the next song begin. 

 

“The Ride” is classic mid-nineties Prince. Prince seems to relish it, and he wallows in the down and dirty groove with some dark guitar licks, and his laid-back vocal delivery. The guitar comes to the fore a couple of minutes in, and it’s worth the wait. It’s a slow-burning solo, and it certainly does have some intensity to it. It's stronger sounding than some of the other solos I have heard on The Ride, and I wonder if he is using a different guitar setup. As the solo progresses it takes on a voodoo sound, and I find myself listening very carefully to it. Prince name-checks some of the people at the show “Mavis Staples is in the house, R Kelly is in the house, Oprah Winfrey is in the house” Each name elicits a louder cheer from the crowd, and things become louder as Prince encourages the crowd to wave the wild sign, before playing with the crowd some more. The band then plays real low and Prince plays some dark licks on his guitar. There is not much more to say about this part, except that it is my favorite part of the song. This does go for some minutes before Prince closes it to a loud cheer from the crowd. 

Spirits are uplifted as Prince plays a loud, guitar-heavy sounding “The Cross.” The drums are down in the mix, and the crowd claps along. The most striking thing in the opening minutes is the heavy chug of Prince's guitar. However, this eases back in the next verse and the drums and keyboards come to the fore as the song progresses. Prince begins his solo, and the balance is restored. I have no complaints about the solo at all, apart from the fact that I would love to see it as well as hear it. The song is surprisingly short, and a horn sound suddenly appears in the mix near the end, I guess from Morris Hayes's keyboard. One final crescendo and we finally get a rest as the band stops between songs. 

“Do Me, Baby” is one of those songs that I find myself writing about week after week. That and “Purple Rain” seem to be in every show, and I can’t deny it’s well worth the inclusion, I would be terribly disappointed if I went to a show and didn’t hear “Do Me, Baby.” Prince takes his time before singing this one, but it’s not a gentle build-up as we have heard previously, at this shows there is plenty of intensity and screams from the crowd. I love it as Prince begins to sing as some women yell encouragement to him from the crowd. This one is squarely aimed at the women in the audience, and Prince’s scream gets an equally loud scream back at him. This continues as he begins to sing lines from “Adore,” and then Insatiable. Each song gets a couple of lines, and he also throws “Scandalous” and “How Come U Don’t Call Me” anymore into the mix just for good measure.  The squeals of delight settle down and Prince resumes singing “Do Me, Baby.” The song ends on a high with some more shrieks from Prince and a simple “Do me, baby, do me, baby” 

 

We go from his slow jams straight into some funk as the band strikes up “Sexy MF.” Prince’s rap on this doesn’t always do it for me, but I do enjoy that groove. The band swing on it as the song goes along, and Morris Hayes adds his touch which changes the direction of the song. Apart from the first minute, most of the song is instrumental, with several changes. I find it to be disjointed and off-putting, and there is a part of me that is secretly pleased as it ends. 

The bounce of “If I Was Your Girlfriend” begins and I am all in.  There does seem to be something missing in the song, I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, so I’m just going to blame the recording. The bass isn’t as prominent as I like, and some of the other instruments I can’t hear very well. The crowd certainly likes it, and it’s one of those occasions where I think that perhaps I should invest in a time machine. Prince again tells the crowd that “Freedom is a beautiful thing” as the song comes to a rather unsatisfying ending. 

“One Of Us” surprised me when I first heard Prince cover it, but in retrospect, it makes perfect sense as a song Prince would cover. The lyrics are a good fit for his spiritual side, and the steady beat gives him room to put his stamp and guitar sound over it. This isn’t the best example of the song, Prince's vocals aren’t recorded well, in fact, nothing is except his guitar. There is the feeling that I am just tolerating the song between guitar breaks, which isn’t fair. His second break is when things become interesting, it’s not too long though and he is soon singing again. There is another guitar break that carries us to the end, I find it hard to get too excited about it, it’s good without being great. 

I am no great fan of “Sleep Around.” The song sounds busy, and yet it fails to grab me. Even listening carefully here I don’t find anything to latch onto. I have heard it plenty, it is fine to listen to when I am doing other things, it’s just when I give it all my attention I find it lacking. The performance here is good, and in the wider context, it’s a good fit. The song eases off later and Prince thanks the crowd. This part I like much more, it’s a more basic sound, and I can feel the groove better. There is a nice rhythm guitar sound, I have to listen carefully but it is there. And as soon as I write those words it comes to the fore and gets a minute to shine – Prince is laughing at my expense. There is a segue into “Take The A-train” and Prince uses this to finish up the song and move us into a “Chicago Jam.” 

 

Some cool bass play gets this “Chicago Jam” hopping, and there are a few occasions in the song when it is right out front. This is the last song of the show and Prince takes the opportunity to play with the crowd and get them chanting along. It’s a characteristic Prince-type jam, and Morris Hayes in particular gets plenty of time to play. The song has an easy groove to it, it never becomes intense and I bob along easily to it at home as Prince has the crowd chanting “C..H...I love you” The song ends with a horn flurry courtesy of Morris Hayes and his keyboard and the show ends appropriately with the sound of the crowd. 

