What are your favorite (available online) Prince shows/performances?

January 8, 2020 9:41 PM

On one of the youtube pages of yesterdays hippybear post about David Bowie, I saw an interesting looking link -- a cut from a 2004 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Tribute to George Harrison, featuring Tom Petty, Prince, Geo Harrison's son Dhani (who looks so much like young George that it's unreal), Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" I had no idea the talent and showmanship of Prince -- he blew that place apart. Can you / will you give me links to your favorite Prince show(s)?
posted by dancestoblue to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

The first performance of Purple Rain.. Wendy Melvoin's debut performance with the Revolution at age 19
posted by blob at 9:44 PM on January 8, 2020 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Purple Rain in the rain, Super Bowl XLI
posted by sallybrown at 9:54 PM on January 8, 2020 [8 favorites]

Best answer: That video for the first Purple Rain performance is infected with Youtube interruptions. Try Daily Motion's version instead.
posted by blob at 10:01 PM on January 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Prince's pre-Super Bowl press conference was another great one. A large contingent of bored press people in a big room; a boring typical introduction. Prince marches onstage with dancers, horns, full band, and starts with Johnny B. Goode. It just gets better.
posted by blob at 10:10 PM on January 8, 2020 [5 favorites]

I think it might’ve been here on MF that someone linked to Prince appearances on Arsenio Hall, that really made me appreciate just how damn athletic of a dancer he was! Here’s one on YouTube, not the exact one I’m thinking of but similar:

Prince and the NPG live on Arsenio Hall 1993
posted by pepper bird at 6:14 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

His cover of Radiohead's "Creep" at Coachella in 2008 is pretty great.
posted by Vek at 6:16 AM on January 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: The video quality isn't the greatest, but one of my favorite Prince videos is actually from a James Brown concert back in the early 80s. James Brown was playing a full house and when he realized Michael Jackson was in the audience, he asked him to come up and do a little something, which he did. While he was up there, he whispered to James Brown that Prince was ALSO in the audience that night, so James Brown called him up as well (around 2:55 in the video).

Prince rode piggyback on another man to the stage, shredded on the guitar, screeched ONCE, took off his shirt, got the audience to clap with him, and when they stopped doing it, he abruptly swept off the stage without his shirt and knocked over a light post stage prop on his way out. A LEGEND.
posted by helloimjennsco at 6:20 AM on January 9, 2020 [8 favorites]

This is a great question, and the George Harrison tribute video is one of my favorite concert videos of all time.
But, man, helloimjennsco, the James Brown one brought tears to my eyes, remembering that I will never see Prince play again.
posted by mumimor at 7:43 AM on January 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'm just here to amplify the comments of hellimjennsco about Prince appearing at that James Brown concert in the early 1980s. To really appreciate this video, you have to remember at the time of this concert, Prince was very early in his career, a rising, controversial singer who still had nowhere near the legendary status that his fellow stars MJ and James Brown enjoyed at the time. So with this you get to see a Star being born — reveling in his sheer talent and displaying an incredible insouciance, while riding piggyback on the old, grizzled biker guy.
posted by caveatz at 8:06 AM on January 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Love this late performance of Motherless Child that combines strutting gospel with a weird black metal breakdown at 5:50.
posted by bendybendy at 9:19 AM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

There seems to be a continual cat-and-mouse game with people uploading live Prince videos that hang around a while and then disappear, so I don't know if it's even worth posting links. I recommend just searching for "prince concert" or similar and sampling some. The audio/video quality is variable but you'll almost certainly find something great. I've been listening to a great 2004 Detroit show while I work today.
posted by bfields at 2:34 PM on January 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

This may be stating the obvious, but have you seen Purple Rain? It's a terrible movie, but the concert sequences are truly incredible.
posted by Mavri at 7:29 PM on January 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I know this is a Sheila E. song (in name only), but this duet performance of "A Love Bizarre" with Prince is one of my all-time favorites. People go on about Purple Rain (and rightfully so), but he was fine as could be during the Parade era. Never looked better, danced better, had more style and confidence. He was riding high in '86, and I love this performance as a snapshot of that.
posted by mykescipark at 12:39 AM on January 10, 2020 [5 favorites]

Best answer: If you can find the last series of concerts he did (Piano + Microphone 2016), he was stunning. Just him, a piano and the audience. The last time he sang Purple Rain (the show in Atlanta in April 2016) - the last song he ever sang in concert - is positively ethereal.

That said, he could dance like nobody's business and this clip from SNL's 15th Anniversary is one of my all-time favorites (and he didn't ever do this song live again, I believe). ELECTRIC CHAIR. Long hair, funky guitar, in-sync dance moves with the band .... all of it is ... electric!

Also, check out his guest performance with Sheryl Crow at Lillith Faire (HERE) - glitter hair, gum chewing, guitar playing - UGH. Love it.

(Also, Sheryl said later that she almost went weak in the knees when he sang with her. Me too, girl. Me too.)

Enjoy! I knew of him back in 79 before he was mainstream and love him to pieces.
posted by Mysticalchick at 2:31 PM on January 10, 2020 [1 favorite]