I say it was 1987 with Sign of the times tour,Music was awesome,Dancing was awesome,naked girls in show were fine(unlike the 2 wilderbeast he got on stage now IDA and Donna),he had cool cursing,Play in the sunshine guitar showoff tune....etc.... after that things started to fall off a lil dont you think?

darn, when i opened this thread i was convinced you'd say he peaked in 1977 and went downhill from there

SOTT was awesome, as was ONA era. Parade tour was great too. Hard to tell when he peaked, but these 3 tours were great for me.

NorthC said:

He never stopped being great as a live performer. I've seen him live since 1990 and the best concerts I saw were in 2011.

he cant dance anymore ...so its not the same

kidmelody2012 said:

kidmelody2012 said:

2007 or earlier.

Live, he's better than ever.

So I dunno.

There's so many peaks I think the question is useless.

I can't compare 1986 Head to 1987 If I Was Your Girlfriend,
or 1988 Bob George / Anna Stesia / The Cross to 2000's She's Always In My Hair,
or Small Club to the Sacrifice Of Victor, or Bambi Paradisio Amsterdam to SNL's Electric Chair,
or 1987 New Morning to 1998 Le Zenith...

And then you'll have to divide by categories and subcategories, keyboards performances, guitar, vocals,
and this is hard work as Dale Bozzio used to squeak, you have to go through a hell lotta disappointing performances,
tape hisses, and dumbasses that go "testicles, 1, 2" in the walkman's mike, right in the middle of a guitar solo, damn!

Musicology has some incredible lives out there (the acoustic part of "Shark Tank, San Jose California" is a state of grace),
and I cannot have enough praises for the somewhat recent Jimmy Kimmel's "The Dance Electric" with live horns,
where he tosses his mike in the crowd, the whole band is one man on fire, and the horns riffs get funkier and funkier.
It all ends with a fucking big larsen in ye faces — Yount!


Ok, my personal preference goes to 1986.
Surely because I was fourteen and living in Paris, Christopher Tracey was this fucking cool big bro' trashing the French Riviera ("Exile On Main Street"s Nellcote, anyone?),
doin'it with hotdamn Kristin Scott Thomas, who, like Jennifer Connelly, turned out to be much more than Phenomena.
Musically, Parade confirmed ATWIAD. Prince was a musician, a true worker. Evolving as fast as The Beatles.

We often argue on "what year did Prince lose it?" or some nonsense like that,
but if we're talking about flair, 1985/1986 was his real-time connection with the world. He could do no wrong.
The artistic intelligentsia embraced him (Europe didn't care much about the "We Are The World" incident).
Plus, they saw Wembley "4 The Tears In Your Eyes", so there.


W&L arrangements, Cocteau Twins "Treasure", Kate Bush "Hounds Of Love",
they all resulted in #1 Kiss followed by #2 Manic Monday.
The Bangles transcended the song, giving it the real Buddy Holly pop lightness.
He casted Kristin Scott Thomas himself, released "Nothing Compares 2 U" disguised under St. Paul (and why didn't he do the same thing with "Wally", that dumbass).
The whole Family album concept was built around Europe, mostly London and Paris (mostly Paris by 1987 — where he had a flat by then).

You can make them refrain "Take Me With You" in arenas, but you'll have a hard time filling the same arenas
with songs talking about "Piccadilly Square" or "Gustav Mahler".


From my Paris persepective, he made up France supa-trendy at that time, with "Under The Cherry Moon" only, in the eyes of the american elite.
The whole look of every singer changed and become more personal.
All things had to have this Prince extravaganza, look at the 1986 fashion and ads.
I'm not referring to obvious Purple Rain replicas by untalented people, ATWIAD, Parade, and SOTT went through
every "people that counts" walkman or stereo, whether in fashion, advertising, design.

"Under The Cherry Moon" is just a (un)intended farce, but look how beautiful Chocolate and Butterscotch are, in their Nice apartment.

If M.J. made black popular, children admitted, to the white audience, Prince made black look beautiful, and with lyrics and trivias hot to the point you'd hesitate to rate it adults only or not (how the crotch-grabbing on Apollonia passed the 1984 movies censorship bureau is above me. They probably said to themselves : "this is some low-budget musical semi-porn razzie, who's gonna go see that?". And once they realize PurpleMania is here and is about getting crazy and masturbation, look who's here? Oh hello, Tipper. Say, why is my magazine soaked?).