There is plenty to dislike about this show, and yet I find myself liking it. Sure, the recording was less than ideal, and I didn’t warm to every song played. But the parts that I liked, I really liked. The rendition of “Purple Rain” was an oddity and something worth hearing, as was The Ride. It’s a nice document of this time, and something I should probably give more listens to. 

Chicago 21 November 1996 (am)

 I have been continually surprised by how much I enjoyed concerts from 1996 to 1997. At the time I wasn’t taken by them, but twenty years later I find that I have finally matured and caught up with Prince. The shows are an odd mix, Prince is aiming at the pop audience, yet the music and performance lack the sparkle of his younger years. However, to my more mature ears, there is plenty to keep me entertained. This week’s bootleg covers an aftershow recorded in Chicago after Prince’s performance on Oprah. It doesn’t quite fit the classic aftershow mold and is more or less a run-through of the Love 4 One Another tour setlist. It is a crowd-pleaser though, and Prince offers a couple of diversions that keep the crowd well and truly involved with some loose renditions later in the show.  Despite being an audience recording, with all the baggage that comes with that,  I look forward to hearing this again and discovering something new. 

21st November 1996 (am), Park West, Chicago 

There is no denying, that the recording gets off to a rough start. I have no issue at all with the music, “Jam Of The Year” opens with a long instrumental featuring some taunt guitar work that makes it all the more appealing. However, the recording is rough for the first few minutes, with crowd noise overwhelming the music in places. Listening past that though and things aren’t so bad, this opening number has some cool keyboard work as Prince sings his lines to a highly charged and appreciative audience. “Jam Of The Year” doesn’t quite live up to its title though and I am already looking forward to what comes next in the setlist. 

Doing a quick calculation, I have heard “Purple Rain” four or five times a week for the last twenty years, factoring when I listened to the album on heavy rotation from 1984-1994 when Prince was THE MAN, and Purple Rain was THE ALBUM, I estimate I have heard the song approximately 16,000 times. And yet I find I still enjoy it. The version on this recording is surprising for several reasons. Firstly, it appears very early in the setlist, whereas traditionally it comes later in the show. Secondly, it is a late-night/early morning show, where the big songs don’t normally get an airing. And finally, this is a loose version, featuring a veil of intricate guitar work from Prince. The main solo pulls back as Prince begins to gently weave his way through the song before returning to the verse, almost rebooting the song at this point. It keeps me guessing, and even if I have heard the song 16,000 times before I still finish with a smile on my face. 

 

I am pulled straight back into the summer of 1996 with “Get Your Groove On.” Listening to it today I can almost feel myself in the car, windows down, music on, and the feeling of the sun on my skin. Prince imbues the music with a sunshine feel that seeps through the song at every opportunity, and for my money, this is a better representation of Emancipation than the earlier “Jam Of The Year.’ It certainly helps that a lot of the earlier sound problems have dissipated, and even though the crowd is loud and vocal, it adds to the sense of being there, rather than detracting from the music itself. 

Prince doesn’t dwell on “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World,” drawing it in after a minute to instead deliver a hard-hitting “The Ride,” something that seems to go over very well with the Chicago crowd. I am with them on this one as the music churns and chews through the next ten minutes. At times the music is so low it almost disappears into the floor, and that is no bad thing at all as Prince lays down his blues sound in a blues town. From this swampy festering sound, Prince’s guitar rises loud and proud, a flaming sword in the darkness of the music, a light to gravitate to. It's a great moment, but not the finest moment of the song, that comes later and Prince teases and taunts the audience with his talk, made all the better by the audience yelling encouragement – “Come on Boy,” “Alright now!”. In these moments I am right there in the audience, just the reason I listen to bootlegs. 

 

There is a guttural grunt and snort to the guitar sound at the beginning of “The Cross,” a raw sound that transports me back to when I was a young punk. Prince keeps his guitar set to “Garage Band” as he plays a mighty rendition that comes from the gut. It may not be the cleanest sounding recording in circulation, but Prince more than makes up for it in raw, unadulterated power and force of will. Even twenty years later listening to a scratchy bootleg at home, it is easy to be swept up by the fervor of it all, and by the end of the song, I too am desperately close to whooping and hollering with the rest of the crowd. The response to the end of the song is overwhelming, it is obvious that I’m not the only one deeply affected by the performance. 

Prince may have declared “Prince is dead” a year earlier, but here he is full resurrected and digs deep into his back catalog for a performance of “Do Me, Baby,” a performance that sounds as if the song had only been written the day previous as Prince plays it with unbridled emotion and feeling. Again, the crowd is right with you as the song plays, it may be too much for some but I do get a buzz hearing the audience screaming their appreciation, even if they do swamp the music at times. Prince unleashes an exquisite scream that has the crowd baying for more, and who can blame them when Prince is sounding this sexy. With lyrics thrown in from “Scandalous”, “Adore”, “Insatiable”, and “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore”, it becomes a tour de force of Prince’s most seductive songs, no bad thing at this stage of the concert. 

The following “Sexy M.F.” is most welcome, with its horn refrain it brings a fresh sound to the concert. However, the verses can’t quite live up to this, and the recording does Prince no favors. While the horns are recorded well, Prince himself sounds a touch fuzzy, and the slippery guitars underneath are mostly lost to my ears. A song that promises much, in this case, the bootleg just can’t do it justice. 

