Just gave this another watch

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I have loved the recent stripped down simple gigs with a band but I would love to see something done on a huge scale like this again.

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Sign O The Times was one mighty fine show

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Would love to see this played in full like a couple of other artists are doing at the moment with their back catalogues

Just watched the March warm-up First Avenue show yesterday for the 1st time (had it in audio before but 1st on vid), it's so obvious how the band was much tighter and sharper with the material on later shows. Interesting historical piece, though, and Strange Relationship ROCKS (so bad the NPGMC release was edited, the full jam is even more of a killer!).

databank said:

Just watched the March warm-up First Avenue show yesterday for the 1st time (had it in audio before but 1st on vid), it's so obvious how the band was much tighter and sharper with the material on later shows. Interesting historical piece, though, and Strange Relationship ROCKS (so bad the NPGMC release was edited, the full jam is even more of a killer!).

That rendition of "Strange Relationship" SMOKES!

egansmind said:

Just gave this another watch

.

I have loved the recent stripped down simple gigs with a band but I would love to see something done on a huge scale like this again.

.

Sign O The Times was one mighty fine show

.

Would love to see this played in full like a couple of other artists are doing at the moment with their back catalogues

Cosign!!!!

Yep. I don't know of an other concert movie that was actually like being at a gig!
Also very important to women at the time, going through the 'getting on parity' in the media (female artists, presenters, producers etc) and I can still see the excitement on a lot of female friends' faces back then when he called out Sheila E with his politically sarcastic 'Not Bad for A Girl'.

I think I went to see this in the cinema five times. It and Talking Heads' 'Stop Making Sense' actually took forward sound systems in cinemas, because both movies insisted on minimum sonic standards for showing the two movies, which had enough commercial clout at the time to make theatres upgrade. Often forgotten now but there were few regular films, even the blockbusters, making good use of the sound element!

Strange Relationship was awesome live...except for the stupid rap at the end...I mean, you can say "squirrel meat" only so many times without it getting old really quick. My post is more about the tour than the movie, but both were absolutely fantastic.

Oddly, the SOTT tour had a few faults in it. But despite those faults...it was so awesomely good, I forgive him for them.

Faults:

Having a horn section doesn't mean they belong on every song. Let's Go Crazy didn't need horns, and he quit singing the actual lyrics, and started chanting "Go Go GO" over and over...very boring..Purple Rain had the great guitar solo, but the edited lyrics diminished a power song into one Prince seemed bored with..but unlike LGC, Purple Rain was still great, it was just missing an

Playing It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night...he could've played Strange Relationship and Dorothy Parker both in full instead. Also, leaving out U Got The Look on the tour was an amazing lack of judgement, but it hardly mattered...the movie was amazing, the tour was amazing..

Now's The Time was a great instrumental jam, but playing 6 instead would've been a Prince instrumental...

Now this may seem like I'm complaining, but those are minor quibbles. The show itself was just around 2 hours, and the best 70 minutes of the show are better than 3 hours of just about any other aweseome show.

The opening with the title track with just Prince on guitar was amazing. Who cares if there was a backing tape playing the drum part, we all know it just got increditble uh...incredible too!

On songs that the horn section fit...like Play In The Sunshine, Kiss(Where the extended version sounded sublime), Housequake, girls & boys, Slow Love, even the sequence before I Could Never Take The Place...brilliant, super effective use of horns, that transcended a great show into one that is probably as good or better than any pop concert tour in history. Just two years earlier, Sting's Blue Turtles tour also featured amazing horn sections with pop music, but even though Sting's show didn't have a 10 minute clunker like Beautiful Night, the strong points of Prince's show were so much stronger, it doesn't matter...

[Edited 9/15/14 8:02am]

stillwaiting said:

Strange Relationship was awesome live...except for the stupid rap at the end...I mean, you can say "squirrel meat" only so many times without it getting old really quick. My post is more about the tour than the movie, but both were absolutely fantastic.

I agree.
I love that song, and it was having a nice or could have had a nice extended feel, just the song keep going, it had a nice build. And then he goes into this 'jam' part with the SuperfunkiCalifragisexy part

It messed up that part. Once the 'song' is over I'm don't listen anymore

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I noticed he did that sometimes on songs like the PR tour Computer Blue, you could hear they were working it out, going into another level with the song, then he cuts and goes into a 'jam'

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I also felt that too with I Wonder U (Parade tour) instead of some other extended feel, it goes into a 'jam' feel

stillwaiting said:

Watching this movie in the cinema (with fully turned up loudnesslevel !) was my real introduction into the Art of Prince - been blown away by this show (it almost felt like being at a livegig) and a follower of his music since !

But i don't think he should do a nostalgiatour of it or any other succesful album.At the the last concert I attended on June 7 five songs of Sign O the Times were played - SOTT and forever in my Life surely among the highlights of the night - and I loved to hear them. But I also like to hear something new, actually i prefer a mix of old (can be the majority) and (some) new stuff.

A musician just playing his most successful music is kind of an artistic sellout IMHO

...but that's ok too, specially when they reached a certain age and just want to enjoy performing and/or getting good money.... the Rolling Stones come to my mind...

ufoclub said:

stillwaiting said:

Strange Relationship was awesome live...except for the stupid rap at the end...I mean, you can say "squirrel meat" only so many times without it getting old really quick. My post is more about the tour than the movie, but both were absolutely fantastic.

Oddly, the SOTT tour had a few faults in it. But despite those faults...it was so awesomely good, I forgive him for them.

Faults:

Playing It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night...he could've played Strange Relationship and Dorothy Parker both in full instead. Also, leaving out U Got The Look on the tour was an amazing lack of judgement, but it hardly mattered...the movie was amazing, the tour was amazing..

but even though Sting's show didn't have a 10 minute clunker like Beautiful Night, the strong points of Prince's show were so much stronger, it doesn't matter...

[Edited 9/15/14 8:02am]

Wow, for me, Beautiful Night is thousands of times more entertaining and incredible on this tour than the live versions of kiss, when doves cry, slow love, ballad of Dorothy Parker (heard on rehearsals), let's go crazy, girls & boys... The most watched tracks on the video have always been housequake, hot thing, and it's gonna be a beautiful night. And the extended version from the New Years benefit show is my top favorite live prince document period.

stillwaiting said:

a 10 minute clunker like Beautiful Night

Love this concert film! I remember seeing it in theatres and I wanted to get up and start dancing in the aisle,LOL.

Favorite performances: "Housequake","If I Was Your Girlfriend","I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man","Forever In My Life".....hell,the whole movie!

iZsaZsa said:

I still don't know the story of who stole Prince's mic & mic stand from the stage, but his reaction to look for it under his jacket cracks me up every time I see it. I love him.

? What part are you referring to?

ufoclub said:

iZsaZsa said:

ufoclub said:

? What part are you referring to?

"It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night". While he's doing the box step with Cat you can see his mic & stand float off the stage. Right after that, during "A Train", he's looking for it. Lol. An edit quickly puts it back into place.

cool, I know he acted funny, but I never spotted the mic going away. Will have to watch that now.

ufoclub said: