bonatoc said:

Beautiful picture.

bonatoc said:

The most beautiful single cover in his carreer.

Great pic.

I love all these pics and ancedotes about SOTT.

Is this the last time P wore jeans?

bonatoc said:

2 questions: Is this from that era. I can't put my figure on it, but something just seems "off", or doesn't really look like Prince to me. Is it just me?

Asenath0607 said:

2 questions: Is this from that era.
I can't put my figure on it, but something just seems "off", or doesn't really like like Prince to me. Is it just me?

Nope, that's from Lovesexy.
This is him.
Possibly having a photoshoot after 48 hours straight in the studio, which explains the "off" factor.
Jokes aside, he was probably going for some kind of purity,
which could explain why he looks miles away from the funny smirks and poses.

Now, seriously, the "off" factor comes from the picture being reversed.
Prince's cheek mole is on his left.

Here's the original picture, but let's not derail...

[Edited 10/17/17 20:08pm]

bonatoc said:

Thank you. This is really good for "newbies" and/or causual listeners.

Asenath0607 said:

Thank you. This is really good for "newbies" and/or causual listeners.

Sourced from this great article.

bonatoc said:

Asenath0607 said:

Thank you. This is really good for "newbies" and/or causual listeners.

Sourced from this great article.

Thanks alot!!!! heeding your comment about how much I missed; went on a trip to enlighten and educate myself and found this gem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1teoNY00qo

now my all time favorite song from this era has been TOTALLY ruined

Notice that I didn't say it was all good

Well, starting from the nineties there is so much production,
that it's just impossible you will like everything.
But if you dig through the unreleased stuff (even the released stuff, for that matter),

you'll surely find some gems (and the term is not used ironically here).

Also note, you mentioned you skipped everything starting from Around The World In A Day (so how come you know "Adore"?).
I suggest you begin with the rest of the eighties production, albums, b-sides and side projects.
You may get a better view on why Prince is considered a genius (and the term is used carefully here).

this was the first official image/article I saw of the new band line up.
I believe it was in Rolling Stone magazine

PRINCE IN EUROPE: A PREVIEW OF HIS NEW SHOW

BY KURT LODER

IT'S FOUR IN THE MORNING, May 15th, at Quasimodo, a small, black-walled Berlin jazz cellar, but the beer is still flowing, and fresh hash smoke curls languidly through the hot, stuffy air. Some 300 people are packed into the place, most of them lucky holdovers from a set much earlier in the evening by the expatriate American singer Joy Ryder. Now they are crushed around the club's tiny stage, staring in popeyed wonder at the totally unexpected mystery gig currently under way.

There are three men in long, hooded robes on stage -- one playing sax, another bass, the third wringing wondrous sounds out of a Fairlight synthesizer. There is an amazing woman playing drums -- it's Sheila E. And at center stage, wearing a rhinestone-spangled black leather jacket and at least three different kinds of dangling earrings, his heroically coiffed hair gathered into a small ponytail at the back, stands a little guy with a peach-colored guitar. Yes, it's Prince.

"Wanna go home?" he asks, peering out at the crowd with a coy smile.

"Nooo!"

"Me neither," he says, then glances at the band. "I think we oughta play the blues in G." A flurry of T-Bone Walker-style guitar lines suddenly fills the room, modulating quickly into a series of unmistakable Hendrixisms. The song is Jimi's "Red House," sort of. "There's a beach house over yonder," Prince sings, in a playful approximation of the original lyrics. "That's where my sugar stays...." He shouts out another verse or two and then takes off into a wild, glass-rattling guitar solo that makes jaws drop around the room and jacks up the temperature maybe another ten degrees.

