If he just did his regular versions, that would be Awesome. But he has so many different undercover Versions of his songs!
[Edited 2/21/09 22:19pm]

he has lyric sheets and someone with a laptop at the front of the stage with all the lyrics when he plays live

unique said:

Really ?

missjay23 said:

yup, he's done that for a long time

missjay23 said:

Yeah sometimes you can see it. Most visible on Musicology and 21 Nights tour. A big illuminated book with huge text. I read about it somewhere.

Lots of artists use these, but I suspect it's more for "just in case" for Prince.

I know Springsteen has a monitor, too. But heck - when an artist has written 500 or more songs, I have no problem with a little aid to keep all the lyrics straight.

I'm doing good to remember the lyrics to 10 songs.

mypancakeplaces said:

it's not an illuminated book, it's A3 laminated sheets kept in boxes like beer crates, there is usually a light shingin on them so he can see. in previous times the A3 pages were kept in a kind of book but it wasn't illuminated

Yeh i remember reading in one of the purple ticket winners stories about him having lyric sheets that night

Geddy Lee is known to have a monitor to read off of as well. Sometimes pieces of paper of the notes to his synth parts

I wouldn't go on stage without any lyric sheets somewhere

If you've been in the biz for so long you need the help.

VenusBlingBling said:

I can't even remember the words, I have a bad memory like that.

Sometimes he does forget, I've noticed he holds the mike out a lot so the audience can sing the words for him!
[Edited 2/21/09 18:07pm]

Dayclear said:

i'm sure he does forget (as i do all the time) but holding out the mike for ppls to sing i wood think is more 4 audience participation

The same way I remember all of his pre-90's lyrics! You don't forget good songs.

metallicjigolo said:

Well eye wood say ya rong abowt dat..

Over here in Oz we have a TV show called "Spicks & Specks" and the lead singer of a band called Killing Heidi said she does EXACTLY what Prince does. She didn't mention Prince, but she DID say that she holds out the mic and calls out, "YOU SING!"

Also Michael B even participated in chat session on this very site & said that Prince used to do that whenever he would forget the lyrics.

Audience participation might be part of it too but mostly it's cuz he forgets how the bloody song goes!

missjay23 said:

You've never seen it? There's usually a set list in large type on stage also.

metallicjigolo said:

Right he likes to do that...,, I was right in front of him, so I had to close my eyes and sing, I did not want to see him making faces because I sang off key. LOL.
[Edited 2/21/09 21:04pm]

metallicjigolo said:

i've seen him forget lyrics a few times, sometimes he even admits it. once at paisley he was doing miss you and halfway through said he couldn't remember the words and turned the mic to the audience and said "you sing instead"

you will also notice a lot of times he just sings the first verse and chorus of a song and jam the rest, especially cover versions, he usually missed out a few verses

he still always forgets the words though . especially when he does covers . prince is human

I've seen the book and even got to look through it once...Rarely told story, I was front row center, the book was within my reach the lights went out as we waited 4 the encore, I cold have easily taken the book...BUT that would be stealing from a man who had such a huge influence on my life and got me through some rough years growing up in foster homes...Could never steal from Prince. But like I've said, I even saw unreleased songs in the book...But it's his...

wishuhvn said:

kathy would leave the box of lyrics and her laptop in front of us, sometimes the lyrics fell from the stand prince read off and landed in front of me and i put them back. they were just typed up in word and laminated, nothing special. occasionally they didn't have the lyrics printed so kathy put them on the laptop in massive 100 point or so font and turned it round so he could see (this is at the indigo shows). takumi used to do it from "the book"

unique said:

unique said:

I swear, once I was at a concert and the audience was yelling out songs for the singer to sing , so he just said I don't remember the words and the whole audience started singing his song, it was absolutely wonderful and the singer was so moved! I'l bet that has happened to Prince !
[Edited 2/22/09 12:12pm]

SUPRMAN said:

I thought unique was being sarcastic by his/her response to missjay. I actually chuckled to myself a lil bit
So tis true then...ohhh....

JayJai said:

i thought everyone knew he did this as he's been doing it for so long now. i suppose if you aren't down the front you might not notice. quite a few established acts do that. mike stipe from REM has a stand with lyrics and he sometimes throws the sheets to the audience after the song has finished, others use teleprompts

RodeoSchro said:

Yup, I've stood next to the lyrics lady a couple of times. I know all the words to the majority of his songs by heart but I don't have to perform them in front of thousands...I'd probably go blank if I had to do that.

I don't know how I remember most of them.

I too saw that mysterious woman with the box of cards at a few of the indigo gigs

Personally, I like it when the artist forgets their own songs, it adds to the performance. I saw KT Tunstall years ago when she did her first big gigs forget her lines - of course the critics were all over her, but I found it endearing and she had a good sense of humour about it too.

More recently people were calling out to Aimee Mann for her to play "Mr Harris". She stumbled through the song, the audience helping her out, and then at the end she confessed to not really agreeing with the lyrics in hindsight!

Great stuff.