jimmy3121 said:

At shows the downers for me while waiting to unload " Prince Time" muddling thru those Larry G, Chaka, Tamar etc times or of course he would ( Prince ) do some songs then go to the whoever folks....that was ugh time for me & boring.

Also.....at times ( I been to many shows all over) another downer was when Prince would go on and on his soapbox about Jimi Hendrix family not getting paid...would lead into " When will we be paid" or at other shows ramble about being free etc.....I remember while he was on his soapbox at a couple of shows a good amount of folks leaving or yelling out " Shut the uknow up and play the music"....I agreed. Payed good $$$ to get into a show plus waiting to get in or for the show to start.

The long speeches most were pointless and in my world I really don't care about Jimi Hendrix or about his family getting paid....sure is funny now how he would ramble on about that but supposedly left no will himself so they say.

No downer for me, but I would venture to say it (Hendrix family pay) was part of the larger issue of artists rights and artists being screwed by music companies. He enjoyed giving props and shine to people that inspired him(ie Chaka, Larry, Mavis, etc.) and people that worked hard, like his band (Renato, Maceo, etc.); he could probably use a breather, too.

Let me guess, you hate commercials and intermissions and half times and employee breaks, too?

Too bad we can't control everything.

I am here where are you was annoying .. when he played the forum in LA he kept saying hello hollywood .. bro your in inglewood. Was never into shelb and those odd bands that played at his shows zzzz .. I like doug e so that would of been cool, never dug grahams bla bla .. Most times if he did talk more I could never hear what was being said anyway the acoustics bounced off the venue n by the time it got to my ears it blablamo0asdt0jblaa bla ..... um ya woohoo now get on with it ...

IstenSzek said:

suomynona said:

Except if I wanted to listen to 30 second samples, I could go to iTunes and do that. I didn't pay $275 to go through 10-15 minutes of that. It just felt like a rip off. That's the thing about having expectations of someone. You're bound to be let down

i guess. but that's different for everyone. i didn't mind the sample set but i did mind when he
gave 20 minutes of a show to his backing singers to belt out covers or for prince to sing yet
another cover of sly stone (and always the same few songs, why not change it up and cover

different sly songs?).

but i can see why a lot of people would object to the sample set. personally though, i'd take
a 30 minute sample set over another 6 minute medley of Take Me With U/Raspberry Beret.

You and I both. I lucked out and didn't catch any of the medley concerts or Shelby singing tracks that everyone in the building is wondering why Prince isn't singing them... and thankfully I missed out on the Larry Graham nonsense. Don't get me wrong. "The Jam", "Hair", "I Believe In U" -- LOVED hearing those on boots through 1995. But as soon as Larry was actually in the picture, changing everything -- I never wanted to hear those songs again. They just lost the edge they had. Just listen to any GCS cover by Prince from Glam Slam West compared to those same covers post Jehovah nonsense. That kind of sums up Larry's effect on Prince. Prince may have been happier with Larry around, and the influence he had in his life -- but the art suffered from it immensely. Not talking about cursing. I'm talking about the edge that Prince had. You'd see it come out occasionally post JW, but not like it had been there before -- endlessly.

Sweet. For years, I've been enjoying the London '98 boot and my favorite part of the whole show is when he brings out Doug E Fresh. "I can't hear ya London...this don't sound like London to me!" Anyway, never thought to look for the video til now and, hey, look, it's up! Thanks thread. Go get my shoe horn...

PeteSilas said:

avajane said:

PeteSilas said:

interesting, never heard of him talking much about hendrix period. Jimi's situation is probably better than it was but not by much. The music guys who ripped him off, post-death, were put out with the financial legal assistance of billionaire Paul Allen who got Jimi's daddy back a lot of the rights to his music. But, jimis'daddy was number one an abusive asshole who probably never really understood what was special about his son and he died and left the legacy to a stepdaughter who by all accounts is not a nice person and worst of all doesn't even attempt to assist Jimi's brother leon, who by all accounts Jimi loved and care for. Money situations always get fucked up.

I read that Jimi was abused sexually as well. Why care about businessmen ripping you off and mistreating you, when your own family will do it to you smh.

where did you read that? I'll look into it. Never heard that. heard his dad was mean as hell, my stepdad's parents were customers of his.

jimmy3121 said:

PeteSilas said:

i never heard of him rambling so, i dont' really know what this person is talking about. i do know that Springsteen is famous for his long stories and that Elvis could get on his soapbox over some wacky shit, but prince usually cared only about the music as far as I know. And his mentioning hendrix in concert is news to me because he usually said he wasn't even influenced by him (ridiculous) and when he was in Seattle, neither time did he even mention Jimi at the concerts i saw, which was mentioned in a review of Lovesexy I believe.