It has been a long and amazing night, and there's still no end in sight. Many hours before, Prince and his new ten-member group, fresh from warm-up gigs in Sweden (they'll reach the U.S. sometime in August) -- played the fifth show of their 1987 European tour at West Berlin's Deutschlandhalle to a riotous response. It was Prince's first appearance in the divided city, and local scribes were already clapping together reviews centered on such words as genius and fantastic and marveling at the show's tech data: the thirteen trucks required to carry the elaborate stage set, the 240,000 watts of lighting, the 110,000 watts of amplification, the fourteen wardrobe trunks, two for Prince alone. In short, the first of Prince's two sold-out concerts in Germany's hippest city was an unqualified success -- at least for the approximately 12,000 people who danced and cheered their way through it.

The Prince camp, however, was less than totally pleased. There were some minor missed cues, and the rhythms of the tour hadn't yet settled into a satisfying groove. It had also been a disconcerting day: several members of the band had spent the morning visiting East Berlin and were still weirded out by the ugly hassling they got from the Volkspolizei gorillas on the eastern side of the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing. (Backing singer Cat Glover, who had rather rashly made the trip wearing a hot-pink suit and a white navy officer's hat, had been detained at length over a visa foul-up.) There was a certain fatigue factor at work as well. Three of the musicians -- bassist Levi Seacer, saxaphonist Eric Leeds, and keyboard phenom Matt Fink -- do double duty in Madhouse, the jazz-instrumental quartet that opens each show, and might have been subconsciously husbanding their energies in anticipation of this postconcert surprise gig that Prince had laid on. So, while the first concert at the Deutschlandhalle had been extraordinarily good by any normal standard, it hadn't been great -- which is Prince's standard.

But this surprise set at Quasimodo has been wonderfully invigorating. Madhouse opened up, blowing straight, muscular jazz and feeling more at home here than in front of the rock-funk crowds drawn to Prince concerts. Then Prince popped onstage, commandeered a synth and led the group into a steaming rendition of "Strange Relationship," from the Sign o' the Times album. That evolved into an extended jam ("Just keep on top of it!" Prince shouted), followed by the Hendrix workout. Next came a red-hot version of "Bodyheat," the James Brown dance classic, followed by a delicate and beautifully sung "Just My Imagination," the old Temptations hit, with more band members crowding onstage to join in. "Housequake," another song from the Sign LP, with Sheila E. whomping out a monster beat, loosened the roof on the place, and the closer, "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," with Prince briefly taking over on drums, blew the sucker completely off. The crowd was a puddle of glee, most patrons unable to believe what they'd just seen (and free of charge). Then, quicker than you could say, "Elvis has left the building," Prince was gone.

This hour-long off-the-cuff jam -- a rare up-close demonstration of Prince's sensational powers as an instrumentalist, an improviser and (lest we forget) a singer -- was apparently just the tonic the whole troupe needed. By the following night, considerably refreshed and still buzzing from the Quasimodo gig, Prince and his band were primed to kill -- and proceeded, unforgettably, to do so.

The Friday-night crowd, another sellout, was already on its feet and screaming as an ocean of smoke poured out onto the stage. From somewhere within this impenetrable fog there erupted an abstract barrage of Hendrixian guitar sirens. A purple spotlight cut through the haze, revealing Prince in a long black leather coat and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, playing his peach-toned axe. As the electro-thump drumbeat that animates the title track of Sign o' the Times boomed through the hall, he began singing, and a back-light spot flashed on, silhouetting Cat Glover -- clad in the black bra and bikini briefs she would wear through most of the show -- gyrating wildly on an elevated platform at stage right. As the number built to a crescendo, the rest of the group came trooping down a long, winding ramp at stage left, each pummeling a drum with marching-band precision. Joining Prince, they spread out n the stage, beating out a resounding tattoo. It was an exhilarating entrance.

Then the lights went out, and the extraordinary stage set sizzled to life. An elaborate cityscape built on two levels, it echoes the cover of Sign o' the Times: a towering, impressionistic metropolis festooned with flashing neon signs -- UPTOWN, FUNK CORNER, BAR & GRILL, GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS. With all the lights popping on and off, the effect was that of a giant pinball machine. The band launched into the rollicking "Play in the Sunshine." On the stage level were Prince, bassist Seacer, rhythm guitarist Miko Weaver and backup vocalists Glover (whose picture on the sleeve of the "Sign" single has been widely mistaken to be Prince in drag), Greg Brooks and Wally Safford (two former Prince bodyguards). Elevated above them, and all but buried within her drum set, was Sheila E. And on the second tier, high above the stage, stood the two horn players, sax man Leeds and trumpeter Matt "Atlanta Bliss" Blistan, and keyboardists Fink and Boni Boyer.

