November 4, Joe Louis Arena , Detroit

OldFriends4Sale said:

04 NOV, 1984 ::::: Detroit, MI, USA – Joe Louis Arena
05 NOV, 1984 ::::: Detroit, MI, USA – Joe Louis Arena
07 NOV, 1984 ::::: Detroit, MI, USA – Joe Louis Arena
08 NOV, 1984 ::::: Detroit, MI, USA – Joe Louis Arena
09 NOV, 1984 ::::: Detroit, MI, USA – Joe Louis Arena
11 NOV, 1984 ::::: Detroit, MI, USA – Joe Louis Arena
12 NOV, 1984 ::::: Detroit, MI, USA – Joe Louis Arena
14 NOV, 1984 ::::: Greensboro, NC, USA – Greensboro Coliseum
15 NOV, 1984 ::::: Greensboro, NC, USA – Greensboro Coliseum
16 NOV, 1984 ::::: Greensboro, NC, USA – Greensboro Coliseum
18 NOV, 1984 ::::: Landover, MD, USA – Capital Centre
19 NOV, 1984 ::::: Landover, MD, USA – Capital Centre
20 NOV, 1984 ::::: Landover, MD, USA – Capital Centre
22 NOV, 1984 ::::: Philadelphia, PA, USA – Spectrum
23 NOV, 1984 ::::: Philadelphia, PA, USA – Spectrum
24 NOV, 1984 ::::: Philadelphia, PA, USA – Spectrum
26 NOV, 1984 ::::: Landover, MD, USA – Capital Centre
28 NOV, 1984 ::::: Landover, MD, USA – Capital Centre
29 NOV, 1984 ::::: Landover, MD, USA – Capital Centre
30 NOV, 1984 ::::: Landover, MD, USA – Capital Centre
02 DEC, 1984 ::::: Toronto, ON, Canada – Maple Leaf Gardens
03 DEC, 1984 ::::: Toronto, ON, Canada – Maple Leaf Gardens
05 DEC, 1984 ::::: Richfield, OH, USA – Richfield Coliseum
06 DEC, 1984 ::::: Richfield, OH, USA – Richfield Coliseum
09 DEC, 1984 ::::: Rosemont, IL, USA – Rosemont Horizon
10 DEC, 1984 ::::: Rosemont, IL, USA – Rosemont Horizon
11 DEC, 1984 ::::: Rosemont, IL, USA – Rosemont Horizon
13 DEC, 1984 ::::: Rosemont, IL, USA – Rosemont Horizon
14 DEC, 1984 ::::: Rosemont, IL, USA – Rosemont Horizon (m)
15 DEC, 1984 ::::: Lexington, KY, USA – Rupp Arena
17 DEC, 1984 ::::: Buffalo, NY, USA – Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
18 DEC, 1984 ::::: Buffalo, NY, USA – Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
20 DEC, 1984 ::::: St. Louis, MO, USA – St. Louis Arena
21 DEC, 1984 ::::: St. Louis, MO, USA – St. Louis Arena
23 DEC, 1984 ::::: St. Paul, MN, USA – Saint Paul Civic Center Arena
24 DEC, 1984 ::::: St. Paul, MN, USA – Saint Paul Civic Center Arena (m)
26 DEC, 1984 ::::: St. Paul, MN, USA – Saint Paul Civic Center Arena
27 DEC, 1984 ::::: St. Paul, MN, USA – Saint Paul Civic Center Arena
28 DEC, 1984 ::::: St. Paul, MN, USA – Saint Paul Civic Center Arena (m)
30 DEC, 1984 ::::: Dallas, TX, USA – Reunion Arena
31 DEC, 1984 ::::: Dallas, TX, USA – Reunion Arena
01 JAN, 1985 ::::: Dallas, TX, USA – Reunion Arena
03 JAN, 1985 ::::: Atlanta, GA, USA – The Omni
04 JAN, 1985 ::::: Atlanta, GA, USA – The Omni
06 JAN, 1985 ::::: Atlanta, GA, USA – The Omni
07 JAN, 1985 ::::: Atlanta, GA, USA – The Omni
08 JAN, 1985 ::::: Atlanta, GA, USA – The Omni
10 JAN, 1985 ::::: Houston, TX, USA – Summit
11 JAN, 1985 ::::: Houston, TX, USA – Summit
13 JAN, 1985 ::::: Houston, TX, USA – Summit
14 JAN, 1985 ::::: Houston, TX, USA – Summit
