Be honest now.

How many of you have been able to watch this entire dvd without skipping bits or
clenching their toes, biting their nails, covering their eyes or -quite frankly- being
sick. lol.

I mean, come on. I've tried to watch that turd for a few times again lately and I
just can't manage to sit it out.

At first, it starts out rather dull and lame, but hey, it's a Prince dvd so you stick
with it. Heck, he even does "she's always in my hair" so there is at least some
sort of redeeming factor here heheh.

But let's talk about the stage set-up. What? I mean, honestly it looks like, and
especially the way things are put to film, it truly looks like the set of a soap op.
I mean, I just expect Cruise Castillo to walk onto the set any minute and start
to deliver one of his monotonous monologues to CC Channing.

Plus it's -like the Emancipation special- shot as if there were only 75 people in
attendance. With the audience looking like stun-gunned cattle most of the show.
Even during the hardest rocking songs, the most movement one can detect from
the crowd is an arm waving here or a mouth twitching there. I keep expecting a
nurse to walk onscreen to whipe the spit and drule from the mouths of the people
in the first few rows.

But after that the whole thing plummets downward. And boy it plummets fast lol.
Once he's strutted onto the stage again in his druïd dress with his long curly hair
and starts preaching about the "trick" that Time supposedly is, things turn sour.

The finale, the climax, the ultimate tooth-aching synopsis being the outfit he's
sporting in the end: A silver/gold shiny suit with a friggin towell on his head. He
looks like a 15 year old girl. No wait, he just looks absolutely horrendous.

And I was even one of those who thought the reflecting blue spandex suit was
a cool thing for a one-off photoshoot or appearance. I could even bare it when
he showed up in that at the mtv music awards.

But together with the watered down songs he performed and the over all cheap
production and amateurish stage set I really do have to wonder whenever I do
decide to watch this thing: How come an artist from Prince's stature who has so
much control over his music and who's so brilliant when it comes to writing an
awsome tune, usually comes up with such crap stage stuff to release on dvd??

I mean, we got the EMANCIPATION special, which was horrible and lip synced,
there was the RAVE dvd which was awful, there's the Aladin live dvd, which only
redeeming factor is the bonusclip of "The Ride".

LiveSexy and SignOTheTimes were very very cool and beautifully executed.
The Musicology special was nice, although very short. So there is hope for
the future.

Although I fear that once left to his own devices again, Prince will always fall
back to that kitchy plastic soap opera style of his. For some reason he seems
to favor that above all else.

IstenSzek said:

i thought there band were miming but his vocal and guitar was live?

and i agree with u bout the finale - 1999 4 the last time!
utter crap

MashedPotatoKid said:

hmm, I don't know. Half of it was surely mimed but yes, his guitar sounded
pretty genuine. Some of his vocals maybe too.

And yes, "1999" for the last time was indeed probably the worst moment the
song ever had. Who in their right mind would dare resurrect it after that??

IstenSzek said:

I second that!

he botched the shit outta red House maaaaan....sorry but prince knows how to destroy the blues man...

I love this video, but I gotta say, he really did a terrible job of 1999. The moment we'd all been waiting for, and it was a completely unclimatic, dull performance.

The blues medley on the rave disc is fuckin amazing!...i managed to download that in mp3 format and played it a few times really loud, fantastico.

I agree prince's choice of wardrobe wasn't the best, but since when did we really care what he wore, even back in the day. Let his music do the talking. What got me about the rave dvd was the fact that it was his last ever performance of 1999, and frankly i found it quite cheesy at the end when everyone joined in on stage. Strong points...She's always in my hair, blues, gett off.

sorry 2 say but the rave dvd did literally suck but i only like the christ.im glad i bought it used instead of full price or my foot would b halfway up FYE's ass.if only larry wasnt on the christ it would b good

ABeautifulOne said:

Exactly. Whenever you finally manage to ignore Prince's rediculous outfits or haircuts
and try to listen to the music and tell yourself "enjoy it for what it is....." -oop- there,
in the corner of the screen Mr Graham Pops up again with his weird ass pants and his
stupid hat.

