Given Prince's deep catalog of hits, b-sides and great music, how does everyone feel about the covers he's been playing live?

Granted, he can do whatever he wants, but I for one, would prefer to see "Play That Funky Music", "Inglewood Swingin'" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" replaced by ANY Prince jam. I'm a bigger fan of covers when they happen organically like when a special guest is around or the band just moves into a familar groove.

If he truly feels compelled to do these covers, put these on the 'sampler set' and play the Prince jams live!

Agreed on those specific covers, but I'll take some of his covers that he has previously released... such as Case of U, Crimson and Clover, I Can't Make U Love Me, One of Us, La-La (means I love u)

Good point. I agree on those too.

Use piano karaoke for covers. Play the the "so many hits..." karaoke songs as actual songs, or at least a medley with the band.

[Edited 5/13/11 12:55pm]

Prince should not do covers. Back when he had more guts, it was A Case of You, and that was it. And he didn't even play it that much. He did lie in the Rolling Stone interview, saying he didn't really listen to other music. Prince used to be above covers. When the topic of covers come up, I think of Rod Stewart not able to write anymore, so he keeps releasing remake after remake.

One good thing: Prince has not put too many covers on his albums.

Still...it stinks to see someone who ignores a ton of great material in his own songbook to play covers.

Of course, he can do whatever he wants, and despite my penchant for bitching about many of his bad decisions over the years, he still totally kicks ass over everybody else. I think U2 are better at giving the U2 experience than Prince is at giving the Prince experience, but U2's songs are so much weaker, it doesn't matter. For me to call U2's songs much weaker takes something special....and that is Prince in the first place.

I'll put it this way, he can play whatever covers he wants to, because he's the captain of his own ship, not his fans. If fans made a wish list of covers they want him to play, other fans will still complain about those covers anyway, if he played it, that's a guarantee. It's a constant complaining b*tching session that never stops, so really what else is new?

If he chooses to play specific covers at certain shows, then it's obviously what he's feeling at the moment.

[Edited 5/13/11 19:39pm]