Lately, I've been on an overly-enthusiastic mid-1990s / Gold-era kick and "Days Of Wild" has been my jam.

There's so many wonderful versions of this floating around and I'm curious to hear which versions other people like.

As a side note, when I play this song at one of my jobs, my co-workers who aren't that familiar with the Gold-era always say, "Why haven't I heard this Prince song before? It's amazing!".

Crystal Ball version.

It's a close call between the Crystal Ball version and the Beautiful Experience.

The one on the 1994 radio promo DAT.

Only because it sounds just great. I'm glad that leaked a few years back.

The Beautiful Experience version. I was at the show too, amazing night!

I'm probably in the minority on this, but I really dig the One Mo Jam version from Montreal that he released around the time of The Rainbow Children album.

[Edited 2/16/14 20:00pm]

gold31 said:

The Beautiful Experience version followed by the Crystal Ball version.

motherfunka said:

The Beautiful Experience version. I was at the show too, amazing night!

Yes, I was there too and I still think it's the best!

I've heard many boots of this track and usually, when he releases it officially, the boots are far better....but i think the released Crystal Ball version is the best. It's insane.

In this order:

The 1994 radio promo DAT followed by the Beautiful Exp. then the Crystal Ball version. I also like the 6:07 studio version but quality could be better.

glam slam los angeles - june 26th 1994

SuperSoulFighter said:

I saw him live in Rotterdam in 1998 and he opened with this song! From the first moment you could tell he was enjoying himself as much as we did. The audience started the "oh-we-ow" chant. Then Larry joined him and they started jamming on Thank You. Back when the Larry- Prince team was still fresh. That was da shit! But the Crystal Ball version is cool too.

i started to hate larry that day he just went on and on and on and on and on

and people all around us were going "ok, yeah, we've seen you now, please go".

IstenSzek said:

SuperSoulFighter said:

I saw him live in Rotterdam in 1998 and he opened with this song! From the first moment you could tell he was enjoying himself as much as we did. The audience started the "oh-we-ow" chant. Then Larry joined him and they started jamming on Thank You. Back when the Larry- Prince team was still fresh. That was da shit! But the Crystal Ball version is cool too.

i started to hate larry that day he just went on and on and on and on and on

and people all around us were going "ok, yeah, we've seen you now, please go".

I was there, too, and it was a traumatic experience. I never want to see dudes in white outfits and cowboy hats ever again.

I took a few nice pictures though....with an old fashioned cheap ass roll film camera, with flash. No smartphones back then.

One with the Cloud guitar and one with the Symbol guitar.

My favorite version of Days Of Wild will always be the Beautiful Experience version. No other version comes close to that energy and urgency.

KoolEaze said:

SuperSoulFighter said:

Oh btw, this was the first time he dropped the f-words.

Didn't he do that in 1982 on "Let's Pretend We're Married"?

In the long run, I like the original studio version because it has such a unique vibe, but of all the live ones, the first one from the Beautiful Experience had the epic mix and sounded like a wall of cool sound.

ufoclub said:

The final 1998 aftershow at the Cologne `Live Music Hall` version. (see http://www.princevault.co...,_1998-am)

The longest version ever done? (including the break)