Over the next ninety minutes, Prince and his extraordinary group ran, jumped, crawled and danced their way tirelessly through nineteen songs, ten of them from Sign o' the Times. Some numbers (the almost balladic version of "Little Red Corvette," for instance) were essentially abbreviated acknowledgments of past hits, but Prince did pull out the stops for certain oldies -- in particular a thunder-and-lightning performance of "Purple Rain" turned the house into a swaying sea of upraised arms. Equally memorable was the furious run-through of "1999" that closed the main part of the show, and the ultrafunk attack on "Kiss" that ended the first encore.

But in general it was the new material that was most powerfully presented. "Housequake" lived right up to its title and then some. The razor-riffed "Hot Thing" and the irresistibly exuberant "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" came across as instant and undeniable hits. On a steamier note, "If I Was Your Girlfriend" provided a perfect erotic set piece: as the song slithered to a close, Prince and the barely clad Glover, embracing before a giant, pink plastic heart, slowly went tilting back upon it into an unambiguous missionary positions as two neon signs high above the stage alternately flashed the words SEX and LOVE.

Throughout all of this, the band was spectacular. Prince has been listening to a lot of Duke Ellington and preelectric Miles Davis lately, and the show, while louder and maybe even funkier than ever, was also mightily enriched with jazz flourishes. The result, quite often, was an almost orchestral rock-jazz synthesis that was both harmonically exciting and (thanks to Sheila E. -- surely the world's hottest drummer in high-heeled pumps) relentlessly funky.

And the best came last. Prince started "The Cross" alone and shirtless, strumming the simple opening chords on his guitar as lighting effects flickered behind the darkened cityscape above him. Then the song started to build -- drums wading in, then fully cranked guitars, then the full band -- until the number attained an enormous, hall-shaking roar, with Prince soloing off into the stratosphere as a shower of mulitcolored silk flowers rained onto the stage. From there, the band jumped straight into "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," which had the whole crowd chanting and stomping along with such abandon that certain far sections of the balcony seemed in danger off crashing to the main floor. Prince was out the stage door, into the limo and halfway back to his hotel before the cheering stopped.

(RS 503)

http://classicalbumsundays.com/susan-rogers-interview/

Susan Rogers Interview

Released in April 1987, SIGN ‘O’ THE TIMES was previewed two month earlier by the single of the same name. Written, recorded and mixed in a single day, I’d love to know the date so I could look up the newspapers to see what inspired it.

One of the most captivating, not to mention unorthodox concert intro ever, SIGN ‘O’ THE TIMES was performed nightly on the highly conceptual world tour that hit the road in May. Almost eerie on stage, it wasn’t exactly a safe choice for a single either. But the music world seemed fascinated by the rare glimpse into the Prince politic and it raced up the charts.

15 SIGN ‘O’ THE TIMES (3:42)
Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince
Created and Mixed at Paisley Park, Sunset Sound and Dierks Studio Mobile Trucks
Engineered by Susan Rogers, Coke Johnson and Prince
Published by Controversy Music, administered by WB Music Corp. ASCAP
From SIGN ‘O’ THE TIMES

13 LA, LA, LA, HE, HE, HEE (3:21)
Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince
Lyrics co-written by Sheena Easton
Published by Controversy Music, administered by WB Music Corp./Sticky Black Publishing ASCAP
B-side of “SIGN ‘O’ THE TIMES”

(Dares must have been in the air when Easton was around because their other collaboration, LA, LA, LA, HE, HE, HEE, resulted from Prince being asked to prove he could indeed get a full song out of those simple syllables.)

now i really want to hear Walking In Glory since its from 87

luvsexy4all said:

now i really want to hear Walking In Glory since its from 87

86 actually

same days as Bob George...

the idea of a Black Album outtake possible Bside is fantastic

Walkin' In Glory is an unreleased gospel track recorded on 7 December 1986 at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA, USA (on the same day as Bob George). Engineer Susan Rogers said he may have recorded Walkin' In Glory that day "to compensate" for Bob George. It is unknown if the song was intended for his next album, Sign O' The Times, or any other project.

