I was at the opening night last week, and was impressed along with so many others. It occurred to me that Prince is at his best on stage rather than in a recording studio. Then I thought about all that concert footage that has never been formally released. I'm guessing Warner Bros has the rights to the Lovesexy Tour double-VHS tapes that they released back in 1988. I was wondering how come they have never released this footage on DVD. I remember that tour well. It was truly awesome. Surely WB would make a mint - a no-brainer? Anyone have any thoughts on this topic?

spongebobgeorge said:

I've been wanting to know too...afterall they did bring it out on VHS

Quite simple, Prince is ashamed of his earlier stage performances - Unless he gets over his current views on 'supposed' bad language, and accepts his 'complete' back catalogue for what it is, we will never see that officially released on dvd....He no longer supports old songs like sister, jack U off and bob george(to name a few) - such a shame!!!!!

Claire73 said:

That was back in the day when he was one bad muthafuka

Probably more likely to be licensing issues or something. The Purple Rain one isn't available either.

Get the bootleg ripped from Laserdisc instead.

NouveauDance said:

I can confirm its not licensing, he simply WONT consent

jstar69 said:

I've heard something similar about Prince and his back catalog. I was told that he demanded the Ultimate Prince contain no 'offensive' tracks. I believe, for example, that Erotic City was originally to be included but had to be pulled because it contained profanity. I'd not be surprised if this is the same reason that he won't issue a Lovesexy DVD or even a Purple Rain tour DVD because of the overt sexuality and I assume bits of profanity contained within.

As brilliant as he is live and one could argue he's better than ever on a technical level, it's a shame that he's been so blinded by a religion that he's turning his back on the most inspired years of his career by either refusing to release material from that time or altering material from that era if the material contains 'swear words.' Quite pathetic, really.

It might also be market demand. I know we all love it, but I'm not sure how much appetite there is for people to buy it again on a new format 20 years on. Lovesexy is a massive creative achievement (and certainly one of my favourite Prince albums), but it was nowhere near as commercially successful as Sign of the Times and Purple Rain. It would probably have to be a double DVD too, which would be expensive to produce. I wish they'd just go ahead and do it though.

just get the boot, its fabulous quality

Why isnt there a TON of Concert DVD's?

DVD Sales are the biggest thing around! Bigger then CD's....

Prince could make a boat load of $$$$$ if he released Live Concert DVD's

Who knows, but you can watch live concert footage! At least I do all the time.

Odd, though, about him resisting the Lovesexy show on moral/religious grounds, since the whole through-line is about Prince's transformation from carnality to a supposedly higher state of spiritualty. "The feeling you get / When you fall in love..." etc. One would think that the overall message of the show still fits in with his current worldview.

Just a question as I dont know about these things, but if Warner owns the material (ie the lovesexy tour tapes), do they even need P's permission to release the DVD?

in case people start wondering if the solo in lets go crazy was prerecorded or the mistakes at the piano etc