If Michael (Jackson for the dummies) made the crossover, it was sleek, professional, a proof that black americans kick white asses and can
become the most-selling-artists-of-all-time and become as cretins and paranoid as the whiteys in the process.
I'll be harsh but let me say first that I would not have been curious of Prince without Thriller.
But Thriller felt like Toto welcomed Michael for some jams. So it was, again, in a way, the white country folkies petronizing.

But In "Under The Cherry Moon", it's about the mavericks, black people crashing high-society parties while keeping their coolness.
It's aboot the Wrecka Stow. It's about "New Position", and I mean it musically.
Parade is so delicate ("Les enfants qui mentent ne vont pas au paradis — Ok. — Ok, merci."),
witty ("Act your age"), haunting ("I Wonder U"), avant-garde ("Anotherloverholenyohead").
Heck, Prince had a flair for Clare Fischer!

All of this digression leads to my favorites, let's say in the "athletic" category, performances of Skipper :


- Mutiny, Detroit 1986 "Birthday Concert", just the grins he does while he grinds the organ, and the walk he does when he slowly moves back to the mike are priceless.
- A Love Bizarre with Sheila E., San Francisco 1986 : It goes on forever, and you lose track of time just watching the whole thing.

Plus, Sheila grabs his package something severe, and he's like embarassed and nod his head but the show must go on,
I mean, on stage, please, Lady, restrain yourself.

- America, Nice, Palais de Verdure 1986, and if only the world had been exposed to more moments where he plays something else than guitar or keyboards.

Had he released a proper "Sign Of The Times - Live", I mean the whole set,
without overdubbing everything to death... But what can I say, I prefer Bobby Z. to Sheila (I love U Sheila!).

Over time, Prince may have thought his rhythm section was not tight enough,
but I really like the feel of Bobby and Mark, errors and floating tempos included,
they're surely unnoticeable to untrained ears, and the result was pure joy.
The Revolution is fun to hear. The TGE's NPG is scary to ear. Just the three of them, they can sound like Armageddon.
"Atlanta Bliss, Eric Leeds!" and there they go, turning the bridge of Anotherlover into something less romantic
and more optimistic. You can't beat that.

The Parade Tour concert are so carefully constructed, and the stage is so bare,
there's only the performance, raw and sweaty ("Head", Detroit 1986).
Just listen to the crowd going totally nuts. Can you hear this woman scream?


"I don't care what anybody says, I've got the baddest band in the universe".
And of course he has flair again, even if the Revolution makes a mess of "Whole Lotta Shakin' going' on".
He could have done it acapella on the piano, and close the concert like that would have been brilliant.
History fails to recognize that Prince was honoring Jerry Lee Lewis, the Killer himself, during the Parade tour.
Not Elvis. Not Dylan. Not The Beatles.
A man who banged and married his well-formed but way underaged cousin,
you don't get more rock-n-roll than that : it's frowned upon in the white AND the black communities.

Jerry Lee Lewis. A man that Elvis, for all its prophetic role, cannot touch.
Because Elvis can't play shit. He plays like your cousin.
Go listen to "My God Is Real" or "Georgia On My Mind" by Jerry Lee, first you'll hear genius,
and then you'll get the influence he had on Prince : "Cold Coffe, Cocaine" or what the fuck the name of the shit is,
and more important, on "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore", basically all of the Purple Rain Tour keyboard performances
owe something to Jerry. After PR, he introduced finesse.

in 1986, because of the live performances only (the "Kiss" video was an unstoppable teaser for seeing him live),
they all came to see him or became very aware of him,
from George Michael (no "Faith" without "Kiss", no "I Want Your Sex pt. II" without "1999") to Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Miles, T.T.D.A.,
it was not about sales anymore, what Prince and The Revolution were doing was the most exciting musical crossover,
a black american in Paris, the myth of the successful 40/50's jazzman,
well, in a nutshell, Prince chasing after his father like Jeff Buckley was. Transcending him.

