nobody answered my question, how did you guys see all these concerts? did you see them live? on pirate vids? there wasn't that much of anything by prince online a year and a half ago.

dance4me3121 said:

You lost me when you said the last 20 years have been snoozefests. musicology tour,21 nights tour,and the recent montroux 2013 shows,show you that he was still the best LIVE performer on Earth.

Agree. I really think some moments were more ´lazy´(compared to his other stuff), like 2010-13, but he delivered great concerts in the last 20 years
I am a big fan of NPG 95, but I think ONA and Musicology are some of his most special ones, with the 94/95 concerts

PeteSilas said:

PeteSilas said:

nobody answered my question, how did you guys see all these concerts? did you see them live? on pirate vids? there wasn't that much of anything by prince online a year and a half ago.

For the most part (aside from ones they actually attended) they would have heard rather than seen many of them. Most (if not all) concerts had audio recordings of varying quality done by fans in attendance (and in some cases soundboard recordings) which would have been made available shortly after the performances in question. Many of them are still available.

So while there's probably nobody who has actually attended every single show over the 20 years, there are undoubtedly some (probably quite a few) who have listened to the audio recordings of all of them, and no doubt watched the video recordings of any that were made available.

well, i was more or less wondering how some people could see all the concerts they said they could, many here have followed him on tour, i just don't see how most people could financially do that. I know I couldn't.

AsylumUtopia said:

PeteSilas said:

nobody answered my question, how did you guys see all these concerts? did you see them live? on pirate vids? there wasn't that much of anything by prince online a year and a half ago.

For the most part (aside from ones they actually attended) they would have heard rather than seen many of them. Most (if not all) concerts had audio recordings of varying quality done by fans in attendance (and in some cases soundboard recordings) which would have been made available shortly after the performances in question. Many of them are still available.

So while there's probably nobody who has actually attended every single show over the 20 years, there are undoubtedly some (probably quite a few) who have listened to the audio recordings of all of them, and no doubt watched the video recordings of any that were made available.

also, it's heartbreaking listening to that last concert for many reasons, one of the main ones is that he sounded as good or better than ever and it just doesn't make sense why he's dead, he had a lot left in the tank as a performer. No indication of drugs or cloudy thinking, no indications of pain or depression, which of course all mean nothing. Prince always did manage to put on a brave face. Also, the fact that he's in the black capital of america for his final concert has huge meaning and he played that way, opening with a song about reparations and his stage banter was something i could only see working with his core audience and not in australia or anywhere. All kinds of thoughts go through my mind when i listen to it but mainly just a feeling of huge grief which waxes and wanes depending on what's going on in my life and how much i'm thinking of him.

DarkKnight1 said:

Snoozefests? Might want to delete your thread and just start over.

THIS!

I still can't bring myself to listen to his last gig in its entirety yet... It somehow hurts too much right now, on certain days.. I have the same issue with the second half of David Bowie's brilliant final album 'Blackstar'. The last two songs on that album ("Dollar Days" & "I Can't Give Everything Away") address his mortality head-on and it's such an intensely-emotional thing to hear... Don't get me wrong. I fully accept that both Prince and David are gone, but there's still a part of me that irrationally feels that if I hear Prince's last gig in full in one sitting, it will be like losing him all over again.. As music = immortality, he's still very much alive to me. Not ready to hear something so final in its entirety yet. I have listened to many of the songs from that show that night, just not in a full sequence. I will soon enough, though. He still was on it and had it all the way to the end. RIP, my friend (as you are and have been through music). Peace.

[Edited 8/22/17 13:06pm]

jcurley said:

I think that was true of his music full stop. Hit n run, Artofficial Age...he had vigour n freshness. He wasn't going through the motions. He had moved out of his "medley" style and was being more artistic again. Cinspiracists might put that down to his health but I don't. If it was u still think that was more to do with health fragility rather than a knowledge of impending death

I swear I remember Prince in an interview near the end crediting celibacy for his creative resurgence. He said something about how the energy that would normally go toward sex was getting channelled into his creativity instead. Food for thought there.

There were many highlights in that last gig, but I have to give a shout out to the Bob Marley cover mixed in with IIWYG. I'd love to hear every gig from that last tour.

I agree with almost everything you said except the degree. I love the last concert for all the reasons you stated. I get frustrated with some of his other concerts for the same reasons you stated, but I think there were way too many highlights to just dismiss the concerts as bland or dull. I love the Musicology tour (the live accoustic set, come on, that's some great stuff) and at times Welcome to America is great. I also love both Montreux's. But there are times (especially during the Welcome to America clips) when I also got frustrated because he threw away his lyrics and singing in favor of jamming. I am not against jamming (he was a great instrumentalist) but it shouldn't come at the expense of the melody and lyrics of a song. Prince had great background singers but he threw them too much to do. One of the biggest frustrations I had was hearing P's soulful singing during the verse of Nothing Compares to you , only for him to give the chorus (everytime) to either Shelby or the audience.

midnightmover said:

LOL, the response to my post is hilarious! Thanks for the laugh guys. I needed that.

