Controversy Tour - Houston...right in the pocket Most of us have seen the video. If you haven't then you can find it on YouTube; it's there now.
There's something special about this tour. It was a bit more polished than the Dirty Mind tour, but still had a grit to it. His wardrobe was more robust but still sexy. Someone finally put a hot iron to his hair. It wasn't as flashy as the 1999 Tour, and certainly wasn't the mammoth beast that was the Purple Rain Tour, but it had its own panache and flair unique to itself. (Maybe of those flairs we'd see on the 1999 Tour a year later, though.)
They had a few hits under their belt, a good deal of press and attention. The musicians were young, still hungry, and loved playing. It was Brownmark's first tour, so his fresh face was nice to see up there, trying his best not to freak out. Dez seems seasoned and an old soul with a youthful aggressiveness that was only mirrored by Prince himself. Bobby kept it all in the pocket, and Lisa & Fink played their hearts out.
It just seems like that special moment when it was really good to be in the band, but it wasn't so big that you couldn't enjoy life outside the confines of a studio or home. We even hear the ending guitar solo using in "Let's Go Crazy" at the end of "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" - ideas to be more fully realized & utilized in just a couple of years. He also didn't abbreviate a lot of songs like he would in later years (and certainly wasn't doing 4-minute medleys of a half dozen songs).
It's as new as it is familiar. I think it's why I keep going back to it, over and over.
Thoughts on this tour, and performance? Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking. |