16 JAN, 1985 ::::: Houston, TX, USA – Summit
17 JAN, 1985 ::::: Houston, TX, USA – Summit
19 JAN, 1985 ::::: Birmingham, AL, USA – Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum
21 JAN, 1985 ::::: Cincinnati, OH, USA – Riverfront Coliseum
22 JAN, 1985 ::::: Cincinnati, OH, USA – Riverfront Coliseum
23 JAN, 1985 ::::: Cincinnati, OH, USA – Riverfront Coliseum
25 JAN, 1985 ::::: Memphis, TN, USA – Mid-South Coliseum
26 JAN, 1985 ::::: Memphis, TN, USA – Mid-South Coliseu
29 JAN, 1985 ::::: Austin, TX, USA – UT-Frank Erwin Center
30 JAN, 1985 ::::: Austin, TX, USA – UT-Frank Erwin Center
01 FEB, 1985 ::::: New Orleans, LA, USA – Louisiana Superdome
03 FEB, 1985 ::::: Birmingham, AL, USA – Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum (m)
04 FEB, 1985 ::::: Memphis, TN, USA – Mid-South Coliseum
14 FEB, 1985 ::::: Tacoma, WA, USA – Tacoma Dome
15 FEB, 1985 ::::: Tacoma, WA, USA – Tacoma Dome
18 FEB, 1985 ::::: Inglewood, CA, USA – The Forum
19 FEB, 1985 ::::: Inglewood, CA, USA – The Forum
20 FEB, 1985 ::::: Inglewood, CA, USA – The Forum
22 FEB, 1985 ::::: Inglewood, CA, USA – The Forum
23 FEB, 1985 ::::: Inglewood, CA, USA – The Forum
24 FEB, 1985 ::::: Inglewood, CA, USA – The Forum
27 FEB, 1985 ::::: Daly City, CA, USA – Cow Palace
28 FEB, 1985 ::::: Daly City, CA, USA – Cow Palace
01 MAR, 1985 ::::: Daly City, CA, USA – Cow Palace
03 MAR, 1985 ::::: Daly City, CA, USA – Cow Palace (m)
04 MAR, 1985 ::::: Daly City, CA, USA – Cow Palace
05 MAR, 1985 ::::: Daly City, CA, USA – Cow Palace
07 MAR, 1985 ::::: Las Cruces, NM, USA – NMSU Pan Am Center
08 MAR, 1985 ::::: Las Cruces, NM, USA – NMSU Pan Am Center
10 MAR, 1985 ::::: Long Beach, CA, USA – Long Beach Arena
11 MAR, 1985 ::::: Long Beach, CA, USA – Long Beach Arena
12 MAR, 1985 ::::: Long Beach, CA, USA – Long Beach Arena
17 MAR, 1985 ::::: Uniondale, NY, USA – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
18 MAR, 1985 ::::: Uniondale, NY, USA – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
20 MAR, 1985 ::::: Uniondale, NY, USA – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
22 MAR, 1985 ::::: Uniondale, NY, USA – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
23 MAR, 1985 ::::: Uniondale, NY, USA – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
24 MAR, 1985 ::::: Uniondale, NY, USA – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (m)
26 MAR, 1985 ::::: Hartford, CT, USA – Hartford Civic Center
27 MAR, 1985 ::::: Worcester, MA, USA – Worcester Centrum
28 MAR, 1985 ::::: Worcester, MA, USA – Worcester Centrum
30 MAR, 1985 ::::: Syracuse, NY, USA – Carrier Dome
01 APR, 1985 ::::: Indianapolis, IN, USA – Market Square Arena
03 APR, 1985 ::::: Tallahassee, FL, USA – Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center
04 APR, 1985 ::::: Lakeland, FL, USA – Lakeland Civic Center
05 APR, 1985 ::::: Lakeland, FL, USA – Lakeland Civic Center
07 APR, 1985 ::::: Miami, FL, USA – Orange Bowl (as 'Purple Bowl Stadium')

October 1984
Minneapolis
Purple Rain Tour Rehearsal
1.Let's Go Crazy
2.Delirious
3.1999
4.Little Red Corvette
5.Free
6.Father's Song *
7.God *
8.Computer Blue
9.Darling Nikki
10.The Beautiful Ones
11.When Doves Cry

Hey, thanks for these "era" threads - I learned A LOT. I kinda of feel like I know what it must have been like to live those eras as a young adult, and understand how fresh & exciting it was at the time. I've been reading up/catching up on this era in music generally (other bands, artists) and it seems like it was an exciting time. Things seem to have changed in the late 90s generally, the whole music industry and even our popular culture. I've read articles about it in Slate and other magazines.

I remember as a kid that "doves cry" was played a lot, and I had a creepy feeling when he crawled out of that bathtub and strutted down those spiral steps - it was nasty, and yet, I couldn't peel my eyes away. It seemed "wrong," like I knew I didn't want my parents to know I was watching this, but I didn't know why. Also remember older kids playing "erotic city" on the stereo outside at SDA youth gym night, and they were uncomfortable when I came outside, and I knew somehow that SDA kids oughtn't hear this stuff! and I didn't [want to] like that creepy voice, and yet I was mesmerized. It's like Aristotle said, "the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance" - I didn't know what the song was about, but somehow I understood; the song, even without words, conveys the feelings, the inward significance. I have young kid memories of Madonna, MJ and other artists too, but they didn't have that same transgressional feeling, even if they were doing the same things like mixing the sacred & profane, being androgynous or being sexual.

Anyway, thanks!

hls2000 said:

Hey, thanks for these "era" threads - I learned A LOT. I kinda of feel like I know what it must have been like to live those eras as a young adult, and understand how fresh & exciting it was at the time. I've been reading up/catching up on this era in music generally (other bands, artists) and it seems like it was an exciting time. Things seem to have changed in the late 90s generally, the whole music industry and even our popular culture. I've read articles about it in Slate and other magazines.

I remember as a kid that "doves cry" was played a lot, and I had a creepy feeling when he crawled out of that bathtub and strutted down those spiral steps - it was nasty, and yet, I couldn't peel my eyes away. It seemed "wrong," like I knew I didn't want my parents to know I was watching this, but I didn't know why. Also remember older kids playing "erotic city" on the stereo outside at SDA youth gym night, and they were uncomfortable when I came outside, and I knew somehow that SDA kids oughtn't hear this stuff! and I didn't [want to] like that creepy voice, and yet I was mesmerized. It's like Aristotle said, "the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance" - I didn't know what the song was about, but somehow I understood; the song, even without words, conveys the feelings, the inward significance. I have young kid memories of Madonna, MJ and other artists too, but they didn't have that same transgressional feeling, even if they were doing the same things like mixing the sacred & profane, being androgynous or being sexual.

Anyway, thanks!

Welcome 2 the Dawn

I always thought of it as DANGEROUS SEXUALITY

even the music sound dangerous: an example is the guitar solo/piece during Computer Blue when Wendy is on her knees, it sounds dangerous

hls2000 said:

Hey, thanks for these "era" threads - I learned A LOT. I kinda of feel like I know what it must have been like to live those eras as a young adult, and understand how fresh & exciting it was at the time. I've been reading up/catching up on this era in music generally (other bands, artists) and it seems like it was an exciting time. Things seem to have changed in the late 90s generally, the whole music industry and even our popular culture. I've read articles about it in Slate and other magazines.

I remember as a kid that "doves cry" was played a lot, and I had a creepy feeling when he crawled out of that bathtub and strutted down those spiral steps - it was nasty, and yet, I couldn't peel my eyes away. It seemed "wrong," like I knew I didn't want my parents to know I was watching this, but I didn't know why. Also remember older kids playing "erotic city" on the stereo outside at SDA youth gym night, and they were uncomfortable when I came outside, and I knew somehow that SDA kids oughtn't hear this stuff! and I didn't [want to] like that creepy voice, and yet I was mesmerized. It's like Aristotle said, "the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance" - I didn't know what the song was about, but somehow I understood; the song, even without words, conveys the feelings, the inward significance. I have young kid memories of Madonna, MJ and other artists too, but they didn't have that same transgressional feeling, even if they were doing the same things like mixing the sacred & profane, being androgynous or being sexual.

Anyway, thanks!

To be a new hardcore Prince fan back then and being a new one now are two completely separate things. Back then, you were a part of a purple hysteria unlike any other. Now, you'd need to go back to the music of that era and have your own purple hysteria, because it's damn sure not going to happen from anything he releases these days or be in the public like that anymore.

OldFriends4Sale said:

hls2000 said:

Hey, thanks for these "era" threads - I learned A LOT. I kinda of feel like I know what it must have been like to live those eras as a young adult, and understand how fresh & exciting it was at the time. I've been reading up/catching up on this era in music generally (other bands, artists) and it seems like it was an exciting time. Things seem to have changed in the late 90s generally, the whole music industry and even our popular culture. I've read articles about it in Slate and other magazines.