 

When I was fifteen, “If I Was Your Girlfriend” sounded like the most important song in the world. Thirty years later, and as much as I try, listening to it here I can’t recapture that feeling. The weight of the song has gone, and now when I listen all I can hear is the easy groove the song rolls across. Getting older is a bitch. However, as a live bootleg experience, it is perfectly serviceable, and when I take my personal feelings out of the equation, I find it an easy-going three or four minutes. 

Prince’s spiritual side again comes to the fore with his intense cover of Joan Osbourne’s “One Of Us.” One can see the attraction, and with the snare sound anchoring the beat it fits in well with Prince’s oeuvre. It could do with a better quality recording, but Prince's playing is forceful enough that it overcomes most sonic limitations. It’s not quite the key song of the evening, but it is a good pointer to where Prince was at this time. 

The encore begins with “Sleep Around” from the Emancipation album. It may not be the best-sounding song on the bootleg, but it is good enough that I feel I should pull out the original album and give it a listen, which I guess is the point of these concerts; to promote the album of the time. The Emancipation songs may be firmly fixed in the mid-Nineties by their sound and style, but they still have their own spirit and for me nicely capture the zeitgeist of that time. The bootleg itself is a passable listening experience without ever blossoming into something essential. 

This is followed by the final song of the evening as Prince segues “A Train” into an all-encompassing jam. There is some bass work, that judging by the screams is the man himself, and the crowd is fantastically vocal with their “play that funky bass”  encouragement. This jam is the highlight of the show for me, the thumping bass (or should I say thumbing bass) is glorious in its chest-thumping vibration. Prince's chant of “C, H, I, love you” is pretty cool and coupled with the contributions from the other band members it is a fitting end to what has been a lot of fun. 

 

The first five minutes give a false impression, and after a bumpy start, the concert settles into something very cool indeed. Putting aside any recording issues, I found that even though it wasn’t an aftershow in the true sense (the setlist being pretty much a condensed mainshow), the interaction between the band and audience made it feel like one, and especially so in the final couple of songs. Of the concerts of this era, there are certainly better ones, but this is the one I have enjoyed most so far. One to avoid if you are an audio purist, but for anyone who likes plenty of passion and crowd interplay, this is pretty darn good. 

Yokohama 20 January 1996

 We have just had a lovely day at the Yokohama Triennale and I am currently overloaded by the art on display. Asides from Prince bootlegs my other great loves are traveling and art, so as you can imagine today has been a great day for me. I have enjoyed my time in Japan the last two weeks, even time with the in-laws hasn’t been as bad as I thought! We still have a couple more weeks here, we have been so busy I think I will need another holiday when I get home. In keeping with my Japanese theme, today I will be taking a listen to a concert recorded in Yokohama in 1996. It takes in the final concert of the Ultimate Live tour, and it’s a shock to me when I realize that it is more than twenty years ago now. It feels like only yesterday, and that pleases me as it must mean that the 18-year-old in me still lives on. There have been several releases of this concert over the years, but I have chosen the Zion release as it has particularly beautiful artwork, and is in-depth in its coverage of the concert itself. Not only does the recording feature the concert, but also the entire 35 minutes of preshow music (in this case the Exodus album) that is played over the PA. It’s almost too much, I doubt I will ever listen to the preshow music again – not when I have the CD readily available, but it is a nice touch and makes for an immersive experience. 

  20th January 1996, Yokohama Arena, Yokohama 

Skipping over the preshow music, it is a video medley that begins the concert. An easy enough listen, it is merely a taster of Prince’s back catalog of music and not truly representative of the show that will follow, nor of the live bootleg experience. At ten minutes long, it would be a nice mix for the car, but I am here for the live performance, and as such I find I sit through it rather impatiently. 

 

The introduction of “Prince…is dead, long live the New Power Generation” is followed by a roar of music and scream that almost has me on my feet here at home. An audience recording, it still captures the power and fervor of the moment, that rush as Prince and the band create the wall of sound that is “Endorphin Machine”. It is in itself an endorphin rush, and I feel washed away by its sound as soon as I hear it. 

The rush is short-lived, but Prince gives us something even better with the power of “Shhh” masked behind his slow vocal. The guitar break is the iron fist in the velvet glove, and even though the song is criminally short it serves to warn that the show will contain a multitude of styles all delivered straight from the heart. 

Some of the power of “Days Of Wild” is dissipated in this setting. I can’t tell if it's the Japanese audience, the size of the arena, or the mix, but whatever it is the song lacks the suffocating intensity I usually associate with it. The bass guitar solo is most welcome and for me, it easily overshadows everything else heard in the song. The bass returns to finish the song, this time with a brief “777-9311,” something that briefly has me gasping for breath.  As much as I love the “Days Of Wild,” there are much better renditions out there, and I find this one a little ho-hum. 

 

The introduction of “Now” has Mayte comparing it to “Irresistible Bitch,” “Housequake,” and “Sexy M.F.”, but as the song ignites I find it lacks the finesse of these and is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. The chorus is exciting and bold, but not the slinky dance number of the songs it was compared to. It is still fun, and I enjoy the performance even if just a little too punchy. I only wish we could see Mayte’s final dance during  “Babies Makin Babies” as the crowd chants her name, after all a Prince concert is as much a visual experience as an aural one. 

