Jan 80 06-01-1980 : Midnight Special Shooting – aired 11-01-80
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- STILL WAITING
- SEXY DANCER
| ♫ Atlanta Omni (0:52)
(Opening act : Twennynine featuring Lenny White) (A : City Lights Atlanta – 10/10) Soft & Wet / Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad / Still Waiting / I Feel For You Sexy Dancer / Just As Long As We’re Together / I Wanna Be Your Lover The earliest widely circulating recording of Prince's career taken from his stint as the opening act for Rick James. An excellent soundboard recording, and all the more remarkable considering it is almost 30 years old. The recording is unfortunately slightly incomplete, however that's more an observation than a complaint. There are a few minor flaws throughout, but again these are extremely minor. The recording starts abruptly during the opening 'Soft And Wet', the sound level slightly dips during 'Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad', and there is a 3 second drop-out during 'Just As Long As We're Together' - very small flaws considering the overall quality. The show itself is a fascinating look at Prince's early live career, and includes a rare live performance of 'Just As Long As We're Together' - something which is hard to find in all the performances through the years. An essential release in any collection.  
For the age of the recording, it is surprisingly good and crisp. It doesn’t start with a roar as you might expect, just a nice beat provided by Bobby Z. The keys join in very soon and it’s straight into Soft and Wet. I have a couple of immediate impressions. The first is that the band sound very accurate and it sounds very much like the album recording. I expected something a little more rugged like the recordings I have heard of the Dirty Mind and Controversy eras. My second impression is that Bobby Z is very good. I really enjoy his playing here, it’s not stand out spectacular, but very solid. The song sounds great, good enough that it makes me want to go back and listen to the original. Its sounds just as sharp as it does on record, the only real moment it deviates is the 1.40 minute mark when there is a brief guitar moment. It’s held in pretty tight, and the rest of the song is played straight. A nice little change of pace next, as Prince brings us down with Still Waiting. I would love to see some footage of this show, I really want to know who is playing what. Still Waiting has a nice little keyboard intro, I want to say its Prince, but that’s just guessing, and a little wishful thinking. Still Waiting is beautiful. It’s a forgotten song in my collection, and listening here I want to grab out the first couple of albums and give them a week in the car. Again, I am amazed how good the band sound, everything is very clean, and I can’t fault a single note. It’s not very rock n roll, but it’s fantastic on my stereo. Things take an upswing about the five minute mark, and nice drum fill by Bobby, and then the ever familiar Prince falsetto wailing. He sounds so young, and already so good. I can’t see the crowd, but I imagine there are some young ladies passing out about now. There is a pause as Prince introduces the band, although it takes him a few seconds to quieten the crowd – “shhhh, Atlanta, shhh” The Prince I know and love becomes apparent as he introduces himself “I’m just a freak baby” It’s a moment in the recording when I smile to myself. I Feel For You is very vibrant, and I guess most of the crowd are moving to it. The keyboard isn’t too strong, and the bass is more prominent. It definitely gets two thumbs up from me. In fact every song on this recording sounds great, it’s hard to say one is a highlight or any better than another. During the bridge Prince hits us with his faux seduction. He starts with “there’s so much I want to do to you”, and then goes on to mention his desires, before the music ups again, and dirty Prince starts “When I’m with you, all I want to do is screw you” Very funny, it seems in contrast to the rest of the song, but gives a true indication of what Prince was about in the earlier days. Straight after this Dez plays hard for a minute, and in the last couple of minutes of the song we see the template for the Dirty Mind/Controversy albums to follow. The bass is fantastic in Sexy Dancer, much louder and more popping than I have previously heard. I wish the album version was more like this, I would play it more often if it was. This for me is the most surprising song on the recording. Normally I would have Sexy Dancer on, but wouldn’t give it much attention, but on this recording I can’t ignore it. I listen rapt to the bass and guitar interplay. Weaved in with the keyboard, it casts quite a spell. The band play this one to death and the keyboards towards the end are well worth giving attention to. Things get even better when Prince says “Andre…” and we get a minute of bass work. I was just thinking, “Wow, this is a great song, the band is stretching out” and then the guitar enters for its turn. It’s fast, and tight. Even with all the fret work the song never once threatens to become rock, and I love it even more for this. Just As Long As We’re Together begins with Prince asking “Is everyone wet ?” The song has a nice little feel to it, and I love it when Prince sings “I gotta always have you in my hair” – a foretelling of things to come. Once again I find myself listening to mostly the keyboards and Bobby Z on the drums. The song flies by and I find it finishing before I have properly composed any thoughts about it. There is another change near the end, and some nice interplay between the keys and the guitars. In fact the whole band locks in very nicely and keeps it going for some time. Andre again is impressive on the bass, and again I find myself wishing there was some footage of this. I am very surprised, the song goes for 10 minutes, but it’s always interesting, and it’s one of the most enjoyable parts of the gig for me. Prince thanks the crowd, and then encourages them to get up as the band plays I Wanna Be Your Lover. Like every song on this recording, the playing is so good, it’s hard to believe it’s live. The band is obviously very well rehearsed and drilled. There’s not much to say about this song, all the elements of it that we know so well are there, and sounding just as good as ever. I was thinking that this gig was pristine, and missing the grittiness that I often enjoy, but there is 30 seconds of guitar near the end that remind me that it really is a live show. It’s not too much, just enough to give it a live dirty sound. Again the band stretch it out after the three minute mark and it heads off into the territory I love, and good groove and some jamming. The whole thing winds up about with Prince exhorting the crowd “Yea……yea…….yea !” then in a flash it’s over. Although very short, this recording is very highly recommended. The quality of the recording is excellent, and Prince and the band sound great. As I said earlier, I was impressed by how sharp they were. Although not as nitty gritty as the live recordings I normally enjoy, you cannot fault a band for being so sharp and good. There is plenty of indications as we listen here of what will come in the future, but this is hindsight, I don’t think at the time I would of guessed. All in all a great peek into the beginnings of the legend.  ![1979-liveguitar[1]](32660_html_m5de63f32.jpg)
07-03-1980 : Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum * Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Tick. Price : $8.50 / $7:50 (Opening act : Twennynine featuring Lenny White) Chapman has particularly vivid memories of a date in Jacksonville, Florida, which she says was her ‘first experience with racial inequality and racial tension. People were quite upset with me for doing some of the things I was doing with Prince onstage, although it was all choreographed and part of the show. They’re screaming, “White bitch, get away from him.” It’s hard to ignore that when it’s a few feet from the stage. At one point in the same show, the audience started to press forward and people were getting hurt, and Prince finally did the right thing and refused to play until they backed up.’ 08-03-1980 : Lakeland Civic Center (Opening act : Twennynine featuring Lenny White) Instrumental Intro / Soft And Wet / Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad ? / Still Waiting / Bambi Sexy Dancer / Just As Long As We’re Together / I Wanna Be Your Lover 09-03-1980 : Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Theater (Opening acts : Twennynine featuring Lenny White / Lady T) 14-03-1980 : Hampton Rhodes Coliseum * Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Tick. Price : $8.50 / $7:50 (Opening act : Twennynine featuring Lenny White)
* Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Tick. Price : $8.50 / $7:50 (Opening act : Twennynine featuring Lenny White)
(Opening act : Twennynine featuring Lenny White) Instrumental Intro / Soft And Wet / Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad ? / Still Waiting / Sexy Dancer / I Wanna Be Your Lover 20-03-1980 : Rochester War Memorial 21-03-1980 : ♫ Cleveland Public Hall (0:20) 
* Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Tick. Price : $9.00 / $8:00 (Opening act : Vaughan Mason)
Soft & Wet / Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad ? This concert was broadcasted by local radio. 22-03-1980 : Louisville Freedom Hall (Opening act : Twennynine featuring Lenny White) 23-03-1980 : Detroit Cobo Arena * Advert. Start : 8:00PM 
25-03-1980 : STILL WAITING Single Release Still Waiting (Edit) (3:48) / Bambi (4:21)
* Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Tick. Price : $8.50 / $7:50 28-03-1980 : New Orleans Municipal Auditorium * Advert. Start : 8:00PM (Opening act : Twennynine featuring Lenny White)
The success of “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and Prince made Prince a soul star and black US music publications such as Right On !, Black Beat, and Rock & Soul treated him as a new black teen heart-throb. Few of the interviews Prince gave to these publications in 1979-80 contained much of substance, as Prince probably felt they treated him as just another “pretty face” and didn’t really take the music seriously. One of the more decent articles appeared in Soul Teen, March 1980. J. Randy Taraborrelli spoke with Prince. Is Prince ego tripping ?
