Can't help thinking Baby i'm a star, Purple Rain etc would have sounded better as pure studio versions, without the live "undercarriage"

They sound a bit messy and echoey to me

the studio versions might have sounded more like 1999 songs... like Free, etc.

I think Purple Rain sounds perfect on the album. Didn't even know they were really live at the time.

No way, we tried that remember! On "take me with you" for instance, everytime I hear that song performed live I think, now why didn't he do it live on the album. With most artist their live material is usually inferior to their recorded material but with Prince It's all good live, all the time!

donotbuytheblackalbum said:

Fair point, especially with "take me with u"(watched Live at the Aladdin again last nite - this song was awesome) - but it'd good for them to have studio versions to "kick against"...

I had the misfortune of seeing "Sign O the times The Movie" before hearing the whole studio album, and it kinda ruined it for me...

On the Purple Rain songs though, I can't help thinking studio versions would be worth hearing

LittleSmedley said:

I tell ya, Listening to "The Cross" at the end of The Sign O the Times movie still energizes me just thinking about listening to it! It felt like the second coming,infinately more passionate and raw than the studio version.....and all the screaming fams in Denmark had a lot to do with that, the fams weren't in the studio maybe that's why the studio version comes off lifeless by comparison.

However studio versions are what we all need to tide us over to we can see Prince performing live, preferably in my backyard at The Air Canada Center in Toronto, in my case!

donotbuytheblackalbum said:

donotbuytheblackalbum said:

With you there. for those 3 or 4 minutes I feel like a Born Again Christian

After it's finished I got back to sinning, doing evil things, generally helping out Satan, etc.

LittleSmedley said:

The sacred and the profane , that's the conflict we all must deal with! ".....Or is it 2 believe there's a God above, pretty soon you'll get lost, head back to lust, so tough!.....Rockhardnafunkyplace!

There is so much overdubbing and studio effects added to the live tracks, to me they sound as much studio spawned as most of the other PR tracks. Especially when listening to the First Avenue show from which the songs were taken.

I prefer the odd unique "prince" sound of the studio versions of The Cross and even Days of Wild.