The show opened with Prince declaring “Prince is dead,” and yet here we have a Prince song, the first verse of “Anotherloverholenyohead” jammed over the top of “Race.’ I like it. I like the groove of the song, I like the lyrics, but especially I like the sound of the keyboards. They are electrifying in both sound and style, and I am transfixed by the performance I am hearing. Other songs promised more, this is one surprise package that keeps me listening to bootlegs. 

“The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” is a start-stop affair that ably demonstrates how tight the band is, but as for the overall enjoyment of the song, it does detract a little. However, I have heard “the Most Beautiful Girl In The World” enough times in my life, and I am more than content to sit back and admire this configuration of the NPG. 

 

One of the most well-known tracks from the Gold Experience follows, in the form of “Pussy Control.” It’s not as strong as it is on record, it’s a slightly different mix and the music is busy which does distract from Prince’s rapping. I expect it to come as a punch to the face, instead, it is more like a slap in the face – it’s a challenge, but not quite the out-and-out threat that it should be. 

I am much more attuned to “Letitgo.” With its low-key groove, it seduces me, and I fall in love with the interaction between Prince’s vocals and the music. It's all too easy, and I slip easily under its charms. Surrounded by some big songs, it holds its own with natural grace and beauty. 

Although it is short on the album, “Starfish And Coffee” in this context is given the royal treatment and Prince plays a regal five minutes with it. The twist comes in the tail and the song slips down a musical rabbit hole, its sound becoming suddenly darker as complexities step out of the shadows. It is in complete contrast to the first minutes, and ends with a Michael B solo – completely unexpected for a song such as “Starfish And Coffee” 

Compared to other renditions of the era, “The Cross” is almost delicate in its delivery. Prince’s guitar is a gentle lace rather than the blanket of sound it sometimes is, and there are layers of complexities early in the song. A lot of this is unpicked however once the song reaches its apex and Prince tears up all that came before with plenty of rage and howl on his guitar. As a guitar aficionado, I am in blue heaven, and as always my only complaint is that it is all too short. 

 

I think I have heard “The Jam,” almost as much as I have heard “Purple Rain” over the years. It’s hard to get too excited by it here, it is the standard run-through we have all heard before. Michael B is mighty in his contribution, although the rest of the song I could take or leave. 

Prince proclaims his love for Joan Osbourne’s “One Of Us” before serving up his take on her song. It is a great match for him, both in theme and style, and the final guitar-saturated minutes are where it becomes purely Prince as he drenches the song in his trademark sound. 

To my ears, “Do Me, Baby” has never got old, and the rendition on this bootleg is pretty standard, yet entirely mesmerizing as Prince works himself and the song up into a lather. It is not as an intense experience as I have heard on other bootlegs, but it remains an unmissable part of the show. 

The seduction and sexiness of “Do Me, Baby” becomes pure sex with the appearance of “Sexy M.F.”  Normally I am captivated by the grease of the guitar, but in this case, it is Tommy Barbarella who has my full attention with an upstart of a solo that is a livewire in its delivery. The rest performance is smooth, the only jolt coming from this solo. 

 

I am more than happy with “I Am Your Girlfriend” The recording is top-notch, and I can hear every nuance of the song as the band walks us through it. It is a classic, and deservedly so, as Prince twists up a gender-bending mix of personalities and musical styles into a drama underpinned opus. Beautifully recorded at this show, I could easily feast on this for days. 

One of the great things about listening to concerts from this Japanese tour is the appearance of “Vicki Waiting” in the setlists. Rarely played, when we do hear it on bootlegs it always sounds fresh and exciting. That feeling is heightened here by the twin keyboard attack of Morris Hayes and Tommy Barbarella,  they both bring some heavy musicality to what otherwise would be a simple pop song. 

I am tempted to skip over the “Purple Medley” as it is just as unnecessary in concert as it is on record. Hearing it only makes me yearn to go back and listen to the original songs, all of them having been done a disservice by this medley. It is dire, and a colossal waste of time. Redeeming features? None. 

Prince immediately wins me back with a sweet version of “7”. There is nothing too demanding, it never once challenges, but it does sound easy on my ears and is a thousand times better than the preceding “Purple Medley.” The song comes and goes in its own easy way, and I am deceived by the tracklisting that has it at seven minutes when in reality it is half that before it gives over to the break between encores. 

Things kick off in grand style with a smoking rendition of “Billy Jack Bitch.” I might be biased at this point, as this is one of my go-to songs on those days I need music as a prop. Prince's vocals are a little weak against the wall of music, and it is the Fishbone sample that comes across loudest on the recording, something that will rattle around in my brain for the next few days now. I have a lot of fun listening to it, although before I know it, it is over and we move quickly on. 

The show stays in this uptempo groove with a quick-fire rendition of “319.” There isn’t much to it, and just as I find myself singing along it ends. 

 

It is entirely predictable that “Gold” is the last number of the night, yet it is just as uplifting and sweepingly epic as you could want for a show closer, or even a tour closer. I may not be able to see what is happening, but I can hear it in the music, and in the audience's response, and my heart quickens with every sweep of guitar and every homily spun by Prince. It may be cheesy but it does the trick, and I am converted to the message Prince is preaching. The final whine of the guitar adds one last golden sheen to all that has come before and although it does become rough in places it stays on message with its uplifting sound and soulful howl. 

I recommend all concerts from the 1995/1996 time period. The music bristles with a revitalized energy and enthusiasm and it is hard not to be captivated by the sound of it as Prince begins his new journey, shedding his 1980s skin and persona as he strikes out in new directions. The final concert of the tour marks this as something special, and Prince delivers in concert, and on the recording, with a sparkling set delivered at maximum rock n roll velocity. There are a couple of weak moments in the concert, but the bootleg is good enough that I am more than happy to overlook the moments that drag. A worthy release of one of my favorite eras, this one can sit easily alongside any other show of the era. 

Osaka 11 January 1996

 

In this week’s show, I will be diving back into the Gold era, and a show from Prince’s Japan tour of 1996. This is a fascinating period, not just musically, but the whole drama and change surrounding him. I may not have fully understood it all at the time, but now in retrospect, I see a lot is going on, and some great shows to revisit. Having shed his ‘Prince’ persona, his music and look struck out in a bold new direction, and it’s hard for me to remember what I thought at the time, but I now know that it was something extremely brave and creative. Money and his battle with Warner Bros. may have been the motivating factor, but it ended up being so much more interesting and creative. In 1995 he steadfastly refused to play any of his back catalog, here in 1996 the first cracks are being to show and quite a few ‘Prince’ songs are on the set-list, as well as the opening music which nods to his past. By 1997 the doors to his past are reopened, with him again embracing his back catalog. It’s somewhat of a shame, and it would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if he stuck to the path that he struck out in 1995, one can only wonder. Today’s show is from Osaka in early 1996, his only tour of the year being a Japanese tour in January. The quality isn’t great, but anything that documents this era is well worth a listen.

 

11 January 1996 Osaka, Japan

My anticipation is at an all-time high as the show begins, and it more than delivers as the first words we hear from him are “Osaka, Prince is dead, long live the New Power Generation”. It thrills me just to hear it, and I know I am crossing over dangerously into FAM territory. There is the immediate nod to the past that I alluded to earlier as the synth intro of “1999” is heard, but Prince reclaims the here and now with the opening riff of “Endorphin Machine.” What a start, a blaze of guitar, lights and screams- from both Prince and the audience. It’s a lively way to open the show, and I can only think that had I had been there it all would have been overwhelming. The sound of the recording isn’t great and sometimes isn’t even good. Yet, for all its faults, it still captures the sound of the moment rather well. I may not hear the band all that well, and Prince's vocals aren’t all that clear, but I can still hear the energy and enthusiasm of the performance, and in my book that counts for a lot. And besides, if the sound isn’t good I can always just watch Mayte and her dancing, always a pleasant distraction. Prince drops a verse and chorus from the song, and shortens it considerably, he never lets up on the driving guitar sound and momentum of the song. I am surprised by how much noise he can generate from a single guitar, the NPG is doing a great job of rounding out his sound and giving him a fat sound to play against.

 

With Prince still working his guitar, we are straight into the next song, which is the excellent “Shhh.” The band is on the money for this one, as is Prince. His vocals sound just like they do on record, and if this was a soundboard recording I am sure we would hear much better just how good he is sounding. It’s disappointing he cuts this song short too, after a verse he does play a great solo, and then suddenly cuts it short as the grind of “Days Of Wild” begins.

I always think of this as an after-show song, which is a folly as it always sounds great, even in the bigger concerts. The recording isn’t good enough to truly capture the ominous rumble of the song, but it’s easy enough for me to imagine how it would have sounded. The highlight is always when Prince says “oh by the way, I play bass guitar”. This show is no exception and we get a couple of bass breaks, the first one, and then another one later in the song as the crowd chant. Prince looks the business as he plays, and I would love to see a show where he played bass only through the whole show. He makes it look so effortless, as well as a lot of fun. The camera jumps around a bit at this point, and I kind of like it. It’s that old-fashioned sort of boot, where you know it’s not going to be great to look at, and yet you need to watch it. Some more chanting, and then the briefest of pauses before Now.

 

What I like most about “Now” is the keyboard sound. Prince’s rap doesn’t do much for me, it’s all about that organ sound for me, and I know that yet again it’s Morris Hayes giving it to me. The song is hollow sounding when he isn’t playing, it’s the chorus that has the full sound that I like. Prince implores the crowd to ‘jump up, jump up, now!”, and I don’t know if they do or not, but I know that I certainly want to. The song quietens to a groove and while Mayte plays with the audience Prince straps on his purple axe and gives us some funky keyboard sounds. For me, the song becomes much more interesting at this stage, as there is plenty of keyboard jamming for me to listen to. A few lines of “Babies Making Babies” are sung by Prince at this stage, which is pretty standard for this song. He then even goes so far as to plug in his guitar, so in the space of two songs, we have seen him play every instrument on stage, bar the drums.

 

I am loath to use the word ‘funky’ too much, but as they lurch into “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A)  Sex Machine,” that is indeed the first word that comes to mind, and rightly so. The keyboards and guitar play right up hard against each other, before easing back and Prince singing. A lot is going on, and all the instruments via for my attention. Be it Prince's guitar, his singing, or the keyboards and bass line, I want to hear it all and soak it all up. Of course, I just want to unplug my headphones and dance around the room, but that wouldn’t be much of a blog post now, would it? The song winds to a close with a minute of Prince playing alone on the guitar before the band jumps back in for a furious finish.

