At shows the downers for me while waiting to unload " Prince Time" muddling thru those Larry G, Chaka, Tamar etc times or of course he would ( Prince ) do some songs then go to the whoever folks....that was ugh time for me & boring.

Also.....at times ( I been to many shows all over) another downer was when Prince would go on and on his soapbox about Jimi Hendrix family not getting paid...would lead into " When will we be paid" or at other shows ramble about being free etc.....I remember while he was on his soapbox at a couple of shows a good amount of folks leaving or yelling out " Shut the uknow up and play the music"....I agreed. Payed good $$$ to get into a show plus waiting to get in or for the show to start.

The long speeches most were pointless and in my world I really don't care about Jimi Hendrix or about his family getting paid....sure is funny now how he would ramble on about that but supposedly left no will himself so they say.

Yeah he got preachy sometimes, but i always figured it was something he felt he needed to express and couldn't do it all through the music. So it was cool and cut him some slack there, even if I didn't agree with everything he said.

.

And of course it was boring when anyone else was singing or playing instead of him. He was Prince!

interesting, never heard of him talking much about hendrix period. Jimi's situation is probably better than it was but not by much. The music guys who ripped him off, post-death, were put out with the financial legal assistance of billionaire Paul Allen who got Jimi's daddy back a lot of the rights to his music. But, jimis'daddy was number one an abusive asshole who probably never really understood what was special about his son and he died and left the legacy to a stepdaughter who by all accounts is not a nice person and worst of all doesn't even attempt to assist Jimi's brother leon, who by all accounts Jimi loved and care for. Money situations always get fucked up.

i never heard of him rambling so, i dont' really know what this person is talking about. i do know that Springsteen is famous for his long stories and that Elvis could get on his soapbox over some wacky shit, but prince usually cared only about the music as far as I know. And his mentioning hendrix in concert is news to me because he usually said he wasn't even influenced by him (ridiculous) and when he was in Seattle, neither time did he even mention Jimi at the concerts i saw, which was mentioned in a review of Lovesexy I believe.

I've seen Prince over 50 times and never did he ramble or mention Jimi Hendrix... I'm just saying

I get what the OP is saying. I think whenever you buy a ticket to a Prince concert, you never know what you will get. Yes, you paid to see a Prince concert. Then when you find yourself in the middle of a 20 minute beat box session by Doug E. Fresh, you start asking yourself when Prince will be coming back to the stage. I felt the same way about Larry Graham. Not crazy about Shelby either.

3rdeyedude said:

I get what the OP is saying. I think whenever you buy a ticket to a Prince concert, you never know what you will get. Yes, you paid to see a Prince concert. Then when you find yourself in the middle of a 20 minute beat box session by Doug E. Fresh, you start asking yourself when Prince will be coming back to the stage. I felt the same way about Larry Graham. Not crazy about Shelby either.

he let doug e fresh play at his show?

PeteSilas said:

i never heard of him rambling so, i dont' really know what this person is talking about. i do know that Springsteen is famous for his long stories and that Elvis could get on his soapbox over some wacky shit, but prince usually cared only about the music as far as I know. And his mentioning hendrix in concert is news to me because he usually said he wasn't even influenced by him (ridiculous) and when he was in Seattle, neither time did he even mention Jimi at the concerts i saw, which was mentioned in a review of Lovesexy I believe.

Prince didn't deny that Jimi was an influence. He just stated in the mid-80s that he thinks his playing is far more reminiscent of Santana than Hendrix, which at that point wasn't such a ridiculous thing to state.

