Lovesexy

Best Concert ever !!!

madison said:

Best Concert ever !!!

Nope.

TheDigitalGardener said:

madison said:

Best Concert ever !!!

Nope.

Sure. Some other concerts on the tour were even better. Still a fantastic document of a fanstastic tour.

madison said:

Lovesexy

Best Concert ever !!!

Uh, no. In fact, the Lovesexy show I went to in L.A. was better than the Dortmund show.

Houston 1981, Belgium gold after show, Parade tour, The Ultimate Live Experience shows. Those were some of the most spectacular sets he's done. Not to say Lovesexy wasn't up there, but it's not the best ever. Not by a long shot.

paulludvig said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

Nope.

Sure. Some other concerts on the tour were even better. Still a fantastic document of a fanstastic tour.

hope that long island NY lovesexy show can get free..

madison said:

Lovesexy

Best Concert ever !!!

Curiously enough, I just watched this last night and belted out all the songs...it's quietly amusing that you don't just know the lyrics but the improvised call and responses and the whooos and grunts and screams off by heart too...

hastagnolife!

AWESOME !

When this was shown in Austrian Public Television in 1988 (yes, they did show stuff like that back then!) it sure was the best concert I had ever seen. It changed my life forever - it was the reason I became a lifelong Prince aficionado.

So, I'm with the OP!

Yes, this made me a Prince fan. Listened to the concert on the radio, can't remember why exactly because I wasn't really a fan at that time and age. The journey started there for me, so much to discover after that..

TrivialPursuit said:

iZsaZsa said:

I just took her to mean it's the most recent one she has watched.

Well yeah.

It's an incredible take, to think this was aired live, it's mind-boggling.
The video crew deserves maybe as much credit as the band, again, it was filmed as it was played, no editing, mixed and cut on the spot.
Pity the guitar went off on "Anna Stesia", I wonder what kind of solo would have come out of it.
But that's precisely what's great: I repeat, all we see and hear is LIVE.
Someone must have told him how bad he ruined SOTT the movie by overdubbing it to death.

What we saw on television that night is what was going on stage in Germany.
So yes, it is the best Lovesexy tour show, if only for this precise reason:
Imagine the pressure, you're aired on Eurovision (before becoming associated with the most stupid song contest on earth, the name meant worldwide live broadcasting of something big — like the pope's Urbi et Orbi).

It's not just the Westfalenhalle crowd, it's tens of thousands of ears and eyes on Prince.
Can you imagine the pressure? And yet, Prince never misses a line, a note, and gives himself away, totally, unconditionally ("Europe! Love is God! God is Love!").

When you hear Madonna out of breath and out of tune on her italian "Who's That Girl" broadcast, when you hear Michael Jackson singing almost as bad, and lip-syncing for half of the songs on his "Bad" tour videos, is when you realize Prince was light years ahead and above all.

It has one of the best, if not the best "The Cross", and an incredible "Purple Rain".
1988 was the year of the Blue Angel, his most inventive and personal on the axe (I'm gonna play the aftershows card here).

As one last nail in the coffin, we get the Mozart Piano Medley, a cosmic prowess of its own, literally incredible in terms of a vocal performance after one hour and a half of singing and jumping up and down, at such a pace. Given the same odds, Madge and Michael pant like second-choice Broadway amateurs, after only 3 or 4 songs through their show.

Sure, his whole career is a miraculous journey to behold, his commitment is unprecented and the devotion, quality and faith never left the building.
But Lovesexy (the concept, the album, the concert) was a miracle, the ultimate hyper-space jump.
Nothing would ever be the same after it.

Then came the nineties, and it was fake all over again,
this time for good and for ever (see Spears, Gaga, Cyrus, Bieber and co. so-called "shows").
"Can't touch this"? Well, you said it, bozo.

[Edited 4/1/17 18:41pm]

bonatoc said:

said:

The performance of Anna Stesia is AMAZING! He was really feeling the spirit. It was amazing 2 hear the entire stadium singing the words, "Love is God, God is love, Girls and boys love God above."

bonatoc said:

It's an incredible take, to think this was aired live, it's mind-boggling.
The video crew deserves maybe as much credit as the band, again, it was filmed as it was played, no editing, mixed and cut on the spot.
Pity the guitar went off on "Anna Stesia", I wonder what kind of solo would have come out of it.
But that's precisely what's great: I repeat, all we see and hear is LIVE.
Someone must have told him how bad he ruined SOTT the movie by overdubbing it to death.

What we saw on television that night is what was going on stage in Germany.
So yes, it is the best Lovesexy tour show, if only for this precise reason:
Imagine the pressure, you're aired on Eurovision (before becoming associated with the most stupid song contest on earth, the name meant worldwide live broadcasting of something big — like the pope's Urbi et Orbi).

It's not just the Westfalenhalle crowd, it's tens of thousands of ears and eyes on Prince.
Can you imagine the pressure? And yet, Prince never misses a line, a note, and gives himself away, totally, unconditionally ("Europe! Love is God! God is Love!").

When you hear Madonna out of breath and out of tune on her italian "Who's That Girl" broadcast, when you hear Michael Jackson singing almost as bad, and lip-syncing for half of the songs on his "Bad" tour videos, is when you realize Prince was light years ahead and above all.

It has one of the best, if not the best "The Cross", and an incredible "Purple Rain".
1988 was the year of the Blue Angel, his most inventive and personal on the axe (I'm gonna play the aftershows card here).

As one last nail in the coffin, we get the Mozart Piano Medley, a cosmic prowess of its own, literally incredible in terms of a vocal performance after one hour and a half of singing and jumping up and down, at such a pace. Given the same odds, Madge and Michael pant like second-choice Broadway amateurs, after only 3 or 4 songs through their show.

Sure, his whole career is a miraculous journey to behold, his commitment is unprecented and the devotion, quality and faith never left the building.
But Lovesexy (the concept, the album, the concert) was a miracle, the ultimate hyper-space jump.
Nothing would ever be the same after it.

Then came the nineties, and it was fake all over again,
this time for good and for ever (see Spears, Gaga, Cyrus, Bieber and co. so-called "shows").
"Can't touch this"? Well, you said it, bozo.

[Edited 4/1/17 18:41pm]

Sorry to interupt your enthusiasm, but I don't think that all we heard then was being played live. In some portions of the show Prince clearly used pre-recorded tape or the by then ubiquitous Synclavier: Erotic City, Bob George etc. Understandably so, because the scale of the Lovesexy-show needed to be coordinated by sequencers. As far as truly sequencer-free musicianship is concerned, Frank Zappa's 1988 "Broadway The Hard Way"-tour, which had just ended before Prince rolled into Europe, is probably still unmatched. As far as showmanship-entertainment combined with musical ability is concerned, the Lovesexy-tour maybe still is a blue print. It is well known that Jackson and Madonna used the Synclavier even for faking live-vocal-delivery. But then again, who didn't use it onstage in the 80s? Towards the end of that decade I attended a soundcheck by the Pat Metheny Group in Brussels and was astounded that the whole percussion-section of a certain tune ("Straight On Red") was being played, even though none of the drummers/percussionists had been present on stage. Prince just got better with time as a musician and he certainly didn't rely on sequencers anymore in his later years. But there's just no question that the SOTT- and Lovesexy-tours showed him at his freaky-showmanship best.

nonesuch said:

bonatoc said:

It's an incredible take, to think this was aired live, it's mind-boggling.
The video crew deserves maybe as much credit as the band, again, it was filmed as it was played, no editing, mixed and cut on the spot.
Pity the guitar went off on "Anna Stesia", I wonder what kind of solo would have come out of it.
But that's precisely what's great: I repeat, all we see and hear is LIVE.
Someone must have told him how bad he ruined SOTT the movie by overdubbing it to death.