 

“The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” almost sounds out of place after the last few songs. That Prince can go straight from something so funky to such pure pop has never failed to amaze me, and listening now it’s hard to believe that a minute ago this guy was channeling the spirit of James Brown. The vocals are outstanding, and the only thing better is the tightness of the band, this song demonstrates how good they are, as they stop several times and then pick up right where they left off. Prince isn’t to be outdone though, and later in the song, he delivers some lovely falsetto that only he can.

In the privacy of my own home, I love “Pussy Control” (that is a sentence I never thought I’d write), but in public, I am a little more reluctant to enthuse about it. This live performance isn’t great. Prince’s rap isn’t clear, and he doesn’t shine until singing the chorus. There is some nice work for us to listen to on the keyboard, but overall the song is lacking and leaves me wishing it could have been more. I thought this would be better live, and I am not sure why it doesn’t work for me, but I suspect Prince's rap has a lot to do with it.

I like “Letitgo,” it sounds different from other songs at this show, and it always leaves me with a strange feeling that I can’t quite put my finger on, a sort of unease when I hear it. The performance here is good, and I especially appreciate Tommy Barbarella’s solo. The song has a nice pop chorus to it, but I sense something darker underneath it, and I think that is what I latch onto, and gives me an uncomfortable feeling. Prince takes time to involve the crowd with some singing before it abruptly stops and the gentle piano intro of “Starfish and Coffee” begins.

It’s great to hear this played in full, with the full band treatment. Often we get short lines of it in the piano medley, and it’s only on this Japanese tour of ’96 and the ONA tour do we get the full version. It’s a curious choice to get the full band treatment, and this is the first ‘Prince’ song of the night played, so I wonder what the thinking behind it is. I prefer the first part of the song more, the second half is free and loose, and I don’t enjoy the keyboard solo so much, but I am sure that it must be to some people's taste.

With the opening chords of “The Cross” sounding we are immediately thrown right back to the 1980s. Princes’ playing is crisp, it sounds sharp and contrasts with the keyboard sound which is also prominent. I was expecting his guitar to ramp up as the song progresses, so I am thrown when it’s the keyboard that first drives towards the climax. Order is restored when Prince does begin to work his fretboard, and it’s a joy to listen to, as well as see as he strikes a series of rock star poses. It’s not as deep and spiritual sounding, I find that it’s just as enjoyable, however, especially when I lean back and soak it all up.

 

“The Jam,” I feel I am writing about this song almost every week, it is such a part of his repertoire. I don’t tire of it tonight, as not only do we get a great solo from Morris Hayes, but we also get a very tidy solo from Tommy Barbarella, a man I often overlook. It’s great to hear the keyboard guys playing, and the song loses something as Prince calls Mayte to dance and the music takes second place. This arrangement of “The Jam” offers nothing that we haven’t heard before,  however, it serves as a good bookmark in the show and a chance for us to catch our breath and admire the skills of the individual band members.

A plodding beat and I immediately recognize “One Of Us.” I find the beat pedestrian, and the song is saved by the uplifting sound of Prince's guitar, without which there would be very little joy to be found. I prefer this cover to the original, and if I had never had of heard Joan Osborne I would swear it’s a Prince original. I do like Prince’s guitar sound in the song, but his vocals aren’t picked up by the recording very well, so I find it hard to give it too much praise. Prince does play guitar hero as the song nears the end, and this is where it picks up for me, I can hear his guitar much better than his vocals.

I didn’t know that this band and this incarnation of Prince did “Do Me, Baby,” so as the song starts I am very curious to see how it will sound. The keyboards initially sound as they did all those years ago, perhaps the sound of a swirling organ is the only difference. Prince sounds much more mature, and a lot of the vulnerability is gone. However, this is replaced by a strength and sense of showmanship that more than makes up for it. He dances and sings boldly, and although not as dangerously sexy as when he was younger, he still commands your attention.

 

“Sexy M.F.” is another surprise, and as the keyboards play their intro a funky beat begins. It’s a shame too that Prince's vocals aren’t sounding 100% on this song, and I have to again wonder if it’s his rapping. The keyboards however are wonderful, both Tommy and Morris sound great, and I like it when Prince stops singing and we can just listen to the two of them play. There are a few calls from Prince to the audience to sing with him, but the song quickly winds up and we get another song from the back catalog.

Considering that “If I Was Your Girlfriend” is such a fan favorite, it's surprising that there aren’t too many great live versions out there. I would love to be writing now that this show it sounded perfect and left a deep impression on me, unfortunately, I cannot. It's passable, again it’s as much the recording as anything else. The vocals are murky and in my opinion that is the key element in the song, and if that is lacking then the song doesn’t stand up on its own.

Wait a minute, did he just say “this song is from Batman, Vicky Waiting”? Yes indeed, and now I am very glad I chose to give this show a listen. This tour was the only tour where “Vicky Waiting” was regularly played, and it’s refreshing to hear it live. I don’t know the last time I listened to the Batman album, it would have to have been a good few years ago. Prince doesn’t play with the arrangement too much, there is a nice minute of organ solo as Prince and Mayte engage in some onstage antics, asides from that it is played straight down the line. It’s so good to hear something like this that we don’t often get live, and I find that I listen very carefully to it as it is such a rarity. Not a great song, but the show is richer for having it there.