His playing started to remind Hendrix around the SOTT and Lovesexy tours and he started doing Hendrix covers live around that time. He might have performed more Hendrix songs live than songs by any other artist (including Sly). I also remember in the late-90s when he was asked what artist that's already dead he would have wanted to collaborate with he said "probably Jimi".

novabrkr said:

PeteSilas said:

i never heard of him rambling so, i dont' really know what this person is talking about. i do know that Springsteen is famous for his long stories and that Elvis could get on his soapbox over some wacky shit, but prince usually cared only about the music as far as I know. And his mentioning hendrix in concert is news to me because he usually said he wasn't even influenced by him (ridiculous) and when he was in Seattle, neither time did he even mention Jimi at the concerts i saw, which was mentioned in a review of Lovesexy I believe.

Prince didn't deny that Jimi was an influence. He just stated in the mid-80s that he thinks his playing is far more reminiscent of Santana than Hendrix, which at that point wasn't such a ridiculous thing to state.

His playing started to remind Hendrix around the SOTT and Lovesexy tours and he started doing Hendrix covers live around that time. He might have performed more Hendrix songs live than songs by any other artist (including Sly). I also remember in the late-90s when he was asked what artist that's already dead he would have wanted to collaborate with he said "probably Jimi".

ya, i know he later admitted that Jimi was an influence but he ridiculously stated that he wasn't for most of the eighties. He did say Santana was a bigger influence which is probably true but he used to imply that Jimi wasn't his guy. Then the stories came out later that as a teen he regarded jimi's star spangled banner as a rite of passage for a guitarist, he was so evasive and confounding in interviews it's hard to say. It was a bit like Michael jackson saying he didn't have plastic surgery or very little plastic surgery, a childlike untruth.

At the ONA shows, he would start doing some preachy stuff especially during the piano medley. During the WB years, he had some interruptions to interact with the crowd but as far as I recall he was most speechy after he became friends with Larry Graham. I'd try my best not to listen too closely. Thankfully, he got over the little speeches after a few years (from NPS till the Musicology tour, where he was again Mr. Entertainment).

JWs are supposed to preach and convert and then there's his fight with the majors. It's obvious he was recovering from major trauma through religion during those years. Go to any psych ward or detox centre and you'll find a few people in deep psychological pain, full of soul crushing regrets, who get super-religious while others start scrubbing everything to act out the "getting clean" process physically.

The cleaning ritual is fairly common, probably many people on the Org did something similar after making mistakes and paying dearly for them. Finding God and getting preachy is in my experience done by people who can't deal with their profound sense of humiliation so humbly, the preaching allows them to change their beliefs and lives but still spare their ego by giving themselves a pulpit.

PeteSilas said:

novabrkr said:

Prince didn't deny that Jimi was an influence. He just stated in the mid-80s that he thinks his playing is far more reminiscent of Santana than Hendrix, which at that point wasn't such a ridiculous thing to state.

His playing started to remind Hendrix around the SOTT and Lovesexy tours and he started doing Hendrix covers live around that time. He might have performed more Hendrix songs live than songs by any other artist (including Sly). I also remember in the late-90s when he was asked what artist that's already dead he would have wanted to collaborate with he said "probably Jimi".

ya, i know he later admitted that Jimi was an influence but he ridiculously stated that he wasn't for most of the eighties. He did say Santana was a bigger influence which is probably true but he used to imply that Jimi wasn't his guy. Then the stories came out later that as a teen he regarded jimi's star spangled banner as a rite of passage for a guitarist, he was so evasive and confounding in interviews it's hard to say. It was a bit like Michael jackson saying he didn't have plastic surgery or very little plastic surgery, a childlike untruth.

Yes, Prince wasn't being honest about a lot of things in the 80s. He was a bit like MJ in that respect, true.

Maybe Prince, in the mid-80s, just knew deep down inside that he still had a lot to learn until he'd dare associate himself with Jimi. It still took a few years for him to really shine as a lead player. He wasn't even the lead guitar player in his own band until "Purple Rain". He wasn't at that point on Santana's level either, but I guess Santana was just a safer choice to namecheck. The "latin rock" association just made the direct comparisons more difficult.

He wasn't bullshitting about having been into Santana though. Those covers Prince performed of Santana's stuff were pretty damn good to my ears.

