I have just finished my 3 gigs back-to-back run and absolutely loved all three of them. He is the ultimate live performer and, to me, the greatest to ever be in the game......but i was very, very surprised to find out i was one of only (from what it seemed) 50-ish fans that really, really had enthusiasm for the non-hits. I went nuts for the Electric Intercourse's, Empty Rooms, Love We Makes, What's My names, etc, etc but almost everyone around me, including when i was bang at the front was vice versa. I was expecting the opposite when at the front. Sure, many of you were enthusiastic for the non-hits, i'm sure many more of you had the enthusiasm quietly and people, including casuals, sometimes got into them as great music is great music, but at times, i felt lonely lol.....and as much as i enjoyed almost all the show had to offer, i must confess to slightly deflating upon hearing Raspberry Barret, 1999 or Purple Rain. It's amazing when he changes up the hits, so hardcores can get something out of them again ala LRC, LGC, ICNTTPOYM, though and that deserves props as it is impressive.

So, how many here actually WOULD like it if Prince retired the arenas and hits....and went back to being a lot more bolder with his music. Actually supporting his new songs, rare songs, many instrumental jams of all genres, etc?

[Edited 5/18/14 16:45pm]

WetDream said:

I would not. Most people know Prince for Raspberry Beret, Little Red Corvette, Purple Rain, etc. And for good reason: they're flawless, exciting, crowd-pleasing songs. You'll be lucky to find someone outside the Org who even knows Erotic City. When he pulls out a new song, people tend to jsut want to skip it to get to something they can sing along to. It's better that he has the majority of the setlist consist of known songs, with new or rare material sprinkled throughout.

[Edited 5/18/14 15:51pm]

tatocorcu said:

WetDream said:

I have just finished my 3 gigs back-to-back run and absolutely loved all three of them.....but i was very, very surprised to find out i was one of only (from what it seemed) 50-ish fans that really, really had enthusiasm for the non-hits. I went nuts for the Electric Intercourse's, Empty Rooms, Love We Makes, What's My names, etc, etc but almost everyone around me, including when i was bang at the front was vice versa. I was expecting the opposite when at the front. Sure, many of you were enthusiastic for the non-hits and i'm sure many more of you had the enthusiasm quietly, but at times, i felt lonely lol.

So, how many here actually WOULD like it if Prince retired the arenas and hits....and went back to being a lot more bolder with his music. Actually supporting his new songs, rare songs, many instrumental jams of all genres, etc?

Why can't he do a bit of both?

Because that wasn't the question.......and he did say he was to retire the hits back in 2004.....and many people seem to claim they want the same, hense my surprise at the gigs.

Shockedelicus said:

I would not. Most people know Prince for Raspberry Beret, Little Red Corvette, Purple Rain, etc. And for good reason: they're flawless, exciting, crowd-pleasing songs. You'll be lucky to find someone outside the Org who even knows Erotic City. When he pulls out a new song, people tend to jsut want to skip it to get to something they can sing along to. It's better that he has the majority of the setlist consist of known songs, with new or rare material sprinkled throughout.

[Edited 5/18/14 15:51pm]

But why do you care what the others want? Isn't this artist crippling? Why can't he, let's say, promote an album by performing it almost entirely or artiscally challenging us like the old days anymore? Why should he be of a certain younger age to do things like that? Or why can't he show us his new band by doing extended jams and rarities, sorta like what he did in Feb on a regular basis?
I was under the impression most hardcore fans would of wanted this....until recently.

[Edited 5/18/14 16:07pm]

A lot of people are still seeing Prince for the first time. Another group haven't seen Prince in 30 years or something. Depriving those fans of hearing Little Red Corvette live isn't going to make you feel less alone at a show when he plays a rarity.

Andy, yes i agree on the sampler set, it does nothing for me........especially when a few songs before he's singing "take your pick, turn table....or a band!".

Treehouse, see my response to shockadelicus.

I must add, though, that doing as many rarities, album tracks or newer tracks as he has done in these arenas with no new album out etc, deserves big props. At birmingham, he spent about an hour on jams, new songs and rare tracks and i was on fire!

[Edited 5/18/14 16:36pm]

WetDream said:

Or why can't he show us his new band by doing extended jams and rarities, sorta like what he did in Feb on a regular basis?

I was under the impression most hardcore fans would of wanted this....until recently.

