One of my favorite Prince songs that seemingly never worked live is "Controversy". He's used many different arrangements but listening to various performances of it from the Second Coming, 1999, Parade and Lovesexy tours, it never seems to capture the funky rawness of the studio version. Another one is When Doves Cry, but it's easy to see why that's may be a tough one to pull off.

So for this conversation, what songs does he perform live that fall short of the studio versions?

I agree about When Doves Cry. Also, I've never heard a live rendition of Kiss or Alphabet St. that do the songs justice. As strong or powerful as those songs seem, the subtleties are what make them so good, and it's apparently impossible to recapture certain kinds of studio magic on a stage. Reconfiguring those tunes as solo acoustic numbers works though, but obviously changes the dynamic of the original.

When Doves Cry never does justice to the CD version. I AGREE! I find that hard to believe sometimes. But, eye can see why it is does not work live. Haha.

Satisfied (But that song does not really hit it on the CD either..lol)

I guess Musicology? BUT, once again, it does not really hit me on the CD either. It seems like I'm running out of choices here. Haha. It really depends ON the live setting, seeing as Prince can make a song on CD that is not as good, KILLER live. He did this well with 'Laydown'. I can't really dig the album version but live it's CRAZY Good. It depends ultimately on the performance of the song that day.

BUT, I have to disagree with you on Controversy! I love it live! Also Alphabet Street and Kiss. I think they are captured wonderfully.

Purple Rain also sounds better live than on the CD for me. Haha..In fact I can only listen to Purple Rain while watching him performing it live, never have I listened to it on CD since I have seen so many performances of it LIVE. Haha

squirrelgrease said:

I agree about When Doves Cry. Also, I've never heard a live rendition of Kiss or Alphabet St. that do the songs justice. As strong or powerful as those songs seem, the subtleties are what make them so good, and it's apparently impossible to recapture certain kinds of studio magic on a stage. Reconfiguring those tunes as solo acoustic numbers works though, but obviously changes the dynamic of the original.

Here's the funny thing -- I think most of his minimalist jams don't work as well live; respects to you EyeJester though since you disagree . Kiss, Alphabet St., Doves, It, Gett Off (IMO), Black Sweat, maybe Bob George if you want to stretch it out, however Sign 'O' the Times rocked it (especially the MTV version from '85).

EyeJester7 said:

When Doves Cry never does justice to the CD version. I AGREE! I find that hard to believe sometimes. But, eye can see why it is does not work live. Haha.

Satisfied (But that song does not really hit it on the CD either..lol)

I guess Musicology? BUT, once again, it does not really hit me on the CD either. It seems like I'm running out of choices here. Haha. It really depends ON the live setting, seeing as Prince can make a song on CD that is not as good, KILLER live. He did this well with 'Laydown'. I can't really dig the album version but live it's CRAZY Good. It depends ultimately on the performance of the song that day.

BUT, I have to disagree with you on Controversy! I love it live! Also Alphabet Street and Kiss. I think they are captured wonderfully.

Purple Rain also sounds better live than on the CD for me. Haha..In fact I can only listen to Purple Rain while watching him performing it live, never have I listened to it on CD since I have seen so many performances of it LIVE. Haha

Strange choice about Purple Rain, as a studio version doesn't exist - what's on the CD is itself a live performance.

WDC on the Lovesey tour is about the best I've heard it performed. I think its when he has other people being doing the harmonies, they just don't seem to pull it off as well. But, on some tracks, he uses backing tracks of his own vocal harmonies, so I'm not sure why he just doesn't do that with WDC. His low voice on the cd version for "How can you just leave me standing...." section, is just so, I dunno, HIM and has tonnes of character - no-one else is gonna sound like that and, of course, he can only sing with one voice live.

A lot of the falsetto/rock ones, because except for the very high notes, it is not as powerful

Uptown comes to mind

The versions of Let's Go Crazy/Kiss he was doing from 91 and on never worked for me. However I think When Doves Cry on the Nude tour was great live, Michael B's drumming on it was awesome. The way it was performed prior always seemed a little too fast.

I agree with WDC not cutting it except for the 1984 rehearsal and birthday show. They killed it on those versions.

Mindflux said:

EyeJester7 said:

When Doves Cry never does justice to the CD version. I AGREE! I find that hard to believe sometimes. But, eye can see why it is does not work live. Haha.

Satisfied (But that song does not really hit it on the CD either..lol)

I guess Musicology? BUT, once again, it does not really hit me on the CD either. It seems like I'm running out of choices here. Haha. It really depends ON the live setting, seeing as Prince can make a song on CD that is not as good, KILLER live. He did this well with 'Laydown'. I can't really dig the album version but live it's CRAZY Good. It depends ultimately on the performance of the song that day.

BUT, I have to disagree with you on Controversy! I love it live! Also Alphabet Street and Kiss. I think they are captured wonderfully.

Purple Rain also sounds better live than on the CD for me. Haha..In fact I can only listen to Purple Rain while watching him performing it live, never have I listened to it on CD since I have seen so many performances of it LIVE. Haha

Strange choice about Purple Rain, as a studio version doesn't exist - what's on the CD is itself a live performance.

WDC on the Lovesey tour is about the best I've heard it performed. I think its when he has other people being doing the harmonies, they just don't seem to pull it off as well. But, on some tracks, he uses backing tracks of his own vocal harmonies, so I'm not sure why he just doesn't do that with WDC. His low voice on the cd version for "How can you just leave me standing...." section, is just so, I dunno, HIM and has tonnes of character - no-one else is gonna sound like that and, of course, he can only sing with one voice live.

O! Now that I think about it, it is a live performance! You are right! Haha, let me put it like this. Every time he performes 'Purple Rain' it gets better and better. I think the break out performance of this was on the 'American Music Awards 1985' It was one of the best! I can see that being on the CD, instead of the one that is there, it just sounds very weak, but it's still a good one nonetheless!

when the doves are a crying

Altho the 1990 nude version tour version is pretty cool

but for me the ultimate not working live compared to the original studio version is of course

if i was your girlfriend

Come to think of it, I've never heard a live version of Adore that's made me think, "wow".

Well, there are only few songs in prince s catalog that he is able to recreate live! Sorry, that s true!

Most of his songs sound shit without using a computer or something else, for example 1999, WDC, Alphabet st. U got the look, even cream.....

Once i was talking about prince with a very good musician about prince beats and ohter stuff and he only told me that Prince has some good songs but there are lot of beats that a real drummer would not play live because they make no sense...and that that stuff is just silly....He said, that he ist solo entertainer..(but not in a good way)...........I still love prince s music but i can understand what my friend was talking about!!!!!

Funklov said:

Lets Go Crazy has not sounded all that good since the PR tour. it should be a great live track but somehow the groove has been lost on it over the years and sounds corny these days. With the exception of the Livesexy version, Prince has also never performed the guitar solo quite as well as he did on the PR tour.

It sounds so empty live..like lite beer compared to Guiness if that makes sense

alphachannel said:

One of my favorite Prince songs that seemingly never worked live is "Controversy". He's used many different arrangements but listening to various performances of it from the Second Coming, 1999, Parade and Lovesexy tours, it never seems to capture the funky rawness of the studio version. Another one is When Doves Cry, but it's easy to see why that's may be a tough one to pull off.

So for this conversation, what songs does he perform live that fall short of the studio versions?

Disagree, Controversy sounded really good, at least from what I heard on the European leg of his latest tour.

When Doves Cry was solid on the Nude tour AND the LoveSexy tour.

Nothing compares to U, for one, falls short to me. And 1999.

And LRC, Kiss plus the whole Let's go crazy, 1999, Purple Rain medley on the SOTT tour.

I don't like Kiss or PR on the Parade tour much either. But Kiss is wonderful on the Nude tour and the latest tour and so was/is LRC, Controversy, Let's go Crazy and Purple Rain.

"pink cashmere" was a bit disappointing.

misiu said:

Well, there are only few songs in prince s catalog that he is able to recreate live! Sorry, that s true!

Most of his songs sound shit without using a computer or something else, for example 1999, WDC, Alphabet st. U got the look, even cream.....

Once i was talking about prince with a very good musician about prince beats and ohter stuff and he only told me that Prince has some good songs but there are lot of beats that a real drummer would not play live because they make no sense...and that that stuff is just silly....He said, that he ist solo entertainer..(but not in a good way)...........I still love prince s music but i can understand what my friend was talking about!!!!!

Complete rubbish, frankly! Sorry, that's true.

I don't like any of the live versions of "When Doves Cry" that I have heard.That song loses something in a live setting.

I dunno . . . he did pretty good with this version of WDC live

http://www.dailymotion.co...rel-page-3

jonylawson said:

but for me the ultimate not working live compared to the original studio version is of course

if i was your girlfriend

In the past I might agree with this one, but the new live arrangement he does of this song is the shit. I love it.

motherfunka said:

The versions of Let's Go Crazy/Kiss he was doing from 91 and on never worked for me. However I think When Doves Cry on the Nude tour was great live, Michael B's drumming on it was awesome. The way it was performed prior always seemed a little too fast.

Yes I was gong to say that.. only good When Doves Cry live version was from the Nude Tour. Watch the Tokyo DVD

N2Spontaneity said:

I dunno . . . he did pretty good with this version of WDC live

http://www.dailymotion.co...rel-page-3

Yes that's the one we are talking about 1990 Nude Tour Tokyo

I prefer the studio version of Beginning Endlessly. It doesn't sound that great live.

Strange Relationship, it's good live, but it's not as good as the studio version