Prince - The 50 Essential Bootlegs Listening Companion Part 1

Prince - The 50 Essential Bootlegs Listening Companion Part 1

A selection of songs drawn from the pages of "Prince - The 50 Essential Bootlegs" by Hamish Whitta, listing 50 bootlegs across a variety of tours from 1980 through to 2016. We have done our best to take a song (or two) from each recording mentioned, where possible, and present it over 4 discs into a smooth listening experience.

One of the biggest problems with such a project is that audio quality is all over the place, which makes it hard to enjoy in a mix. With sound quality ranging from soundboards to audience recordings in the 80s to the cavernous sounds of the 90s, we hope we have achieved a certain level of uniformity that should make it an enjoyable experience. Liberties have been taken with some edits and transitions for the mix.

Enjoy
Mace, Delirium and Hamish

Tracklist Pt 1
Note: 'The Cross' and 'Anna Stesia' have been trimmed due to copyright claims

Disc 1
01 Soft & Wet (6 March 1980 - The Omni, Atlanta)[1]
02 I Feel For You (6 March 1980 - The Omni, Atlanta)[1]
03 Do It All Night (22 March 1981 - The Ritz, New York)[2]
04 Sister (4 June 1981 - Theatre Le Palace, Paris)[3]
05 Gotta Stop (Messin' About) (4 June 1981 - Theatre Le Palace, Paris)[3]
06 Private Joy (20 December 1981 – The Summit, Houston)[5]
07 Dirty Mind (28 February 1982 – Saenger Theatre, New Orleans)[6]
08 Annie Christian (28 February 1982 – Saenger Theatre, New Orleans)[6]
09 All The Critics Love U in New York (8 March 1982 - First Avenue, Minneapolis)[7]
10 A Case of You (3 August 1983 - First Avenue, Minneapolis)[8]
11 Computer Blue (3 August 1983 - First Avenue, Minneapolis)[8]
12 Erotic City (7 June 1984 – First Avenue, Minneapolis)[9]
13 Another Lonely Christmas (26 December 1984 – St Paul Civic Center, St Paul)[10]
14 When Doves Cry (4 January 1985 – The Omni, Atlanta)[11]
15 Sometimes It Snows in April (7 June 1985 – Prom Center, Minneapolis)[12]


Disc 2
01 Paisley Park (3 March 1986 - First Avenue, Minneapolis)[13]
02 The Dance Electric (23 May 1986 -Warfield Theater, San Francisco)[14]
03 Mutiny (7 June 1986 – Cobo Arena, Detroit)[15]
04 Anotherloverholenyohead (22 August 1986 – Isstadion, Stockholm)[16]
05 An Honest Man (24 August 1986 – Le New Morning, Paris)[17]
06 The Ladder (9 September 1986 – Yokohama Stadium, Yokohama)[18]
07 Condition of The Heart (9 September 1986 – Yokohama Stadium, Yokohama)[18]
08 Housequake (21 March 1987 - First Avenue, Minneapolis)[19]
09 The Ballad of Dorothy Parker (21 May 1987 – Park Café, Munich)[20]
10 Adore (29 May 1987 - U4, Vienna)[21]
11 What Did I Do (15 June 1987 – Le New Morning, Paris)[22]
12 The Cross (17 June 1987 – Palais Omnisports, Paris)[23]
13 Just My Imagination (19 August 1988 – Paard Van Troje, The Hague)[25]
14 People Without (31 August 1988 – Grosse Freiheit, Hamburg)[26]
15 Lovesexy (11 November 1988 – Warfield Theatre, San Francisco)[27]
16 Anna Stesia (1 February 1989 -Sendai Stadium, Sendai)[28]

'Prince: 50 Essential Bootlegs' written by Hamish Whitta
Mix and Edits by Mace2theO
Tweaked by DEL

Liner Notes:
Disc 1 opens with a young Prince playing on the Rick James Tour. Taken from his show at the Omni, Atlanta, we have his first single "Soft And Wet", followed by "I Feel For You". It was March 1980 and all ready Prince had plugged directly into the sound of Pop music from which he would later leap into a much wider world of sounds and genres. Both sound vital and are the perfect introduction to Prince. The other side of Prince is revealed through his Dirty Mind tour, the source of "Do It All Night", "Sister", and "Gotta Stop (Messin’ About)". This is Prince full of piss and vinegar, his naked ambition to get noticed by any means necessary fully revealed. The pop is still there, but it is a thin veneer, and an edgier, punkier, sound is beginning to emerge. One can feel the pure pop being shaken loose as the songs, and Prince, accelerate towards the future. This acceleration and speed carry forward for the next battery of songs drawn from the Controversy tour. "Private Joy", "Dirty Mind" and "Annie Christian" are a murderers row of Prince sonic experiments. The high-speed pop of “Private Joy,” the pulsating teenage sexuality of “Dirty Mind” and the dark glisten of “Annie Christian” gives us a fair idea of where Prince was at that time, the future was wide open for what could come next.

What did come next was Prince’s breakthrough album 1999, and from that album comes "All The Critics Love You In New York", this particular concert recording coming several months before the release of the album.
Read more from the liner notes here: https://emfradio.wordpress.com/2023/0...

You can read more of Hamish's reviews of Prince live here - https://princeliverecordings.blogspot...

Part 2 can be found here:    • Prince - The 50 Essential Bootlegs Li...