PeteSilas said:

3rdeyedude said:

I get what the OP is saying. I think whenever you buy a ticket to a Prince concert, you never know what you will get. Yes, you paid to see a Prince concert. Then when you find yourself in the middle of a 20 minute beat box session by Doug E. Fresh, you start asking yourself when Prince will be coming back to the stage. I felt the same way about Larry Graham. Not crazy about Shelby either.

he let doug e fresh play at his show?

He performed at some of the New Power Soul shows, was that the Jam of the Year tour? Saw him with P at Brixton Accademy. Doug E also appeared on record with Prince on 1999 The New Master.

PeteSilas said:

novabrkr said:

Prince didn't deny that Jimi was an influence. He just stated in the mid-80s that he thinks his playing is far more reminiscent of Santana than Hendrix, which at that point wasn't such a ridiculous thing to state.

His playing started to remind Hendrix around the SOTT and Lovesexy tours and he started doing Hendrix covers live around that time. He might have performed more Hendrix songs live than songs by any other artist (including Sly). I also remember in the late-90s when he was asked what artist that's already dead he would have wanted to collaborate with he said "probably Jimi".

ya, i know he later admitted that Jimi was an influence but he ridiculously stated that he wasn't for most of the eighties. He did say Santana was a bigger influence which is probably true but he used to imply that Jimi wasn't his guy. Then the stories came out later that as a teen he regarded jimi's star spangled banner as a rite of passage for a guitarist, he was so evasive and confounding in interviews it's hard to say. It was a bit like Michael jackson saying he didn't have plastic surgery or very little plastic surgery, a childlike untruth.

All of that could be true at the same time. Why couldnt he be more influenced by Santana AND regard Hendrix's performance as a rites of passage? The 2 things do not contradict each other. Comparing Prince to the blatant and ridiculous lies that Jackson told lacks credibility to me.

OMG, nothing made me more than sitting through 30 minutes of the Larry and lady with the towel show, not once but twice. Oh I was as hell, for real. Prince better had been happy that I loved him because I really didn't pay all that damn money for a partial Sly and the Family Stone mini-concert.

What kept me away from more concerts was folks like Shelby singing his tracks. Entire tours where it seemed like mostly medleys were being performed. This site was great for my pocketbook during those tours, as well as that period of his career where he was more obsessed with converting people than music.

I'm just not paying $250 to see any of that.

Now folks are going to be upset that I'm hating, but where is Indigo Nights on their worst of list? "The Rainbow Children" would have been better as an instrumental album. There's a reason certain records like tRC don't do well. The music might be good overall, but when the lyrical content keeps you from putting it on a mixtape for a new listener -- that's saying something. Also says something when an artist never performs the material again after the tour supporting it.

I was at Wembley Stadium, July 31st, 93. I was 13, with my mum.

.

after Beautiful night/America, the set ended and he left for a break befor encore 1. However the break was at least 6 or 7 mins before coming back on, way too long. Anyway, this was followed by a 10 minute speech, I can't remember what it was on about to be honest, but it went ON and ON. This was a massive mood killer, in fact a lot of people had left due to that 6/7 min break before hand. So that led to almost 20mins between songs!!!!!

.

He then plays Come, Endorphinemachine and Peach, which were all excellent, he then wraps it up.

.

the place starts emptying, then after a gap of what felt like another 6 or 7 minutes, he's back!!! to play Johnny. This was a mess. All the people leaving came steaming back in, there was crushing and shouting and shit, was a real drainer and a rubbish end to an otherwise amazing evening.

.

That's my one and only prince downer.

"he used to imply that Jimi wasn't his guy"...."still had a lot to learn until he'd dare associate himself with Jimi"...I think he did a lot of that for his own identity...He fought hard not get hit with the "Jimi tag". Jesse Johnson said (when they met) that P told him he never heard of Hendrix and Jesse called him a liar...He definitely had comparisons during the "P.R." era and that (partially) helped him attract the hard rock/heavy metal crowd....As far as the ranting onstage, thankfully I never dealt with any of that the times I saw him.

