i was listening to prince'[s 1982 peformance from the end of controversy tour.
and i have noticed that arangmant of the songs from being all natural started to incoporate more electronic elements ,

like drum machine breaks when prince sings i played the fool when we are together,i cry when we are apart in why you wanna treat me so bad.
it was during the time when he recorded 1999 album.

so have u noticed the transition in his sound during early and late controversy tour?

Sometimes I can't get particular with commenting on the music differences...However...the emotional tone of, "Controversy," in the 80's...That even drags, "Uptown," along with it....later on becomes the single that is released with the photo book, from Prince in Hawaii.

An angry, Controversy...becomes a confident....controversial song....and as Uptown is dragged along....that song...that was somewhat hesitant earlier on....begins to show her confidence....through, "Everlasting Now.." as an affirmative emotion....

In between these two musical and lyrical curbs....Is the precise moment of arrival...

So, I have noticed....things of this nature, throughout all of Prince's song of yesterday...and their delivery today.

This topic interests me and I'd hoped to read a wealth of insightful replies, but no such luck it seems.

midnightmover said:

Probably because most folks haven't heard a lot of boots from that tour. I only have a couple, myself - not really enough to form an opinion.

i heard lots of recordings from controversy tour and arangmants of the songs changed very much as the controversy tour came near end .
songs have made transition from very raw rock funk arangmants to more electro funk sound.
i think prince already emploied rhythm machine cuz u can cleary hear it in some songs.
prince was already in the process of making his first electro funk masterpiece "1999"

I'm sure P was digging on a lot of new wave music (like Gary Numan..who was funky in his own right and Kraftwerk) back then. Linn Drums and new modern synths were probably in his hands at that time and he started to incorporate them near the end of that tour.

It probably inspired him to create 1999 with all those new "toys" (as I like to call them). It may sound dated now, but 1999 was very "techno" for it's time.