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Thread started 08/07/12 8:14am

Astasheiks

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What Elvis song did Prince cover in concert?

I was reading concert reviews once a few years back and read that Prince did a Elvis song at one of his concerts; I don't know if it was a snippet or the full song. Anybody know what song he played?

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Reply #1 posted 08/07/12 8:23am

Genesia

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All Shook Up. He played it at Montreux and the Conga Room in 2009.

We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves.
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Reply #2 posted 08/07/12 8:49am

timmie

he also did jailhouse rock in the sacrifice of victor video

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Reply #3 posted 08/07/12 9:18am

soulyacolia

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And Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear believe it or not!!

if you've gotta pay for things that you've done wrong I've gotta big bill coming at the end of the day- Gil Scott Heron

Prince.org where fans of Prince meet and stay up too late
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Reply #4 posted 08/07/12 9:33am

ufoclub

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In Lovesexy '88 Live, at the piano, I always took it to be a tongue in cheek slght Elvis voice he started using while singing "Strange Relationship"

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Reply #5 posted 08/07/12 2:03pm

madison

remember in SIGN O OF THE TIMES movie/concert .... he was singing FOREVER IN MY LIFE .... OMG he sounded just like ELVIS ...

mexican

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Reply #6 posted 08/07/12 2:06pm

Astasheiks

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See, I knew you Purple people would know, some of the Funksteers on here know some Purple History! lol

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Reply #7 posted 08/07/12 2:11pm

Astasheiks

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soulyacolia said:

And Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear believe it or not!!

Your joking, right?

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Reply #8 posted 08/07/12 2:15pm

artist76

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Astasheiks said:

soulyacolia said:

And Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear believe it or not!!

Your joking, right?

http://princevault.com/in...Teddy_Bear

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Reply #9 posted 08/07/12 2:30pm

artist76

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Here's a relevant quote from Chuck Statler in the interview in Wax Poetics about The Second Coming (was posted in a thread recently):

"Anyhow, we finally blew out a transformer on a utility pole and the power company was called to come fix it. We were down for a few hours and trying to kill time. I remember sitting outside on his steps and he came out with an acoustic guitar. He was entertaining one of the lingerie ladies [Susan Moonsie of Vanity 6] and started doing this Elvis Presley imitation that would have blown any impersonator out the water. It was spot on. He can be informed by any musician out there and, I believe, replicate it."

My guess is, he likes Elvis.

He's written some songs in the style of. "Delirious" of course. I remember he performed that on some TV show, shaking his hips a la Elvis, and also doing the splits, jumping on the piano and sliding toward the camera - he had so much energy, it was an incredible and exciting performance.

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Reply #10 posted 08/07/12 2:37pm

Anotherwontdar
e

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Jailhouse Rock...1995 aftershow maybe?

Every now and then
There comes a time you must defend
Your right to die and live again --
And again, and again...
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Reply #11 posted 08/07/12 2:58pm

SuperSoulFight
er

He did Teddy Bear at the piano in Utrecht in December 1998. teddy
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Reply #12 posted 08/07/12 4:38pm

SuperFurryAnim
al

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artist76 said:

Here's a relevant quote from Chuck Statler in the interview in Wax Poetics about The Second Coming (was posted in a thread recently):

"Anyhow, we finally blew out a transformer on a utility pole and the power company was called to come fix it. We were down for a few hours and trying to kill time. I remember sitting outside on his steps and he came out with an acoustic guitar. He was entertaining one of the lingerie ladies [Susan Moonsie of Vanity 6] and started doing this Elvis Presley imitation that would have blown any impersonator out the water. It was spot on. He can be informed by any musician out there and, I believe, replicate it."

My guess is, he likes Elvis.