I remember as a kid that "doves cry" was played a lot, and I had a creepy feeling when he crawled out of that bathtub and strutted down those spiral steps - it was nasty, and yet, I couldn't peel my eyes away. It seemed "wrong," like I knew I didn't want my parents to know I was watching this, but I didn't know why. Also remember older kids playing "erotic city" on the stereo outside at SDA youth gym night, and they were uncomfortable when I came outside, and I knew somehow that SDA kids oughtn't hear this stuff! and I didn't [want to] like that creepy voice, and yet I was mesmerized. It's like Aristotle said, "the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance" - I didn't know what the song was about, but somehow I understood; the song, even without words, conveys the feelings, the inward significance. I have young kid memories of Madonna, MJ and other artists too, but they didn't have that same transgressional feeling, even if they were doing the same things like mixing the sacred & profane, being androgynous or being sexual.

Anyway, thanks!

Welcome 2 the Dawn

I always thought of it as DANGEROUS SEXUALITY

even the music sound dangerous: an example is the guitar solo/piece during Computer Blue when Wendy is on her knees, it sounds dangerous

Yes - DANGEROUS is a good word. That beginning of "When Doves Cry," you feel like "something" gonna happen, right to the edge of comfort-discomfort. Also, erotic city, w/o any lyrics, still sounds like ... well, what it's about. I think this quality about him is partly why I can't tell anyone around here that I like his music b/c I get strange "eww"-like reactions and I feel immediately judged.

Btw, those other 1984 best album nominees - all seem better than Lionel Ritchie's - what happened there? They picked the safest one.

Also, the tour dates on this one, wow so many! - it's like the fan's review of Prince's opening of Rick James: the fan wondered, the audience is totally spent, how can they (the performers) do this every night, over & over in countless cities? That amazes me, not just about Prince, but other performers too. I saw a video of him doing an awesome "Purple Rain" just this summer, I'm thinking this must be the millioneth time he's sung it, but he had so much energy & emotion!

Prince @ 1st Avenue 8.3.1983 Benefit Concert

Prince @ 1st Avenue 8.3.1983

The 1983 concert took place at First Avenue in Minneapolis. A year later when the club was featured in Purple Rain (the movie), the venue would be changed forever. In 1983 however, it was perfect for hosting a newly minted Prince & The Revolution. Prince had been performing with some of the band members for a while, but the show was the debut of guitarist Wendy Melvoin who would continue with the band until their dissolution in 1986.

But back on track – the 1983 show (August 3rd, to be more exact) was the first public live performance of Prince & The Revolution. The concert was a benefit for the Minnesota Dance Theater Company. It was also the first time the band would perform several of what would become their signature tracks, most importantly Purple Rain.

Everyone knows the song. Play the first few chords and you’ll have everyone around you singing along. But in 1983 that wasn’t the case. Instead you had a capacity crowd silenced by the song’s first performance. This is one of only a handful of bootlegs of this track that does not have the crowd going nuts; instead they listen to the song and literally see history in the making. Obviously they can’t sing along, the song is new. So instead they listen; Seeing Prince at his absolute rawest in a tiny club with bad sound, sweating his ass off for the Minnesota Dance Theater Company. And melting off faces with one of his best guitar solos.

This live show made up the basis for several Purple Rain tracks, including the title track, I Would Die 4 U and Baby I’m A Star. Prince’s vocals are spot on with how you know them – because they were recorded from a mobile truck outside of First Avenue. Add in a few overdubs and there you have it, one of the best selling albums of the 80s.

Regardless of how you view Prince now, back then one thing was clear – his name was Prince, his favorite color was purple, and he was a bad motherfucker.

That show was AWESOME! And where the heck is my DVD of it?

OldFriends4Sale said:

5.1.1985 Cow Palace San Francisco.

4 Dates at the Cow Palace

A Case of You & Still Waiting performed

Phishanga said:

That show was AWESOME! And where the heck is my DVD of it?

That was a different kind of rawness, those kinds of shows for some reason is when Prince shined the most. Of course this one is classicaly & historically 1 of a kind.

I love the dark outfit that's the opposite of the one he wore during Let's Go Crazy in PR

The lights make it appear as Prince is wearing a radioactive purple shirt. He comes to the mic too early, and briefly backs away, his eye-make up dark patches in a deep purple stage light, sweat glimmering on his cheekbones, and his hair asymmetrical and tumbling over his eyes, just like Wendy. Her smile, his seriousness, they complement one another, brother and sister, nothing sexual.