That Prince demanding influence gave us most of the pop of 1987, where in case of good pop, you can sense
there is a "before" and "after" Prince. Prince finished what punk artists started, to put back the 50's and 60's raw musicianship in fashion, with an ethic.

You can't hear a single larsen on "Thriller".
Not only you have a bunch of them on "Purple Rain", but the moan he does in "Darling Nikki", you know the one,
where all instruments stop, and all of a sudden it's live porn, right there in your living room for all the neighbours to hear.


in 1986, Prince raised the bar higher, for everyone.
By 1987, he would become his own, one and only competition, but that's another story.

The higher bar resulted in "Tutu", yeecch...
But also "Faith" the album, which has good points about monkeys and Nabukov (not easy following Sting's masterpiece).


In short, 1986 is the one, if you're looking after "purity of intention".
But when it comes to states of grace, I would say any year may yield something that could astonish you.

"Love Thy Will B Done", Paris Le Zenith 1998, is a recent discovery,
and if dat doezn't kick U right in da nuts on 1st hearing, I don't know what to tell you.
It's really one of these times when I feel like singing along "Prince is dead!", because indeed,
this ain't no 1986's Detroit "Pop Life".
This is Heavy Gospel, a musical genre of its own.

There aren't so many nights to get a song right.

[Edited 7/12/15 2:57am]

KingSausage said:

kidmelody2012 said:

girls in show were fine(unlike the 2 wilderbeast he got on stage now IDA and Donna)

Ida and Donna aren't models/dancers though.

Not everyone likes his set up at the minute and thats understandable seen as they've known him to play with some of the best musicians in the world. But I don't think it's fair to crit him on having 'unattractive' women with him. They're there to play music, not be eye candy.

Cat and Mayte were both very attractive women as most dancers are. He also used to interact with them a lot when on stage, so because he doesn't dance as much anymore it makes no sense to just have some random girl dancing at the side of him whilst he's stood pretty much in the same place for the whole performance.

And as for Sheila, she wasn't even all that visible a lot of the time because she was sat behind her drumkit.

I dont like your threads Kidmelody,



you are so f*cking negative all the time...

the only correct answer is "this year" because Prince just gets better with time....

bonatoc said:

Live, he's better than ever.

.

He has sampler sets.

He plays 90%+ old stuff.

He has multiple shows per evening because he cannot plan ahead, has no patience and has lack of control.

Because of that money slips through his fingers.

So no, he is not better than ever.

I see lazy, not daring setlists in a schedule to earn some cash in a hasty manner.

KingSausage said:

Guys, he's at his peak right now with his sampler sets. HE'S GOT TOO MANY HITS!

.

He sucks only when compared to himself, to what he used to be.

I'm pretty sure it's the best concert of the year for any person who attends
a Prince concert for the first time, in 2015.

Other than that, what can I say? You're right.
But it's still pretty high standards compared to ol' play(breaking)-back Madonna.

I mean Prince has samples, boring ol' playlists, but it's still live music to my ears.
Anotherlove on T.V. was fragile yet ballsy.

When I say better than ever, I mean it.
It was easy for 28th year old Prince to jump up and down.
It's another thing to kick any other so-called star from the eighties in the nuts at 56.
Who's the last man standing?

Prince is a good now as he has EVER been.........if u are paying any attention.

Graycap23 said:

Prince is a good now as he has EVER been.........if u are paying any attention.

thedance said:

I dont like your threads Kidmelody,



you are so f*cking negative all the time...

I am Positive I'm never Negative! I just ask hard questions and hold Prince accountable! as the best musician on this site I have to do that for the lowly non musicians on here!!!

he as good as he wants to be..depends on how much he gives at any given performance

He's 57. he ain't going to dance like he did 28 years ago. IMO 95 Gold tour was amazing, so was ONA, so was O2 so was last year

Graycap23 said:

Prince is a good now as he has EVER been.........if u are paying any attention.

No, he doesn't do the splits anymore. I miss that.

Militant said:

the only correct answer is "this year" because Prince just gets better with time....

What makes is better? And what about his dancing? Don't you miss that? How does he dance in concert now?

Diamonds and Pearls shows were great.