I made another thread about this earlier but it got locked because supposedly it sounded like I was asking where to find bootlegs and such. However, I was just wondering has Prince ever actually performed this song live. I don't know why he decided to lip sync those performances with Mayte.

He played it relatively regularly on the Love 4 1 Another and Jam Of The Year tours in '97/'98. Plus it sneaked its way into the odd piano and sampler sets every now and then in later years, but mostly as an instrumental segue. But yeah, it's pretty rare that he does it, given how big a song it was.

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[Edited 12/27/12 20:18pm]

It seems to be tough for him to sing it live. He started singing it in his normal register very early on (like the remix on the EP).

The melody is not complicated, but you'll really have to hit the notes perfectly or it'll sound pretty bad (anyone's that tried it and recorded the outcome should know ).

Seriously though, the live versions were quite bad by his standards.

In addition to Toejam's comments, if you look up the song on PrinceVault, it shows when it was performed regularly on tour or occasionally in shows (right-hand side of page):

http://www.princevault.co..._The_World

novabrkr said:

It seems to be tough for him to sing it live. He started singing it in his normal register very early on (like the remix on the EP).

The melody is not complicated, but you'll really have to hit the notes perfectly or it'll sound pretty bad (anyone's that tried it and recorded the outcome should know ).

Seriously though, the live versions were quite bad by his standards.

I was thinking it might be tough for him but it is quite similar in pitch and register to The Beautiful Ones in the verses (the bridge is obviously insane) and he can sing that live no problem.

I agree as someone said, it is a difficult song to sing. LOL

I mean, he hits notes he probably did not think he could if he listened to it again...lol

So he decides to put it, into his sampler set..It is much easier that way. Haha

dandan said:

novabrkr said:

It seems to be tough for him to sing it live. He started singing it in his normal register very early on (like the remix on the EP).

The melody is not complicated, but you'll really have to hit the notes perfectly or it'll sound pretty bad (anyone's that tried it and recorded the outcome should know ).

Seriously though, the live versions were quite bad by his standards.

I was thinking it might be tough for him but it is quite similar in pitch and register to The Beautiful Ones in the verses (the bridge is obviously insane) and he can sing that live no problem.

The pitch and register is not all there is to it. The melody of TMBGITW is just the same simple motif getting repeated throughout the song. It's really the way he slides from one note to another and the way he phrases it during different sections that makes the entire song. "The Beautiful Ones" is a song that allows far much more deviation from the original melody.

I can't really recall him ever performing TMBGITW with his falsetto. Not even when the song was "fresh".

awful song. the musical equivalent of a sugar sandwich. sickly sweet and likely to give you worms.

it was awful live too during the "gold" tour, totally anti climactic after the stomp of "days of wild" and "now".

I can't put up with it. Live or from the studio. Feckin orrible.