What we saw on television that night is what was going on stage in Germany.
So yes, it is the best Lovesexy tour show, if only for this precise reason:
Imagine the pressure, you're aired on Eurovision (before becoming associated with the most stupid song contest on earth, the name meant worldwide live broadcasting of something big — like the pope's Urbi et Orbi).

It's not just the Westfalenhalle crowd, it's tens of thousands of ears and eyes on Prince.
Can you imagine the pressure? And yet, Prince never misses a line, a note, and gives himself away, totally, unconditionally ("Europe! Love is God! God is Love!").

When you hear Madonna out of breath and out of tune on her italian "Who's That Girl" broadcast, when you hear Michael Jackson singing almost as bad, and lip-syncing for half of the songs on his "Bad" tour videos, is when you realize Prince was light years ahead and above all.

It has one of the best, if not the best "The Cross", and an incredible "Purple Rain".
1988 was the year of the Blue Angel, his most inventive and personal on the axe (I'm gonna play the aftershows card here).

As one last nail in the coffin, we get the Mozart Piano Medley, a cosmic prowess of its own, literally incredible in terms of a vocal performance after one hour and a half of singing and jumping up and down, at such a pace. Given the same odds, Madge and Michael pant like second-choice Broadway amateurs, after only 3 or 4 songs through their show.

Sure, his whole career is a miraculous journey to behold, his commitment is unprecented and the devotion, quality and faith never left the building.
But Lovesexy (the concept, the album, the concert) was a miracle, the ultimate hyper-space jump.
Nothing would ever be the same after it.

Then came the nineties, and it was fake all over again,
this time for good and for ever (see Spears, Gaga, Cyrus, Bieber and co. so-called "shows").
"Can't touch this"? Well, you said it, bozo.

[Edited 4/1/17 18:41pm]

Sorry to interupt your enthusiasm, but I don't think that all we heard then was being played live. In some portions of the show Prince clearly used pre-recorded tape or the by then ubiquitous Synclavier: Erotic City, Bob George etc. Understandably so, because the scale of the Lovesexy-show needed to be coordinated by sequencers. As far as truly sequencer-free musicianship is concerned, Frank Zappa's 1988 "Broadway The Hard Way"-tour, which had just ended before Prince rolled into Europe, is probably still unmatched. As far as showmanship-entertainment combined with musical ability is concerned, the Lovesexy-tour maybe still is a blue print. It is well known that Jackson and Madonna used the Synclavier even for faking live-vocal-delivery. But then again, who didn't use it onstage in the 80s? Towards the end of that decade I attended a soundcheck by the Pat Metheny Group in Brussels and was astounded that the whole percussion-section of a certain tune ("Straight On Red") was being played, even though none of the drummers/percussionists had been present on stage. Prince just got better with time as a musician and he certainly didn't rely on sequencers anymore in his later years. But there's just no question that the SOTT- and Lovesexy-tours showed him at his freaky-showmanship best.

A mate of mine tried to convince me that Prince's guitar was being played off-stage by a technician, as there was no way Prince could play the guitar and move like that live.

I like what you say - there was an obvious amount of showmanship about the Lovesexy Tour and it did have pre-sequenced sections in it, no doubt. Ultimately, however, it did boil down to a bunch of very talented musicians performing a complex and challenging show.

I wonder whether this was one of the reasons why the aftershows from the Lovesexy show were so good - they could simply vent rather than be tied down to production values....?

[Edited 4/3/17 4:00am]

[Edited 4/3/17 4:00am]

luvsexy4all said:

paulludvig said:

Sure. Some other concerts on the tour were even better. Still a fantastic document of a fanstastic tour.

hope that long island NY lovesexy show can get free..

.

.

OMG! I was AT that show!!!

.

.

Here's hoping we can get audio / video of that!!!! I'd LOVE to have the show I was there for!!!

.

.

