The Jam Of The Year tour seemed to be the deciding moment where Prince resigned himself to becoming a nostalgia act in his live shows, only performing a small sprinkling of new material here and there. With the exception of the ONA tour, all his subsequent tours have been the same and I can't help but wonder if the general lack of fondness and reverance for his 96-2010 catalogue stems in part from his reticence to perform said material in a live setting.

I've long struggled to understand Prince's decision to neglect his newer work in concerts. Plenty of artists with legendary back catalogues regularly perform large chunks of their latest offering in concert. Doing this shows that the artist is still relevant and believes in their new material. Prince could easily perform six or seven tracks from a new album and still leave plenty of room in the setlist for songs like Purple Rain, Cream, U Got The Look, Kiss etc.

I find it depressing that so many brilliant songs from 96-2010 have never been performed live or perhaps were once or twice usually at some obscure aftershow. Songs like New World, Last December, Into The Light/I Will, What Do U Want Me 2 Do, She Loves Me 4 Me, Circle of Amour, In This Bed Eye Scream, The Marrying Kind, Strange But True, Wherever U Go Whatever U Do, Anotherlove, The Human Body, Joint 2 Joint....

[Edited 9/28/15 6:42am]

Isn't this around the time he really needed some cash? I'm glad he has cash nowadays because I would not want to see him turn into a novelty act like Lionel Richie. Although I think most fans think of Prince like this. Just the "Purple Rain" man.

Was watching the DOC who the fuck is roger fogel, Live Nation guy,, Dawned on me how much more new material and thought goes into non prince tours,, madonna, U@ etc...P doesnt have the discipline to plan like that it appears. Just a thought....

Dude has never even played In This Bed Scream live, wtf

MattyJam said:

The Jam Of The Year tour seemed to be the deciding moment where Prince resigned himself to becoming a nostalgia act in his live shows, only performing a small sprinkling of new material here and there. With the exception of the ONA tour, all his subsequent tours have been the same and I can't help but wonder if the general lack of fondness and reverance for his 96-2010 catalogue stems in part from his reticence to perform said material in a live setting.

I've long struggled to understand Prince's decision to neglect his newer work in concerts. Plenty of artists with legendary back catalogues regularly perform large chunks of their latest offering in concert. Doing this shows that the artist is still relevant and believes in their new material. Prince could easily perform six or seven tracks from a new album and still leave plenty of room in the setlist for songs like Purple Rain, Cream, U Got The Look, Kiss etc.

I find it depressing that so many brilliant songs from 96-2010 have never been performed live or perhaps were once or twice usually at some obscure aftershow. Songs like New World, Last December, Here, What Do U Want Me 2 Do, She Loves Me 4 Me, Circle of Amour, Future Soul Song, The Marrying Kind, Strange But True, Wherever U Go Whatever U Do, Anotherlove, The Human Body, Joint 2 Joint....

[Edited 9/28/15 2:46am]

Have you noticed how flat the new music sounds vs the old stuff when he does the sampler set, U know, Ex face , sonically sound dead compared to the vibrancy of say WDC..I happen to like both those songs ,,just hearing the dichotomy in the music past vs present is glaring

jaawwnn said:

Dude has never even played In This Bed Scream live, wtf

i feel that way about joint to joint...

luvsexy4all said:

jaawwnn said:

Dude has never even played In This Bed Scream live, wtf

i feel that way about joint to joint...

He might come around to his 90's stuff at some point, assume he ever plays live again

I think in general, any of his material would be more fondly remembered if Prince performed it live on a regular basis.

donnyenglish said:

Look at the "One Night Alone" tour and there's your answer. Prince played the songs off "The Rainblow Children" dozens of times, yet no one goes around saying "Wow, did he blow the roof off the joint with Muse 2 the Pharoah!"

I thought the songs from TRC were awesome live, but that didn't put them ahead of the earlier stuff in my playlist.

So IMO, a good song is a good song - whether it's played live or not.

RodeoSchro said:

Look at the "One Night Alone" tour and there's your answer. Prince played the songs off "The Rainblow Children" dozens of times, yet no one goes around saying "Wow, did he blow the roof off the joint with Muse 2 the Pharoah!"

I thought the songs from TRC were awesome live, but that didn't put them ahead of the earlier stuff in my playlist.

So IMO, a good song is a good song - whether it's played live or not.

But he did blow the roof off.

He hasn't done Dinner With Delores since Letterman.

I saw him for the first time at Jam Of The Year, and it did not change how I feel about Emancipation being his best 1990s release.

I'm sure live renditions would have brought some fans to rediscover the songs, yes.

I somewhat lost intrerest in P's live performances precisely in 1997, while I never lost interest for his studio material.

The only shows I've really enjoyed since then is the ONA tour and some aftershows and one-off concerts with rare material like Nokia 2009 and Montreux 2009.

I somewhat enjoyed certain 3EG shows for the same reason: different sound and tracklists.

I wish P would tour the last album again like he did in the 80's and just do a best of tour every 5 years or so, between albums. I ain't nostalgic of the "classic" era, I want the new stuff.

2freaky4church1 said:

He hasn't done Dinner With Delores since Letterman.

Would love to hear that one live! He should bring back Space as well (or basically any of the tracks from the early 90's that disappeared from his live show almost immediately)

[Edited 9/29/15 9:18am]

2freaky4church1 said:

He hasn't done Dinner With Delores since Letterman.

I remember that!! Awesome.