One thing, however, is pretty certain and that's the fact that Prince does not want to be a so-called "teen-idol." In fact, he goes as far as to say that …if it ever gets to the point where I can't concentrate on my music because I'm always dodging crowds, then I'll quit. Prince doesn't listen to much music outside of his own recordings. Because if l listen to other people’s stuff I think of how l would have done it differently. I begin changing the whole song around in my head and that's really not fair. Whoever recorded the tune probably worked very hard on it. So rather than be critical, I just don't listen to anyone except myself. When I feel like I want to hear music, I rehearse. I live for my music, for the time being. But there’s no telling what I might do if I get bored with it. Maybe I'll go into art. Who knows. Or I might do just anything. Whatever l do is gonna be good. It'll be the best I have to give... whether it's in music or something else. I always do the ultimate to make sure that I always come across positively. All the time... Apr 80 
02-04-1980 : Buffalo Memorial Auditorium * Advert. Start : 8:00PM 
03-04-1980 : Toledo Sports Arena 04-04-1980 : Saginaw Civic Center 05-04-1980 : Indianapolis Market Square Arena * Advert. Start : 8:00PM 06-04-1980 : St Louis Checkerdome 07-04-1980 : Milwaukee Mecca * Advert. Start : 8:00PM (Opening act : Twennynine featuring Lenny White)
* Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Tick. Price : $8.50 / $7:50 11-04-1980 : Greensboro Coliseum * Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Tick. Price : $8.00 / $7:00 (Opening Act : Kleeer) 12-04-1980 : Baltimore Civic Center (Opening Act : Kleeer) 13-04-1980 : Springfield Civic Arena * Advert. Start : 7:30PM (Opening Act : Vaughan Mason) 17-04-1980 : Birmingham Civic Center (Opening Act : Kleeer) 18-04-1980 : Memphis Mid-South Coliseum * Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Attendance : 10.274 / Sold Out (Opening Act : Kleeer)
* Advert. Start : 8:00PM (Opening Act : Kleeer)
* Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Tick. Price : $8.50 / $7:50 (Opening Act : Kleeer)
* Advert. Start : 8:00PM / Tick. Price : $8.50 / $7:50 25-04-1980 : Charlotte Coliseum 
* Tick. Price : $7:50 (Opening Act : Kleeer) Attended a Rick James concert in Charlotte, NC. Prince was the opening act - Blew EVERYONE away ! Rick James could not compare when he followed Prince’s act. In fact, about 20 minutes into Rick’s set, people in the audience started walking out. It wasn’t that Rick James performed poorly, it was just that after seeing Prince - there was nowhere else to go ! Prince wore everybody out ! I feel like I was a part of history that night. May Rick James be resting peacefully. His entire set was about 45 minutes or so of complete mayhem and frenzy ! When you first entered the Coliseum, there was no curtain and everything was setup at the front edge of the stage : mic-stands, keyboards, and very few other props. The drum set was in the middle of the stage placed up on a little riser with an oval-shaped sign over it (which was first covered in canvas) that had “PRINCE” spelled out in lights, as in the logo on his 1979 “Prince” album. Everybody was just standing around, jamming to the pre-concert music that they play over the system, smoking joints, grooving, and basically waiting for Rick James. No one really knew who Prince was yet. In fact, I thought we were about to see a band called “Prince For You” (the title of his first album). I didn’t know yet that Prince was an individual and not just the name of a band. I thought certainly that no one would be actually named “Prince”. Then… BAMM ! The lights went out, and you could make out 3 shadowy figures move onto the stage, and then stood with their backs to the audience. The rest of the band took their place, and all you could hear over the sound system was someone speaking in a low, sort of foreboding tone : “Charlotte, are you ready for me ?” The drum roll hit, the stage lights came up, and Andre, Prince, and Dez turned and all charged about 4 or 5 steps toward the audience – and everybody freaked the Hell out ! These guys looked scary as shit ! The one in the middle (who I soon learned was Prince) had this spiky hairdo, full make-up, a pink leather motorcycle jacket, panties, black stockings, and pumps ! The audience reaction was pure fright ! Then Prince reached around to his back, pulled his guitar around to the front, then the whole band started jamming “Sexy Dancer”, and the crowd quickly got over their fright and started rocking to the music and jamming along - all hands were in the air. 