[Edited 5/18/14 16:07pm]

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He can do whaterever he wants, but he's started playing really good versions of the old hits again, and that might not always be the case. In the past he had venues/events to showcase the non-hits. I don't think anyone complained about his touring small clubs with 3rd Eye, so he's doing that too. He's even reinventing some of the hits to suit this band. To my mind, he's covering all the bases. Why should he retire the hits though? That's essentially like saying Prince shouldn't do big tours in big venues.

No... what he needs to do is start doing the full songs...rotate them in the set lists. He can do 4 or 5 pretty much every night and then 15 or so other songs + a 10 song medley (solo at piano or guitar of his other songs. And actualy mix it up. But the core needs to be the hits.

Love the hits and the more obscure songs. I still want a live show 50% hits/50%more obscure songs that he wrote. I say stop the covers and sampler set! But Prince can do what ever he wants in my book.

I wish he would change them out. How about switching them out like:

Instead of Controversy, do Sexuality

Take me with u / I would die 4 u or When doves cry(not sampler version)

raspberry beret/ america/paisley park/pop life

kiss / anotherlover/girlsboys/mountains

musicology/ cinnamon girl

1999 / anything from the album

etc....

also sampler set I wish would go. His show has just become so routine now. He changes the order of the songs but its basically the same show just in a different order tour after tour. It may be the band is not up to par or maybe he is just extremely lazy nowadays, who knows. The shows always have highlights and memorable moments but for me the shows are sstale overall due to they always seem to be overall the same.

The SOTT tour was the perfect example of gigs concentrating almost entirely on a single album (with a very few select hits).

The Lovesexy tour was the perfect example of gigs that managed to cleverly mix a large focus on new material with a lot of old (seemed to flow perfectly thematically).

Clearly as a hardcore fan who has seen him multiple times I would love to hear rare and new stuff but I do still get a kick out of hearing hits/better known songs too - especially when they are reimagined.

So my personal preference would be that Prince did mixed venue tours (and restarted something like NPGMC to secure real fans best seats) by having theatre/small venues for the hardcore focused on rare/new/unreleased and arena shows for the casuals that focused on hits but threw in a decent smattering of less known songs.

I would rather he'd retire the sampler set (and certain hits like 1999) for good than retire them all.

What about a compromise? No songs older than 10 years!

Makes you realise even more: Prince has a big problem, if he doesn't rely on his 80s work!

Prince has been successful in one thing with his hits setlists: I almost haven't listened to a new live bootleg in 15 years and I have no interest for them anymore. For that matter I've also only attended a single show in those last 15 years and part of the reason I wasn't so motivated to go across half the country to see him live is that I won't spend 200€ or more to hear Purple Rain for the 1000th time.

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I would be more than happy if he'd retire the hits, I'd be interested again. Sure there's always a few good, rare tracks in the middle of them and some revamps of some songs à la Anotherloverholenyohead or Little Red Corvette onwards gave them somewhat of a new dimension but I can't stand hearing the same old songs live again and again.

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What I'd be interested in would be Prince touring his latest album the way he did it back in the days and in 2002, or reexplore his catalogue from 1996 to now which IMHO is full of gems that deserve to be played live (God did I love the Nokia and Montreux shows in 2009 if only for that!). That and if he's gonna play Controversy and 1999 he better do it like the P-Funk Allstars and turn each song into a 20 minutes long jam with lots of improvisation to make it brand new every time.

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I have to admit that the 3EG sound and setlists have somehow renewed my interest enough for me to get a few boots and it was fun to hear more rarer material than usual in those shows, but I'd rather have them release Plectrum Electrum and make shows that are half new album, 1 quarter rare tracks from his back catalogue and 1 quarter hits and classic 70's songs.

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It was brilliant in 94 when P played almost only new material. It was brilliant in 2002 when he oriented a whole tour around an album again. It wasn't just the setlists BTW, focusing on an album means focusing on a SOUND, and another boring thing is that no matter which version of the NPG will play DMSR or Kiss it ends-up always sounding the same to me now because there's no strong musical concept/sound behind each new tour.

treehouse said:

A lot of people are still seeing Prince for the first time. Another group haven't seen Prince in 30 years or something. Depriving those fans of hearing Little Red Corvette live isn't going to make you feel less alone at a show when he plays a rarity.

I don't know my choice on this, but you brought up something important that I did not think of.

There are 1000s of new fans, and people who have never seen Prince live-even if they were a fan for a long time.

jaypotton said:

The SOTT tour was the perfect example of gigs concentrating almost entirely on a single album (with a very few select hits).