The gig is a benefit for the Minnesota Dance Theater. Prince and the Revolution are taking dance lessons and their tutor suggests the gig as a way of supporting the financially challenged theatre; because Prince is a local lad, born and raised in Minneapolis, a city he will always come back to, he agrees to play.

In 1983, Prince is an international star, thanks to 1999 and Little Red Corvette. He has released five albums in five years, from when he was eighteen years old. He has so many songs he forms other bands like The Time and Vanity 6 to play them, he is an impresario and a producer and he is also only twenty-three years old, not so far away from the poor black kid who stood outside McDonald’s just to smell the food he couldn’t afford. His instinct for self-reliance, his tendency to be dictatorial, has been blindsided by these two sophisticated young women, Wendy and, on her keyboards, her lover, Lisa; for the first time in his life, he will collaborate in a meaningful way.

For Wendy, Lisa and Prince, this time is like going to college. They hang out together, play each other music. Lisa has a great sound system in her car, and she takes Wendy and Prince for a drive. The two young women introduce Prince to music he has never heard before – Gustav Mahler, the English pastoral of Vaughan Williams, the experiments of Joni Mitchell and Peter Gabriel. It’s an education for him.

The crowd at First Avenue, their faces straining against one another, receive the brief benediction of a wavering spotlight: to them, Purple Rain doesn’t sound like any song that Prince has played before: the tight electronic funk, his harsh and weird sex songs, the soul ballads in which he asks for forgiveness – Purple Rain is something new, something different. They don’t know how to react. In fact the crowd is so muted that when this recording is prepared for the album, the engineer loops some crowd noise taken from a football game to give it some life.

What do great songs sound like the first time we hear them? Can you remember that feeling? When Bob Dylan heard The Animals’ version of House of the Rising Sun, he got out of the car and ran around it again and again he was so excited. The first time you hear a great song is so rare, and it can never be repeated; watching the crowd during this first performance of Purple Rain, I see that look on a few faces, a silent shocked awe. On the twenty-seven other recordings of Purple Rain in my iPod, the moment the first chord is strummed, the crowd cheer, acknowledging the anthem. They become a congregation, keen to be guided through the Purple Rain, and that has its ecstasies, even if it involves cigarette lighters held aloft, and hands waved in the air. But to hear silence flowing back from the audience, no singalong because they don’t know the words, is to eavesdrop on the shock of the new.

The lyrics of Purple Rain suggest the singer has wronged someone, harmed them inadvertently. In the context of the Purple Rain film that someone is Prince’s girlfriend; in fact, in a rather literal outtake from the film, Prince and his girlfriend have sex in a barn at dawn, and the water streaming down from the roof sheathes her naked skin, which is then struck by the dawn rays, so that she appears to be bathing in a kind of purple rain. Music video directors in the 1980s could be very literal; if Bonnie Tyler sang “turn around bright eyes”, then we would see a boy with very bright eyes turning around.

What does purple represent to Prince? Purple is a gateway colour, a transition from one stage to the next, the colour of dusk and dawn, magic hour between day and night. Purple is also a mix of pink and blue, a boy and a girl. I’m not a woman, I’m not a man. I am something you will never understand. Prince casts himself as androgynous as a tactic of seduction, a conventional hetero offer with a side order of feminine sensitivity, or at least, what a twenty three year considers to be sensitivity. Purple is also the colour of royalty, and he is a Prince. The sub-editors of the Sun will pun Purple Rain into Purple R.e.i.g.n. Or is it the purple of Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze? All of these possible meanings are burnt away by the guitar.

The solo is a messianic ejaculation, an absolving, annihilating ecstasy. The sky was all purple and there were people running everywhere, sang Prince, predicting the millennial panic of 1999. He even wrote a song called Ronnie Talk To Russia Before It’s Too Late, a trite bit of rockabilly agit-pop that called for Ronald Reagan to negotiate with the Soviet Union, a sentiment he was to express more succinctly in the high-pitched childish voice in 1999 that asked, “Mommy, why does everyone have a Bomb?” The sky is all purple because it is on fire, and what follows is a quenching of that destruction.

Purple Rain is the redemptive baptism on the night of the apocalypse, forgiveness for the terrible sins committed by the singer and by us. Prince is clear that we are all implicated. Times are changing. It’s time we all reached out for something new, and that means you too. He is our messiah, so he tells us in another song on the album, I Would Die 4 U. You say you want a leader but you can’t seem to make up your mind I think you better close it and let me guide you to the Purple Rain.

Regardless of how you view Prince now, back then one thing was clear – his name was Prince, his favorite color was purple, and he was a bad motherfucker.

i think this may be the greatest sentence ive ever read

Come on, kiss the gun

Come on, kiss the gun, guaranteed 4 fun

Come on, kiss the gun

Come on, kiss the gun, guaranteed 4 fun

Come on, kiss the gun

Come on, kiss the gun, guaranteed 4 fun

Come on, kiss the gun

Come on, kiss the gun, guaranteed 4 fun

Sex Shooter
The original Vanity 6 version of this song has the same basic lyrics that appears on Apollonia 6, but it includes Prince singing "Come on, kiss the gun, guaranteed 4 fun," as well as some miscellaneous background vocals. The song ends with a scream from Prince, as if he were an unwilling victim of Vanity's firearm. The instrumentation is unpolished and clean sound of the final Apollonia 6 version. It was intended for Vanity 6's second album.

Sex Shooter

I need U 2 get me off
I'm your bomb, baby, ready 2 explode
I need U 2 get me off
Be your slave, do anything I'm told

CHORUS:
I'm a sex shooter
I'm shootin' love in your direction
I'm a sex shooter
Come and play with my affection
Come on, kiss the gun

I need U 2 pull my trigger, baby
I can't do it alone
I need U 2 be my main thing
Plaything, pillar of stone

CHORUS

Come on, kiss the gun
Guaranteed 4 fun

Sex shooter
I'm shootin' love in your direction
I'm a sex shooter
Come and play with my affection

Listen..
No girl's body can compete with mine
No girl's rap can top my lines
No girl's kiss can ring your chimes
Come on boy, let's make some time

I'm a sex shooter
Shootin' love in your direction
Oh yeah, oh I'm a sex shooter
Come and play with my affection
Come on, kiss the gun

Come on, kiss the gun, guaranteed 4 fun {x4}
Sex shooter {x4}
Blow me away

Come on, kiss the gun

No girl's body can compete with mine
No girl's rap can top my lines
No girl's kiss can ring your chimes
Come on boy, let's make some time

Come on, kiss the gun

Sex shooter
Shootin' love in your direction
I'm a sex shooter
Come and play with my affection

All the nasty people sing it
Sex shooter
Shootin' love in your direction
I can't hear U
Sex shooter
Come and play with my affection

All the nasty people sing it!
Sex shooter
Shootin' love in your direction
Everybody (Yeah)
Sex shooter
Come and play with my affection

Fellas, take it home, uh

Brenda? (Uh huh?)
I want U 2 count 2 8 (8)
As soon as I get undressed, clap your hands, OK? (OK)

Susan? (Uh huh?)
I want U 2 count 2 8 (8)
As soon as I get undressed, U clap your hands, OK? (OK)

New York? (Uh huh?)
I want U 2 count 2 8 (8)
As soon as I get undressed, y'all clap your hands, OK? (OK)

New York? (Uh huh?)
I want U 2 count 2 8 (8)
As soon as I get undressed, y'all clap your hands, OK? (OK)

(1) 1
(2) 2
(3) 3
(4) 4
(5) Sex shooter
(6) Sex shooter
(7) Sex shooter
(8) Clap your hands, let's go!

This photo should have been the cover 2 the Purple Rain single

The crowd at First Avenue, their faces straining against one another, receive the brief benediction of a wavering spotlight: to them, Purple Rain doesn’t sound like any song that Prince has played before: the tight electronic funk, his harsh and weird sex songs, the soul ballads in which he asks for forgiveness – Purple Rain is something new, something different. They don’t know how to react. In fact the crowd is so muted that when this recording is prepared for the album, the engineer loops some crowd noise taken from a football game to give it some life.

Let's Go Crazy

Dearly beloved
We are gathered here 2day 2 get through this thing called life
Electric word life, it means 4ever and that's a mighty long time
But I'm here 2 tell U there's somethin' else... the afterworld
A world of never ending happiness
U can always see the sun, day or night
So when U call up that shrink in Beverly Hills
U know the one - Dr. Everything'll Be Alright
Instead of asking him how much of your time is left
Ask him how much of your mind, baby
Cuz in this life things are much harder than in the afterworld
In this life U're on your own
And if de-elevator tries 2 bring U down, go crazy
Punch a higher floor!

