Palace Of Tears, The 2CD
4DaFunk
Catalog # 4DF 017-018
Release Year  2005
2CD Length 71:15 / 63:38
Date/Venue Tranenpalast, Berlin 25th November 1994 (am)
Source Audience Recordings
Quality VG+
Rating 4.25/5.0

Track Listing
Tranenpalast, Berlin 25th November 1994 (am)
Disc 1
1. Instrumental Jam 2. Endorphinmachine 3. The Ride 4. The Jam 5. Shhh 6. Days Of Wild (including Hair) 7. Now (including Babies Makin’ Babies) 8. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World 9. Pussy Control 10. Guitar Jam 11. Proud Mary

Disc 2
1. Goldaxxe Intro (including Girls And Boys) 2. Race 3. Super Hero – Outa-Space 4. Dark (including Letitgo) 5. Billy Jack Bitch 6. 777-9311 7. We March

Rehearsal for MTV European Music Awards : 23rd November 1994
8. Peach – Race (including Girls And Boys)

Rehearsal for MTV European Music Awards : 24th November 1994
9. Peach

MTV European Music Awards : 25th November 1994 (Broadcast)
10. Peach

Comments
Fink's Comments (rates this release 4.25/5.0)
Sourced from Raiders Of The Lost Art’s 1995 release of the same name ‘The Palace Of Tears’, and released by 4DaFunk under the subtitle of “4DF’s Touched Up Series” this is another excellent reworking of a classic release with various flaws corrected. First up I should point out that not all flaws have been eliminated, but there are limitations as to what can be done – and there are no complaints from me about the work which has evidently gone in to this release.

I struggled as to whether to grade this as an EX- recording as it has been greatly boosted and the audience level is far less noticeable on this particular release, however it still doesn’t quite make the grade of EX-, but is certainly head and shoulders above the majority of other VG+ recordings in circulation. The original Raiders Of The Lost Art release suffered from a number of fades throughout the show, and these have been expertly removed from the recording so if you hadn’t heard the original release you will not be aware of where they were. The recording unfortunately has a few slight dips and is a little hollow in places. 4DaFunk appear to have corrected a few of these, but some do still remain – they are minimal but audible.

Small niggles aside this is far removed from the original recording and fresher, cleaner and vastly more powerful. The show itself is one of a handful performed during the second half of 1994 and certainly the only performance widely circulating. It contains no less than 8 tracks from the upcoming Gold Experience album which the crowd are well versed in as they match Prince word-for-word, along with 2 tracks from Come. The show begins with a loose instrumental jam (without Prince onstage) before descending into chaos after 10 minutes when the technicians can’t fix a problem with Prince’s guitar. Certainly one of those class bootleg moments occurs when they technician shouts, “If we don’t get his guitar up in the house he’s not coming out” and “He’s gonna rip me a new asshole”. Sound problems plague the opening half of the show and Prince is constantly calling out for various band members to be turned up, or for his monitor to be louder so he can hear – one suspects partly the reason why ‘Endorphinmachine’ sadly lasts barely the first verse and chorus. The second half of the show begins with a few samples played on the Goldaxxe before launching into the familiar ‘Race’. ‘Dark’ is extremely lengthy at over 10 minutes and following ‘Billy Jack Bitch’ Prince picks up the bass for a very short instrumental ‘777-9311’ before the show closes with ‘We March’.

As with the original Raiders Of The Lost Art release, this includes the various rehearsals for the MTV Awards. It’s fair to say the quality is no match for the Tränenpalast recording and they are extremely echoed – however for rarity value they are very enjoyable and the 2nd rehearsal includes Tom Jones’ introduction (complete with him forgetting the prop symbol, “Where’s me symbol?”).

The release closes out with the broadcast performance from the award show. So to sum up – this is certainly a marked improvement over the previous release with a better quality main show benefiting from various glitches and flaws having been corrected. Another excellent re-issue of a classic concert in improved quality – and who could argue with that?

copyright 2016 4thefunk.com