He's written some songs in the style of. "Delirious" of course. I remember he performed that on some TV show, shaking his hips a la Elvis, and also doing the splits, jumping on the piano and sliding toward the camera - he had so much energy, it was an incredible and exciting performance.

thats cool! I like Elvis. Didn't care for him as much when I was younger but just like Bowie grew to love his work!!! I think Prince could do a great job covering "thats alright mama"

What are you outraged about today? CNN has not told you yet?
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Reply #13 posted 08/07/12 5:33pm

petes2

for some reason it always comes as a surprise to people, but Prince has always been an Elvis fan. He throws so many other things in his bag that it's easy to miss but if you are a fanatic of both men like I am you can't help but see it. He's done a lot of Elvis in his studio recordings too, Temptation, Delirious, Jack u Off. I'd love to hear him do a bunch of Elvis covers. Times were different then when he was coming up, being an Elvis fan hadn't gotten the radical press that Public Enemy (incorrectly) gave him. Used to be, the top black performers looked up to Elvis, James Brown never claimed he was the best while Elvis was alive, he claimed he was second best, Jackie Wilson started his career imitating Elvis. In fact, Elvis saw him when he was unknown and was so ashamed how well Jackie did "Don't Be Cruel" he wanted to slide under a table.

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Reply #14 posted 08/07/12 7:41pm

2elijah

artist76 said:

Here's a relevant quote from Chuck Statler in the interview in Wax Poetics about The Second Coming (was posted in a thread recently):

"Anyhow, we finally blew out a transformer on a utility pole and the power company was called to come fix it. We were down for a few hours and trying to kill time. I remember sitting outside on his steps and he came out with an acoustic guitar. He was entertaining one of the lingerie ladies [Susan Moonsie of Vanity 6] and started doing this Elvis Presley imitation that would have blown any impersonator out the water. It was spot on. He can be informed by any musician out there and, I believe, replicate it."

My guess is, he likes Elvis.

He's written some songs in the style of. "Delirious" of course. I remember he performed that on some TV show, shaking his hips a la Elvis, and also doing the splits, jumping on the piano and sliding toward the camera - he had so much energy, it was an incredible and exciting performance.

"Delirious" sounds and is more of a Chuck Berry sound to me, especially with Chuck Berry's rockabilly style of music.

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Reply #15 posted 08/07/12 9:25pm

petes2

2elijah said:

artist76 said:

Here's a relevant quote from Chuck Statler in the interview in Wax Poetics about The Second Coming (was posted in a thread recently):

"Anyhow, we finally blew out a transformer on a utility pole and the power company was called to come fix it. We were down for a few hours and trying to kill time. I remember sitting outside on his steps and he came out with an acoustic guitar. He was entertaining one of the lingerie ladies [Susan Moonsie of Vanity 6] and started doing this Elvis Presley imitation that would have blown any impersonator out the water. It was spot on. He can be informed by any musician out there and, I believe, replicate it."

My guess is, he likes Elvis.

He's written some songs in the style of. "Delirious" of course. I remember he performed that on some TV show, shaking his hips a la Elvis, and also doing the splits, jumping on the piano and sliding toward the camera - he had so much energy, it was an incredible and exciting performance.

"Delirious" sounds and is more of a Chuck Berry sound to me, especially with Chuck Berry's rockabilly style of music.

Chuck did country flavored music but by strict definition Rockabilly was white country boys, standup bass, rhythm guitar and electric lead, it was the style Elvis founded in the Sun Sessions. Listen to songs like Mystery Train, Good Rockin' Tonight, Blue Moon of Kentucky, you'll see the similarities.

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Reply #16 posted 08/07/12 10:52pm

chewymusic

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Morris Day said in an interview fairly recently that Elvis had been a big influence on him growing up.

I think he named James Brown and Elvis.

Prince has been playing All Shook Up for at least a few years now. I think mostly in club situations.

It's a great hard rocking version with lots of distorted guitar. It usually sounds like he's having a lot

of fun playing it and I've heard at least one really long drawn out jam of it.

