Which Prince track holds the biggest gap when it comes to: Studio version VS. Live?

Personally I would go for When Doves Cry, never done really well live.

yeah, WDC or batdance

he really needs to rework WDC completely, like a piano or accoustic version or something. he changed LRC well and brought the song back to life instead of being a lame run through of a hit he's bored of playing

I would not like to try to perform Batdance live.....

jonasjonas said:

Which Prince track holds the biggest gap when it comes to: Studio version VS. Live?

Personally I would go for When Doves Cry, never done really well live.

I think the nude tour version is pretty good! He does a lot of stage showmanship and dancing, but then he also gets on the piano for a tiny bit to show off.

Prince said himself that When Doves Cry has too much space to play live, he's right, it's also, thematically, not a feel good, upbeat tune. He played it on the PR tour with a fonky ass bass but usually it's something left out. I played it once at a dueling piano, i've rarely gotten a quieter audience, no applause whatsoever, the owner told me to never play it again.

ufoclub said:

jonasjonas said:

Which Prince track holds the biggest gap when it comes to: Studio version VS. Live?

Personally I would go for When Doves Cry, never done really well live.

I think the nude tour version is pretty good! He does a lot of stage showmanship and dancing, but then he also gets on the piano for a tiny bit to show off.

I think thats because he used the music straight from the album for that tour.

WDC during rehearsals during the "Purple Era" were fantastic!!! I just think that the ONLY band that really knew how to funk WDC out was the Revolution! The SOTT/Lovesexy band wasn't bad at it either, but no one owned it like the Rev!

So, to the OP's comment about about WDC, I say nay.

This was never meant to be a thread on WDC!

More about how a track is performed live, compared to the studio version.

Prince has so many Linn drum machine tracks that really are hard to pull live...like Erotic City.

The list is not short.

Generally, Prince's live version of 'America' pales next to the album version although I really liked the one from 1985 in France!

Oddly enough, I Would Die 4 U sounds totally different live than it does on the album. Which of course is funny since the album version is supposed to be a live version.

Easily, Get Off or If I Was Your Girlfriend.

I love the version of Gett Off that's on the Rave concert. Best performance of the song I've seen (minus the 23 scriptures part, I mean the music). As well, If I Was Your Girlfriend's bass pops and rumbles live in a way that you just can't hear on the record. I've always wondered why the bass was so drowned out by the drums on that track, yet the live versions always have the bass pulled way up front, popping and bouncing like its the centerpiece of the song.

Edit: Additionally, I also prefer the ACT I version of Raspberry Beret to the album version. Only slight differences, but it's just a bit more friendly and bouncy and less rigid and 1999-sounding like the album version is.

[Edited 1/9/11 16:42pm]

Spinlight said:

Easily, Get Off or If I Was Your Girlfriend.

I love the version of Gett Off that's on the Rave concert. Best performance of the song I've seen (minus the 23 scriptures part, I mean the music). As well, If I Was Your Girlfriend's bass pops and rumbles live in a way that you just can't hear on the record. I've always wondered why the bass was so drowned out by the drums on that track, yet the live versions always have the bass pulled way up front, popping and bouncing like its the centerpiece of the song.

Edit: Additionally, I also prefer the ACT I version of Raspberry Beret to the album version. Only slight differences, but it's just a bit more friendly and bouncy and less rigid and 1999-sounding like the album version is.

[Edited 1/9/11 16:42pm]

Prince has often let the bass drum be the only deep bass on his studio stuff in the 80's, and he EQ's the bass guitar to pass only midrange and treble to sound almost cartoon funky. It's one of his signature sounds... in the case of When Doves Cry he put the bass frequencies in the drums completely.

"If I Was Your Girlfriend" studio version has that completely unique Prince sound with the strange scifi AM radio humming vibe that is a theme of that particular album (SOTT). The concert version is a more traditionally arranged sound with more traditional energy.

I've always preferred the live renditions of "Shhh" as opposed to the studio track.

Fury! The live version is wayyy better.

wdc rehersal from the pr rain era is excellent

tha ballad of dorothy parker is my pick, studio one is waay better.

Kiss was never great live EXCEPT on Arsenio back in 1991. That arrangement was killer!

It niggles me when the live version is super-duper awesome, like Noon Rendezvous. Makes me pine for the studio track to be more like the live version, since I'm more interested in studio work than live shows.

jonasjonas said:

Which Prince track holds the biggest gap when it comes to: Studio version VS. Live?

Personally I would go for When Doves Cry, never done really well live.

That's because he's never done it the way it was intended - as a bluegrass song.

joyinrepetition said:

Kiss was never great live EXCEPT on Arsenio back in 1991. That arrangement was killer!

I think The Act concerts of 93 had the same arrangement but with great dramatic horns and it went into Irrisistible Bitch.

jonasjonas said:

This was never meant to be a thread on WDC!

More about how a track is performed live, compared to the studio version.

Prince has so many Linn drum machine tracks that really are hard to pull live...like Erotic City.

The list is not short.

My favorite version of Erotic City live was at his birthday show 1st Ave 1984 but it was a seriously hard rock version, after hearing that one it's hard to settle into the studio-live cut, but the Lovesexy live was a good attempt the theatrics worked

joyinrepetition said:

Kiss was never great live EXCEPT on Arsenio back in 1991. That arrangement was killer!

yeah, Kiss doesn't work well with me but the Revolution did rip it good at the Minnesota Music Awards in 1986 and they pulled off the extended version really good. Since it sounded a lot like the album (which the Revolution seemed to do well) I loved it.

surprisingly 'in my opinion' Christopher Tracy's Parade & Around the World in a Day on the Parade tour were pretty good live.

OldFriends4Sale said:

surprisingly 'in my opinion' Christopher Tracy's Parade & Around the World in a Day on the Parade tour were pretty good live.

Yeah those songs come off well live, ATWIAD is full of energy!

[Edited 1/11/11 10:25am]

[Edited 1/11/11 10:25am]

On the One night alone... live disc set is my favorite version of Nothing Compares 2 U.

Days Of Wild live on Crystal Ball is way better than the unreleased studio version. There is something musically tired about the studio version. Also he trying to straight up rap on the studio version and we all know that's always turns out bad for Prince. On the CB live version he's doing more of a rap-singing type thing, like housequake.

therat said:

Days Of Wild live on Crystal Ball is way better than the unreleased studio version. There is something musically tired about the studio version. Also he trying to straight up rap on the studio version and we all know that's always turns out bad for Prince. On the CB live version he's doing more of a rap-singing type thing, like housequake.

I always found most live versions of Days of Wild to be too conservative and conventional musically, like normal energetic live funk. The studio version is something more inspired and original to my ears. He sounds laid back, the beat is different. It sounds like a military beat with little beads of robot funkiness injected with electronic synths. I also think his laid back "cool" vocal take is startling and nice.

The first live version of Days of Wild publicized however was different because they processed the sound to make it sound huge, like a giant shouted funk anthem, and that particular live version is interesting to me (The Beautiful Experience version).