I remember on Love4oneanother site he mentioned he was working on Machine Gun all proceeds would go to Jimi's family- I paid it no attention as I just don't care for Jimi music also Prince worked with Nona - Jimi's Cousin on "Baby go go"

He rambled at plenty of shows as a lot of these comments suggest.

ok, I was only at two of his shows and he didn't ramble at either, he didn't ramble on the live footage I've seen either. And the Jimi thing, must have been mid 90's because jimi's family is beyond rich by now.

Yo Dougie they say im goin MAD .... ladydoddy we like to party .. 6 minutes .. Where am I .. I read the paper today it says im mad ... what what .. mad .. its what it say . must be crazy .. I like it .. sing it .. mad mad mad .. gettn hot tonight ... there an gone I gotta go mad .

[Edited 6/1/16 10:53am]

The only thing that got tired was when he let the other band members solo too much. I love Renato but his style got a little long winded at times.

Farfunknugin said:

The only thing that got tired was when he let the other band members solo too much. I love Renato but his style got a little long winded at times.

sometimes you gotta give a musician that just to make em feel good.

suomynona said:

IstenSzek said:

i guess. but that's different for everyone. i didn't mind the sample set but i did mind when he
gave 20 minutes of a show to his backing singers to belt out covers or for prince to sing yet
another cover of sly stone (and always the same few songs, why not change it up and cover

different sly songs?).

but i can see why a lot of people would object to the sample set. personally though, i'd take
a 30 minute sample set over another 6 minute medley of Take Me With U/Raspberry Beret.

You and I both. I lucked out and didn't catch any of the medley concerts or Shelby singing tracks that everyone in the building is wondering why Prince isn't singing them... and thankfully I missed out on the Larry Graham nonsense. Don't get me wrong. "The Jam", "Hair", "I Believe In U" -- LOVED hearing those on boots through 1995. But as soon as Larry was actually in the picture, changing everything -- I never wanted to hear those songs again. They just lost the edge they had. Just listen to any GCS cover by Prince from Glam Slam West compared to those same covers post Jehovah nonsense. That kind of sums up Larry's effect on Prince. Prince may have been happier with Larry around, and the influence he had in his life -- but the art suffered from it immensely. Not talking about cursing. I'm talking about the edge that Prince had. You'd see it come out occasionally post JW, but not like it had been there before -- endlessly.

good lord, yes! and i agree with you on the rest that you wrote too

IstenSzek said:

suomynona said:

You and I both. I lucked out and didn't catch any of the medley concerts or Shelby singing tracks that everyone in the building is wondering why Prince isn't singing them... and thankfully I missed out on the Larry Graham nonsense. Don't get me wrong. "The Jam", "Hair", "I Believe In U" -- LOVED hearing those on boots through 1995. But as soon as Larry was actually in the picture, changing everything -- I never wanted to hear those songs again. They just lost the edge they had. Just listen to any GCS cover by Prince from Glam Slam West compared to those same covers post Jehovah nonsense. That kind of sums up Larry's effect on Prince. Prince may have been happier with Larry around, and the influence he had in his life -- but the art suffered from it immensely. Not talking about cursing. I'm talking about the edge that Prince had. You'd see it come out occasionally post JW, but not like it had been there before -- endlessly.

good lord, yes! and i agree with you on the rest that you wrote too

+ another agree....as far as the music goes with Larry G mixed in= not that great. Boring at points.

jodznsez said:

I saw Prince over 50 times from 1980 to 2014, which includes all the various stages of his career, and I can't say that his talking between songs bothered me, even at aftershows. Of course, it's probably because I either agree with much of what he was saying or was familiar with it to a point that it didn't contradict my own notions or ideology. But, I can say, having been to tons of other shows of all genres--rock, r&b, funk, jazz, gospel--Prince is not nearly the worst when it comes to talking too much to lessen the energy in the room. There was a time I wanted to yell at Bono to shut the eff up and just perform the song, but I still enjoyed the U2 performance. Of course, if someone is discussing something about which I'm not interested or invested, I have this ability to tune them out until the music begins again. But, no, I can't think of a time when Prince's talking/preaching bothered me to the point where it caused me not to enjoy the show.

artists have to feel sometimes that their opinions don't matter and that they should just entertain. that's not a very respectable position to be in. However, i understand why people don't want to hear all the jibber jabber, i rarely do it when i perform and honestly, i don't even like formats where we are encouraged to talk about our music, the music should do that on it's own. I had a teacher who had an axiom for poets "show, don't tell" that's what it should be. I know some musicians think they are gaining rapport with the audience by yapping but you aren't gaining any advantages over other musicians because everone does the shit. I'm talking small time here more than the superstars. Elvis used the stage as a place to protest a few times, i can't say it helped him any. Just made him look stupid.

Aerogram said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

OMG, nothing made me more than sitting through 30 minutes of the Larry and lady with the towel show, not once but twice. Oh I was as hell, for real. Prince better had been happy that I loved him because I really didn't pay all that damn money for a partial Sly and the Family Stone mini-concert.

