Here’s a cool snapshot of Prince’s Minneapolis scene before he struck it big with ‘1999’, and BIG BIG with ‘Purple Rain’. The date is March 8th, 1982. Location: the Minneapolis club First Avenue, which Prince made famous two years later in the movie ‘Purple Rain’.

It’s a small club gig with a loose, intimate feel. Towards the end of the show, Prince brings up a few members of the time: Morris Day, Jesse Johnson (guitar), Jimmy Jam (keys), and Jellybean Johnson (drums). The banter is pretty funny. You can hear the competitive edge between Prince and Morris, as they go back and forth in between songs. Prince: “y’all can play, but this is my stage tonight!”; “you gotta play some rock and roll, don’t come up here playing that you know what.” Morris: “say man why don’t you take my comb, you could use it.” Jimmy Jam: “Time for the Time. Time to kick Prince off the stage.”

The first song that the Time kick into, “Dance to the Beat”, is an unreleased song that comes right out of the Prince “Delirious” playbook (and his B-side “Horny Toad”). Prince responds to that one with: “I didn’t like it….play something you know how to play”. So the Time get down and dirty and do what they do best, funkin’ it up with “The Stick”. The night ends with Prince’s “Partyup”, with Morris Day on the drums.

Here’s the set list from the gig. Check out “Sexuality” thru “Partyup”. Throw them together in order and listen in to a fun, carefree, groundbreaking era in Prince’s “Minneapolis Sound”.

• Buy Prince music.

• Buy The Time.

I tell you, sometimes this blog just writes itself. The latest Prince news is that the landlord of his rented West Hollywood home (70,000 smackers a month!!), Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer, sued him for violating the lease agreement. The list of infractions drills right to the core of the eccentric purple man:

• “painting the exterior of the [house] with purple striping”, ‘Prince symbol’, and the numbers ‘3121’.
• “installing purple monogrammed carpet” in the master bedroom.
• the installation of plumbing, piping, and excavation of a “large hole” for the presumed purpose of a private beauty salon.

You mean I’m not the only one who has a home beauty salon in a hole? I feel so unoriginal now!

Man, 70 G’s a Month…

Prince: Housequake (7 Minutes mo’ Quake) [mp3] – from the 12″ extended remix single of “Hot Thing”. Original version found on Sign o’ the Times.

• Full Yahoo Article.
• See the Smoking Gun article for the court documents.

Here’s a cool uncredited remix of “Controversy” that I recently came across. It makes an extremely funkalicious song even more funkalicious.

‘Controversy’ was Prince’s fourth album, released in 1981, sandwiched between ‘Dirty Mind’ and ‘1999’. The funky hook of the title track gives way to the raw power of “Sexuality”, the piano F-me ballad “Do Me, Baby”, and Prince’s first politically slanted songs, “Annie Christian” and “Ronnie Talk to Russia”. The album is 25 years old this year… ouch! Go pick it up on Amazon.

Prince: Controversy (Purple Remix) (mp3)