Was Purple Rain brought out of retirement?

When promoting the Musicology tour Prince said this was it. The past is the past and the songs were being "permanently" retired. Jay Leno asked which he'd miss the most and he said, "Purple Rain." Now I hear (thanks to these forums) that he performed Purple Rain and a number of other classics at the Nokia when promoting Lotus, MPLS. and that other CD. I really admired him for retiring the songs and doing a tour to bring them out one last time. And I sort of bought into it too, thinking when he performed Purple Rain in Mpls. it would be the last time I heard him perform it live. So what's the deal, and when did he "unretire" his songs?

He played Purple Rain every night at the O2 during 21 nights, so it's not been very retired. Was also played more recently at Coachella. Prince keeps retiring the hits but they never go away. Didn't he say Hit & Run was the last time the hits would be played? Did he say it before that?

TheEnglishGent said:

sloopydrew4u said:

Speaking of PR, I would like to think that he's going to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the song or movie in some reasonable fashion. For God's sake, it's the friggin' 25th anniversary of one of the most popular songs in music history.

I don't think he ever meant to retire "Purple Rain" as it's a show closer staple for him.

But did he really retire the likes of "Little Red Corvette" & "Raspberry Beret", or at least he doesn't perform them that much anymore?

LiveToTell86 said:

TheEnglishGent said:

LiveToTell86 said:

prince always says this. he said it in the 90's and he actually never played old music for many concerts. he said it for musicology. and he said it for o2. o2 was dubbed the last time the hits would be played. prince said he was retiring after the o2 gigs as well, "to study the bible".

^Yeah I know, he does it all the time to make sure he can get all the curious casual fans to his concerts each time. If he announced "I'm not playing the hits now" or "I'm gonna play the hits again in 2 years", he wouldn't sell out...

jethrouk said:

During the song "Xenophobia" on the "One Nite Alone Live" boxset, he said, "For those of you expecting to get your "Purple Rain" on....you in the wrong house!"

Yet he still sang it anyway.

Believe me, I've seen footage of him belting it out on his purple -shaped .


Also, I heard that when he toured in Sydney in 2003, he told the crowd that he never gets sick of the song.

Unfortunately I wasn't at that show, just the one after.

If I was there, I would've been able to verify it for ya.

Guaranteed, like his ole buddy Morris Day.

Yaiss.

stanleylieber said:

The only time Prince ever walked the talk was with the Gold Experience tour and Glam Slam era shows. Virtually all new material and thus one of the most interesting tours. He should have supported Emancipation similarly straight after IMO, 36 tunes to pick from.

Dsoul said:

empty auditorium? lol! yeah, emancipation was a bust - so he had to roll out the hits again

In my opinion, he wants to give up playing the hits (like the Gold Experience tour someone just mentioned) and just do tours like that to promote current music he does.

But then he realizes that his die-hard fans want to hear some hits - so he plays them.

He also made millions 20 years ago and is used to living a certain type of lifestyle now. He needs to rely on the hits (1st Nokia Show, Superbowl, Coachella, London 02, 3121 Vegas, Musicology) to attract new fans to his new material (Musicology, 3121, Planet Earth, Lotusflw3r). Because his newer material is not cutting edge anymore, he also can't depend on album sales to make his money. So he must tour - and do hits - to keep the $ coming in.

He wants to be the "Dreamer" guy (and is to us) but he will always be the "Purple Rain" guy to the majority. Sad but true. Then again.....he is one lucky mf. Just my 2 cents.

[Edited 4/2/09 5:38am]
[Edited 4/2/09 5:41am]

On the FAQ, you'll find a bit that some orgers wrote up (myself included) called "Does Prince change his mind often" (or something like that). In that bit, you can see how many times he's announced things like this, only to reverse himself later. Much of the time, I think he means it, but just can't help himself. He knows, ultimately, that casual fans are there to hear the big hits.

This is the main reason why he does aftershows, because they allow him the freedom to play whatever he wants. Folks who are going to aftershows are WANTING to hear him just jam and come up with crazy $*!t, or play some obscure outtake. He'd LOVE to do this in a full arena setting, but he knows that the majority of the folks in that audience aren't his "Purple Hippies", so he has to break out "Raspberry Beret" again.

Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended, for the taking of offense is what rests in the bosom of the stupid ones. (Ecclesiastes 7:9)

it's a shame. his latest magnum opus, afords enough material to have a kick ass diverse tour. I don't know about anyone else, but I am bored of listening to the same old songs from live performaces. it is not the song'sthemselves (more the band is just very samey with all the horns and not very diverse in their arrangments). I suppose you can't be if you play the same songs tho.

the diversity of the new material and prince changing his band members about, got me excieted. but his latest shows were more old stuff (with a few suprises) rather than new stuff. I am resigned to the fact that it will always be this way.

Purple Rain or any of "the hits" were NEVER retired and I have a feeling they never will be! LOL Even the song 1999 returned to the scene during the O2 concerts when he declared after the new millenium he would NEVER play it again! Prince is full of hypocritical statements, oxymorons and idiosyncrasies. I mean wasn't it just a couple of months ago Prince was calling the internet a "black hole" and he has no use for it? Well I guess he got sucked back into the black hole then huh?

As for the hardcore Prince fans, yes it will start to get annoying hearing "the hits" all the time, but it's always going to be that way if he expects to make the big bucks. The fareweather Prince fans don't want to hear the new or unreleased stuff. They're the annoying bar hopping crazies that scream out "Play Purple Rain, Let's Go Crazy, I want to hear Kiss, Rasberry Beret!!!" at any given time during his performance that fill up arenas. That's why I prefer that he do smaller theaters and clubs because it's mostly the die hards that are there and he's more apt to play the new and unreleased stuff.