The Lovesexy tour was the perfect example of gigs that managed to cleverly mix a large focus on new material with a lot of old (seemed to flow perfectly thematically).

Clearly as a hardcore fan who has seen him multiple times I would love to hear rare and new stuff but I do still get a kick out of hearing hits/better known songs too - especially when they are reimagined.

So my personal preference would be that Prince did mixed venue tours (and restarted something like NPGMC to secure real fans best seats) by having theatre/small venues for the hardcore focused on rare/new/unreleased and arena shows for the casuals that focused on hits but threw in a decent smattering of less known songs.

1978-1988 was like that. And back then 'the Hits' were still pretty fresh and nothing was overplayed. 1987 Purple Rain was just released 3 yrs prior lol Even back then he had a lot of songs he couldn't fit into a set. I think Lovesexy we got the most of songs because of the type of show he did. But even with all those songs played it was like only 1/4th of the songs he had.

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4 me it would be cool for him to mix a concept show and then pull songs from his catalogue accordingly. I think then a song heard a lot may sound/feel differently.

errant said:

At an arena show, I fully expect the hits and almost nothing else. His own hits. Not cover songs. At a smaller venue, I want new stuff/obscure stuff. A smattering of covers, but there has never been a Prince show improved by the presence of Play That Funky Music or anything by Sarah McLachlan in the setlist. Or anything lead by a background singer or 3.

Another point I strongly agree with.

U know, I never minded Shelby leading a song, just let it be a Prince song.

trax said:

I wish he would change them out. How about switching them out like:

Instead of Controversy, do Sexuality

Take me with u / I would die 4 u or When doves cry(not sampler version)

raspberry beret/ america/paisley park/pop life

kiss / anotherlover/girlsboys/mountains

musicology/ cinnamon girl

1999 / anything from the album

etc....

also sampler set I wish would go. His show has just become so routine now. He changes the order of the songs but its basically the same show just in a different order tour after tour. It may be the band is not up to par or maybe he is just extremely lazy nowadays, who knows. The shows always have highlights and memorable moments but for me the shows are sstale overall due to they always seem to be overall the same.

Sexuality is now Spirituality,

would U still prefer it over Controversy then? lol

andykeen said:

Yep, me. Plus, here for hoping that he will retire the sampler set

Yes for the love of god - how long has that sampler set been going on now?? Like from ONA? or before?

The hits .. I like them for arenas.. but that's all.

EyeHatechu said:

I have no problem with the hits because for 90% of that crowd, that is all they know. He is a crowd pleaser but he also mixes in some hardcore fan stuff for the hardcore fans out in the audience. If the crowd was packed with 80% casual only hit knowing fans and the rest of the 20% were hardcores wouldnt you play more of the hits. What im trying to say is, the hardcore fans know the hits just as well as casuals but the casuals dont know the hardcore stuff. Therefore, he just wants to play stuff every fan can relate to in one way or the other. Do the math.

true, only issue is, by playing 'covers' he assumes everyone knows those songs. And many probably don't. It would be just as easy to introduce 'not hit' announce the album (Self Promo) and then play it. The people will probably seek it out afterwards

OldFriends4Sale said:

There are 1000s of new fans, and people who have never seen Prince live-even if they were a fan for a long time.

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Yup, or they went to one of the bad shows where Prince disco called, and had the audience sing the chorus (like the poster above mentioned). Sometimes a show sounds better on the bootleg.

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I don't get this thread actually....Prince just did a tour supporting a new band, new songs, and a lot of new renditions of old songs. Maybe people are longing for the After Party shows, or the fantasy of them. His set lists look pretty diverse to me, considering the band he's got now.

treehouse said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

There are 1000s of new fans, and people who have never seen Prince live-even if they were a fan for a long time.

.

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Yup, or they went to one of the bad shows where Prince disco called, and had the audience sing the chorus (like the poster above mentioned). Sometimes a show sounds better on the bootleg.

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I don't get this thread actually....Prince just did a tour supporting a new band, new songs, and a lot of new renditions of old songs. Maybe people are longing for the After Party shows, or the fantasy of them. His set lists look pretty diverse to me, considering the band he's got now.

Yes, the setlists I've seen look pretty diverse,

Now if he replaced Play the Funky Music with Play In the Sunshine, it would have been perfect

why O why must 'so many hits...' Prince play covers

OldFriends4Sale said:

jeffreymiller said: