I saw Stevie Wonder's live performance of Songs in the Key of Life yesterday and I was blown away. It is difficult for artists like Prince and Stevie to satisfy an audience because they have so many hits and can't play them all and hard core fans want to hear other songs. Playing an album from start to finish is a good compromise because people know what they are getting.

What are some of the album candidates for Prince? He already did SOTT. Dirty Mind is my choice but probably too dirty for him now. Purple Rain is probably the popular choice, but I seriously doubt that he would want to go back to that period. Perhaps, he would do his next new CD, which would be fine with me but wouldn't be good for the masses. Parade, TRC, 1999 and Lovesexy come to mind for me.

Another observation from the Stevie concert is that Stevie used first class musicians and background singers in his band and it made a huge difference. Prince generally likes to take average musicians and lead them to another level, but Stevie clearly demands quality. I hate comparing the two, but I can see why people consider Stevie to be the gold standard.

I like the idea of a tour focused on one album,performed in its entirety.Since Prince never gave the US fans a SOTT tour,now is his chance to make it up to us A tour focused on SOTT would be great!

donnyenglish said:

Another observation from the Stevie concert is that Stevie used first class musicians and background singers in his band and it made a huge difference. Prince generally likes to take average musicians and lead them to another level, but Stevie clearly demands quality. I hate comparing the two, but I can see why people consider Stevie to be the gold standard.

I agree.3rdEyeGirl is more of a gimmick than a genuine band.

I forget the band at the moment

But there is a 1970s 1980s band that is going to do a bunch of shows performing only, one of the classic album

I'll find the name in a bit

SoulAlive said:

I like the idea of a tour focused on one album,performed in its entirety.Since Prince never gave the US fans a SOTT tour,now is his chance to make it up to us A tour focused on SOTT would be great!

Yes, I think this would be a great idea too, and it would focus him in a way that I think would be a relief to all of us right? lololol

He performed quite a bit of Purple Rain at the Detroit concert a few days ago.

.

Let's Go Crazy - all live

Take Me With U - all live

The Beautiful Ones - I believe partially sampler

Darling Nikki - sampler snippet only - no vocals

When Doves Cry - partially sampler

I Would Die For You - partially sampler

Purple Rain - all live

.

If he removed the sampler bits/songs, and fleshed all of the songs out a bit, I think that would still only take up about an hour. He'd have to do more than one album to fill up an entire concert.

I agree a SOTT show would be great. And I would hope Shelia and Dr. Fink would be with him.

Yes, Emancipation. All 3 disks. For the haterz.

This is a great idea. Let's not forget that some of the early records are around 30 to 45 minutes. He could do 2 albums per show. Book 2 nights, play 4 albums. Choose your favorite and attend that night. I am sure that would make things interesting for the band as well.

Tbh, I'm not much into this idea. It always seems slightly depressing when he talks about his 'hits' and milks Purple Rain yet further. It's nice to see him playing with old bandmates and reconnecting ties that that sometimes get carelessly severed. But I'd still prefer to see him get his groove back with making new material and explore the full extent of his back catalogue in live shows, rather than fall into doing nostalgia gigs, which never live up to seeing it at the time.

He was toying with doing Lovesexy start to finish at one point during the early 00's. I'd love to seem do something like this, at the level Stevie is doing his right now. However, he would need a fully legit band/orchestra, which he does not currently have, and he would also need to be interested. Prince can barely play certain songs from start to finish every night, let alone an entire album night after night. He gets way too bored too easily.

Se7en said:

He performed quite a bit of Purple Rain at the Detroit concert a few days ago.

.

Let's Go Crazy - all live

Take Me With U - all live

The Beautiful Ones - I believe partially sampler

Darling Nikki - sampler snippet only - no vocals

When Doves Cry - partially sampler

I Would Die For You - partially sampler

Purple Rain - all live

.

If he removed the sampler bits/songs, and fleshed all of the songs out a bit, I think that would still only take up about an hour. He'd have to do more than one album to fill up an entire concert.

u still think he aint warmin people up for the remaster????

leonche64 said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Hell yes. I used to love Sign until I saw the live film... now I replaced all the album versions with their movie versions, that's how badly it kicked ass.

I would love for him to do Batman (he could give it a fuller, lively feeling) or Parade

donnyenglish said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

He was toying with doing Lovesexy start to finish at one point during the early 00's. I'd love to seem do something like this, at the level Stevie is doing his right now. However, he would need a fully legit band/orchestra, which he does not currently have, and he would also need to be interested. Prince can barely play certain songs from start to finish every night, let alone an entire album night after night. He gets way too bored too easily.

This too!

Lovesexy live

Nah.

For You

.

Around the World In A Day

.

the Black Album

.

the Truth

As great as Prince is, does he have an album of the magnitude and importance of Songs in the Key of Life? I have always listened to Stevie Wonder box sets, but never really took the time to listen to Songs in the Key of Life until after I saw the concert. That album was true masterpiece in every way. Prince has some great albums, but I feel like Key of Life is on a different level and that is why it works so well for this tour.

This topic came up before and it's not a bad idea. I'd vote for SOTT since we never got a proper U.S. Tour or 1999 simply because it's my favorite Prince album. But probably the only record that would be commercially viable would be Purple Rain except A: we already got that in 1984 B: It would be boring as shit and C: It's not long enough.

Goldnigga.

donnyenglish said:

leonche64 said:

This is a great idea. Let's not forget that some of the early records are around 30 to 45 minutes. He could do 2 albums per show. Book 2 nights, play 4 albums. Choose your favorite and attend that night. I am sure that would make things interesting for the band as well.

This!

That!

I really REALLY miss the days when he performed themed concerts. SOTT, LoveSexy, etc.
The stage changed, the music changed, and he would constantly slip new tracks into the mix.


I've seen several clips of his concerts (since the Aladin shows), and the stage tends to be the same, the music is always a hits show, etc.

This is strange because even as recent as Lotusflow3r, he had created a look and feel to support the albums, and some of these backdrops made it to his live shows--but, the shows were still hits medleys.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he's only doing the shows for money these days.

[Edited 4/14/15 8:59am]

donnyenglish said:

I saw Stevie Wonder's live performance of Songs in the Key of Life yesterday and I was blown away. It is difficult for artists like Prince and Stevie to satisfy an audience because they have so many hits and can't play them all and hard core fans want to hear other songs. Playing an album from start to finish is a good compromise because people know what they are getting.

What are some of the album candidates for Prince? He already did SOTT. Dirty Mind is my choice but probably too dirty for him now. Purple Rain is probably the popular choice, but I seriously doubt that he would want to go back to that period. Perhaps, he would do his next new CD, which would be fine with me but wouldn't be good for the masses. Parade, TRC, 1999 and Lovesexy come to mind for me.

Another observation from the Stevie concert is that Stevie used first class musicians and background singers in his band and it made a huge difference. Prince generally likes to take average musicians and lead them to another level, but Stevie clearly demands quality. I hate comparing the two, but I can see why people consider Stevie to be the gold standard.

Excuse me???