Eye Records 4 CD Label : “Eye” Records Catalogue : #79-80-81-82 4Disc Length : 86:31 / 85:34 / 85:58 / 82:38 Source : Audience Recordings Sound Quality : EX- / EX Year Of Release : 2009 |
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Fink's
Comments (rates this release 4.75/5.0)
Subtitled
“Sex In The Cities Vol. 4” this is one of a line of releases documenting
Prince’s one night stands in various cities between the end of the Las Vegas
residency and the start of the London residency. The 3121 perfume launch at
Macy’s already exists on the Fearless release ‘Macy’s Afternoon Delight’, and
this “Eye” Records version slightly hedges it in the quality stakes. For one,
the “Eye” Records version is complete whereas the Fearless release was slightly
incomplete and missing a portion of the opening ‘When The Saints Go Marching
In’. The crowd are marginally audible throughout both recordings, however they
are less noticeable on the “Eye” Records version – thus, for me, making it the
better of the two. The recording isn’t without it’s minor issues though, and a
little chatter, handclapping and sing-along during ‘3121’ is really my only
point of note – other than that, I’m rather partial to the depth and power of
this recording. Not a classic show by any means, and other than Sheila’s guest
appearance throughout ‘A Love Bizarre’, ‘Get On The Boat’, ‘The Glamorous Life’
and the closing ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, this is standard fare for what would follow in
the London residency of August/September 2007 (and beyond). Disc 1 ends with
bonus material from two different shows held at Bunker’s Bar. The first contains
a short and sweet medley performed by Dr. Mambo’s Combo from the July weekend of
Prince’s perfume launch, and the second from February 2008 featuring St, Paul,
Eric Leeds et al. Both are very respectable recordings with July 2007 being the
better of the two. Both shows are an interesting take on some Prince classics,
and even if covers aren’t your thing, they are worth checking out as they are
surprisingly enjoyable (the vocal delivery on ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ is
especially fabulous). The main bulk of Discs 2 and 3 feature the Target Center
main concert of the 07/07/07 weekend which was previously circulating on the
Fearless release ‘Hotter Than July’ or (in better quality) on the Free Boot
Generation release ‘7-7-7‘.
When this “Eye” Records release was being promoted, the flyer stated “Target
Center is now much more enjoyable….featuring much less audience noise thanks to
an uncirculating source” – which is slightly misleading as this remains the
exact same audience recording as Free Boot Generation’s ‘7-7-7‘ release other
than a few seconds during ‘The One U Wanna C’ which has been replaced by a
different source, however a few seconds out of 2 hours does not an
“uncirculating source” make. That aside, the recording does appear to have
benefited minimally from a little audio-work, but the difference really is
minimal and anyone with the previous release shouldn’t worry about missing out
on anything here. It’s a decent enough show with appearances by Wendy
throughout, and Sheila towards the end to lift it from the mundane. The live
premiere of ‘The One U Wanna C’ is nice, as is the piano medley which also
features full-band backing on ‘Do Me, Baby’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ and ‘How
Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore’ – other than that, it could be from any of the
London 2007 shows if it weren’t for the numerous “My hometown” comments. Disc 3
ends with the 2nd Annual “Prince Family Reunion” featuring (amongst others) Dez
Dickerson, Michael Bland, Eric Leeds, Mike Scott and Matt Fink. The choices
performed are interesting as they very rarely even get an airing by Prince
himself, however the highlight is a too-cool-for-school live performance of
‘Modernaire’ by Dez himself. Unfortunately the recording barely scrapes by with
a VG/VG+ rating, but for once, the content far outweighs the quality. In a
similar vein to the Target Center recording, Disc 4’s First Avenue aftershow,
for the most part, remains the same as on the ‘7-7-7‘ release. The intro to the
opening ‘3121’ was missing, so “Eye” have used a different source recording for
that and substituted the missing part (very well, I may add). A few very minor
glitches to the recording have also been corrected, however once again the
result isn’t exactly stunningly different, so if you already have the aftershow
on the ‘7-7-7‘ release, and don’t mind missing the opening few seconds, then you
needn’t hunt this down. The bonus material on Disc 4 consists of two soundboard
tracks from the First Avenue aftershow made available via 3121.com, along with
Prince’s appearance on the Tonight Show performing the still unreleased ‘Turn Me
Loose’, and the broadcast on Los Angeles radio station KJLH of the studio
version.
The release includes a hefty 22 page booklet documenting the Minneapolis trilogy
of shows including pictures, 3121 spy reports and various other goodies related
to the shows. Normally I wouldn’t rate a release like this very highly as the
majority has been available on free releases for a long time, however having all
the show together on one release, to me, is a major bonus. When all is said and
done, from the new source recording of Macy’s, to the improvements over what was
already available, to the interesting bonus material, to the purple majesty (!)
of the packaging, this is a high quality product crammed onto 4 90 minute discs.
Yes the shows may be a little stale, however the quality throughout is
consistently excellent and it documents a very special weekend in Prince
history.