Back Pages: 3 live Prince CD reviews from the March 1998 print edition

[For our Prince CD reviews, we always turned to Jeff Anderson, a Minneapolis resident who had been following Prince since the earliest days. These are 3 of those reviews available on the Internet for the first time.]

Prince: God Bless America (Moonraker237/238)

Venue: Roxy, Boston 1/8/97; Live Club, Atlanta, 1/19/97; State Theatre, Detroit 1/13/97

Sound: OK audience recordings

Cover: Nice 20-page booklet with excellent timely photos, accurate track listings, a newspaper reprint of a review of the Detroit show, and an article on Emancipation going double platinum.

Tracklist : (Boston) Jam Of The Year/ Talkin’ Loud and Saying Nothin’/ Purple Rain/ 17 Days/ Get Yo Groove On/ The Most Beautiful Girl In The Word/ Face Down/ The Cross (Atlanta) One Of Us/ Do Me Baby Medley/ Sexy MF/ If I Was Your Girlfriend/ The Ride/ How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore/ Take Me With U/ Raspberry Beret/ Mr. Happy/ 18 And Over/ Johnny/ Sleep Around/ Take The A-Train/ The Little Groovemaker Me/ Partyman (Detroit) Face Down/ Somebody’s Somebody/ The Ride/ Johnny

Comments: The booklet states that this release is actually segments from three different shows “seamlessly edited together to make one excellent sounding show,” because the quality of the individual shows varied. They also state that you might find the complete shows elsewhere, probably in lesser quality. I beg to differ!

First of all, there are no seamless edits. There are definite fades from one segment to the next. And if full versions are available in lesser quality, I wouldn’t want to hear them. All of your typical aspects of average to poor audience recordings are here; variations in both the levels and the sound, audience noise, that boxy and/or distant sound. Distortion is especially prominent on the first two segments, especially the kick drum. So, who knows, maybe those statements are just a smokescreen for the fact that the tapers screwed up every one of these. Maybe they ran out of tape at the Boston show, blew the levels on the Atlanta show, and came late for the Detroit show. So what can you do with three incomplete shows? Here ya go. 

This is definitely one of Moonraker’s less impressive efforts. I hope they don’t get into the habit of releasing “just anything” by The Artist just to put out product like some labels do. The great packaging doesn’t hide the poor sound or make up for the fact that this one will get one listen before going to storage forever.

Prince: The Freedom Train (Moonraker 220/221)

Venue: Roseland Ballroom, NYC, NY 1/11/97; Constitution Hall, Wash, DC 1/10/97

Sound: Very good audience recording

Cover: Very busy cover contains bits and pieces of the photos contained inside the 20 page booklet, which also contains a reprint of a press release announcing the “Love 4 One Another Charities Tour 1997” and an accurate track listing.

Tracklist: (New York) Jam Of The Year/ Talkin’ Loud And Saying Nothin’- R‘n’R Is Alive/ Purple Rain/ 17 Days/ Get Yo Groove On – Six/ Face Down/ The Cross/ `One Of Us/ Do Me Baby Medley/ Sexy MF/ If I Was Your Girlfriend/ How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?/ Take Me With You/ Raspberry Beret/ Mr. Happy (including Big Fun)/ 18 & Over/ Speech/ Sleep Around/ The A-Train/ The Little Groove Maker Me/ Johnny (Washington, DC) Face Down (including VooDoo Chile)/ The Tide/ Sleep Around/ Take The A-Train/ The Little Groove Maker Me/ 777-9311/ Partyman/ Johnny

Comments: Only four shows into the tour and the man has his latest, most stripped down version of the New Power Generation already in top form. Whether it be a three minute pop song like “Take Me With You,” an eight minute funk workout like “Face Down” or a more somber number like “The Cross,” this five piece band can handle it all. Well, maybe a little tape loop action helps, but there’s not enough cheating going on here to lodge any complaints. And The Artist is also in top form, showing off his vast array of musical talents, whether it be the heavenly falsetto in “Do Me Baby,” the mind blowing guitar soloing in Joan Osborne’s “One Of Us,” or the greasiest bass thumping you ever did hear on “Face Down.” The sound quality here is a huge improvement over God Bless America, much more close-up and none of that nasty distortion on the kick drum. The audience noise is a little annoying in the softer songs like “Do Me Baby” and the crowd pleasers like “Purple Rain,” but overall, it’s very listenable.

The 39 minutes of filler from Wasington, DC aren't quite as good as the New York material but, again, is quite listenable. It’s nice to have “The Ride” from this show, but don’t get excited when you see “VooDoo Chile” and “777-9311” listed. These song snippets are so short that you have to listen very closely to catch them. And, as always, us completists want to know, where’s the rest of the show?

Overall, the combination of great performance, good sound and excellent mix of old, new, and even a couple rare songs result in a definite thumbs up for this release. Looking at the catalog numbers, I see that this came out before God Bless America. Makes me wonder why Moonraker even bothered with that dog after releasing this gem.

Prince: Going North (Moonraker 254/255)

Venue: The Warehouse, Toronto 6/5/97; bonus tracks from Electric Ballroom, Phoenix 4/28/97

Sound: very good audience recording

Cover: As usual, Moonraker’s packaging puts any commercial release to shame. This time, in addition to the usual timely photographs and accurate track listing, the 24-page booklet has no less than 25 reprinted newspaper articles and reviews. The tiny print is a little hard to read for these old eyes, but there’s a wealth of information. Looking at all this, you’d swear it was released by The Artist himself or at least his fan club.

Tracklist: (Toronto) Jam Of The Year/ Talkin’ Loud And Saying Nothin-R’n’R Is Alive/ Purple Rain/ 17 Days/ Get Yo Groove On-Six/ The Most Beautiful Girl In The World/ Face Down/ The Cross/ One Of Us/ Do Me Baby Medley/ Sexy MF/ If I Was Your Girlfriend/ How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?/ Take Me With U/ Raspberry Beret/ . 

The Ride/ Girls And Boys/ Sleep Around/ Encore Medley w/ Take The A-Train-The Little Groove Maker Me-Give It Up Or Turn It Loose-Lickin’ Stick/ Mr. Happy-Dance Contest/ 18 & Over (Phoenix) Talk/ Santana Jam/ The Ride

Comments: Along with the latest incarnation of his band, The New Power Generation, in late 1996 came an end to the trend that started after the name change, when any performance by The Artist could vary dramatically from one night to the next. His Paisley Park Love 4 One Another performances in 1995 were an especially wild array. One night you might see most of Exodus performed while another would concentrate on The Gold Experience. Then on the following week you’d see an evening comprised almost entirely of covers. Maybe because he’s trying to please the masses again or maybe the new band just doesn’t know all the songs yet, but it’s too bad to see the set lists of 1997 concerts so rigid and confined. They’re not as identical as, say, recent U2 tours, but there certainly isn’t much spontaneity. On this night The Artist turns 39 at midnight and that is mentioned a couple times, but other than the dance contest that takes place during “Mr. Happy,” it’s pretty much a run through of the same set that has been performed for the first 5 months of 1997. The performance is very good, but not quite as good as The Freedom Train, and the same goes for the sound quality. 

The 20 minutes of aftershow material from Phoenix sound good, and it’s nice to see an old favorite, the Santana medley, there. Of course, everyone will be wondering where the rest of the show is. This is a worthy release, great if you don’t have any other shows from the Love 4 One Another Charities Tour. 

[All reviews by Jeff Anderson.]

Bonus view: