Prince once told in an interview that "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" grew out of jamming "Head" live (must have been around the Emancipation -era interviews). I've been wondering that comment for quite a while now since if you've ever heard any of the Parade -era live recordings they were still playing "Head" in its original form, but instead many of the horn parts that were included on the SOTT version are identical to those played during the live version of "A Love Bizarre". Yet more interestingly when they played "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" in Paris - and this is the version they used as a basis for the recorded version - it was still more or less an instrumental. The sung parts they later overdubbed in the studio. Might be completely anorak, but this does fascinate me.

So has anyone ever heard a version of "Head" that would have reminded of the structure or the composition of "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" to back up Prince's comment?

Novabreaker said:

I've heard several concerts on the Parade tour prior to the August 25th concert that had musical elements of I.G.B.A.B.N.

In fact it goes back even further then that...but don't ask me for specific dates, hardcore dudes will know what i mean.

Where's BorisFishPaw when you need him?

Anji said:

Yeah, I heard that too. I'm sure Prince is quite correct saying that it evolved out of jamming Head. Though Beautiful Night is quite different from Head on some very crucial basic levels. The chicken grease guitar parts appeared on some later Parade era concert renditions of Head, as did some of the horn parts (though not the main horn motif). The main difference is the backbeat, as Beautiful Night uses the kick on a basic 1 & 3, whereas Head is based on the 1, 2 and a half & 3, which totally alters the character of the song.

Beautiful Night grew out of jamming Head, in the same way that Rock & Roll Is Alive grew out of a jam on Get Wild, and Loveleft Loveright grew out of remixing New Power Generation. Head was the starting position, but the end result is so far removed, that all traces of the original source have been replaced.

how much of the finished track was actually live, and how much overdubs? were there any lead vocals on the live track? what about the rap...?

JonSnow said:

A lot of it was cut live apparently. All the vocals were overdubs, but a lot of the horns and rhythmic parts are quite identical. Of course the rap was famously recorded over telephone!