Prince then deals with the weight of his past with a simple solution – a purple medley. As the sound of the “Batdance” song begins he tells the crowd “Is it alright if I play some Prince songs?” The start is just as on record, and with all the sounds and lights it’s initially hard to tell if they are just playing the song on the PA, or performing live. Live performance is the order of the day, and it’s kind of cool to see Prince quickly run through the songs. It’s similar to the modern-day sampler set, with the difference being it’s a full live band playing quickly to keep up.  For those of you not familiar with the “Purple Medley,” it covers “Batdance,” “When Doves Cry,” “Kiss,” “Erotic City,” “Darling Nikki,” “1999,” “Baby I’m A Star,” “Diamonds and Pearls” and “Purple Rain.” The single contains more songs, but for this show Prince closes it after a few lines of “Purple Rain.”

“7” has its Arabic prelude and being a bit different, I quite like it. It starts sounding like “Around The World In A Day” before morphing into a more Middle Eastern sound. This is a chance for Mayte to demonstrate her skills in dancing with a sword. I have always enjoyed the music, and Mayte and her dance is no bad thing either. 7 is light sounding, especially when I look back at the first half-hour of the show, nothing wrong with being light, but it does give the show some balance. It does at times sound out of place, and I think it’s in the show as much for Mayte as anything else. The drum has a great pounding sound as the song breaks for the crowd to sing, and apart from the guitar sound later in the song, this is as good as it gets for me.

 

The encore begins with “Billy Jack Bitch.” The lyrics aren’t my thing, but I love the music of it. After a long organ intro, Prince glides to the front of the stage and after thanking the audience he tells them that he is no longer Prince “that name belongs to record companies” and he believes in music. His speech goes for a minute or so, and it’s the standard lines about music and record companies. “Billy Jack Bitch” finally starts properly and there’s a good energy release. The keyboards have a good sound, as do the drums and bass. The vocals are lacking in strength and clarity, again it’s not Prince, and it’s the quality of the recording. That doesn’t prevent me from enjoying it though, and it gets better as it goes along.

As the crowd cheers, the music segues to “I Hate U” before suddenly changing to “319.” It’s all very short-lived, a verse and a chorus before we hear the NPG operator speaking and the song stops altogether. I would have liked to have heard either one of these songs in full, and it’s another Prince tease near the end of the show.

 

As “Gold” begins I know that this will be the end of the show. It has that climatic feel and is a great way to finish the show. Prince’s vocals sound better here than they did earlier in the show, and I am pleased that we are finishing on a high. Prince’s guitar sounds a little twangy later on as he sings, and I don’t know if that is the sound he is aiming for or not. In fact, the guitar seems out for most of the song, and I decide it’s not the sound he was aiming for. However the solo sounds well enough, and it’s enough for me to overlook the earlier issues. The song ends with him playing shoulder to shoulder with Tommy Barbarella. It’s a strange sight, most of the show Prince has barely interacted with the band, and instead, Mayte has been his main foil on stage. He looked very much a solo performer, and at one point as I watched him I had a feeling that he looked incredibly lonely standing alone at the front of the stage. He must have been carrying a huge weight at the time, and although he and the band spent countless hours together, there is still a sense that he is alone. This was the same time that he was about to marry Mayte, so perhaps I am reading too much into it, so it’s only natural that he should be giving her so much attention instead of the rest of the band. The show ends on a high here, with the refrain echoing around for a few final times.

 

Hard to know exactly what I thought of this show. Sure, I really liked it, but then again I like most shows I listen to.  The show itself is an interesting snapshot of what was happening at the time. Prince was only a month from marrying Mayte, and with the return of Prince songs to the setlist, the end of the war with Warners is signposted. I liked that this show was a bridge between two eras of Prince. We had all the classic Gold era songs in there, the dense funk of “Days Of Wild” for example, as well as some interesting selections from his Prince days. I particularly enjoyed hearing “Vicky Waiting,” as well as “Starfish And Coffee.” A curious show, but one I would recommend if you don’t mind an audience recording.

Paisley Park 9 September 1995

 The final show I want to cover from 1995 is the second show from September 9th at Paisley Park. After playing an early morning concert, Prince returned in the evening to play a completely different set and one that closely resembles what is heard during the Japan tour just a few months later in early 1996. This is a concert that presents the bulk of the Gold album, only a couple of Come songs make the setlist along with two NPG songs. Serving as a nice run-through of what will be a main concert setlist, this is Prince and the band playing a much more structured show than the previous two I have written of and is a good introduction to what we will hear in Japan in 1996. 

9th September 1995, Paisley Park 

I have never been completely sold on “Purple Medley,” but as an opening, it does give us a good feel of the quality of this audience recording. The recording is full-blooded, with the bass coming through solid without ever overwhelming everything else or distorting. Despite any reservations I have about the medley, I do find it does move along quickly and it is a simple gift to those that have followed Prince throughout his career. 

With the shout of “Prince is dead, long live the New Power Generation,” the concert is awash in guitar grind and bathed in the sound of the Gold album as “Endorphinmachine” cleanses the bootleg of any nostalgic mists. The song is heavily abridged, after being battered by the guitar, and phasing keyboard, the song collapses under its own furious weight, leaving the blitzkreiging guitar of Prince as the abiding memory. 

