I always liked Face Down....I have it live when Prince was in Philly April 21, 1998....sounds great...the whole show is Awesome glad I have it & was there down front ....eerie that it was April 21 but none the less...since getting my hands on this 3 cd set I have always played Face Down....love the fan interaction of: "Play that MF Base"......also many jokes & Philly & Philadelphia mentioned by Prince perfectly recorded...it has always been my go to with 18 & Over etc played at this show......now just not the same fun with the " Dead Like Elvis" that goes on in the Face Down song since this happened.....never before did the video for Face Down come poppin' into my head--- now since April 21 it does.... Dead Like Elvis......man thats dog.

I love the humour in that video

RiotPaisley said:

MattyJam said:

RiotPaisley said:

RiotPaisley said:

MattyJam said:

EmmaMcG said:

MattyJam said:

Well, it's taken from a live recording, but on the Chris Rock show he's lipping to that, he ain't live. Quite a few of his television performances in the early to mid nineties were pre-recorded vocals. Emancipation on the Brits and TMBGITW at the WMA's are two other examples of this. Not sure why he felt the need to do this during this time in his career. Especially when he took such a passionate stance against it later on. But that's Prince for you, a mass of contradictions.

It may not have been 100% his decision. I know from experience that a lot of shows such Top of the Pops and such encourage the artists to lip sync to pre-recorded vocal tracks. And I've been told that it was more common in the early - mid 90's than it is now. I'm not saying that this is definitely the case with Prince, but it's very possible.

Seems to be the case at least some of the time. Was just recalling an interview he gave around the time of those WMAs which mentioned that. Found it online here.

Before receiving his award from Placido Domingo (!), he puts as much as he can into "Beautiful Girl," [sic.] though the show is making him do something he hates: lip-synch.

.
"It's cheating!" he says backstage, adding slyly, "Lip-synchers, you know who you are. See, if I would lip-synch, I'd be doing backflips, hanging from the rafters, but to cheat and be tired" [...]

.
But still, the first thing 0{+> does when he finishes "Beautiful Girl" at the Awards is ask for a videotape, wondering how one dance step looked, concerned that he has reversed two words and rendered the lip-synch imperfect. Even here, he is simply incapable of just walking through it.

When I heard they cremated Prince, I just kep thinking everybody knows Prince wanted to be buried face down, so they can kiss his azz, ok?????

I've always thought in most cases the lyric is DANCE like Elvis, as that is how Elvis used to dance, but on the last lyric it does sound like DEAD.

.

Anyone know if it is a sample?

.

MattyJam said:

RiotPaisley said:

The live version on Chris Rock is awesome.

You know it's lip synced, right? It's just a shortened edit of the Live 97 version he put out. You gotta check that out if you haven't already - it's awesome. Face Down is one of his best songs of the 90s IMO. [Edited 5/13/16 23:22pm]

Co-sign. It's probably a combination of the music being too vulgar for the radio and Prince's career conflicts at the time, but I think the general public is unaware Prince could be a hip-hopper. I DJ'ed "Sexy MF" once, and someone asked if I could play more hip-hop and wanted to know who was the "awesome" artist.

it was from Roseland Ballroon in NYC ,, iw as there

jimmy3121 said:

I always liked Face Down....I have it live when Prince was in Philly April 21, 1998....sounds great...the whole show is Awesome glad I have it & was there down front ....eerie that it was April 21 but none the less...since getting my hands on this 3 cd set I have always played Face Down....love the fan interaction of: "Play that MF Base"......also many jokes & Philly & Philadelphia mentioned by Prince perfectly recorded...it has always been my go to with 18 & Over etc played at this show......now just not the same fun with the " Dead Like Elvis" that goes on in the Face Down song since this happened.....never before did the video for Face Down come poppin' into my head--- now since April 21 it does.... Dead Like Elvis......man thats dog.

Hey, I was there too! I was just listening to the CD in the car.

Wrote a blog post about it. http://johnpavlovitz.com/.../21/14752/

Amazing night!

EmmaMcG said:

MattyJam said:

Well, it's taken from a live recording, but on the Chris Rock show he's lipping to that, he ain't live. Quite a few of his television performances in the early to mid nineties were pre-recorded vocals. Emancipation on the Brits and TMBGITW at the WMA's are two other examples of this. Not sure why he felt the need to do this during this time in his career. Especially when he took such a passionate stance against it later on. But that's Prince for you, a mass of contradictions.

It may not have been 100% his decision. I know from experience that a lot of shows such Top of the Pops and such encourage the artists to lip sync to pre-recorded vocal tracks. And I've been told that it was more common in the early - mid 90's than it is now. I'm not saying that this is definitely the case with Prince, but it's very possible.