Lol. Pretty sure that lady is Tina, his wife. She and Larry would always wear white and yeah, she would wave a towel around non-stop. It wouldn't have been bad if she was near the stage but she seemed to insist to stand on the stage, which brought more attention to the fact that she just waved a towel around for 45 minutes.

Lianachan said:

PeteSilas said:

he let doug e fresh play at his show?

The worst Prince concert I was at, and the only one which wasn't totally amazing, featured Doug E Fresh - both making many appearances as one of the support acts (of which there were three, all awful) and during the Prince set.

Yeah, that sounds about right. I think I blocked it from my memory. What makes it worse is the fact that I am a fan of La-di-da-di and The Show. And he is a great beat boxer. Probably the best. But not sure what that has to do with being on stage with Prince. I guess when Prince calls you, you have to show up?

RaspberryKiren said:

jodznsez said:

I was at Wembley Stadium, July 31st, 93. I was 13, with my mum.

.

after Beautiful night/America, the set ended and he left for a break befor encore 1. However the break was at least 6 or 7 mins before coming back on, way too long. Anyway, this was followed by a 10 minute speech, I can't remember what it was on about to be honest, but it went ON and ON. This was a massive mood killer, in fact a lot of people had left due to that 6/7 min break before hand. So that led to almost 20mins between songs!!!!!

.

He then plays Come, Endorphinemachine and Peach, which were all excellent, he then wraps it up.

.

the place starts emptying, then after a gap of what felt like another 6 or 7 minutes, he's back!!! to play Johnny. This was a mess. All the people leaving came steaming back in, there was crushing and shouting and shit, was a real drainer and a rubbish end to an otherwise amazing evening.

.

That's my one and only prince downer.

I remember that show. Because everyone left I ended up at the front. And then he came back - I loved it because I ended up so close. I'd forgotten all about that - thanks for describing it .. It brought back a lovely memory for me X

.

.

Just listened to that speech again, as painful as it is, it's lyrics to "What's My Name", "Race" and a few others..

.

After all these stories, maybe that's why I loved Prince with the Revolution the best ... lol

I've never really liked the sound at shows, it was just the oppurtunity to see my heroes but the sound is never that good.

ChanGirl said:

After all these stories, maybe that's why I loved Prince with the Revolution the best ... lol

Never really minded him rapping till the sun came up about whatever. I love his voice. I also liked seeing some of the old school artists that inspired him. Hell, Mavis Staples (& the Staples Singers) and the funk/soul of Larry Graham with Sly & the Family Stone or solo, Chaka Khan (& Rufus) were in heavy rotation at my house. I thought it was cool as hell. Dougie Fresh, Ceelo.... Whoever. I enjoyed the experience of his concerts.

[Edited 6/1/16 18:50pm]

DMarieP said:

Never really minded him rapping till the sun came up about whatever. I love his voice. I also liked seeing some of the old school artists that inspired him. Hell, Mavis Staples (& the Staples Singers) and the funk/soul of Larry Graham with Sly & the Family Stone or solo, Chaka Khan (& Rufus) were in heavy rotation at my house. I thought it was cool as hell. Dougie Fresh, Ceelo.... Whoever. I enjoyed the experience of his concerts.

[Edited 6/1/16 18:50pm]

Most of who you mentioned are still around so enjoy them all you want- I had my fill of all of them at the Prince shows I have been to and desire no more lol.

3rdeyedude said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

OMG, nothing made me more than sitting through 30 minutes of the Larry and lady with the towel show, not once but twice. Oh I was as hell, for real. Prince better had been happy that I loved him because I really didn't pay all that damn money for a partial Sly and the Family Stone mini-concert.

Lol. Pretty sure that lady is Tina, his wife. She and Larry would always wear white and yeah, she would wave a towel around non-stop. It wouldn't have been bad if she was near the stage but she seemed to insist to stand on the stage, which brought more attention to the fact that she just waved a towel around for 45 minutes.

hifidelity67 said:

I am here where are you was annoying .. when he played the forum in LA he kept saying hello hollywood .. bro your in inglewood. Was never into shelb and those odd bands that played at his shows zzzz .. I like doug e so that would of been cool, never dug grahams bla bla .. Most times if he did talk more I could never hear what was being said anyway the acoustics bounced off the venue n by the time it got to my ears it blablamo0asdt0jblaa bla ..... um ya woohoo now get on with it ...

Ya, I noticed that too. Actually, he would often alternate back and forth during the same show with addressing the audience as either Hollywood or Inglewood or Los Angeles. I'm like "did you forget where you're at?" He should have played it safe and just address his audience as Los Angeles.

What about the long sax player interludes during the HnR shows from around 2000. I would rather have a root canal.

jodznsez said: