So who kicked more ass back when Pricne was opening for Rick? I've heard Prince would sometimes upstage Rick but after hearing the live album on Street Songs I'd imagine that would take some beating. It must have been an amazing double bill, if only I was around back then.
Did Teena Marie make any appearances during their tour? What a trio that would've been!

now paging Vainandy.....

Here I am!

Prince was the opening act on Rick James' "Fire It Up" tour in 1979/1980. I was absolutely dying to go to that concert that year but was only in the 7th grade and no one would take me. Prince never returned to my city until 1997.

Rick was shocking and controversial from day one singing songs about sex, drugs, prostitution, and the ghetto. Other than Prince's looks, he was pretty tame. Rick also came out with a bigger bang in the beginning than Prince did. Naturally, if Prince and Rick were on tour together at that time, Prince was going to be the opening act.

I've heard rumors of Rick firing up joints on the stage and telling the audience to do the same. Rick was the most shocking thing in R&B at that time. Then, I guess Prince wanted a piece of the pie. He started getting pretty racy himself onstage and Rick would have to go on and try to top it. This used to make him furious. This must have been a hell of a tour. Out of all the shows in the world, this is the one I would have loved to have seen the most. My two favorites trying to outdo each other.

Prince came out with "Dirty Mind" shortly after that tour. People can say what they want, but I think that tour made Prince realize what he needed to do to make a name for himself.

The best Prince years was when he had Rick James to compete with and to be a thorn in his side. Rick kept Prince's ass on his toes and once Prince became famous in the pop world and Rick couldn't compete with him anymore, Prince's music was never as strong as it was before.

Has Prince made a comment about Rick's death yet? Just wondering because I think there probably is some type of mutual respect somewhere between them.

I was fortunate enough to see one of the shows on that tour. I was only in the 5th grade, but I recalled the tour being billed as a battle concert...Rick James vs. Prince. It is my understanding that P won that night. It was the night my 10 year old li'l self fell in love with P. Of course, my mom did not know she was taking me to a concert where a man would be performing in bikini underwear, thigh highs, high-heeled boots and a trench coat.
[Edited 3/20/05 20:17pm]

PurpleCharm said:

Dude, I would give anything to see Prince onstage in bikini briefs and thigh highs performing his songs snd competing with Rick James.....that is too fucking hot!!! If I had not been a newborn baby in 1979/80 my black ass would have been there fo sho!!!

From everything I've read about that tour Prince and Co. kicked Rick and the Stone City Band's ass for most of the tour. Kinda like what The Time did to Prince on the 1999 tour, beating him so bad he had them takin off the bill in on certain shows. I'd love for that bootleg of the Prince/Rick shows to surface, it would be a collectors item.

The show was hands down on Prince's side. Not to sound bias but Prince's show was so tight. When he first came on a lot of the guys were calling him "bitchy" because of what he had on. You have to remember, this was 1980 and most weren't use to men coming on stage in underwear but after the rock-n-soul intro, he went into soft n wet and the women went wild. After that Prince's group had everyone hooked and people were actually digging the performance in stead of making rude comments on what they had on. People weren't use to seeing African Americans that looked like Dez so a lot of closed minds were opened up that night. They also did "Still Waiting" and "Just as long as we're together" where Prince would do these jump in the air and touch your toes leaps during the breaks. During the jam section of jalawt, he ran back to the keyboards with Fink and jammed for a bit. Prince surely blew Rick James out of the water that night which I think was the last night of that tour in Chicago at the Uptown Theater.
Having said all that ( I know I'm rambling), Rick James's show seemed very boring after Prince's. It seemed it went on forever and never hit any high points. When Rick James first came on, he said,
"We had all kinds of fireworks and bombs and shit but your fire department wouldn't let us use them". In my opinion, Rick had conceided that he had been stomped by the opening act before he had completed his first song so...out of the mouth Rick.

vainandy said:

Interesting perspective.

I'm a big Rick fan too and I can certainly see why you would come to that conculsion.

No need to apologize for rambling because I could never get enough of hearing about that show.

As far as the fireworks and bombs, I can understand that part too. From my understanding, Rick did have all those things. Most of the shows were played in coliseums, where you can do a lot more. When you bring a show to an auditorium or theater, sacrifices have to made to go along with fire regulations because most auditoriums have a curtain and carpet in the theater.

I have a friend that has worked at a venue since the 1960s. She said when Rick and Prince came that year, both of them put on a show to remember. She mentioned Rick's fireworks and Prince's sexual explicitness in concert. She also told me some backstage tales, no really good dirt though. She said Rick was pretty loud backstage and whenever he referred to Prince, he used the word "Princess". She also said Prince pretty much was quiet and kept to himself. She said when Prince returned in 1997, it was a totally different story though. He was surrounded by more bodyguards than any other entertainer she has ever seen except for Elvis Presley.

She has lots of good stories about entertainers. Rick has been here three times, the "Fire It Up" tour, the "Street Songs" tour, and the "Cold Blooded" tour. On one of his tours, he was performing with his background singers, The Colored Girls, behind a screen with a backlight so you could see their shadows. He had a microphone between his legs and one of the girls was similating oral sex behind the screen. Rick was high and stumbled and the microphone swung way out in a different direction.

She brought me her stage pass from Rick's "Cold Blooded" tour and Prince's "Jam O The Year" tour to put in my scrapbook.

I know someone else that worked backstage that night and he said Prince was also fairly quiet backstage. He said Rick was smoking a joint backstage as if he were merely smoking a cigarette.
[Edited 3/21/05 23:02pm]

vainandy said:

Well Said Vain Baby

vainandy said:

And you know what came right after:

Prince: Michael, you're next!!!

Michael was never any competition for Prince. The pop world wanted to make them rivals but the only thing they have in common is they were both black, feminine, and the two hottest black artists in pop music at the time.
[Edited 3/22/05 2:09am]

I remember going to this show, I really went to see Rick James, I loved P but thought he was too freaky, I wanted my doe eyed baby back and he was a rocker! Back then I was an RB girl so Rick James was the shit.

My cousin who snuck me to the concert schooled me though and said damn Prince played a much better show than Rick, I respected his knowledge and listened closer when Dirty Mind came out.

All in all I prefered Rick James's show, even though I knew all the words to the Prince songs too, I was too young and shocked and scared of what he looked like.


All that changed with the Controvery tour though

vainandy said:

Apart for inspiring people via FM radio to not spend all their money on The Jackson's Victory Tour (BTW, Purple Rain the movie was going to be release), They were never any beef between Michael & Prince at all.

But even as a child back in 1984, I once believe the hype! 80's pop culture was a big deal back then.

Think about it: Before the release of Purple Rain (the album & the movie), who in the hell could try to match the power or media hype that was all around Michael Jackson or Thriller?

Yes, I knew that Prince had other albums (Prince, Dirty Mind, 1999).

But Purple Rain was THE album that made me take a long break from listening to Thriller for awhile.

IMHO, that was a hell of an impact that Prince has on a lot of music fans like myself back in 84.

TonyVanDam said:

Yep!!! Purple Rain made people forget about The Gloved One....

funkpill said:

For about a Hour and half…...just Kidding.

I was 6 when my mother took me to see it. My uncle had been into Prince from the junp. We were all big fans, I saw the movie and came out swearing that Morris Day was the coolest man alive. I think Morris had potential to be a big movie star, way better actor than the kid.

lilgish said:

Agree with you about Morris.....

funkpill said:

Morris totally upstaged Prince with his acting skills.
Prince, on the other hand still can not act, he is unbelievable
and ridiculous looking and he tries too hard!

klhk said:

-----
If you have seen any o Morris's movies their acting skills are on the same level.

laurarichardson said:

let's just say they both suck but P sucks more.

klhk said:

-----
Yes, they both suck and could use some serious acting classes.

I vividly remember when this tour hit Los Angeles. At this time, I was much more into Rick James. Rick was a bonafide star. Even though I had both of Prince's albums, I was much more into Rick. Rick was basically, visually, doing elements of Parliament-Funkadelic and KISS. Two of my favorite bands on earth! But, I dug Prince's music and really got into the fact that he played a lot of rock guitar in his songs. That's what hooked me into Prince. If P didn't showcase guitar as much, I wouldn't have had been interested in him at all. Basiscally, I thought P was mainly for the girls, besides the rock guitar, which made me keep an eye on him. Anyway, I was supposed to go to this show with my older cousin. He had gotten tickets for us both. But, a couple of days before the concert, I became very sick with the flu, and my mom didn't want me to go, still being sick like that. Needless to say, I was HELLA disappointed. I REALLY wanted to see Rick live and I was very curious to see if Prince could throw down live on the guitar. My cuz ended up giving my ticket to his girlfriend, but he brought me a tour concert t-shirt. He told me about the show in detail and basically P stole the show. He said how a lot of the dudes in the crowd were turned off by P's image, saying he looked and acted like a "sissy" and a "bitch", but said P AND Dez both threw down when it came to the rock. I wouldn't end up seeing P untill the Controversy tour.

klhk said:

Morris definitely has more juice in the acting department. Under The Cherry Moon prooved that for me.

blackguitaristz said:

BG, I couldn't agree with you more. I think P learned alot from touring with Slick. It was those exact elements of P-Funk and Kiss which catapulted Slick tours to the top b/c most Black Artist weren't putting on the type of shows that Rick did back then. Moreless when P did the Controversey Tour, he took it up a level infusing more sexuality into the mix with Rock and Ballads. Whereas, Slick Rick chose to stay with Funk and ballads and was less concerned with crossover appeal.

Hotlegs said:

And that's what true funk is all about.....
Going "Pop" means being a weasel.....

Hotlegs said:

Morris wasn't in "Under The Cherry Moon", Ms. Legs....

funkpill said:

I am speaking in refrence to Princes poor acting skills. In that film, his acting was the worst of all films that he has ever been in b/c he tried to hard.

funkpill said:

I think P realizes this and that is why he is trying to recapture some of his old sound.
[Edited 3/24/05 14:07pm]

Hotlegs said:

Oh..... My Bad