Prince has been in the music news lately, having released two rather good albums simultaneously, rejoined Warner Bros., got control of his back catalog, and appeared on SNL.
He’s notoriously hard to find on the internet, but somehow we are (for the moment, at least) able to peer back to 1982, just as he was ascending. Note that this linked file may vanish.
This is from the Controversy tour, just before 1999 and Purple Rain, when many were still just finding out about him and trying to figure out what exactly they had found. Punk? Funk? New Wave? What was this? A controversy.
This is a well-filmed but unfortunately black and white and aged document. Still, listen to this kid play guitar. Check out his confidence on stage. He’s 23 here, touring college towns, trying to get noticed.
Do you think Passaic, NJ paid attention?
(Warning: Adult Material… it’s Prince, after all.)
great show
I had the chance to catch a Prince show last winter. It was a two hour plus show with an 11 piece horn section along with 3rd Eye Girl. Simply put, amazing. What I love about Prince’s show is the energy, everybody is on their feet dancing at the get go and it doesn’t stop until the end (which at my show was an epic 15 minute workout of “Purple Rain.”) The crowd is also a healthy mix of all ages, races, fashion, etc., from hoodies to formal wear. And the best part is NO ONE sings along with Prince like at a Bruce Springsteen, Police, Garth Brooks, you get the picture.
Thanks for the show.
Lucky you!
Haven’t seen him live since the early 90’s (My Name Is Prince era, with the princess and… ah, silliness).
Very envious of your ability to see him more recently. Was that one of the London performances? He seemed to take up residency there for a while last year.
One of my first experiences with ticket scalpers was in Cleveland for the 1999 show. The Time and Vanity 6 were also playing. We went without tickets hoping to get some outside. A nice fellow tried to sell us three, but one was folded over and there were really only two, so we passed. I did get to see the outside of the theater of the 1999 tour. : )
This concert video is interesting. It looks like they used this stage set to film the Little Red Corvette video. We have Dr. Fink and Lisa, but no Wendy.
I love the way he jumps around from rock, to funk, to soul, from punky new wave to ballads. And how there’s never any hurry to end a good groove.
Presently known as Prince :)
I loved Prince back in the 80s, and all the “New Romantic” stuff for the short time it lasted. It was fun, you couldn’t not dance, it had such energy. Thanks for this, it gives me the happies. Everyone watch before it gets taken down.
Prince show
@ Chris
He played at the Moheghan Sun Casino for 3 nights over a weekend, his own “residency.”
I had to scalp my ticket, it costs $140, crazy money, but I rarely go to big shows anymore as there are not many bands out there I have an interest seeing. Then again, a Broadway show costs more and Prince’s shows are a very rare occurrence these days (hopefully that will change.) It was worth every penny and was more an event than a show.
The rumors were crazy that Prince was going to sit in with other acts that were playing in the area. During his weekend, a 4th show was announced to be at a small cabaret room at the casino that sits 350 and was scheduled to take place after his last concert starting at 1:00 in the morning. Yes, you read that right.
So, I arrived at midnight and got a great seat and his band came on at 2 AM and played for 90 minutes. They then took a break and DJ Doug E Fresh started to spin some tunes. At 3, his purpleness wandered into the room, and proceeded to dance with the audience and spin records. This went on and the buzz started that Prince wasn’t going to play, he was beat from his concert that night. It didn’t surprise me, but a number of the audience got pissed, they did spend a lot to see him. His band played one more set and at 6 am the lights came up and it was time to go home.
The next morning, I checked my email and Ticketmaster sent me a message refunding my ticket for the show because Prince was a no show playing. I thought that was pretty cool. But I would love to go to one of his shows at Paisley Park that starts at midnight and he serves pancakes.
cool
I forgot about those nearby dates. (Probably blocked them out because I couldn’t go).
$140 seems *cough* reasonable for seeing him these days. (My Purple Rain ticket stub says I paid $17.50 for that tour). Dancing in a small club/room with him must have been quite fun experience, even if he didn’t play.
So how do we convince him that the Latchis would be a good place to play? : )