Prince's Paisley Park gig

By Jon Bream

Prince, I guess we hardly knew you.

Thirty years into his career, the Minnesota icon showed his faithful something new Saturday night at Paisley Park in Chanhassen: It was his smoothest (read most efficiently run) show there ever.

The show advertised for 11 p.m. actually started at 11:10, unheard of at Paisley, where shows typically have started whenever Prince feels like it (read 1 a.m. at the earliest). For the first time, he even offered a free shuttle-bus service so people could leave their vehicles at a nearby park-and-ride and take a plush bus for a 8-minute drive to Paisley. How slick was that?

Late-night shows were commonplace at Paisley in the late 1990s but Prince had not done any announced shows there since 2004 after his Musicology Tour concerts at Xcel Energy Center. Those soirees cost $50 whereas Saturday's gig (which was announced late Friday afternoon) cost $31.21 for fan-club members and $40 for others. Many of the people at Paisley this time seemed to be first-timers for the late-night Purple experience.

How was the show? Prince played 10 minutes short of three hours -- without changing his outfit. That's a first. My quickie review (a full review will be posted later) is that he showed more versatility and musicality in the first hour than Michael Jackson did in his entire career. Prince started with a bunch of tunes from this year's "Lotusflow3r" collection and then he paraded through his hits, especially from the 1980s. In fact, I don't recall one tune from the '90s and only "Feel 4 U" from the '70s.

With his horn-less band, Prince has never sounded funkier at Paisley. He was talkative and humorous, loose and spontaneous, calling out songs and arrangements as well as an occasional "so-low" for himself on guitar. He saluted the Time, the Doobie Brothers and the Jackson 5 in song and verbally acknowledged his debt to James Brown, the Jacksons, Chaka Khan, Rufus, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Joni Mitchell and Tower of Power. His pal Larry Graham sat in on bass for a series of Sly & the Family Stone tunes, and backup singer Shelby J stepped out front on a couple of selections, most notably "The Arms of an Angel."

But this show was about Prince and his love of funk and his guitar prowess. He even offered a little "country western" guitar passage, as he put it, and one of his more passionate versions of "Purple Rain" to close the evening.

http://www.startribune.co...31187.html

dothejump said:

In poor taste Jon Bream,

Crapy review....I hope you paid for your ticket and donated some clothes to the charity

I agree London Style. Putting one down to put another up is just not in good taste.

LondonStyle said:

Actually the review is very positive...don't be so over sensitive...

Was Jon Bream wearing a disguise, or what? Since when can he get into Paisley Park? Was CJ there too?

101 said:

I'm not it's to do with being a professional, MJ was, Prince is and Jon needs to learn to become one ... sh*t we can all write crap like that on the org ...why should he get the gig...

I hope the actual party goers have a short sleep and come and spill the beans soon.
[Edited 10/25/09 5:18am]

Intelligent people don't need to put a person down in order to hype and/or put another person up. Period.

Bohemian67 said:

Whatever. The Truth is the truth. Not that I was there to hear it, but before half a second passed, I believed him. Mike was great at what he did....blah blah blah. Mike was never great at having a diverse musical expression.

I think that sentiment is expressed. He was only using Mike great career as a refrence point to illustrate where Princes. He never said in comparison to Mike's "crappy" career. He only used a great career to draw a refrence point with another career that was great in different aspects.

Quit wining over what is only might be the equivalent of a pin prick for a blood sugar test.

BobGeorge909 said:

Well, you're interpretation illustrates your opinion. The author compared Michael Jackson's musicianship to Prince's. He never compared careers. To me, for example, Jackson is the greatest entertainer of all time and he showed more charisma in the first hour of the Bad Tour than Prince in his whole career. By the time Michael was 13, he was already a better entertainer than Prince ever was, is or will be.

To sum up,nobody compared careers or overall quality.
However, I, as a person with a IQ above 50, think that a music critic shouldn't put one person down in order to put another up.

I don't wish to start a MJ vs Prince discussion, because, in my opinion, both are equally good and the best of the best. Prince is the better musician and is more eclectic while Michael is "the" showman. BTW, both are weirdos.
[Edited 10/25/09 5:01am]

ouch..

It sounds like a great time...I wonder how many people came.

BobGeorge909 said:

So why did he not use say Elvis, Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen ... artist that have very little diverse musical expression?

Oh that's because he'd get his ass kicked by the so called "music writers association"

Yeah i said it.....

oh man all of this is just screaming for a US tour come 2010 oh yeah baby

god...u Mike die-hards are impossible.

LondonStyle said:

That's true. Besides, I think Michael has musical diversity: he included soul, bubblegum soul, Pop, R&B, disco, rock and New Jack Swing in his music.
It's not "cool" to criticize Bruce and Elvis, you know? These two are, in my point of view- and along with U2- the most overrated acts in music history. There is nothing good about them.
[Edited 10/25/09 5:28am]
[Edited 10/25/09 5:28am]

BobGeorge909 said:

Just because I defended the man doesn't mean I'm "an impossible die-hard blind fan".

MOL said:

That's my point guys like jon bream take cheap shot's at MJ but won't go near Elvis for fear of losing his job...

If he had any balls he would compare Bob Dylan and Prince in terms of "musical expression" but then he would also need to know what he was talking about..

For me a music critic has to know something about music, not just sit on the fence and look over ... or go the the first gig of an up and coming artist and claim "god like status" cause you saw him first....

It's not like he had to get on a plane and go half way around the world and track the guy (prince) down ....

BobGeorge909 said:

and you "trendy" die-hard muso's are so impossible ....it' don't matter if you have 10,000 records , 40,000 cd's or 2 million downloads .....

Can u dance to the beat ?

Anyone seen Jon Bream dance .....

BobGeorge909 said:

Name calling is just a sign that you've got nothing left in the tank to back up your views. The easy way out by just labelling people.

I reckon if Prince saw that line of the review after he'd spent time paying tribute to the Jacksons, including MJ, he wouldn't like it either.

Prince and MJ. Both in a class of their own.
[Edited 10/25/09 5:40am]

I realise the man just died and all. That sux. It's not a cool thing. But crimony!...are people supposed to kiss his ass for all time cuz he could dance and sing?

John Bream wrote an article about Prince. He didn't set out to Kiss Mikes ass when he wrote it. He set out to state his emotions. Why should he hold back expressing this emotion because of yours.

He wasn't setting out to posthumously assassinate Mike, and he didn't do as such. He simply drew a comparison between what are probably his 2 favourite entertainers.

There ARE negative things to be said about Michael Jackson, he is ONLY human. People should be able to say them with out being judged as bad people for it.

I reckon it doesn''t matter WHAT i say, I'll be "demonized" so to speak, cuz I'm not all "hail to the king all mighty" and shit. To each their own...as long as U don't take mine.

BobGeorge909 said:

And therein lies the key to the equation. It was just a bit simple "unintelligent" to compare two greats, which definitely shed MJ's career in a bad light, plus distasteful, considering the one recently passed away.

BobGeorge909 said:

What i like doing is reading between the lines ....sometimes you get all your answers there ....

John Bream was lazy .... he could of used "Elvis" or "Dylan" he should have used "Dylan" as he's from the same town/city but he knew he would be ripped to bits by Kiss Ass Dylan fans (most are music critics) ...

Bohemian67 said:

Very good point!

BobGeorge909 said:

Nobody's claiming you have to kiss Mike's white ass. We are just saying that the comparison was desnecessary and unfair.
[Edited 10/25/09 6:08am]

MOL said:

WHY was it unnecessary(right?) or unfair? WHY is a comparrison between MJ and P unfair?

is it Unfair to draw a comparrison between P's musical ability and Madonna's, or Bruce's...why is it unfair to draw a comparrison between P and MJ. That's illogical.

Bohemian67 said:

simple=unintelligent


good to know, thanks for the insight...so I suppose the wheel is unintelligent. that's as simple as it gets.

I posted this review to talk about the concert but since it turns out to a Prince/Michael Jackson thread here is something else by Jon Bream:

Jacko, Prince rivalry until the tragic end

"Michael Jackson considered Prince his rival back in the 1980s when "Thriller" and "Purple Rain" were ruling the charts and both superstars were selling out concerts night after night.

As Jacko rehearsed for his 50-night comeback tour this summer at London's O2 Arena, he was still thinking about Prince, who had done 21 nights at the O2 in 2007.

In a cover story about Jackson's new farewell film "This Is It" (opening Oct. 28) in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, Randy Phillips of AEG Live (the tour promoter) recalls a discussion with Michael about adding another (expensive) special effect to the $24 million production. Jacko told his team that he wanted to recreate Victoria Falls in southern Africa, one of the world's largest waterfalls, on the stage. Kenny Ortega, director of Jacko's tour as well as all the High School Musical films, tried to talk him out of it.

Phillips told EW: "I was ready to jump off the balcony of my office. We went and met with Michael and Kenny said, 'Michael, you've got to stop. We've got an incredible show; we don't need any more vignettes.' Michael said, 'But Kenny, God channels this through me at night. I can't sleep because I'm so supercharged.' Kenny said, 'But Michael, we have to finish. Can't God take a vacation?' Without missing a beat, Michael said, 'You don't understand -- if I'm not there to receive these ideas,God might give them to Prince."

http://www.startribune.co...3LGDiO7aiU