If U don't like the world U're living in
Take a look around U, at least U got friends
U see, I called my old lady 4 a friendly word
She just picked up the phone, dropped it on the floor
"Ahh! Ahh!" was all I heard

CHORUS:
Are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down?
Oh no, let's go!
Let's go crazy, let's get nuts
Let's look 4 the purple banana till they put us in the truck
Let's go!

We're all excited, but we don't know why
Maybe it's cuz we're all gonna die
And when we do, what's it all 4?
U better live now before the grim reaper
Come knockin' on your door
Tell me...

CHORUS

Come on, baby
Let's get nuts!
Yeah (Crazy)
Let's go crazy

Are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down?
Oh no, let's go crazy! (Go crazy!)
I said let's go crazy! (Go crazy!)
Let's go! (Let's go!)
Go! (Let's go!)

Dr. Everything'll Be Alright will make everything go wrong
Pills and thrills and daffodils will kill
Hang tough children

He's coming!
He's coming!
Coming!

Take me away!

© 1984 Controversy Music - ASCAP

Dig if u will the picture - of u and I engaged in a kiss.

The sweat of your body covers me.

Can u picture this, my darling?

An ocean of violets engulf our persons.

A bird screams.

At 1st, I think it's u and u thought it was me.

Oh, if only violets could talk.

Insecurities.

Do u know who u are?

Then it doesn't matter who screamed 1st.

Did it matter who ate of the apple 1st?

The end result was negative.

Can u pass me the pepper?

Why, because u told me salt was bad 4 me.

I thought u liked eggs.

I thought u liked me.

Well, eggs are the only thing I can make besides a baby.

Why do u look at me like that?

What are u thinking?

I know u better than u think I do.

There's this purple suspicion that lurks in the anals of my mind that u and I are alike in more ways than 6.

Can u relate?

oh yeah?

Then what's the difference between a beautiful man and an ugly man with money?

Nothing - as far as you're concerned.

Do u still want 2 spend the night?

Good.

Come on.

U said u would wash my hair.

Shall we go swimming 1st?

U can't swim.

Wonderful.

"I'll teach u 2 swim, I'll teach u 2 try, I'll teach u 2 laugh, but not 2 cry. I'll teach u 2 trust me when u think I lie, I'll teach u 2 love me until we die."

It's from a song I wrote.

Do u believe that?

U do?

Well, I lied.

I just made it up.

Pretty good, huh.

It's not nice 2 lie.

I think we're on the right track.

Shall I wash u 1st or shall u wash me?

Cool thread, this is were it all began for me 27yrs ago...

These are some clippings from UK music mags Smash Hits & No 1.

[img:$uid]http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc5/level11/Clippings/Purplerainad.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc5/level11/Clippings/Iwoulddie4Uad.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc5/level11/Clippings/1999ad.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc5/level11/Clippings/Letsgocrazyad.jpg[/img:$uid]

aardvark15 said:

Purple Rain defines Prince to this very day, great era of his career. Also houses my favorite Prince song, Erotic City

This is so true...right down to "everyday rain." I think everyone thinks of Prince when they hear the song, "Ventura Highway," too.

Whitnail said:

Cool thread, this is were it all began for me 27yrs ago...

These are some clippings from UK music mags Smash Hits & No 1.

OMG I lUvE these the last one is my favorite. Love that line "The Rain Never Stops"

I tried to tell someone that threads like these will always turn up new members/old members with new stories untold stories and pictures. Thanks U 4 Sharing them

This thread gets four and a

Oh yeah congrats on being mod, OldFriends.

Here is one more of these ads, they are not in great condition as they adorned my bedroom wall for a long time before getting shelved. I used have tons of stuff like this but most of it got destroyed about 10 yrs ago when a new roof was being put on what was my bedroom.

[img:$uid]http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc5/level11/Clippings/princelivead.jpg[/img:$uid]

OldFriends4Sale said:

Prince @ 1st Avenue 8.3.1983 Benefit Concert

Prince @ 1st Avenue 8.3.1983

Benefit Concert For The Minnesota
Dance Theater Company

1.Let's Go Crazy
2.When You Were Mine (Dirty Mind)
3.A Case Of You (cover)
4.Computer Blue
5.Delirious (1999)
6.Electric Intercourse
7.Automatic (1999)
8.I Would Die 4 U
/Baby I'm A Star
9. Little Red Corvette (1999)
10.Purple Rain
11.D.M.S.R (1999)

The 1983 concert took place at First Avenue in Minneapolis. A year later when the club was featured in Purple Rain (the movie), the venue would be changed forever. In 1983 however, it was perfect for hosting a newly minted Prince & The Revolution. Prince had been performing with some of the band members for a while, but the show was the debut of guitarist Wendy Melvoin who would continue with the band until their dissolution in 1986.

