Prince did many tours but almost every tour had some distraction.

at the early days (1985) it was sax overload on Purple Rain tour

and that wacky long intermissions.

on 1987,88 there was Cat than spotlight was always on somebody

who was there for a ride ,but

on Controversy and 1999 tours we have spotlight only on Prince.

Controversy tour offers Prince the guitar player and singer

1999 is more about Prince defining Prince persona with all the

trademark yelps and grunts

along with dancing and the strongest vocal performances .

on both tours you see Prince from a different angle but the

spotlight was always on him.

both tours have fresh set lists and lots of enthusiasm from young Prince and the band

Prince didn't learn to dance until Purple Rain (those Jagger moves of the beforetime don't count)

.

For Sign Of The Times and LoveSexy, the elaborate staging meant the set was cast in stone somewhat and limited the enjoyment. So of the first 10 years, the Under The Cherry Moon tour is the best, to me. A large band to make whatever arrangement he wanted possible, dance routines done for fun, the freedom to change anything on any whim, a band that was with him for a few years and knew how to look for any cue. It brought out the best in him.

.

Later tours.... he always seemed to go for some kind of greatest hits shows, apart from the Come/Chaos&Disorder era. Those shows, along with the One Night Alone/Xebophobia/Rainbow Children tour when he let people be there during the soundcheck and it was about musicianship...

.

Those are my dearest memories of Prince live. His best tours, to me.

Hate to agree but Controversy and the 1999 tours were his best as he was completely original. The statge set ups were the same but I see why, they were so badass and somehwat futurisitc and dramatic to just leave away when he became way popular with the 1999 album. The later years were just a Jame Brown Revue type of set up and performance imho. The Con-1999 tours were vintage essence of Prince.

mediumdry said:

Prince didn't learn to dance until Purple Rain (those Jagger moves of the beforetime don't count)

.

For Sign Of The Times and LoveSexy, the elaborate staging meant the set was cast in stone somewhat and limited the enjoyment. So of the first 10 years, the Under The Cherry Moon tour is the best, to me. A large band to make whatever arrangement he wanted possible, dance routines done for fun, the freedom to change anything on any whim, a band that was with him for a few years and knew how to look for any cue. It brought out the best in him.

.

Later tours.... he always seemed to go for some kind of greatest hits shows, apart from the Come/Chaos&Disorder era. Those shows, along with the One Night Alone/Xebophobia/Rainbow Children tour when he let people be there during the soundcheck and it was about musicianship...

.

Those are my dearest memories of Prince live. His best tours, to me.

thats not true,Prince already knew how to dance on 1999 tour,watch the concerts

rdhull said:

Hate to agree but Controversy and the 1999 tours were his best as he was completely original. The statge set ups were the same but I see why, they were so badass and somehwat futurisitc and dramatic to just leave away when he became way popular with the 1999 album. The later years were just a Jame Brown Revue type of set up and performance imho. The Con-1999 tours were vintage essence of Prince.

why u hate 2 agree?

thebanishedone said:

rdhull said:

Hate to agree but Controversy and the 1999 tours were his best as he was completely original. The statge set ups were the same but I see why, they were so badass and somehwat futurisitc and dramatic to just leave away when he became way popular with the 1999 album. The later years were just a Jame Brown Revue type of set up and performance imho. The Con-1999 tours were vintage essence of Prince.

why u hate 2 agree?

you look nice tonight

[Edited 5/22/19 10:06am]

jdcxc said:

Jam of the Year and 2000-1 Hit N Run were brilliant and underrated.

Yep, nothing like having Prince yell out "This ain't Memorex" when Kirk was playing to backing tapes, Rosie Gaines also perfomred awesome on Jam Of The Year, even though I never saw her once, oh, yeah, she was on the backing tape too. Probably not as bad as some on here would tell you, but Prince was capable of so much more. He probably never should have gone forward with the tour to begin with, after the horrible thing with his son. Hit N Run? If you love some Doug E Fresh, and love Prince singing as little as ten percent of the lyrics to a song. Uptown, Mutiny, Darling Nikki, and the Beautiful Ones were huge highlights, but even those were not really ful length.

stillwaiting said:

jdcxc said:

Jam of the Year and 2000-1 Hit N Run were brilliant and underrated.

Yep, nothing like having Prince yell out "This ain't Memorex" when Kirk was playing to backing tapes, Rosie Gaines also perfomred awesome on Jam Of The Year, even though I never saw her once, oh, yeah, she was on the backing tape too. Probably not as bad as some on here would tell you, but Prince was capable of so much more. He probably never should have gone forward with the tour to begin with, after the horrible thing with his son. Hit N Run? If you love some Doug E Fresh, and love Prince singing as little as ten percent of the lyrics to a song. Uptown, Mutiny, Darling Nikki, and the Beautiful Ones were huge highlights, but even those were not really ful length.

lol thank you for this...Jam of The Year...smh

i say controversy and lovesexy as he had his best backing bands

jfenster said:

i say controversy and lovesexy as he had his best backing bands

why not 1999? same band as Controversy + Jill Jones

Hopefully,with the 1999 Deluxe Edition,they will include one of the 1999 shows as a DVD.

OldFriends4Sale said:

jfenster said:

i say controversy and lovesexy as he had his best backing bands

why not 1999? same band as Controversy + Jill Jones

same band plus linn drum as additional member

We've all gone through this game on this site over and over...but here goes:

Prince's Best tours:

1 Sign O The Times- If you're a musician, you might know why. It seems the serious fan with musical ability or being of a high creative nature, something about this store just sticks to the brain, not for the fans that care more about his hair, or love how much he held the microphone for the auidence to sing, or the fans that think Tony M is the greatest rapper ever. This tour was for the serious fan, and was just about perfect, only possible shots I could take is that It's Gonna Be A Long, Long, Long, And Maybe Longer Boring Beautiful Night shoulda been scrapped for U Got The Look or Strange Relationship. Or imagine Crystal Ball. Only good thing about the performance was watching Prince drum, even though it was a play it safe solo. The other issue? Most if not all shows were well under 2 hours, which was kind of odd, but considering how awesome it was, I don't care. The power of Eric Leeds in the band, arrangements that either sounded like the record, or did not, still sounded awesome.

2. Parade-Other than Prince's first foray into Medleys, most of the show was flawless, and this version of the Revolution has future SOTT band members, raising the level of musicianship, even the medley portion was above average.

3. Purple Rain-some of his finest moments, but some cringe worthy moments as well. Still, the strong performances of most of the Purple Rain album was legendary. Darling Nikki and Computer Blue were pretty much ignored for the rest of his career, and were sublime. He probably could've added Bambi, Controversy, or I Wanna Be Your Lover, and toned down the ridiculous intermissions. Even as a teenager, it was frustrating to hear the coolest of the cool using Yankee Doodle Dandy in any possible way. Baby I'm A Star went far too long, and the groove was more repetive than an actual groove, with some of these shortcomings taken out, it would easily be on par with the SOTT tour, but still a performance worthy of awe from anyone.

4. Lovesexy-nowhere near as strong as SOTT, but still, my favorite Pop band of all time, edging

out any other Prince band, and better than Sting's Blue Turtles Band, and U2. This band just took

a groove to crazy places. Sure the medley portion of the show was crazy long, but unlike Jam Of The Year, the musicanship was out of this world.

5. Musicology-Prince really started playing the guitar again. The Question of U? Shh...? So good,

I don't have to type more, but I will...Baby I'm A Star is out of this world sounding

6. One Nite Alone-I sort of wanted to have it ranked ahead of Lovesexy, despite him having a better band in 1988. Why? Anna Stesia. Left on the shelf for far too long, was performed even better than it was on the Lovesexy tour. Prince was obviously

7. Controversy-perhaps one of his best tours, but the length of the show was fairly short considering he already had four albums. The performance deserves the #3 or 4 slot, but again, some shows were just over an hour. Annie Christian, when played, is an absolute dream it was

so good.

8. 1999-Prince was in full diva mode, and this should've been a top five tour, but again, considering his fifth album was a double one, it should have been longer, and some of the performances were a little off, still awesome though, and The Time were so good, if I were

including them in this ranking, 1999 would probably be # 6.

thebanishedone said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

why not 1999? same band as Controversy + Jill Jones

same band plus linn drum as additional member

lol that extra electric linn ...

off topic: I always wonder what the Parade tour would have been like, if UTCM was success and the Family did not break up

OldFriends4Sale said:

off topic: I always wonder what the Parade tour would have been like, if UTCM was success and the Family did not break up

well i think it would look more or less the same,only the band would b smaller

I agree that those were his most exciting, original tours. The 1980-82 era is when he was at his hungriest, IMO, and it shows in everything he did. I was born way too late to attend any, but I love what I have seen online. Then again, I have loved just about every Prince tour I have seen in person as well, but those 81-83 shows do stand out for capturing the "essence of Prince", as RD said.

Never seen any of those shows, only pictures. If 1999 Deluxe is a thing hopefully they release a concert in good quality. I'll buy it just off that.

thebanishedone said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

off topic: I always wonder what the Parade tour would have been like, if UTCM was success and the Family did not break up

well i think it would look more or less the same,only the band would b smaller

I always think Prince would have 'dealt' with the music more intensly... don't reply. I'll create a thread

I think having The Time on his heels during that time fueled his hunger and added that extra element of excitement that wasn't the same for the others. I can't really rate any of those shows properly, because i've only witnessed one personally.

All I know is that past the Nude tour which was a first of sorts, all the greatest hits tours bored me but that's mostly because I know the catalogue by heart and it was always the same songs year after year, not because they were bad per se.

I also find, always have found the PR Tour quite lifeless, IDK why because I love the album, but something didn't do it for me with the tour, I never got the vibe of it.

As for the rest, as long as it featured the new album or a mix of unusual tracks, I was totally down with it

scorp84 said:

I think having The Time on his heels during that time fueled his hunger and added that extra element of excitement that wasn't the same for the others. I can't really rate any of those shows properly, because i've only witnessed one personally.

Well, The Time, as 100000 percent awesome as they are, were not there for the SOTT tour, and Prince put on perhaps the best show of any artist ever. I never attended, being stuck in the USA, but was excited in the theater, and excited with the VHS

OldFriends4Sale said:

off topic: I always wonder what the Parade tour would have been like, if UTCM was success and the Family did not break up

Parade was a wonderful time, wonderful album, and awful movie except for some of us, me included. Only way it would have been successful is if the movie was good, and there were no albums after Purple Rain until 1987, and Kiss, U Got The Look, and Raspberry Beret were the first three singles

Ummm have all of u gone looney?

One person puts Lovesexy at #4.... Uhhh no.

Lovesexy is the best Prince tour of all time. Period.