The fire and fury quickly vanish, but Prince gives us something every bit as titanic and intense with a poisonous version of “Shhh.” Laced with the most venomous guitar break, it too quickly dies but not before leaving an indelible mark on the concert and this listener. 

 

The show settles with “Now,” a six-minute funk battering that only suffers from a small microphone glitch from Prince early in the number. It’s easy to get caught up on the lyrics, the singing along, and jumping, but for me, the most enjoyable parts of the song belong to the NPG themselves, Michael B.’s powerhouse drumming, the twin keyboard attack, and the rubber-ball bounce of Sonny T. on bass. I often consider “Now” to be lightweight in more esteemed company, but in this case, there is plenty to admire and respect, the only disappointing aspect is that I can’t see Mayte shake her money maker. 

Morris Hayes owns “Funky Stuff.” Prince may call for various other band members to play throughout the song, but Morris Hayes's contribution is outstanding, both in his electric wonder solo piece and later in the song where his keyboard is the glue that holds it all together. The song follows a similar line to the previous “Now,” becoming an extended workout where once again I miss seeing Mayte shake her thing. The song runs out of steam later in the piece, becoming just a groove, and I find I do begin to lose interest by the end of it. 

“The Most Beautiful Girl In The World,” becomes all the more interesting as Prince breaks it down from the beginning, turning the song into an elongated speech about what they were playing and his struggles with Warner Bros. and the system. His speech about the Gold Experience is revealing and for me strikes at the crux of his problems with record labels. It is a fascinating insight and essential listening. 

 

Something is missing in “Days Of Wild,” it doesn’t have the fierceness that I have come to expect from it. The recording doesn’t sound thin, so perhaps in this case it is the performance that is lacking. I shrug it off as the pulsating bass solo unfurls, improving the moment substantially and setting off a chain reaction through the rest of the song. The bass becomes an exhilarating ride that snakes in and out of the music, giving the song a slipperiness that was previously missing, an empathetic punch of funk that elevates these few minutes above all else. 

I have heard better versions of “Pussy Control” in circulation. Princes’ vocals have the slightest distortion on them, and for me, it detracts from the song. However, the other key players are all in the place and the music hurtles forward without ever gaining any sense of intensity. There is no magic here, just a romp through a joyous celebration of feminism, albeit with a wink. 

“Letitgo” is a far gentler ride, the music is set to cruise control from the start, and with Prince’s suede vocals the song reeks of unfulfilled luxury. It is a gentle ride from start to finish, only Prince’s exclamations to the crowd break this downhill flow. The song itself is the best moment, the band rarely sticks their heads above the parapet, and the performance is faceless as the song glides by in its own way. 

 

The soft and luxurious sound is retained for the creamy “Pink Cashmere” that follows, a song that sounds far better live than on record, especially as the band dust it with the slightest sprinkling of jazz making it a far more demanding beast than the recorded version. With the soft duvet of keyboards wrapping the song up it becomes a moment of warm comfort, and is one of the least challenging moments of the concert, especially in comparison to the raw funk of Prince’s more current material. 

“Return Of The Bump Squad” emphasizes this point, although it takes a minute or two to show its true colors, Prince spends the first minutes talking with the crowd while the band, and audience, wait in anticipation. When it does kick-off, it comes as a punch to the face, the music strident and turbulent from the start with a collision of sound and funk all making for an explosive mix. The bass strikes blows throughout, while the rest of the band batter the song into submission with a relentless barrage of funky grooves and rhythms. Prince’s bass can’t be denied though, he is the star attraction throughout, and the final minute sees him giving us a brief burst of both “Hair” and “777-9311,” something that has my inner fanboy weeping with joy. 

I don’t expect too much from “Get Wild,” and I am pleasantly surprised when Prince gives a performance that keeps me engaged from start to finish. I feel a warm flush with Tommy Barbarella’s first solo that mimics the sound of a saxophone, while the long break down mid-song is kept interesting with Prince’s comments to Lenny Kravitz about rock being dead, before giving us several minutes of chanting and singing “Rock ‘n’ Roll is alive and lives in Minneapolis”  This is the first live appearance of the song, and although it nothing more than a chant, it does point to the future when the song will soon appear as a b-side to “Gold” This alone makes “Get Wild” one of the stand-out tracks of the evening, and with the NPG evolving the song through a series of wild improvisations it makes for a fascinating listen. 

 

Equally unhinged is “Race,” swinging from a long funky intro into a sample laden finale, with the Prince era “Girls And Boys” making an unscheduled appearance halfway. Again, I hadn’t expected too much from this song but found myself enjoying it just as much as anything else heard at the show. It may not but a definite full-stop on the show, but it offers a rich finish to a show that gives far more than first appearances might suggest. 

This may be the most straightforward of the Paisley Park concerts of 1995, but it offers several insights into Prince’s position at the time, and some of his best jams. Although I have heard these songs many times before, in this case, they were played with vitality and enthusiasm that remains undiminished. The audience recording is very good, and all in all, this makes for yet another great listening experience. This is another gem that not everyone is familiar with, but like all shows of the 1995 era, it is an essential part of the Prince bootleg canon.