-PrinceVault

the EAT sign from the Apollonia 6 movie/video

OldFriends4Sale said:

the EAT sign from the Apollonia 6 movie/video

Love this photo! Thanks

OldFriends4Sale said:

luvsexy4all said:

now i really want to hear Walking In Glory since its from 87

86 actually

same days as Bob George...

the idea of a Black Album outtake possible Bside is fantastic

Walkin' In Glory is an unreleased gospel track recorded on 7 December 1986 at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA, USA (on the same day as Bob George). Engineer Susan Rogers said he may have recorded Walkin' In Glory that day "to compensate" for Bob George. It is unknown if the song was intended for his next album, Sign O' The Times, or any other project.

-PrinceVault

and its out there..that irish kook has it

ISaidLifeIsJustAGame said:

Great pic.

I love all these pics and ancedotes about SOTT.

Is this the last time P wore jeans?

bonatoc said:

This Jeff Katz photo is so good it made the official visual for the movie.
You'd think the last time Prince wore jeans was on friday, september 11th, 1987 MTV Awards Show.
But no. It was on the Muppets show. But maybe they ain't jeans. This man fatigues me...

By the way, take a look at 2’45, hear the soundboard.
You'll get an idea what power it had resonating in a 17.000 seats venue.
We were all screaming in between verses.
The first screams scared me. We were all yelling, then the Linn starts on SOTT.
And then we yell louder. And then we break our voices when he appears
Chapelle's style, outta nowhere from a cloud.
Prince sings a bleak world, and it was like, oh, so from what we saw on TV
he's going to start with PITS, and you could tell some of us were a bit,
a tiny bit disappointed that he didn't start at his most political Dylanesque.
The fuck he did.

Incredible is the word.
Such good music, just flowing from him, and them.
The band deserves an accolade. Squeezed between The Revolution and The NPG,
they're pretty underrated: this was a tremendously demanding show.
Kudos to them all, look at them playing and moving all along,
you got to have a firm grip while giggling and jumping.
Hop, hop, left, right, what's the coming chord again? Oh wait, the background voc.."

The production was huge, one of the biggest tours of the year, in terms of logistics,
topped by MJ, but honestly, if Roy Bennett did this with less money, that's a run for it. Way to go. That'll show him.
The Bad Tour lights they're pretty bland in comparison (I'm being kind).
And the funk feels like from under a condom. Where's the chick, Mike?
But let's not digress.

Did I say how close to the stage we were (Prince put us)?
Even in the widest shots, there are audience hands between him and the camera's lens.
We were close.

I was at an arm's length of his shoes.
A little bit more, but barely.
When you see his drops of sweat you're pretty close.
What an athlete.

There are very few artists so giving as Prince.
Its generosity as an artist knew no boundaries.
Man, if only I could make you feel what it felt like. He was having so much fun.
The housequake split and caterpillar on the back thing, the one from the movie,

That's the angle I got, very close to his mike.
Let's say I saw the whole concert at a carpillar's arm length, chin up.

He was sweating. A lot.
Always a fan drying him, during the whole show. It's not because it looks cool —
Well, it is actually cooler.
This light show, must have felt like an oven on stage.

Meanwhile, he sings and hits every note,
giving you an on-the-spot alternative version of the song,
and we're all producing adrenaline, pheromones, us, him.

All of this but you can't keep an eye on him, there he slides, does a solo,
or does his multiple bouncing split series of his,
and he's very quick and strong with the fingers,
he just pushes himself up with a little help of his hands.
For the rest, it's the incorporated springs of Prince's pelvis. He was born with them.