[Edited 4/3/17 4:04am]

[Edited 4/3/17 4:04am]

SimonCharles said:

nonesuch said:

Sorry to interupt your enthusiasm, but I don't think that all we heard then was being played live. In some portions of the show Prince clearly used pre-recorded tape or the by then ubiquitous Synclavier: Erotic City, Bob George etc. Understandably so, because the scale of the Lovesexy-show needed to be coordinated by sequencers. As far as truly sequencer-free musicianship is concerned, Frank Zappa's 1988 "Broadway The Hard Way"-tour, which had just ended before Prince rolled into Europe, is probably still unmatched. As far as showmanship-entertainment combined with musical ability is concerned, the Lovesexy-tour maybe still is a blue print. It is well known that Jackson and Madonna used the Synclavier even for faking live-vocal-delivery. But then again, who didn't use it onstage in the 80s? Towards the end of that decade I attended a soundcheck by the Pat Metheny Group in Brussels and was astounded that the whole percussion-section of a certain tune ("Straight On Red") was being played, even though none of the drummers/percussionists had been present on stage. Prince just got better with time as a musician and he certainly didn't rely on sequencers anymore in his later years. But there's just no question that the SOTT- and Lovesexy-tours showed him at his freaky-showmanship best.

A mate of mine tried to convince me that Prince's guitar was being played off-stage by a technician, as there was no way Prince could play the guitar and move like that live.

I like what you say - there was an obvious amount of showmanship about the Lovesexy Tour and it did have pre-sequenced sections in it, no doubt. Ultimately, however, it did boil down to a bunch of very talented musicians performing a complex and challenging show.

I wonder whether this was one of the reasons why the aftershows from the Lovesexy show were so good - they could simply vent rather than be tied down to production values....?

[Edited 4/3/17 4:00am]

[Edited 4/3/17 4:00am]

There's one question you would have to ask your mate: Why would Prince have bothered at all to mime playing onstage? It just doesn't make sense that he was sometimes being accused of not actually having played the guitar live during his showa. Or worse, having used a stunt-player off stage. I've heard these stories, too. There was never any need for him to prove that he was able to play the guitar rather well - even back in the mid-80's. We all know that he was maybe not as good a guitar player as he was in the 2000's, but he was fully capable of delivering impressive solos when needed. I am sure that he wouldn't have bothered to strap on his guitars, when he didn't feel like the songs would have benefited from him playing. We knew he was a good guitar-player before we learned that he actually came close to having had mastered the guitar (Montreux 2009 anyone?). Oh by the way, I would love to have the pleasure to listen to a three-album-set consisting of Prince's guitar solos only, just like Frank Zappa's "Shut Up'N Play Yer Guitar"-Box-Set. But I don't think that artistic decisions like these are what's on the minds of the people who now look after his musical legacy...

You're totally correct with your assumption that Prince's aftershow-gigs were getaways from the rather strict "regimes" of having to play the hits or having to function in big scale shows like Lovesexy. I seem to remember that Alan Leeds once said excatly something like that in an interview.

But since we're supposed to show our appreciation of that particular show, yes, to me it shows Prince at his peak. Not necessarily musically, but ceratinly as a performer and as a figure being able to unite, to include rather than exclude. At least back then. I saw him at that venue a good year before and felt like a freak among freaks. There were all of us: Gay men, lesbians, transgenders, straight couples, believers, non-believers, conformists, non-conformists, individuals and those who were looking for common sense. And at that time there was actually no one else playing and partying with all those stereotypes more effectively than the small but potent freak on stage. I will always be thankful to him for that. It was liberating and highly entertaining.

Synclavier my ass. It's 1984, and he's already on astounishing levels for a live performer.

And you want me to believe than 4 years later, when he's become better with every year passing, all the rock world and the pop business staring in awe, he takes liberties. He's doing playback.
"OK, guys, I know y'all think I was a real musician, guess what, I'm a clown."
Seriously?

If there is a single note of Prince, whether sung or played, guitar or piano, and a single note from Sheila, that isn't played, where are they? Minutes and seconds, please.