I wasn't feeling Ceelo at all. (Glad I got to the show a little late) I liked his Musicology Tour better than Welcome 2 America.

The sampler sets... oh dear. I had never seen what he was upto behind the keyboard before until I watched a show on YT which was filmed from high up and you can see what his hands are doing. He literally had one finger on one key, holding it down to play the sample. For the next sample he would press down another key and hold it. Ocasionaly he would lift his finger and press down again, lift and press, lift and press to create the stuttering effect. Ive never got my head around those sampler sets. Never saw the point. If he needed a rest he could have done a piano set or accoustic set which he has been doing for years. But pressing down on one key to play a sample to kareoke over is an odd thing to do.

Rebeljuice said:

The sampler sets... oh dear. I had never seen what he was upto behind the keyboard before until I watched a show on YT which was filmed from high up and you can see what his hands are doing. He literally had one finger on one key, holding it down to play the sample. For the next sample he would press down another key and hold it. Ocasionaly he would lift his finger and press down again, lift and press, lift and press to create the stuttering effect. Ive never got my head around those sampler sets. Never saw the point. If he needed a rest he could have done a piano set or accoustic set which he has been doing for years. But pressing down on one key to play a sample to kareoke over is an odd thing to do.

He was doing that during the 2013 3rdEyeGirl shows too -- and I never understood it. People did not pay $250 (plus $25 in fees) to see him stand at a keyboard and do that. I would have much rather had another live song. Even if it was just Hannah, Donna and Ida playing while Prince was taking a break. The only thing redeeming about any of it was when he'd throw on the bass and playing along during "Forever In My Life." But why not just play the song live? Why play along to the record? Was just weird. But whatever. Most of the rest of the content of those shows were the best I'd seen since that last show in Honolulu in 1996.

When you see Prince live a lot, you begin to notice the cheating. But even when Prince didn't give his best, it was still better than most concerts out there.

suomynona said:

Rebeljuice said:

The sampler sets... oh dear. I had never seen what he was upto behind the keyboard before until I watched a show on YT which was filmed from high up and you can see what his hands are doing. He literally had one finger on one key, holding it down to play the sample. For the next sample he would press down another key and hold it. Ocasionaly he would lift his finger and press down again, lift and press, lift and press to create the stuttering effect. Ive never got my head around those sampler sets. Never saw the point. If he needed a rest he could have done a piano set or accoustic set which he has been doing for years. But pressing down on one key to play a sample to kareoke over is an odd thing to do.

He was doing that during the 2013 3rdEyeGirl shows too -- and I never understood it. People did not pay $250 (plus $25 in fees) to see him stand at a keyboard and do that. I would have much rather had another live song. Even if it was just Hannah, Donna and Ida playing while Prince was taking a break. The only thing redeeming about any of it was when he'd throw on the bass and playing along during "Forever In My Life." But why not just play the song live? Why play along to the record? Was just weird. But whatever. Most of the rest of the content of those shows were the best I'd seen since that last show in Honolulu in 1996.

When you see Prince live a lot, you begin to notice the cheating. But even when Prince didn't give his best, it was still better than most concerts out there.

i thought about this when those recent paisley park rehearsals got out a few days ago,
where the new band of mono/donna/kirk are rehearsing songs.

they are clearly playing along to the record or at least to tapes.

so this is probably how a lot of his later bands learned songs quickly. prince wrote the
songs and often recorded them all on his own and then the ever revolving cast of the
npg had to study stuff to take it on the road.

some of those recent rehearsals sound like the sampler set where prince is playing the
bass over the tape or such.

that could have been the genesis of the sampler set perhaps. one of those rehearsals
from before 3EG hit the road where he thought 'wait a minute, this actually sounds
nice, plus it's a way to cram many fan favorite songs into the setlist'.

when it worked it was brilliant, you have to hand him that. like Hot Thing in sweden,
which was later streamed on Andy Allo's facebook. wow.

