Free Boot Generation Catalog # FBG 43 Release Year 2012 1CD Length 65 Mins. Date/Venue Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, 2nd August 1986 Source Soundboard Recording Quality EX+ |
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REVIEW:
Review Courtesy of Mike Antonich @ Blog: Now It’s On
How fitting that on the same weekend the original line-up of The Revolution
(sans Prince) reunited in Minneapolis, a brand new, soundboard recording from
1986, when Prince and The Revolution were at the peak of their powers, was
released to the collecting community. Free Boot Generation have freed this
previously un-circulating soundboard tape to the world, again providing a
tremendous service to the fans, and doing the work Prince refuses to do when it
comes to quality archival releases.
As a warm-up to his upcoming European Parade Tour, Prince took an expanded
version of The Revolution on the road in the spring of 1986 for a group of shows
that came to be known as the Hit & Run Tour. Prince hit select cities in the
U.S. with very little advance notice, often using radio ads to get the word out
about ticket sales, resulting in a frenzy that sold out shows in minutes. The
concerts were often played in smaller venues but for New York, he decided to do
it up big time with two shows at the vaunted Madison Square Garden.
This recording captures the first night on August 2nd, but it is not without its
drawbacks. First, despite it being a soundboard source, there is still a fair
amount of hiss and obvious warpage on the master tape. Considering this show is
nearly 24 years old, that is no surprise. This is also not the complete concert.
The recording of “Anotherloverholenyohead” is cut off and the tape does not
continue until the very ending of “Pop Life”, meaning the performances of “Soft
And Wet”, “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and “Head” are not included here. Also, this
recording ends after “America” meaning the last five songs performed on the
evening are also not here. So if you are looking for a complete show there will
be some disappointment, but again the fact this is a soundboard recording is the
selling point here that still makes this a must have.
As for what is contained, this is a fairly standard ‘Parade’ era show. Prince
had expanded The Revolution to include, amongst others, saxophone extraordinaire
Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss on trumpet, so there is a strong emphasis on horns
playing what were formerly keyboard lines, as well as extended solos by Leeds
throughout. This show was much more of a soul and funk review, with Prince
rarely on guitar thanks to the addition of Miko Weaver to the band. Despite the
fact this hour long CD has 20 tracks, many of the songs were brief snippets of
classics like “D.M.S.R.”, “Automatic” and “Delirious” that Prince would have the
band touch on then move on to something else. Very few songs are performed in
full, often maybe a verse then moving on to the end, giving the whole show the
feel of one long funk workout.
There is no denying The Revolution were a funky force by this point and that is
best exemplified when they are given time to stretch out and jam. As often was
the case during these shows, The Family’s “Mutiny” turns into an extended nine
minute jam session, with Prince incorporating some of “Ice Cream Castles” by The
Time, albeit with a revised chant of ‘We are young, we’re not old and we are
funky!”, along with chants of ‘The roof is on fire’. The closing “America” is
another highlight as Prince and The Revolution go for nearly twelve minutes,
including Prince getting behind the drum set for a killer drum solo. It’s also
one of the few songs here where Prince is on guitar and it provides a huge burst
of energy to close out the CD.
As always, one of the charms of hearing live shows, even when the set is fairly
standard, is catching off the cuff comments made onstage. Especially when you’ve
heard multiple shows from the same tour, it is these moments that can make a
particular show stand-out from the rest. Here, Prince gets candid during the
intro to “Do Me, Baby”, sharing the following with the 20,000 in attendance.
“New York. Let me just take a moment…let me just take a moment. First of all,
I’d like to thank each and every one of you for coming out this evening. Listen,
I got something I wanna tell you. When I was 17 years old, I ran away from
Uptown and I came to New York City looking to be a big star. Check it out. My
sister had to work so uh, she left me with one of her boyfriends, his name was
Bill. So Bill said, ‘Prince check it out, I want to take you over one of my
other girlfriends house.’ I said ‘ok’. On the way we went through the subway and
uh, we stopped through here and he said, ‘This is where the Knicks play
basketball and this is where all the big stars come. Maybe one day, you’ll make
it.’ Now I know that’s kind of corny but I just had to say that because I’ve
been trying to get here for a long time. I really love all y’all, thanks for
coming out, I swear to God, from me to you.” It’s a really cool moment,
especially considering how out of touch and incapable the Prince of today seems
to be at displaying sentiment.
The verdict on this one is easy. Yes, it would be wonderful to have this in
complete form in this kind of quality, but I’m not going to turn up my nose at
new soundboard recordings. It is still an essential addition to a Prince fan’s
collection and it is again much appreciated that shows from this long ago
continue to turn up in superior sound quality. Who knows what will be unearthed
next?