So my problem with our hero is that as much as I love him, the songs I love the most are the ones he never seems to sing in concert. I've seen him now 3 times (not a lot, I know) but I go knowing full well there is probably no chance of him playing my personal favorites. You can set your clock to hearing Purple Rain, Doves, and Corvette but most "real" Prince fans don't have those tunes in their top 5. At least none that I know. For those of you out there who have followed his career for the past 30+ years, how many of you consider those three to be his top songs. Don't get me wrong. Those are great and they are crowd pleasers. But I'd give my right arm to hear him play my 3 favorites which are: Holy River (I've never met anyone who loves this track as much as me), Girl, and Chocolate Box. I would rather hear those three than any other 10 songs combined. Love our guy but just once I wish I could make his setlist and pick what I wanted to hear. No snippets, just full versions of those three plus: lemon Crush, Interactive, I love you in me, Emale, Glam Slam, The Morning papers, Sometimes it snows in April, Crimson and Clover, It, Hot Thing, Fury, and Guitar. Can you imagine how the message boards would blow up if he did that setlist!!! I'll love Prince until I die, but I would give up Delirious, 1999, Controversy, Let's go Crazy, Raspberry Beret, Diamonds $ Pearls, Most beautiful Girl, and the rest of the "hits" to hear what I think are his greatest songs. Ok, just had to vent to see if anyone else felt the same. Love our guy but love some of his lesser known stuff so much and wish I could see him perform them live.

Well, if you think Chocolate Box is one of his 3 best tracks, the we all better slash our wrists...

Well, Holy River is a song about getting engaged to his long ex wife sooo don't hold your breath on hearing that anytime soon

Girl? Maybe just enjoy the studio version. Has this ever been played live? Ever??

Chocolate Box? Oh dear.

'Girl' has been played absolutely destroyed live in Paris 2009.

Your point is well made. I had the same thought at one of the recent shows....it would be great if he played....but when he did venture into more obscure material, the audience was appropriately less fanatical appearing unfamiliar with what he was playing. It became obvious to me that the majority of people were there for the "hits".

Perhaps as time goes on Prince will add a few gigs in between geared toward those with depth in Princeology.

ha ha, is it wrong that I absolutely love Chocolate Box? It's so funny to me how prince fans (the real ones, not just the ones who enjoyed the purple rain era) have certain songs that they love and certain ones they can't stand. Not sure why I love Choc Box so much. Just do. We all listen to prince, but each one of us "hears' different things in his songs. I certainly don't begrudge anyone for what they like or don't like from the long list of songs he has (by the way, I really like Dinner with Delores which everyone I know seems to hate. Maybe I'm just weird). Really wish I could have seen that paris show. Girl is such a great song. And I guess I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for Holy River. Oh well. By the way, If I'm stranded on a desert island for the remainder of my life and could only have one album to listen to until I die, I'd choose Sign of the Times. Is this a common choice or is there a legit argument for another Prince cd?

Chevon said:

ha ha, is it wrong that I absolutely love Chocolate Box? It's so funny to me how prince fans (the real ones, not just the ones who enjoyed the purple rain era) have certain songs that they love and certain ones they can't stand. Not sure why I love Choc Box so much. Just do. We all listen to prince, but each one of us "hears' different things in his songs. I certainly don't begrudge anyone for what they like or don't like from the long list of songs he has (by the way, I really like Dinner with Delores which everyone I know seems to hate. Maybe I'm just weird). Really wish I could have seen that paris show. Girl is such a great song. And I guess I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for Holy River. Oh well. By the way, If I'm stranded on a desert island for the remainder of my life and could only have one album to listen to until I die, I'd choose Sign of the Times. Is this a common choice or is there a legit argument for another Prince cd?

I don't think Chocolate Box is a bad song. Its not my top ten but I like it. I would love to hear him sing Dorothy Parker, Do u Lie, The Dance, Lavaux, Uptown (Played March 30th it was awesome), and Colonized mind live. I have a longer list than this but I am not going to overrun the thread.

It's so funny to me how prince fans (the real ones, not just the ones who enjoyed the purple rain era) have certain songs that they love and certain ones they can't stand. Not sure why I love Choc Box so much. Just do. We all listen to prince, but each one of us "hears' different things in his songs.

I agree with you. Here on the org I've seen people say stuff like "U should kill yourself" because of what tracks a certain person likes. You have songs that you like and I have songs I like. Pardon me for liking what I like, I didn't know it was against the rules...So I feel your pain...

Chevon said:

So my problem with our hero is that as much as I love him, the songs I love the most are the ones he never seems to sing in concert. I've seen him now 3 times (not a lot, I know) but I go knowing full well there is probably no chance of him playing my personal favorites. You can set your clock to hearing Purple Rain, Doves, and Corvette

When does he ever play When Doves Cry in anything near it's entirety? Or even just outside a sampler set?

Love our guy but just once I wish I could make his setlist and pick what I wanted to hear. No snippets, just full versions of those three plus: lemon Crush, Interactive, I love you in me, Emale, Glam Slam, The Morning papers, Sometimes it snows in April, Crimson and Clover, It, Hot Thing, Fury, and Guitar.

Plays Guitar most gigs, does he not? and as much of it as he does any other song

Can you imagine how the message boards would blow up if he did that setlist!!! I'll love Prince until I die, but I would give up Delirious, 1999, Controversy, Let's go Crazy, Raspberry Beret, Diamonds $ Pearls, Most beautiful Girl, and the rest of the "hits" to hear what I think are his greatest songs. Ok, just had to vent to see if anyone else felt the same. Love our guy but love some of his lesser known stuff so much and wish I could see him perform them live.

when's the last time he actually played those 2 songs aside from snippets as well?

We all have songs we'd like to hear him play but he just doesn't seem interested....

I think the major problem is that there is no happy medium for a prince show and he always tries to find one. He should just do a huge tour of only hits played in their entirety and then be done with them for a few years, play small venues where people expect no hits to be played.... although the fear is that this would simply turn into a set of Sly Stone songs.

Could be an age/health thing as well, he did say on that french tv show (or was it a newspaper?) that he doesn't like to tour anymore and no one really knows what his health is like. The hip rumours seemed to be semi-confirmed there a year or two ago but then completely went away again.

[Edited 4/4/11 9:35am]

lPoeticl said:

Chevon said:

ha ha, is it wrong that I absolutely love Chocolate Box? It's so funny to me how prince fans (the real ones, not just the ones who enjoyed the purple rain era) have certain songs that they love and certain ones they can't stand. Not sure why I love Choc Box so much. Just do. We all listen to prince, but each one of us "hears' different things in his songs. I certainly don't begrudge anyone for what they like or don't like from the long list of songs he has (by the way, I really like Dinner with Delores which everyone I know seems to hate. Maybe I'm just weird). Really wish I could have seen that paris show. Girl is such a great song. And I guess I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for Holy River. Oh well. By the way, If I'm stranded on a desert island for the remainder of my life and could only have one album to listen to until I die, I'd choose Sign of the Times. Is this a common choice or is there a legit argument for another Prince cd?

I don't think Chocolate Box is a bad song. Its not my top ten but I like it. I would love to hear him sing Dorothy Parker, Do u Lie, The Dance, Lavaux, Uptown (Played March 30th it was awesome), and Colonized mind live. I have a longer list than this but I am not going to overrun the thread.

It's so funny to me how prince fans (the real ones, not just the ones who enjoyed the purple rain era) have certain songs that they love and certain ones they can't stand. Not sure why I love Choc Box so much. Just do. We all listen to prince, but each one of us "hears' different things in his songs.

I agree with you. Here on the org I've seen people say stuff like "U should kill yourself" because of what tracks a certain person likes. You have songs that you like and I have songs I like. Pardon me for liking what I like, I didn't know it was against the rules...So I feel your pain...

& you should just ignore em sis, who really gives a flyin' fucc what 'they' think, it's what you and I think or what our own personal points of view are. That's why we interact like we do (here).

Keeping in the same vien. I feel as long as Prince plays 'Sexy Dancer' at so said show I attend, I usually leave happy. I don't expect a obscure show with songs like 'Something in The Water'. It's cool if he does it but, it's not expected. Most people that show up to the arena shows are 'casual fans'. When he has the after-party, that's where you wanna be, that's when he plays that obscure track you been salivating for, ya know ...

Big Bro to the rescue...

You don't sell tickets on obscure songs. No one remembers any 90's songs except for Most Beautiful', Gett Off, Diamonds, and Cream, anything past Diamonds and Pearls is pretty much lost in time to anyone outside the Org.