By the end of that first song, everybody was like : “Oh shit ! This guy AIN’T playing !” The party was ON full blast ! Their play list consisted of songs from his first two albums, but the song they did that most sticks out in my mind is when they played “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad ?”, because Prince was ad-libbing a lot. Like : Why you wanna treat me so bad ? Is it the clothes I wear ? Why you wanna treat me so mean ? Is it the style of my hair ? But what completely blew people away was when they played their encore : “I Wanna Be Your Lover”. Prince went mad, threw off that cool ass pink leather jacket, peeled off his stockings, threw them at the audience, and was running around the stage jamming to the beat with nothing but his guitar, bikini underwear, and high-heeled boots (with little stars on the side). And then once he was done jacking-off the microphone (as if he were giving it head - Prince was a real whore on stage back then), tossed his guitar to the side, reached his hand down into his panties to cover his dick, and pulled his panties all the way down to his knees, gyrating toward the audience with only his hand covering his dick ! WTF !!! The audience was going crazy ! At the end of his set, Prince said “Damn Charlotte, we’re gonna have to come back here again soon !” And that was it ! I was a stoned-cold Prince fan ! I started telling people about Prince the next day ! At that point, everybody was standing around like they had completely forgot about Rick James. But the roadies came out and moved all of Prince’s stuff off stage, the sign over the drums came apart into two pieces and they removed that. But what really tripped me out was once all of Prince’s equipment was off stage, they removed the backdrop that was behind Prince’s set, and you could see that the stage was actually HUGE and that Prince had only been setup right up at the front. There was a giant curtain hanging behind all of that. After several more moments of getting everything set up, the lights dimmed again, the music started, the curtain opened up, and there you could see that this stage was about a mile wide and a mile deep ! This was Rick James’s stage ! Rick came out, and The King of Punk Funk reminded you of what you came here for ! His show was awesome, but I’ll save it for another thread. But it was interesting to note that many people in the audience started moving out, because at least initially, Rick was no comparison to what we had all just seen out there ! Don’t get me wrong, Rick tore the roof off that sucker, but it was hard to stop thinking about what we had just seen Prince do out there. Rick’s show was about 2 hours long, and the Stoned City Band succeeded in funking us to death ! The show was actually exhausting ! I remember thinking “How in the Hell can they do this every night, and from town to town ?” Ahh, the memories ! 
26-04-1980 : Macon Coliseum 
(Opening Act : Kleeer) 27-04-1980 : Nashville Municipal Auditorium (Opening Act : Kleeer) 04-1980 : SEXY DANCER Maxi-Single Release Sexy Dancer (Long Version) (8:53) / Bambi (4:21) Sexy Dancer is the 6th worldwide single commercially-released single by Prince, which was issued in UK and Japan only. It didn't chart in both countries, but charted in the US Billboard Disco 100 chart as an album cut, along with I Wanna Be Your Lover. May 80 03-05-1980 : Landover Capital Centre * Advert. Start : 9:00PM / Tick. Price : $10.00 / $9:00 (Opening Act : Kleeer)
Quote taken from Rick James's autbiography... Bitter Rivals : In the 80's, Rick James asked Prince to open up the "Fire It Up Tour." James states in his book, "The Confessions Of Rick James, Memoirs Of A Super Freak," that he had yet to meet Prince. The only thing he had heard about him was that he was shy. James had hoped this was false because if he was shy, he had no business being out on the road with him. James said he walked through the backstage entrance, Prince was sitting on his group's drums playing some bullSHYT beat. James sat down and began playing some serious stuff. He said Prince looked over at him and got his little AZZ up and walked away. James adds, "Prince was just starting out and the first time I saw Prince and his band open for me, I felt sorry for him. Here's this little dude wearing high heels, standing there in a trench coat. Then at the end of the set, he'd take off his trench coat and he'd be wearing little girl's bloomers. The guys in the audience booed him to death." The following weeks of the tour weren't very different from the opening date. Whenever I was on stage I'd see Prince on the side of the stage just staring and watching everything I did, like a kid in school. One day I walked into the auditorium, getting ready to go on and I heard the crowd chanting loudly. I went to check it out. Here's Prince doing my chants. Not only was he stalking the stage like me, he was doing my trademark funk sign, flipping the microphone and everything. The boy had stolen my whole show. I was *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*ed and so was my band. This went on night after night, every show I'd see more of my routine. It got to the point I couldn't do the stuff I had always done because Prince was doing it before I came on. It started to look like I was copying him. Everyone knew what was happening, his management, my management. The atmosphere backstage was not improved by the fact that Prince's band members were not on good terms with my band and my guys wanted to kick their !@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*es. Prince's musicians would stick their noses in the air and not even acknowledge the Stone City Band, even if they were all standing together, waiting for the elevator. Prince's group was a bunch of egotistical AZZholes who never even played on a record. The kid did it all, they were just hired players. One day, things blew up and management called a meeting. I told Prince's manager, that if Prince did any more of my show he was off the tour. Finally, we all met in Prince's room, Prince, me and our bands. Prince's band was afraid, very afraid. Prince sat on the bed and hardly said a word. He acted like a little BYTCH while his band and mine patched up our differences. Soon after this episode. There was a birthday party for me. Prince came, he was sitting at a table with some people not drinking. I walked up to him, grabbed him by the back of the hair and poured cognac down his throat. He spit it out like a little BYTCH and I laughed and walked away. I loved fukking with him like that. I always felt our competition was healthy, although I was jealous when he started getting big, more than jealous, I was *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*ed, because here was this little short ego'd out fukker who I had a feeling didn't like people of his own race and wanted to be white and taller. While on the road, I never saw Prince hang out with black men or black women. In fact, his demeanor was like that of a short uppity white boy. A few years later when James was performing at the Universal Amphitheater. The second night of the show, Rod Stewart and his wife Alana came to the show. James decided to have them sit in front row seats that belonged to Prince. From the stage, I could see Prince's attempt to throw Rod and Alana out of the seats. Alana told Prince to kiss her *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*. Then, during a performance with the Mary Jane Girls, James saw Prince being carried around the venue in his bodyguard's arms just to get attention. After the show, when Prince saw Rick and Rod backstage, he jumped over the stairs and fled. Allegedly, Rod told Rick, "I hate that little prikk." Rick was *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*ed and called Prince all kinds of little *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*es. Rick said, "Had Prince not jumped over the stairs and ran, I swear I would have kicked his AZZ." James heard later that Prince went to see Michael Jackson's concert and tried to disrupt it. When Michael allegedly found out that Prince was in the house, he came out badder than ever and Prince left the show before it was over. lol..... Rick adds, "I always thought of Prince as a great player and a very innovative person but as far as himself as a person, he could use a good ghetto AZZ kicking." 05-1980 : Download 288.91 Kb. Share with your friends:
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