I'm not dissing Prince. I LOVED that last show and actually I've loved pretty much every excerpt I've heard from that final tour. For me he should've ditched the band years ago. I've mentioned it before, but he had a tendency to sing one verse and chorus of a great song, then just jam on it for ten minutes after, while exhorting the audience about twenty times to "Clap your hands, y'all!" I prefer to just hear the songs. That was my biggest gripe. Also, the whole thing was just too retro and cozy for me. I could say more, but it doesn't matter now, and I'd prefer to celebrate the fact that he got back that purposefulness in his final year or two.

That final tour was like him returning home to me. The construction of the show was more artful, there was more feeling and the stripped back approach really emphasized the poetry in his songs. Isn't there a great feel to those words in "The Max" for instance? No one ever talks about that, but Prince was a very gifted wordsmith. The final tour emphasized that. For me it was up there with the great tours of his past.

purplerabbithole said:

I agree with almost everything you said except the degree. I love the last concert for all the reasons you stated. I get frustrated with some of his other concerts for the same reasons you stated, but I think there were way too many highlights to just dismiss the concerts as bland or dull. I love the Musicology tour (the live accoustic set, come on, that's some great stuff) and at times Welcome to America is great. I also love both Montreux's. But there are times (especially during the Welcome to America clips) when I also got frustrated because he threw away his lyrics and singing in favor of jamming. I am not against jamming (he was a great instrumentalist) but it shouldn't come at the expense of the melody and lyrics of a song. Prince had great background singers but he threw them too much to do. One of the biggest frustrations I had was hearing P's soulful singing during the verse of Nothing Compares to you , only for him to give the chorus (everytime) to either Shelby or the audience.

midnightmover said:

LOL, the response to my post is hilarious! Thanks for the laugh guys. I needed that.

I'm not dissing Prince. I LOVED that last show and actually I've loved pretty much every excerpt I've heard from that final tour. For me he should've ditched the band years ago. I've mentioned it before, but he had a tendency to sing one verse and chorus of a great song, then just jam on it for ten minutes after, while exhorting the audience about twenty times to "Clap your hands, y'all!" I prefer to just hear the songs. That was my biggest gripe. Also, the whole thing was just too retro and cozy for me. I could say more, but it doesn't matter now, and I'd prefer to celebrate the fact that he got back that purposefulness in his final year or two.

That final tour was like him returning home to me. The construction of the show was more artful, there was more feeling and the stripped back approach really emphasized the poetry in his songs. Isn't there a great feel to those words in "The Max" for instance? No one ever talks about that, but Prince was a very gifted wordsmith. The final tour emphasized that. For me it was up there with the great tours of his past.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I totally agree. I might've been a little harsh to use the word "snoozefest". I didn't mean to offend anyone. But I can't deny that I found those concerts to be very frustrating for the same reasons as you. So many of his gifts were obscured in those shows, but stripping it all back on the final tour really brought the depth of his art to the fore. He could not have gone out on a better note in terms of his concerts.

midnightmover said:

purplerabbithole said:

I agree with almost everything you said except the degree. I love the last concert for all the reasons you stated. I get frustrated with some of his other concerts for the same reasons you stated, but I think there were way too many highlights to just dismiss the concerts as bland or dull. I love the Musicology tour (the live accoustic set, come on, that's some great stuff) and at times Welcome to America is great. I also love both Montreux's. But there are times (especially during the Welcome to America clips) when I also got frustrated because he threw away his lyrics and singing in favor of jamming. I am not against jamming (he was a great instrumentalist) but it shouldn't come at the expense of the melody and lyrics of a song. Prince had great background singers but he threw them too much to do. One of the biggest frustrations I had was hearing P's soulful singing during the verse of Nothing Compares to you , only for him to give the chorus (everytime) to either Shelby or the audience.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I totally agree. I might've been a little harsh to use the word "snoozefest". I didn't mean to offend anyone. But I can't deny that I found those concerts to be very frustrating for the same reasons as you. So many of his gifts were obscured in those shows, but stripping it all back on the final tour really brought the depth of his art to the fore. He could not have gone out on a better note in terms of his concerts.

Wholeheartedly agree with this. He went out in style with his final solo performances.

Just heard the full show jus recently, it was dope that he finally performed Dirty Mind, nver thought he would play that one again. ironic it was at his last show

ThrillUorKillU said:

Just heard the full show jus recently, it was dope that he finally performed Dirty Mind, nver thought he would play that one again. ironic it was at his last show

i've been listening to it over and over again, he seemed to relax just a bit from his early conversion period, he still changed some lyrics like "bitch" to "Whitch" but he played plenty of his more risque stuff, the obscure "girl" was on i listened to closely to see how much he'd revise it, surprisingly, not that much. At least once, every time I listen to the performance, I think to myself "wait a minute, this sounds nothing like a guy at deaths door" the man is forever a mystery.

midnightmover said:

PeteSilas said: