I've had a regained appreciation for Take Me With U as of late and it just occured to me that I don't ever remember hearing Prince performing the entire song live. I've seen it four times from the Purple Rain tour and various times in the Take Me With U / Raaspberry Beret medley and I wonder has he ever gotten to the actual bridge.. "I don't care if we spend the night at your mansion etc..." part? I love the funked up jam they would do after the second chorus during the Purple Rain tour but from a songwriters point of view the bridge (or pre-chorus as some would call it) works so well .. it be nice to hear it live.

bigben07 said:

I've had a regained appreciation for Take Me With U as of late and it just occured to me that I don't ever remember hearing Prince performing the entire song live. I've seen it four times from the Purple Rain tour and various times in the Take Me With U / Raaspberry Beret medley and I wonder has he ever gotten to the actual bridge.. "I don't care if we spend the night at your mansion etc..." part? I love the funked up jam they would do after the second chorus during the Purple Rain tour but from a songwriters point of view the bridge (or pre-chorus as some would call it) works so well .. it be nice to hear it live.

He plays the bridge nowadays.

Not only did he start playing the entire song (including the bridge) starting on the "One Night Alone...Live" tour, he actually added a chord in the bridge.

The original version had one chord (an Fmaj7) throughout the first two measures of the first two lines of the bridge ("I don't care if we spend the night in your mansion" and "I don't care if we spend the night on the town"). But starting in 2001, he added a G/A chord for the second measure of those lines ("spend the night in your mansion" and "spend the night on the town"). Listen to both versions and you'll see what I mean.

I think it's just unbelievably awesome that Prince would take a minor hit song that was 17 years old at the time, and add one little chord to a small part of the bridge.

He did have the bridge on the Nude Tour. He at least played it on the Nudity bootleg, so that was 1990. From the Purple Rush stuff I have, I cannot find one where he did play the bridge, but I feel like he did play it on the Purple Rain tour at some point. My bet might be on the time or two that Apollonia popped on stage w/ him and sang the song.

ernestsewell said:

He did have the bridge on the Nude Tour. He at least played it on the Nudity bootleg, so that was 1990. From the Purple Rush stuff I have, I cannot find one where he did play the bridge, but I feel like he did play it on the Purple Rain tour at some point. My bet might be on the time or two that Apollonia popped on stage w/ him and sang the song.

Yeah, he did the whole song live in the Purple Rain tour. He even released a video to MTV of the live performance of the whole song.

RodeoSchro said:

Yeah, he did the whole song live in the Purple Rain tour. He even released a video to MTV of the live performance of the whole song.

Not entirely true.

For most of the tour, he performed only the first couple of verses and choruses, and then went into the extended jam. That is evidenced a lot on the Purple Rush series of bootlegs, which documents and chronicles the Purple Rain era with concerts, outtakes, one-off appearances, etc.

The MTV video you speak of is the official video, which was filmed in Atlanta, GA. (The audio from the whole show is on Purple Rush Volume 4 Disk 3.) He did not perform the bridge in that video, or on that stop of the tour. However, during the extended jam portion, he played licks from "Controversy", but that was the only variance of the song.

^

The live promo video for Take Me With U originates from one of the Houston, TX shows (not one of the circulating concerts).

To the best of my knowledge, Take Me With U began on the PR tour as part of the piano medley. In January 1985 he dropped it from the piano medley and added it as a full-band performance after Little Red Corvette, however it was never played complete with the bridge at any point of the tour.

As far as Apples appearing onstage, I believe she (they = Apollonia 6) only made 1 appearance in the opening week's Detroit shows during 'Baby I'm A Star'.

thebumpsquad said:

^

The live promo video for Take Me With U originates from one of the Houston, TX shows (not one of the circulating concerts).

To the best of my knowledge, Take Me With U began on the PR tour as part of the piano medley. In January 1985 he dropped it from the piano medley and added it as a full-band performance after Little Red Corvette, however it was never played complete with the bridge at any point of the tour.

As far as Apples appearing onstage, I believe she (they = Apollonia 6) only made 1 appearance in the opening week's Detroit shows during 'Baby I'm A Star'.

I was at three of the six Houston "Purple Rain" concerts. If memory serves, he played "Take Me With U" in its entirety at only one of those three shows. It was my favorite song.

thebumpsquad said:

^

The live promo video for Take Me With U originates from one of the Houston, TX shows (not one of the circulating concerts).

To the best of my knowledge, Take Me With U began on the PR tour as part of the piano medley. In January 1985 he dropped it from the piano medley and added it as a full-band performance after Little Red Corvette, however it was never played complete with the bridge at any point of the tour.

As far as Apples appearing onstage, I believe she (they = Apollonia 6) only made 1 appearance in the opening week's Detroit shows during 'Baby I'm A Star'.

You are correct about it starting off as part of the piano medley.

Apollonia 6 were at least at the Syracuse, NY show as well.