King Prince: 21 Regal Live Blasts of Royal Purple Bad Ass
A Love Bizarre, Parade Tour, 1986:
What, you thought we weren’t gonna start with a banger?!?
Get back to me in about ten minutes or so with an apology.
Piano Medley, Lovesexy Tour, Germany, 1988 aka Libera-P
Oh…you didn’t know my man could captivate a crowd of 80K or so just by flexing his piano chops while dressed like Libera-P?
Your Bad…
No wait, my bad…
NO wait, HE BAD!
Aaaawww...
VH1 Unplugged aka How To Make A Crowd Feel Like They Just Witnessed An Entire Concert In Just One 8-Minute TV Segment
Y'all know I wrote this song in the mirror, right? I'm serious.
MTV VMA's, 1987:
This was Prince in the twilight of his halcyon days as a bona fide pop superstar…while begin to overtly explore his social conscience…and doing so on the biggest stage possible, opening up the MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, in support of (arguably) his best album ever and one of the greatest double-albums ever made, Sign O’ The Times. I don’t think anyone in the building, nor most of the people watching at home on their TV, really processed the greatness they had on hand. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. But at least they did once.
The Beautiful Ones, Live in '85:
Do you want him?
Or do you want me?
Because I want you.
Do Me Baby, Capital Theatre, Washington DC 1982:
Long before he laid claim to the color purple, he could still freak it in black-and-white all damn night.
The Love We Make, North Sea Jazz Festival, 2011
30 years later, still painting the town red all over the world.
The Only Love There Is, Is The Love We Make.
Can P Get An Amen?!?
Can U Check Your Guitar God Rankings Again?!?
Anna Stesia, Lovesexy Tour, 1988
LOVE IS GOD.
GOD IS LOVE.
GIRLS & BOYS.
LOVE GOD ABOVE.
Head, Birthday Show, 1986
Alright...enough of that tame shit, who want some head?
Electric Chair, Live on SNL, 1989
Du-Nu-Nu-Nu-Nu-Du-Nu-Nu-Nu-Nu...BAD-MAN!!!
Controversy/Mutiny, Parade Tour, 1986
Prince has never boogied better than he did on the Parade Tour in 1986.
This time showing he could even make banana yellow an official Prince color when he wanted to do so.
If I Was Your Girlfriend, 1987, Sign O' The Times Movie aka The Pink Coat Episode aka Why Is That Wolf Dressed Like A Lamb aka WE WERE NEVER WORTHY!!!
Something In The Wudder, Manchester, 2014
I can't describe to you what happens when he picks up the guitar and strikes the first note around the 2:12 mark of this video, you have to see it yourself in order to not believe it but it's some interstellar-beyond-anything-comprehensible-levitating-in-orbit-type-of-shit.
He never, ever, eva-eva-eva...lost it...not even a little bit.
The Question Of U/The One/Fallin
"It's Not Even Fair!"-Uncle Paulie in Goodfellas
Motherless Child aka
SOMETIMES...
I Feel...
Like I'm Gonna BREAK...
Down & Cry-Cry-CRY!!
"Can I Play My Guitar?"-Prince
"Yes, You Can!"-Earth
Peep the speed-metal break at 5:45 and then P's look of disgust at his own unapologetic nastiness shortly thereafter.
An American In Paris, 1985
Only Prince would start a European tour date at the apex of his fame in this fashion, with an album track titled America...also makes a cameo on drums towards the end.
Empty Room, Montreux Jazz Festival, 2009
How are we gonna fill the Empty Room due to his absence?
I don't think we ever will.
The weeping guitar in this song now cries for all of us.
Why'd you leave P, why'd you leave me all alone?!?
Baby Knows, Live TV Broadcast From 1999 aka Did This MF Just Lift His Left Leg Over The Guitar Neck While Still Seamlessly Playing A Guitar Solo?!? Yeah, pretty sure he just did.
Shhh, Le Grande Journal (French TV), 2011
Who else makes a quiet storm joint into this erotic tornado of a guitar jam? Absolutely, positively, no one but this dude.
Reflections (acoustic reunion with Wendy Melvoin) on Tavis Smiley Show, PBS 2004
I haven't made it thru this without my eyes getting blurry yet since he passed, take note of long-time-ago collaborator-great-guitarist-in-her-own-right Wendy and how she's looking at him by the two minute mark or so...that's genuine love.
"I don't know, I was just thinking about my...mother"
Amen, U Brilliant Telepathic Little Purple Magic Man.
Purple Rain, Syracuse, New York 1985
Seriously...how else did you think this thing was gonna end?
It's such a shame it had to end at all.
All good things, they say, never last.
And love, it isn't love, until it's past.
Thank u Prince for leaving more musical love behind than even the most devoted among us could ever hope to fully dig thru in our lifetime.
PURPLE REIGN, PURPLE REIGN!
