I was watching a DVD from one of the London gigs from last year, and I noticed that below the edge of the front of the stage, there's this thing that looks like a lighted book. This was also used during the Musicology tour as well. Does anyone know what this is? A teleprompter with song lyrics? Set list? Anyone know?

PicassoFace said:

Don't know,but this guy did the lighting for Prince's Musicology Tour,so maybe you could ask him.

http://www.drownedmadonna...eter_morse

Teleprompter would be my guess. But I was under the impression Prince didn't use one, so

meow85 said:

Yeah you can see it on the Alaidin vid

Could it be a bible?

chillichocaholic said:

You can see lyrics written on it, there is one at the keyboard too.

jodi081630 said:

maybe age is catching up with him

chillichocaholic said:

He changes the lyrics to some songs to make it suitable for kids to hear, that may be the reason, so he remembers.

Prince has been using a lyric book at the front of stage for some years, going back to at least 2002.

langebleu said:

yeah because he has changed lyrics to some of his songs.

jodi081630 said:

It's not particularly because of lyric changes, as the book has the lyrics for all songs that he is performing regardless of whether there have been changes. It's used as a prompt.

langebleu said:

It was a joke u guys

langebleu said:

I first saw it during the 1998 show in Cologne ( Köln Arena ).
It´s strange that he even uses it when he plays the same setlist over and over again, considering that he´s been playing some of those songs for a couple of decades now.

Well, I guess the fact that it's there doesn't necessarily mean that he relies on it heavily. It could just be there for use in a rare moment when he goes blank.

It could also be there more for lyrics to cover songs than his own songs. I noticed he tapped Elton John on the shoulder and pointed to it during their cover of "The Long an Winding Road". So, I think if he puts a cover song in the set list that may be new for him, he may need to rely on the teleprompter more.

I was thinking the book was just for the set list since there's one near the keyboard, too. That way the band's on the same page, no pun intended. I'm kinda surprised that he uses it for lyrics.

PicassoFace said:

Those moments are not so rare, I'm afraid. He often forgets his lyrics. It's not so stange; he's got thousands.

Often he just sings a line twice or pretends it's a jam and calls for a break to make it less obvious.

Yes, he does use a promter, but so so many stars. Performing his songs live onstage is different than when he recorded them years ago. Plenty of entertainers use them.

PicassoFace said:

This is NOT a stupid question, it's one of the best one around here in a while.

Dayclear said:

Actually, Prince uses notebooks with lyrics when recording.

Oops. Duplicate post.
[Edited 9/19/08 5:12am]

PicassoFace said:[quote]

HamsterHuey said:

True. With 30 year's worth of songs in his body of work, I suppose it's not uncommon to forget lyrics every so often--especially when you consider that Prince doesn't spend time listening to past albums like we do.

I hope he only needs the crutch every so often when he does a song he doesn't do often. If he starts needing the teleprompter during "Let's Go Crazy" or "U Got the Look", which he performs regularly, I'd start to worry about him.

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