But back on track – the 1983 show (August 3rd, to be more exact) was the first public live performance of Prince & The Revolution. The concert was a benefit for the Minnesota Dance Theater Company. It was also the first time the band would perform several of what would become their signature tracks, most importantly Purple Rain.

Everyone knows the song. Play the first few chords and you’ll have everyone around you singing along. But in 1983 that wasn’t the case. Instead you had a capacity crowd silenced by the song’s first performance. This is one of only a handful of bootlegs of this track that does not have the crowd going nuts; instead they listen to the song and literally see history in the making. Obviously they can’t sing along, the song is new. So instead they listen; Seeing Prince at his absolute rawest in a tiny club with bad sound, sweating his ass off for the Minnesota Dance Theater Company. And melting off faces with one of his best guitar solos.

This live show made up the basis for several Purple Rain tracks, including the title track, I Would Die 4 U and Baby I’m A Star. Prince’s vocals are spot on with how you know them – because they were recorded from a mobile truck outside of First Avenue. Add in a few overdubs and there you have it, one of the best selling albums of the 80s.

Regardless of how you view Prince now, back then one thing was clear – his name was Prince, his favorite color was purple, and he was a bad motherfucker.

Oh yeah, just managed to get that gig downloaded, took all day, but how, something like this is worth it...listening to Purple Rain in the ears of a virgin, wow, i had forgotten what that was like...

one can be objective or subjective about music...but with Prince?...

Whitnail said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Prince @ 1st Avenue 8.3.1983 Benefit Concert

Prince @ 1st Avenue 8.3.1983

Benefit Concert For The Minnesota
Dance Theater Company

1.Let's Go Crazy
2.When You Were Mine (Dirty Mind)
3.A Case Of You (cover)
4.Computer Blue
5.Delirious (1999)
6.Electric Intercourse
7.Automatic (1999)
8.I Would Die 4 U
/Baby I'm A Star
9. Little Red Corvette (1999)
10.Purple Rain
11.D.M.S.R (1999)

The 1983 concert took place at First Avenue in Minneapolis. A year later when the club was featured in Purple Rain (the movie), the venue would be changed forever. In 1983 however, it was perfect for hosting a newly minted Prince & The Revolution. Prince had been performing with some of the band members for a while, but the show was the debut of guitarist Wendy Melvoin who would continue with the band until their dissolution in 1986.

But back on track – the 1983 show (August 3rd, to be more exact) was the first public live performance of Prince & The Revolution. The concert was a benefit for the Minnesota Dance Theater Company. It was also the first time the band would perform several of what would become their signature tracks, most importantly Purple Rain.

Everyone knows the song. Play the first few chords and you’ll have everyone around you singing along. But in 1983 that wasn’t the case. Instead you had a capacity crowd silenced by the song’s first performance. This is one of only a handful of bootlegs of this track that does not have the crowd going nuts; instead they listen to the song and literally see history in the making. Obviously they can’t sing along, the song is new. So instead they listen; Seeing Prince at his absolute rawest in a tiny club with bad sound, sweating his ass off for the Minnesota Dance Theater Company. And melting off faces with one of his best guitar solos.

This live show made up the basis for several Purple Rain tracks, including the title track, I Would Die 4 U and Baby I’m A Star. Prince’s vocals are spot on with how you know them – because they were recorded from a mobile truck outside of First Avenue. Add in a few overdubs and there you have it, one of the best selling albums of the 80s.

Regardless of how you view Prince now, back then one thing was clear – his name was Prince, his favorite color was purple, and he was a bad motherfucker.

Oh yeah, just managed to get that gig downloaded, took all day, but how, something like this is worth it...listening to Purple Rain in the ears of a virgin, wow, i had forgotten what that was like...

one can be objective or subjective about music...but with Prince?...

NICE, when I got a hold of that one I was crazy with excitement, this 1 show tops all in historic excitement, U can feel the greatness about to take place

This is the 1 version I can listen to anytime

Big Chick Bobby Z & Prince