[Edited 8/7/12 22:55pm]

"Hyperactive when I was small, Hyperactive now I'm grown, Hyperactive 'till I'm dead and gone"
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ___

"Midnight is where the day begins"
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Reply #17 posted 08/07/12 11:41pm

kalelvisj

Some of this was covered in a thread about Prince and Elvis a couple of years ago, I think it was titled "why does Prince hate on Elvis" or something like that.

The songs that I know Prince has covered (which others have listed) are "Teddy Bear" (which I have heard, and it is awesome) "All SHook up" and "Jailhouse Rock". I used to know a serious collector who had tons of rehearsal material and she sent me a cassette (way before cdr's!) of Prince and the Revolution warming up with When the Saints Go Marching in and Prince was really working his "Elvis" in that one.

While it isn't a song, you can also see a bit of Elvis in the stage design for 1999, Purple Rain and Nude stage sets. The firemans pole is straight from "Jailhouse Rock". Until I started hearing the covers of Jailhouse Rock, I always assumed it was just a coincidence...

When Purple Rain first hit so big there were Prince magazines all over the place and most of them contained a wonderful quote from Bruce Springsteen talking about how amazing a live performer Prince is and part of the quote was something like "he has an Elvisness to him." Springsteen is a huge Elvis fan so, even if you disagree with his assessment it was meant as a huge compliment.

Personally, I feel the blending of gender rules, fusion of musical styles, collision of the spiritual and sexual, are all traits that can be observed in Prince and Elvis.

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Reply #18 posted 08/08/12 9:23am

BigBen

super bowl media gig... all shook up, also did chuck b's johnny b goode

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Reply #19 posted 08/08/12 11:41am

artist76

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kalelvisj said:

Some of this was covered in a thread about Prince and Elvis a couple of years ago, I think it was titled "why does Prince hate on Elvis" or something like that.

The songs that I know Prince has covered (which others have listed) are "Teddy Bear" (which I have heard, and it is awesome) "All SHook up" and "Jailhouse Rock". I used to know a serious collector who had tons of rehearsal material and she sent me a cassette (way before cdr's!) of Prince and the Revolution warming up with When the Saints Go Marching in and Prince was really working his "Elvis" in that one.

While it isn't a song, you can also see a bit of Elvis in the stage design for 1999, Purple Rain and Nude stage sets. The firemans pole is straight from "Jailhouse Rock". Until I started hearing the covers of Jailhouse Rock, I always assumed it was just a coincidence...

When Purple Rain first hit so big there were Prince magazines all over the place and most of them contained a wonderful quote from Bruce Springsteen talking about how amazing a live performer Prince is and part of the quote was something like "he has an Elvisness to him." Springsteen is a huge Elvis fan so, even if you disagree with his assessment it was meant as a huge compliment.

Personally, I feel the blending of gender rules, fusion of musical styles, collision of the spiritual and sexual, are all traits that can be observed in Prince and Elvis.

^^ I looked up the old thread you mention, and wow it was quite a heated argument. I actually hate those kind of arguments here and elsewhere on the internet, it's so pointless, but at least the posters were civil overall - agree to disagree.

But I wanted to say that I totally agree with YOUR position on that thread.

I really wish I could hear these Prince Elvis covers, but a couple of people have told/warned me about viruses and crap on bootleg type DLs, so I haven't gotten any. Believe me, browsing through the org sure gets me tempted though!

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Reply #20 posted 08/08/12 12:22pm

petes2

ya, I remember that well which is why I tried to truncate my responses here (with a tiny bit of bait). Public Enemy did more damage to Elvis' legacy repeating that crap rumour from the 50's which most likely wasn't even true. PE introduced that dead rumour to a bratty, entitled black generation which rode the hell out of it. Did they ever care to check if it's true or not? no, they just went the way they wanted to go. Chuck D. wrote that he wasn't speaking of Elvis himself but the cult of Elvis if that makes sense. But really, how much credence do you give a guy who runs from controversy when you put his feet to the fire. I still remember how the whole Jewish thing had him hopping and skipping for whitey, doing everything but saying "sorry massa". Before that it was common (hell, my black stepdad educated me on Elvis and his mom before him had original singles from the 50's) to meet black folk who loved Elvis, after that's all they talked about. I don't know about John Wayne but Elvis did as much as anyone to change things in this country as any entertainer did.

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Reply #21 posted 08/08/12 1:19pm

Bohemian67

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He also did 'all shook up' at the Ballroom in Oz. Together with a gorgeous accoustic very simple but refined version of Paisley Park. I was really happy when that arrived! cool All shook up sounded good and the ladies harmonies superb.

"Free URself, B the best that U can B, 3rd Apartment from the Sun, nothing left to fear" Prince Rogers Nelson - Forever in my Life -
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Reply #22 posted 08/08/12 2:26pm

BlackCandle

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Let's not forget Elvis (look-a-like) pops up in the Rock 'n Roll Is Alive video.
...and 99's line: "Dead like Elvis" on FaceDown.
"Had to get off the boat so I could walk on water..."
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Reply #23 posted 08/09/12 1:49am

lovesexy06

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petes2 said:

for some reason it always comes as a surprise to people, but Prince has always been an Elvis fan. He throws so many other things in his bag that it's easy to miss but if you are a fanatic of both men like I am you can't help but see it. He's done a lot of Elvis in his studio recordings too, Temptation, Delirious, Jack u Off. I'd love to hear him do a bunch of Elvis covers. Times were different then when he was coming up, being an Elvis fan hadn't gotten the radical press that Public Enemy (incorrectly) gave him. Used to be, the top black performers looked up to Elvis, James Brown never claimed he was the best while Elvis was alive, he claimed he was second best, Jackie Wilson started his career imitating Elvis. In fact, Elvis saw him when he was unknown and was so ashamed how well Jackie did "Don't Be Cruel" he wanted to slide under a table.

Lol!! This is so funny....... My dad is an 'UBER' Elvis fan.... No expense is spared if he wants an Elvis item, 5 trips to Gracelands ( from Sydney) & many a maxed out credit card, He is a walking Elvis Encyclopeadia. When I told him that my FAV singer was an Elvis fan, He said ' Maybe this Princey does have good taste'. I just think my Dad & I have good taste, just different generations!!!

Prince once tried 2 change his name 2 a symbol so that ur'e mother couldn't find him in the phonebook!
Peace & Be Wild!
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Reply #24 posted 08/09/12 9:54am

kalelvisj

lovesexy06 said:

Lol!! This is so funny....... My dad is an 'UBER' Elvis fan.... No expense is spared if he wants an Elvis item, 5 trips to Gracelands ( from Sydney) & many a maxed out credit card, He is a walking Elvis Encyclopeadia. When I told him that my FAV singer was an Elvis fan, He said ' Maybe this Princey does have good taste'. I just think my Dad & I have good taste, just different generations!!!

THe story about your dad reminds me of having that moment with my mom who is a huge Elvis fan. Like many parents at the time, she wasn't "amused" by his lyrics being so dirty...but she said he had a certain "something" during "The Beautiful Ones", she was especially impressed with the ending (Do you want him, or do you want me, because I want you!) in which she said "It is like they took Elvis, James Brown and Janis Joplin and roled them altogether in one performer."

Still she didn't decide she like him until the performance of Purple Rain on the 85 American Music Awards. She loved the energy of it and when he kicked the mike stand over said "now that is rock n roll!!"

Whats funny is since Prince has stopped being "dirty" she doesn't thing he brings his "A" game anymore lol. She did get a great kick out of hearing him do Jailhouse Rock from the Sacrifice of Victor.

SOrry if that was all a bit of digression.

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Reply #25 posted 08/09/12 10:08am

udo

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Astasheiks said:

soulyacolia said:

And Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear believe it or not!!