PeteSilas said:

i never heard of him rambling so, i dont' really know what this person is talking about. i do know that Springsteen is famous for his long stories and that Elvis could get on his soapbox over some wacky shit, but prince usually cared only about the music as far as I know. And his mentioning hendrix in concert is news to me because he usually said he wasn't even influenced by him (ridiculous) and when he was in Seattle, neither time did he even mention Jimi at the concerts i saw, which was mentioned in a review of Lovesexy I believe.

I remember on Love4oneanother site he mentioned he was working on Machine Gun all proceeds would go to Jimi's family- I paid it no attention as I just don't care for Jimi music also Prince worked with Nona - Jimi's Cousin on "Baby go go"

He rambled at plenty of shows as a lot of these comments suggest.

KingSausage said:

Prince never went on big tirades when I saw him perform (which was mostly at Paisley Park). But judging by bootlegs, there were no greater disruptions to his concerts than the whole "Stauros" thing. Oh god. "Somebody lied about the way that somebody died..." and so on. Just fucking kill me. Cross or giant pole. I don't care. Just kill me.

Yes that whole Stauros thing....on & on that would go...I would be standing close by looking at other band folks while the rambling went on it was break time no doubt about that.

PeteSilas said:

3rdeyedude said:

I get what the OP is saying. I think whenever you buy a ticket to a Prince concert, you never know what you will get. Yes, you paid to see a Prince concert. Then when you find yourself in the middle of a 20 minute beat box session by Doug E. Fresh, you start asking yourself when Prince will be coming back to the stage. I felt the same way about Larry Graham. Not crazy about Shelby either.

he let doug e fresh play at his show?

The worst Prince concert I was at, and the only one which wasn't totally amazing, featured Doug E Fresh - both making many appearances as one of the support acts (of which there were three, all awful) and during the Prince set.

IstenSzek said:

suomynona said:

He was doing that during the 2013 3rdEyeGirl shows too -- and I never understood it. People did not pay $250 (plus $25 in fees) to see him stand at a keyboard and do that. I would have much rather had another live song. Even if it was just Hannah, Donna and Ida playing while Prince was taking a break. The only thing redeeming about any of it was when he'd throw on the bass and playing along during "Forever In My Life." But why not just play the song live? Why play along to the record? Was just weird. But whatever. Most of the rest of the content of those shows were the best I'd seen since that last show in Honolulu in 1996.

When you see Prince live a lot, you begin to notice the cheating. But even when Prince didn't give his best, it was still better than most concerts out there.

one of those rehearsals from before 3EG hit the road where he thought 'wait a minute, this actually sounds nice, plus it's a way to cram many fan favorite songs into the setlist'.

Except if I wanted to listen to 30 second samples, I could go to iTunes and do that. I didn't pay $275 to go through 10-15 minutes of that. It just felt like a rip off. That's the thing about having expectations of someone. You're bound to be let down

suomynona said:

IstenSzek said:

one of those rehearsals from before 3EG hit the road where he thought 'wait a minute, this actually sounds nice, plus it's a way to cram many fan favorite songs into the setlist'.

Except if I wanted to listen to 30 second samples, I could go to iTunes and do that. I didn't pay $275 to go through 10-15 minutes of that. It just felt like a rip off. That's the thing about having expectations of someone. You're bound to be let down

i guess. but that's different for everyone. i didn't mind the sample set but i did mind when he
gave 20 minutes of a show to his backing singers to belt out covers or for prince to sing yet
another cover of sly stone (and always the same few songs, why not change it up and cover

different sly songs?).

but i can see why a lot of people would object to the sample set. personally though, i'd take
a 30 minute sample set over another 6 minute medley of Take Me With U/Raspberry Beret.