Totaly agree. Bandstand, TOTP, & Soul Train - they were all such important music shows back then, yet every one of them had lip synced performances. He's lip synced on Solid Gold, and I think some awards show in Monaco or something (when he did TMBGITW in that blue & yellow suit - which he talked about hating doing later, and how the audience is cheated). The great thing about the Arsenio gigs (for anyone) is that Arsenio had the best sound mix on late night television. No one else's show sounded as good as his back then when it came to music performances.

.

As far as the lip syncing, it's just the show's production not having the ability to house that sort of set up for a band or whatever. (Why have them on then, I ask myself.)

.

It doesnt make Prince a mass of contridictions. Artists are sometimes limited by their venue. It happens.

jpav said:

jimmy3121 said:

I always liked Face Down....I have it live when Prince was in Philly April 21, 1998....sounds great...the whole show is Awesome glad I have it & was there down front ....eerie that it was April 21 but none the less...since getting my hands on this 3 cd set I have always played Face Down....love the fan interaction of: "Play that MF Base"......also many jokes & Philly & Philadelphia mentioned by Prince perfectly recorded...it has always been my go to with 18 & Over etc played at this show......now just not the same fun with the " Dead Like Elvis" that goes on in the Face Down song since this happened.....never before did the video for Face Down come poppin' into my head--- now since April 21 it does.... Dead Like Elvis......man thats dog.

Hey, I was there too! I was just listening to the CD in the car.

Wrote a blog post about it. http://johnpavlovitz.com/.../21/14752/

Amazing night!

yep, my sister worked at def jam nad we were off to side up with Chrisw Rock Little Kim and foxhy Brown amonghst others///A couple weeks earlier we went to see Blur there and aftwewardsthe Time at Tramps late show... One of the securty guys there that o knew said there has never been that level of funk in Roseland ever esp after he kilt that bass on FD

[Edited 5/14/16 10:20am]

TrivialPursuit said:

EmmaMcG said:

MattyJam said: It may not have been 100% his decision. I know from experience that a lot of shows such Top of the Pops and such encourage the artists to lip sync to pre-recorded vocal tracks. And I've been told that it was more common in the early - mid 90's than it is now. I'm not saying that this is definitely the case with Prince, but it's very possible.

Totaly agree. Bandstand, TOTP, & Soul Train - they were all such important music shows back then, yet every one of them had lip synced performances. He's lip synced on Solid Gold, and I think some awards show in Monaco or something (when he did TMBGITW in that blue & yellow suit - which he talked about hating doing later, and how the audience is cheated). The great thing about the Arsenio gigs (for anyone) is that Arsenio had the best sound mix on late night television. No one else's show sounded as good as his back then when it came to music performances.

.

As far as the lip syncing, it's just the show's production not having the ability to house that sort of set up for a band or whatever. (Why have them on then, I ask myself.)

.

It doesnt make Prince a mass of contridictions. Artists are sometimes limited by their venue. It happens.

Here is a good article http://somethingelserevie...o-beyonce/

jpav said:

jimmy3121 said:

I always liked Face Down....I have it live when Prince was in Philly April 21, 1998....sounds great...the whole show is Awesome glad I have it & was there down front ....eerie that it was April 21 but none the less...since getting my hands on this 3 cd set I have always played Face Down....love the fan interaction of: "Play that MF Base"......also many jokes & Philly & Philadelphia mentioned by Prince perfectly recorded...it has always been my go to with 18 & Over etc played at this show......now just not the same fun with the " Dead Like Elvis" that goes on in the Face Down song since this happened.....never before did the video for Face Down come poppin' into my head--- now since April 21 it does.... Dead Like Elvis......man thats dog.

Hey, I was there too! I was just listening to the CD in the car.

Wrote a blog post about it. http://johnpavlovitz.com/.../21/14752/

Amazing night!

Read your blog....we must have been near each other as I got in line also around 3pm but one spot I am confused...in your blog you stated the show didn't start until Midnight...hmmm April 21st Show the one I was at for sure started near on time & no doubt well before Midnight........if you have that 3 disc set he starts with " The Ride"....tells the photographers to stay cause he didn't get dressed up for nothing.....Larry G was there.....The Tower Show....now that was a late start but I'm thinking the Emancipation Tour Show....Philly was 1st on the list...he played Face Down that night also...didn't say much....it was right after the baby died...I remember one thing he said that night solo at the piano " Time to start turning negativity's into positivity's"....he had the eye of the tiger ...he was a mad man that night......no one seems to notice he wore the same exact clothes to the Rosie Show, The Tower Show...maybe even the muppets show I forget....I remember my GF at the time " Why does he always wear the same clothes????"...Videos around that time ...always the ugly green turtleneck...matching green pants and the white winter coat....I did grab one of those coats from the NPG Store for 400 bucks....last one they had....they told me they only sold 11 of them haha....I heard a reporter chirping " He NEVER wore the same thing twice".....I was like " Well you only know what you know"....haha.