Your joking, right?

1998 or so...

1998-12-15 Lisbon
1998-12-17 Zaragoza
1998-12-18 Barcelona
1998-12-20 Madrid
1998-12-22 Frankfurt

[Edited 8/9/12 10:10am]

Pills and thrills and daffodils will kill... If you don't believe me or don't get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry.
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Reply #26 posted 08/09/12 1:10pm

kalelvisj

udo said:

Astasheiks said:

Your joking, right?

1998 or so...

1998-12-15 Lisbon
1998-12-17 Zaragoza
1998-12-18 Barcelona
1998-12-20 Madrid
1998-12-22 Frankfurt

[Edited 8/9/12 10:10am]

I firrst heard about Prince doing Teddy Bear at the Paisley Park parties he used to have. If I remember correctly he played it as part of a dance contest he had with audience members. Of all the Elvis songs that he could cover, I did find that one the most surprising.

It just shows how varied and eclectic Prince's taste runs.

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Reply #27 posted 08/09/12 3:52pm

klick2me

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He did Teddy Bear during a club show at Studio 54 in Vegas. I believe the year was 1999. Great cover I must say.


klick
[Edited 8/9/12 15:53pm]
klick
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Reply #28 posted 08/09/12 4:13pm

2elijah

petes2 said:

2elijah said:

"Delirious" sounds and is more of a Chuck Berry sound to me, especially with Chuck Berry's rockabilly style of music.

Chuck did country flavored music but by strict definition Rockabilly was white country boys, standup bass, rhythm guitar and electric lead, it was the style Elvis founded in the Sun Sessions. Listen to songs like Mystery Train, Good Rockin' Tonight, Blue Moon of Kentucky, you'll see the similarities.

I gave to look further into that. Chuck's sound to me was always rock, gospel mixed with rhythm and blues, similar to Sister Rosetta Tharpe. If you check out her vids on youtube you will hear the rock gospel mixed with Blues, that Chuck's music pretty much sounds like with his own styleI know Elvis was a fan of Chuck and James Brown, according to one of JB's autobiography I read sometime ago. Elvis used to frequent black clubs because he fell in love with the 'gospel' and 'blues' sound of Black entertainers and also wanted to learn how they danced. These were James Brown's words not mine. lol

[Edited 8/9/12 16:19pm]

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Reply #29 posted 08/09/12 4:39pm

petes2

2elijah said:

petes2 said:

Chuck did country flavored music but by strict definition Rockabilly was white country boys, standup bass, rhythm guitar and electric lead, it was the style Elvis founded in the Sun Sessions. Listen to songs like Mystery Train, Good Rockin' Tonight, Blue Moon of Kentucky, you'll see the similarities.

I gave to look further into that. Chuck's sound to me was always rock, gospel mixed with rhythm and blues, similar to Sister Rosetta Tharpe. If you check out her vids on youtube you will hear the rock gospel mixed with Blues, that Chuck's music pretty much sounds like with his own styleI know Elvis was a fan of Chuck and James Brown, according to one of JB's autobiography I read sometime ago. Elvis used to frequent black clubs because he fell in love with the 'gospel' and 'blues' sound of Black entertainers and also wanted to learn how they danced. These were James Brown's words not mine. lol

[Edited 8/9/12 16:19pm]

no way man, chuck has said (as if it needed to be said) that country was a big influence. Maybellene, Memphis, many, many others were more country than blues. Everyone at the time was crossing the color line, black and white. Yes Elvis took from blues acts. But anyway as for Prince doing Delirious in a Chuck Berry style, musically, I could see why you would think that but Prince sings vocally in a Elvis way, one thing about chuck, over and above anyone else in the era had brilliant lyrics and perfect pronunciation and diction, he did imitate dialects all over the place but he did it clearly. I'd say Little Red Corvette as a title and metaphor for woman was a more closely derived Chuck inspiration.

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