& what do you consider the best version?[u]

He's been playing this on and off for awhile now. Obviously he played it at 2002's Aladdin show, 2002's Xenophobia PP show and numerous times since then. But does anybody know when this number 1st arrived in a Prince show and what do you consider his favorite version?

Although I love his love electric versions, i really do like his accoustic guitar version(s)... (xenophobia's accoustic version was sweet)

2002 was when he started playing it, initially at soundchecks and then at xenophobia, then aftershows during the one night alone tour and then it ended in the musicology setlist, and again in the 21 nights in london setlist both main stage and aftershow

unique said:

how can you say it was in the o2 setlist when it was only played twice at the mainshows? id hardly call that being in the setlist!

RumAndRaisin said:

what difference does that make to the relevancy of this thread? it's just additional information, and what percentage of times does a song have to be played on tour to meet your criteria? i posted from memory, as i saw him play it at xenophobia, ONA europe, musicology, and i remember him playing it a few times in london last year, but all the dates blend into one. over. it looks like he played it 4 times in total, twice at aftershows and twice at mainshows. i remember he played it at an aftershow the same day i was wearing my led zep t shirt, and the news of the o2 zep show was announced either the same day or following day.

unique said:

Brilliant! Thank you. So you were at the Xenophobia concerts? For a fan who wasn't there (and who has just recently downloaded that weeks amazing shows) (and has been a fan for 20+ years without seeing 1 single show) can you give a discription of your memories/thoughts of that week?? (I'm cuurrently listening to the 24th'a accustic guitar show - amazing!)

FlamingRaindrop said:

i was at all the cellys, and the musicology mpls mini celly in 2004, and xenophobia was probably the best. on day one we were invited to the first playback of the rainbow children and given the lyrics before we heard it, and we thought the lyrics were weird, and then we heard the album and had a discussion about it, particularly the religious nature of the lyrics, and the filmed and recorded all of this. kevin smith was filming a documentary of the week. prince invited selected fans for a further discussion in the atrium most days

in the evening we had the likes of norah jones, sheila e, victor wootan, bernard allison and victor wootan as supports. norah jones was the support on the accoustic nite, where they introduced seating at paisley. the accoustic set was brilliant, we didn't know what the plan was each evening, but apparerently there was plans to do a piano solo evening but that was cancelled due to the problems with the AC breaking down. that was the nite sheila e played, and then they had the chillout jazzy set, and prince took us all to the movies to see minority report. on the final nite they gave us cds of the days of wild live in montreal

the accoustic show was great cuz it was just prince on his own on the stage, apart from kirky j playing bongos during 7. the rock nite was also great, the way he took the non rock tracks and made them rock was great, and they had psychedelic lighting during whole lotta love so it was like being back in the late 60s or something. one of the nites was like an aftershow party type of jam, and the other 2 nites were like regular ONA shows, but the final nite they stretched it more like an aftershow, but larry was preaching a bit on a long version of god and many people left early on the last nite. i stayed to the end every nite

btw, the version of whole lotta love on the 21 nights cd/book wasn't the best version he did in london, he did a more rockier version with lyrics the first time he did it at the indigo2. it was great standing front row every nite at the indigo aftershows watching him rock out on guitar. i especially liked the nite he started with let's go by the cars, as he did a lot of rock and covers that nite, and started playing behind the curtain and then as they opened the curtain he was right in front of me and kept on walking to the very front of the stage, and then stood off the stage and onto the bass speaker i was leaning on, and then he ducked down with his guitar so i had to duck down myself to avoid a guitar in my face. i liked his cover of what you need, and the mothers finest covers too

Thank you, that was legend! You got to see both X02 and o2 07, brilliant, you've lived a great life (from somone who's never seen him live!). Which was your favorite experience? The laid back fan soked joy of X02 or the pumping o2 07? or was there another experience even more mindblowing?

Thanks for answering...

I have never heard, "Xenophobia."

I know that the word means fear of strangers or aliens. What do the other songs on the albym mean, and do u believe Prince is trying to say something with the titles of the songz?

unique said:

He played it at a main show during the One Night Alone tour too.

Tame said:

xenophobia is a jazz instrumental album similar to news, it was recorded pretty much in a day with eric leads and vanessa mae. the title track was dropped and it was eventually available as a free download on 1st january 2003 on npgmc, renamed as xpectations

as instrumentals with no lyrics, the names are choosen just to title the tracks. as it was recorded after 9/11 the title track was given that title. i did notice that the store target, which has a branch just across from paisley park, had a period where they used a similar branding by starting everything with the letter X like xenophobia. i don't know if prince shops at target though, but he may have saw newspaper or tv ad's

unique said:

I think your memory is playing tricks on you, you are getting the celebrations a bit mixed up. The Rainbow Children listening session and Kevin Smith filming the documentary were not part of Xenophobia but of the celebration that took place the year before, 2001. Xenophobia was in 2002.
But other than that, I enjoyed reading your post and it brought back wonderful memories of the most exciting week I ´ve ever had. He also played a non-acoustic set after his acoustic set (you know, where he played the song "Prince and the Band" lying on his back).
My favorite night was the rock night with Bernard Allison, and Prince was very impressive that night. The psychedelic lights and his outfit were really cool.

FlamingRaindrop said:

probably the most mindblowing experience was being in the studio with prince and the time at paisley park. that literally was mindblowing. 2 hour conversation with a half dozen other fans in the middle of the night

gig wise there r so many xperiences, being front row right in front of the mic stand at cafe de paris as such a tiny show that was televised, with prince and the band right up in your face much more than any other aftershow, as even those are in bigger venues, and he stagedived on me 3 times which was on tv. you are thinking how much closer can you get and he lands on top of you. and the day after that i end up onstage at brixton academy. i was onstage at most of the uk ONA shows which was cool, but being onstage at paisley park is pretty damn cool. you are right in the middle of funk central with prince jamming at an aftershow. going back to ONA, the first show in london, which was his first show after the xenophobia celly, i was front row centre and during how come u don't call me anymore he passed me the mic, that evening we helped arrange an aftershow party venue and the next day at the soundcheck he did a kareoke session as a thank you. i've seen a few soundchecks, which are always cool, and i was front row centre at a couple of tv shows, one of which i bumped into prince backstage beforehand and then spoke to him whilst he was on the stage, and i also got to see an actual rehearsal at paisley park once, with just a couple of dozen other fans. that was pretty exciting too. not many people can see they've seen prince rehearsing in the flesh

theres a whole bunch of other cool things, but i'd spend all day typing

unique said:

We really need to talk at the Boat Party!!!

unique said:

Very cool. Thanks for that!