The few samples are triggered live. The Linn has its own technician. Even "Bob George"'s start is messed up, "Eye Wish U Heaven" as well, it was a damn complicated show to run, of course someone has to patch the Linn on the console and someone plays start, and open the channels. It's 1988.
Do you know how good Prince's sound techs are?
Of course you have the triggers the sirens.
"Bob George" is all live except for the Linn, mothafuckaz.

(like we're a mega-bunch of deluded fruitcakes, as if a roadie doesn't talk. If Prince was a fraud, we'd knew by then, whaddyathinkdissiz, Punk? We're among serious musicians). Man I 'm pissed!

I was at the Paris concerts in 1987, FRONT ROW — this ain't no movie overdub man, lights went off and I got 1/4 of the quadriphonics right in the Plexus on the first slash of guitar, I mean there was nothing between me and the sub-woofer, we're talkin 1m50 high a beast, audio towers flanking the stage, suspended towers, one of the best live audio systems since Pink Floyd. These incredible hexagons that moved, suddenly the whole stage is dancing, and my heart made an extra beat on every kick drum pump, he was right in front of me...

I was already a trained musician, you don't fake me. I know how to read a guitarist's hand. I know how he sings on June 14th 1987, I have a very clear memory of his mouth and what was going out of the speakers. To be frank, I needed to believe, even if the 1984 and 1986 TV broadcasts could be nothing but legit. As a young ambitious musician, you can be fucking sure I looked very closely at the guy that was standing some 120 centimeters from me. To make sure he didn't exist just on record sleeves posters and videoclips.

I could see his shoes, so the stage level was roughly at 170 cm.
I had him, in front of my eyes, for real. And I know every drop of sweat I saw that night was all the work it takes to be so good.

I heard him pant. Sing better than the album version. If there's a slight broken notes, that's because he just did four splits in a row. The volume was so high I could hear everything.
Every hi-hat roll of Sheila. Every slap from Levi. Every riff from Atlanta and Eric. Heard Boni.
I checked them all. Man, they'll slap yo ass for just doubting!

Pity we don't have a really good document of the SOTT Tour. There are good ones, but such volume was hard on the tape recorders. The console records circulating miss the equation: the mix lacks reverb because it was produced by the venue, tailored to the hall. SOTT Live was incredible to the eyes and to the ears. The movie adds very little. Most of what you see is the concert as I saw it. It's hard to explain. It's incredible to see it on video, but to live it. I remember I did not get "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man". You don't know what it is to have that much lights in your face, a rainbow, and then the follow spot is on him, and if you'd like to hear what it sounded like, there's a 14th june 1987 circulating.
And so is Dortmund.
Do your homework or state your case.

I lived the thing. And a Lovesexy show. The 3rd was already perfect.
By Dortmund he had the show in his pocket, they all did, by heart, time to shoot.
Goodbye Europe.
We love you too, SKipper.

And there you are, covering of suspicion one of the best musicians in the world.
Go soak your head.

If Zappa takes the synclavier for musical purposes and says himself it's hard, in 1987, why Prince would not use the same technology in 1988? And if he would, it was for lip-syncing? Ever saw Prince live?
It's called adornments (man I start to sound like Mary Sharon), but I don't think, etc. ...

The director of the Dortmund show said itself. Or someone close. It's on the internet.
There were a few samples, all triggered by hand by Dr. Matt Fink.
That is why Bob George's mix is floating at the beginning, there's someone mixing. A show like that, you're constantly doing total recalls manually, you just don't know. All the rest, sirens triggered, the horns, the voices of the cops, it's the band members, it's live. And so is the rest. Even the break before Sheila E's Solo. It's different on every live bootleg. It's all live.

But prove me wrong.
Please list what is a sample mistaken for a live phrase, please provide the minutes and the seconds.

You got me a Fury on Brit Awards levels.
Don't ever do that to me again.
At least make use of conditional, and keep your unproven statements to yourself.
Unless you've witnessed a fake from Prince, live, right in front of your eyes.
Like the mike/guitar drops and the vocals/solo continues.