He looks like one of them bloodboiling cartoon creatures here. He just walks in and
out of the shots and makes me go absolutely mad.

I hate this DVD. I got it for $7.99 at a place called Strawberries, and even at that price I feel I got ripped off, but that's not fair to say because I knew of the content before I purchased the DVD. I just wanted my suckage in perfect quality. Sadly, that's my level of fandom.

It's the single worst performance that I have personally witnessed from Prince.

I consider it his lowest point live. And that ending? The girls from The View onstage with him? Atrocious.

Hey, no one mentioned the white man that was used as a stunt double for Morris Day when he was swinging on the rope. Whoever edited that mess needed to be fired. First, why even go though the trouble of having to use a stunt double in the first place and second, since they felt it was necessary to do they could have at least made it believable.

Man I almost bought this at the Soundgarden last night
Glad Im cheap, if it was that bad!

I don't care what anyone says. "Purple House" was GREAT.

the camera work on that dvd makes me wanna bust out into a grand mal seizure.

And the director was British.

The horror, the horror...

.

IstenSzek said:

that was CC Capwell, not Channing.

back to the topic, though...

um, yeah, rave is pathetic. and i waited in some cold ass weather to get up in there! the best performances aren't even on the DVD! leave it to prince.

As if... This DVD rules. The performances are brilliant.

What's not ot like 'bout it. Love She's Always in My Hair.

gwyndavies16 said:

Co-sign.

I loved it and watch it over and over again.

I love the DVD. So suck on my hairy coin purse. Sparkly-blue-spandex-outfit hatin' mofos...

LOSERS! The dvd is great overall.

anyone that says different needs 2 stop listening 2 shit like Ashlee Simpson.

That bald dancing woman

You gotta admit, his version of Purple Rain on that show was amazing.

2freaky4church1 said:

I couldn't tell you, I always get sick of this one LOOONG before then. I'll have to just try to watch Purple Rain and see how it is.

This dvd disappointed me and what is even more disappointing is I don't have the same one as you guys it seems. I got one that was directly imported from China, and it DOES NOT have 1999 on it. The beginning instrumentals of 1999 start, then it goes to credits. I also see some talk of other songs that aren't on mine. What disgusted me the most was that god damn DANCING BALD LADY! Come on, Prince, you're a PIMP! And you hire some ugly bald lady to do your stage dancing for the entire night! Blah!

this is one that i have not been able to get into.

I was lucky enough to be at Paisley Park for the filming that cold night in Mpls in 1999. Here's some details about the show..

First of all, most people had to wait in sub zero temps outside to get into the show around 9pm. There was no alcohol or food being served. Prince went on around 11-12am. So most people had waited in line at least an hour and then waited around the Park for about 3 hours. Mind you I loved every minute of it, I took my own tour of the Chocalate Factory and even ran into George Clinton and Lenny in the hallway. Prince palyed until about 5am with a break for George Clinton to do a set, then Prince came back on with him to play bass. It was totally exhausting to stand up for 10 hours and have no alcohol to keep everybody awake. There is no other artist I could do this for..

The lighting on the DVD is very dark, it didnt look like this live. The place was packed and everything was shot only once, except for the first two songs, which Prince had to shoot twice because of a slippery floor. If you notice a star shaped rug on the stage, this was put down because Prince was slipping during the first take of the first two songs. It was cool to see him test out the floor by practicing his splits before the show started. You could tell he was a perfectionist and takes his "job" very seriously.. very cool behind the scenes moment for me..

I loved the show, but thought there was too much Larry Graham and it was a pretty "clean" show too. Definitely not as funky as I would have liked either, But it's cool to have a DVD of the show to remember it.
[Edited 10/3/04 0:23am]

Does anybody know who the girl in the audience is? The camera kept cutting to her throuought the performance! She had long dark hair and seemed to be giving somebody 'fuck me eyes'. She wasn't into the performance at all and appeared embarrased to dance or sing along.

Worst music video ever!