I don't know what happened in the last year of Prince's life but he seems to have tuned into a deeper source near the end. I found most of his gigs to be total snoozefests for the last 20 years of his life. Good moments here and there of course but overall it was a lot of "sound and fury signifying nothing" (to quote Shakespeare). But dropping the band on his final tour and just using his voice and keyboard seems to have brought out the best in him. His story telling, as opposed to his aimless jamming. Really loved what I heard of that final gig.

He also recorded "Hardrocklover" in his final year which I said at the time was the best song I'd heard from him in years (since the 90s really). Didn't know he still had it in him. The fact that this all came in his final year is quite poignant.

being u said alot of his concerts were snoozefest over the past twenty years and aimless jams wow

cbarnes3121 said:

being u said alot of his concerts were snoozefest over the past twenty years and aimless jams wow

The fact that midnightmover was moved by Prince's final concert is a miracle in and of itself...

midnightmover said:

read my sig

He did a lot of lame Greatest Hits tours late in his career, but he still did Montreax 2009, 2013 and whenever else and all were excellent and amazing. But agreed that the Piano and Mic shows were extra special.

The first year with Third Eye Girl (Live Out Loud U.S. leg, Montreux, Portugal) was incredibly lean, mean and inspired. New arrangements, no tired hits medleys (aside from the sampler sets, and even they had more verve to them than they did in the waning days of the Welcome 2 tours).

The Musicology tour, Montreux 2009, MSG and opening night at the Forum in 2011, the North Sea shows, Chicago 2 & 3 in 2012, all fantastic start to finish shows.

OP is either a casual Prince fan or uninformed. Arguably, Prince was better live the last 20 years than he was in his most 'commercially successful' era. The One Nite Alone shows were incredible, it only gets better from there.

I saw him perform 3 times, in 3 different decades 80's, 90's, and 2000's. He performances were so energetic, professional, sincere, mesmerizing, and moving, that I cannot possibly understand what it is you are trying to convey?????????

tomcooper2323 said:

rogifan said:

tomcooper2323 said:

He did a lot of lame Greatest Hits tours late in his career, but he still did Montreax 2009, 2013 and whenever else and all were excellent and amazing. But agreed that the Piano and Mic shows were extra special.

Do you have some examples of these lame greatest hits tours? I can think of maybe a few Welcome 2 shows but that’s it. And even those were better than just about anyone out there.

Personally I really enjoyed the European leg of the Welcome 2 tour, it wasn't just a Prince's greatest hits fest, it had some really nice covers and jams in between. Also a lot of sattelite act songs were performed like Cool and A Love Bizarre which I thought was great.

Back on topic, I agree his last gig was amazing. A worthy display of his genius and abundant talents.

how did some of you get to see all these performances? financially, how could you globetrot along with the dude? just curious.

As I was doing my reading in preparation of winding down for bedtime, I read the OP's disparaging comment about the last 20 years. This got me so fired up I knew I had to let it go so I could get some sleep. I figured that others would call this statement out, which has happily occurred. There is no way that someone who has listened to or went to all the stand alone concerts as well as samples from each tour could seriously write that comment unless they just don't like Prince music. There is so much variety there, it is impossible to lump them all the concerts in one category. Variety by nature tends to stimulate rather than cause boredom, so it just doesn't add up. One example of this not mentioned here yet is the Xenophobia concert series in 2002 that were all so different from each other ranging from a rock concert, heavy funk concert, concerts that focused on seldom played album cuts, along with the more typical ONA format concert. All of this was in a week's time. Too bad you have been snoring. Your missing out man.

midnightmover said:

I don't know what happened in the last year of Prince's life but he seems to have tuned into a deeper source near the end. I found most of his gigs to be total snoozefests for the last 20 years of his life. Good moments here and there of course but overall it was a lot of "sound and fury signifying nothing" (to quote Shakespeare). But dropping the band on his final tour and just using his voice and keyboard seems to have brought out the best in him. His story telling, as opposed to his aimless jamming. Really loved what I heard of that final gig.

He also recorded "Hardrocklover" in his final year which I said at the time was the best song I'd heard from him in years (since the 90s really). Didn't know he still had it in him. The fact that this all came in his final year is quite poignant.

*

I totally disagree with your snoozefest comment. Prince was incredible in so many tours in the last 20 years. How could anyone who've seen them think otherwise?

I agree with you only about how great The P & M shows were. He laid it all bare for us in those shows. We've never seen him so open and honest. What a tremendous gift to us that was.

[Edited 8/14/17 19:17pm]

DarkKnight1 said:

Snoozefests? Might want to delete your thread and just start over.

*profile.

how come no one mentioned....the great version of Indifference or the Peanuts theme music?

too good

DarkKnight1 said:

midnightmover said:

I don't know what happened in the last year of Prince's life but he seems to have tuned into a deeper source near the end. I found most of his gigs to be total snoozefests for the last 20 years of his life. Good moments here and there of course but overall it was a lot of "sound and fury signifying nothing" (to quote Shakespeare). But dropping the band on his final tour and just using his voice and keyboard seems to have brought out the best in him. His story telling, as opposed to his aimless jamming. Really loved what I heard of that final gig.

He also recorded "Hardrocklover" in his final year which I said at the time was the best song I'd heard from him in years (since the 90s really). Didn't know he still had it in him. The fact that this all came in his final year is quite poignant.

Can I have a link to any concert you've done in the past 40 years?

Misslink88, thats a very good question

purplethunder3121 said:

cbarnes3121 said:

being u said alot of his concerts were snoozefest over the past twenty years and aimless jams wow

The fact that midnightmover was moved by Prince's final concert is a miracle in and of itself...

Yes, the darling of P&R is trying the same approach with Prince's career. May need security.

Prince sounded just as good as always to me. Though he didn't look so hot. I think Vanity's death took a lot out of him. A whole lot.

I think the OP might have been just trying to "back door" get a list of Prince's greatest concerts from the last 20 years.

Smooth, OP, smooth.

[Edited 8/17/17 16:17pm]

no, he gave his opinion, i'm giving mine, no need to burn, ban, kill or mutilate. I just hate the fact Prince had to see this kind of shit even as he put in more hard work than 99.9 of us will ever see.

LOL, the response to my post is hilarious! Thanks for the laugh guys. I needed that.

I'm not dissing Prince. I LOVED that last show and actually I've loved pretty much every excerpt I've heard from that final tour. For me he should've ditched the band years ago. I've mentioned it before, but he had a tendency to sing one verse and chorus of a great song, then just jam on it for ten minutes after, while exhorting the audience about twenty times to "Clap your hands, y'all!" I prefer to just hear the songs. That was my biggest gripe. Also, the whole thing was just too retro and cozy for me. I could say more, but it doesn't matter now, and I'd prefer to celebrate the fact that he got back that purposefulness in his final year or two.

That final tour was like him returning home to me. The construction of the show was more artful, there was more feeling and the stripped back approach really emphasized the poetry in his songs. Isn't there a great feel to those words in "The Max" for instance? No one ever talks about that, but Prince was a very gifted wordsmith. The final tour emphasized that. For me it was up there with the great tours of his past.