"Shall I Continue?"

[Edited 4/3/17 16:32pm]

bonatoc said:

It's an incredible take, to think this was aired live, it's mind-boggling.
The video crew deserves maybe as much credit as the band, again, it was filmed as it was played, no editing, mixed and cut on the spot.
Pity the guitar went off on "Anna Stesia", I wonder what kind of solo would have come out of it.
But that's precisely what's great: I repeat, all we see and hear is LIVE.
Someone must have told him how bad he ruined SOTT the movie by overdubbing it to death.

What we saw on television that night is what was going on stage in Germany.
So yes, it is the best Lovesexy tour show, if only for this precise reason:
Imagine the pressure, you're aired on Eurovision (before becoming associated with the most stupid song contest on earth, the name meant worldwide live broadcasting of something big — like the pope's Urbi et Orbi).

It's not just the Westfalenhalle crowd, it's tens of thousands of ears and eyes on Prince.
Can you imagine the pressure? And yet, Prince never misses a line, a note, and gives himself away, totally, unconditionally ("Europe! Love is God! God is Love!").

When you hear Madonna out of breath and out of tune on her italian "Who's That Girl" broadcast, when you hear Michael Jackson singing almost as bad, and lip-syncing for half of the songs on his "Bad" tour videos, is when you realize Prince was light years ahead and above all.

It has one of the best, if not the best "The Cross", and an incredible "Purple Rain".
1988 was the year of the Blue Angel, his most inventive and personal on the axe (I'm gonna play the aftershows card here).

As one last nail in the coffin, we get the Mozart Piano Medley, a cosmic prowess of its own, literally incredible in terms of a vocal performance after one hour and a half of singing and jumping up and down, at such a pace. Given the same odds, Madge and Michael pant like second-choice Broadway amateurs, after only 3 or 4 songs through their show.

Sure, his whole career is a miraculous journey to behold, his commitment is unprecented and the devotion, quality and faith never left the building.
But Lovesexy (the concept, the album, the concert) was a miracle, the ultimate hyper-space jump.
Nothing would ever be the same after it.

Then came the nineties, and it was fake all over again,
this time for good and for ever (see Spears, Gaga, Cyrus, Bieber and co. so-called "shows").
"Can't touch this"? Well, you said it, bozo.

[Edited 4/1/17 18:41pm]

actually the first night (9/8/88) was also filmed...and bootlegged

I prefer Nagoya to Dortmund, personally.

PacManPlus said:

luvsexy4all said:

hope that long island NY lovesexy show can get free..

.

.

OMG! I was AT that show!!!

.

.

Here's hoping we can get audio / video of that!!!! I'd LOVE to have the show I was there for!!!

.

.

[Edited 4/3/17 4:04am]

[Edited 4/3/17 4:04am]

theres a decent audio of it available ...and an uncirculating partial of the video

Love it!

Watch it a lot. Would love to have it at blue ray-quality.

What a show!

bonatoc said:

It's not just the Westfalenhalle crowd, it's tens of thousands of ears and eyes on Prince.
Can you imagine the pressure? And yet, Prince never misses a line, a note, and gives himself away, totally, unconditionally ("Europe! Love is God! God is Love!").

[Edited 4/1/17 18:41pm]

I was one in that crowd and it changed my life, the purple switch turned on and never switched off since then.

67Cadillac said:

I prefer Nagoya to Dortmund, personally.

I dig.

It's more than love. That show is a Prince institution in my eyes. It's absolutely essential for any long-time fan, and required viewing for the newbie. However, people are right on here when they say he did better gigs on the tour. If you think Dortmund or Nagoya is tight (haven't heard the Long Island gig), you should seek out Phillysexy (And I say that with no bias since I live outside of Philly in one of it's suburbs). The quality isn't as good, but still decent enough to seriously jam out. Outstanding show. Makes me wonder why he delivered a gig like that to a city he apparently hated.