I don't know when it changed, but I just noticed that PrinceVault has made an addition to each song's live appearance section. In the past, it simply listed the first live appearance followed by any tours the song was played regularly on. Now it also lists the last live appearance.

On the one hand, it's pretty interesting to know things like the lyrics to Possessed were first heard in Chicago in December 1982, the song was fully performed in New York the following year, and it had its last outing in Saint Paul on his birthday in 1985. But damn, knowing that the last live appearance really does mean last, felt like a punch to the gut.

I'm guessing that I Wanna Be Your Lover was the song with the longest history of performances.

First Appearance:

August 1979: Leeds Rehearsal Facility, North Hollywood, CA, USA (exact date unconfirmed, song was likely performed)

26 November 1979: The Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood, CA, USA (first confirmed performance)


Last Appearance:

14 April 2016 (Show 1): Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA, USA


Thirty seven years. And now never again. How I wish I could see and hear him play it just - one - more - time.

[Edited 10/22/16 4:03am]

Instead of being downbeat about this, I'm going to look at it constructively. It'll be an interesting project to try to collect the first, last and - subjectively - best performance of each song. PrinceVault currently lists the first partial and full appearance of each song, but it doesn't do the same for the last appearance, e.g. the bassline to Head was last played on May 22, 2014 in Glasgow but it'll take some digging to discover the last time he sang and performed it properly.

My favourite album is probably Parade, one of the few to have had every song performed. Here's its performance history in order of final performance.

Christopher Tracy's Parade / I Wonder U / Life Can Be So Nice: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 9 Sep 86 Yokohama

Anotherloverholenyohead: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 18 May 2012 Brisbane
Mountains: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 14 Jun 2015 Washington
New Position: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 21 Mar 2016 Montreal
Girls and Boys: 11 Jul 85 7th St. Entry - 24 Feb 2016 Auckland
Venus De Milo: 19 Jul 88 Milan - 4 Mar 2016 Auckland

Under The Cherry Moon: 2 Dec 84 Toronto (instr) / 3 Mar 86 1st Ave (full) - 14 Apr 2016 Atlanta
Kiss: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 14 Apr 2016 Atlanta (1)
Sometimes It Snows In April: 7 Jun 85 St Paul - 14 Apr 2016 Atlanta (2)

The only problem song is Do U Lie, which doesn't have its final performance listed. It was first played in Hamburg, August 31, 1986 and then occasionally during the One Nite Alone tour in 2002. I'll have to do a full search of live dates on PrinceVault to get the final time he did it on stage.

The first song from Parade to be heard was Under The Cherry Moon in 84, followed by Sometimes It Snows In April and Girls and Boys in 85. The last song to get its first live outing was Venus De Milo in 88.

luvgirl said:

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but why doesn't the Vault list the HitNRun albums in the discography?

It's not a stupid question. It doesn't look like they've updated the discography yet. Sometimes it can be hard to find things on there as you need to search for the precise title including any punctuation.

Hitnrun Phase One is here: http://princevault.com/in..._Phase_One

Hitnrun Phase Two is here: http://princevault.com/in..._Phase_Two

airth said:

airth said:

airth said:

Instead of being downbeat about this, I'm going to look at it constructively. It'll be an interesting project to try to collect the first, last and - subjectively - best performance of each song. PrinceVault currently lists the first partial and full appearance of each song, but it doesn't do the same for the last appearance, e.g. the bassline to Head was last played on May 22, 2014 in Glasgow but it'll take some digging to discover the last time he sang and performed it properly.

My favourite album is probably Parade, one of the few to have had every song performed. Here's its performance history in order of final performance.