I remember a french critic writing at the time:

"at this pace, our purple shorty is going to collapse in our bare arms if he doesn't take a rest,
so it's about time we let the guy breathe a little and change costume
while Sheila E. and the band go in flames on a frantic version of Charlie Parker's 'Now’s the Time'."

Or some like that.
By the end of the paper, Prince was a genius. Full stop.
In Paris, he was the ultimate shit. In all major cities across Europe.
Some of us went zealots. The rest went nuts.

The sound was fantastic.
And as you can see, even a jurassic VHS tape adds a surreal glow.
The TV channels must have an HD (by 1987 standards) version of this.

The RAI in Italy. Probably TF1, Antenne 2.
Each with their own PITS (I know because I saw the italian one,
the french one and now this one, they're not the same).

At the time, to promote the tour, Prince allowed the major TV channels
to record "Play In The Sunshine" only, under strict surveilance,
and from one fixed camera only.

So that means SKipper was probably shooting the whole concert
from day one. His crew needed the space.
My guess is they started the first shows getting the angles right,
a phase of pre-production, then some tests, then the incident reported by Cat made him wrap it up.
Maybe the original planning was different.

It's so clever pop music marketing: that single TV camera was always put far from the stage,
so it had no choice but to zoom in and out and pan a little,
so you could see what an enjoyable show it was going to be, no matter the distance.

I enjoy the movie because, frankly... Sometimes I'm not sure I even was at the grandest concert of them all.
It serves as a reminder. Take "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man".
The only thing I remember is the smoke, the neons, I did not recognize the tune. Not a single note.
I already knew it by heart, but nada, zip, I felt like a deer staring at the car's spotlights.
A rainbowish fog, the Chocolate Factory, Close Encounter of the Third Kind,
Springsteen and Hendrix and Clapton and Prince rolled into one.

It was surreal, the drive of it, I got Sheila's kick right in the chest.
Breath stopping rumble, physical.
You know the start of the live version.
The thunder she made with the double kick, oh boy.
I got 2 days of tinnitus after the show.
It was oh so worth it.

Pay attention to the beginning of the solo, it's very brief:
Roy Bennett was his lights' Clare Fischer, if you see what I mean.
Drenched in a yellow pursuit from the back, and a purple halo just on the guitar.
It's perfection from a lot of rehearsing, no doubt.
Even the very last row must've had a blast.

I love the teaser approach: they cut the recording just when the solo starts.
Very Princey. Want some more? Come to the show!

The Greatest Show on Earth, even just for a year.
Oh wait, the year before as well, and the following too.

Can't wait for the rushes of the european leg of the tour.
I mean the tour. Sorry about that.

What music, what magic. Prince got the perfect sum of who he was,
this mohair-pimp-mohican-third-eye-muppet-in-need-of-affection-skipper.

How do you say to a creative being like this: restrain yourself? Don't express yourself?
I would have been pissed at Warner for years too, until it was over.
The Dream Factory deserved to be released as a 3 LP set.
Who knows what it would have been like.

But even in the released configuration, the album is still Album of the Year.
I can't help but imagine Dream Factory being released.
And Camille too. Five discs released in 1986 only, Parade included.
I know I'm digressing a bit, but you can't ignore the genesis.
5 discs, I can imagine a critic having the balls of placing them five in his 1987 top ten.
We know the era, what was recorded, tell me it isn't that good.

Prince is a genius, also because it made the best of Warner's censorship.
The 2 LP cut was sequenced with the show in mind.

The love triangle theme of the movie was actually in the show.
It was mimicked on stage.

Man, I even could see the Crystal Ball micro-lightnings when it was all dark,
for a few seconds, in between songs.
The lightings were drawn to energy coming from all directions, from the top of the Cadillac's hood,
between Sheila's two kick drums and legs. Power Fantastic.

Say, did I tell you how great of a show it was?

[Edited 10/25/17 23:14pm]

[Edited 10/25/17 23:28pm]