Christopher Tracy's Parade / I Wonder U / Life Can Be So Nice: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 9 Sep 86 Yokohama

Anotherloverholenyohead: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 18 May 2012 Brisbane
Mountains: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 14 Jun 2015 Washington
New Position: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 21 Mar 2016 Montreal
Girls and Boys: 11 Jul 85 7th St. Entry - 24 Feb 2016 Auckland
Venus De Milo: 19 Jul 88 Milan - 4 Mar 2016 Auckland

Under The Cherry Moon: 2 Dec 84 Toronto (instr) / 3 Mar 86 1st Ave (full) - 14 Apr 2016 Atlanta
Kiss: 3 Mar 86 1st Ave - 14 Apr 2016 Atlanta (1)
Sometimes It Snows In April: 7 Jun 85 St Paul - 14 Apr 2016 Atlanta (2)

The only problem song is Do U Lie, which doesn't have its final performance listed. It was first played in Hamburg, August 31, 1986 and then occasionally during the One Nite Alone tour in 2002. I'll have to do a full search of live dates on PrinceVault to get the final time he did it on stage.

The first song from Parade to be heard was Under The Cherry Moon in 84, followed by Sometimes It Snows In April and Girls and Boys in 85. The last song to get its first live outing was Venus De Milo in 88.

i would love to see that in the future, to have live releases of entire albums, so the best
performance for each song on a particular album, in sequence. it would be a nice idea to
do that for an extra bonus disc in super deluxe editions of remasters perhaps. the only
problem being that some songs were never performed live (from the warners albums).
but there's probably still live versions in the vault, from rehearsals or private shows etc.

with the amount of material prince collected over the years, the possibilities are endless
for future releases.

This is just another example of how freaking talented and focused the people who run the Princevault are. Seriously, they get nothing for doing this and yet they still get greif on occasion if there is a typo when discussing 40 years of a man's life.

I bow to them constantly. They really are the authority when it comes to his entire career.

luvgirl said:

airth said:

Girls and Boys: 11 Jul 85 7th St. Entry - 24 Feb 2016 Auckland

Wow! He performed Boys and girls on the PM tour? Haven't heard that circulation yet. That's classic... [Edited 10/22/16 21:32pm]

It's only a minute and a half and pretty simplified, but it just sent shivers down my spine while listening to it again, especially as he gets the audience to "Doo doo doo" with him at the end. I kind of like the fact that the first performance of Girls & Boys was his vocals with only his bass and Sheila's drums, while the last time it was ever heard on stage was his vocals with only his piano and the backing of the audience.

IstenSzek said:

i would love to see that in the future, to have live releases of entire albums, so the best
performance for each song on a particular album, in sequence. it would be a nice idea to
do that for an extra bonus disc in super deluxe editions of remasters perhaps. the only
problem being that some songs were never performed live (from the warners albums).
but there's probably still live versions in the vault, from rehearsals or private shows etc.

with the amount of material prince collected over the years, the possibilities are endless
for future releases.

That would be great wouldn't it? Just looking at the eighties albums, there are live performances of all the songs on Dirty Mind, 1999, Purple Rain, Parade, and Sign O' The Times. The slight problem with Lovesexy is that he only did Dance On as an instrumental. Controversy is missing Ronnie Talk To Russia; Around The World In A Day is, I think amazingly, missing Temptation; and Batman is missing both Trust and Lemon Crush.

That means there were incredibly only four album tracks never played live (that we know of) from that period. It really highlights the effort he put into performing material when it was released, something he did much less of later in his career.

airth said:

IstenSzek said:

i would love to see that in the future, to have live releases of entire albums, so the best
performance for each song on a particular album, in sequence. it would be a nice idea to
do that for an extra bonus disc in super deluxe editions of remasters perhaps. the only
problem being that some songs were never performed live (from the warners albums).
but there's probably still live versions in the vault, from rehearsals or private shows etc.

with the amount of material prince collected over the years, the possibilities are endless
for future releases.

That would be great wouldn't it? Just looking at the eighties albums, there are live performances of all the songs on Dirty Mind, 1999, Purple Rain, Parade, and Sign O' The Times. The slight problem with Lovesexy is that he only did Dance On as an instrumental. Controversy is missing Ronnie Talk To Russia; Around The World In A Day is, I think amazingly, missing Temptation; and Batman is missing both Trust and Lemon Crush.

That means there were incredibly only four album tracks never played live (that we know of) from that period. It really highlights the effort he put into performing material when it was released, something he did much less of later in his career.

wow! i didn't realise that he performed almost all of them live