Prince
Paisley Park Extravaganza
Sabotage Records

Source : Audience Recording
Sound Quality : EX-
Year Of Release : 1996

Disc 2

NPG Interview : July 1995

1. Interview

Paisley Park : 18th June 1995 (am)

2. Mad (Studio)
3. Days Of Wild (sample intro)
4. Billy Jack Bitch
5. 18 & Over
6. Return Of The Bump Squad
7. Count The Days
8. Brick House (including The Good Life [Big City Remix])
9. Get Wild

COMMENT

This is the first half of the Paisley Park concert, the second half can be found on Paisley Park Extravaganza Part 2. The release begins with an interview by the New Power Generation from July 1995 to promote the “Exodus” album. Prince (or Tora Tora) is not present, however it is a fairly interesting 8 minute long interview. Up next is a version of ‘Mad’ played by a DJ and recorded by a crowd member. I’m not entirely convinced it has been recorded at Paisley Park prior to the show starting for several reasons. Firstly the quality of the recording is vastly inferior to the quality of the show recording. Secondly the DJ makes reference to “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince is in town and will be playing in 20 minutes” – I doubt the announcement would be required before he hit the stage at Paisley Park. The version played is phenomenal and far superior to the circulating version. And so to the Paisley Park show itself. The quality of the recording is excellent, however it is a little bassy and Prince appears to be having problems with his microphone throughout the first half of the show. The real problem with the recording are a number of audience members standing close to the person recording. They are audible throughout and insist on either shouting inane comments to Prince throughout, or banging on their tambourine. They do get in the way on occasion, but on the whole they are pretty easily overlooked. The first half of the show is rather typical of many from the period. There are a few lyrics from ‘The Good Life (Big City Remix’) added to ‘Brick House’, and Prince is constantly addressing the crowd with various bizarre statements, such as “Are men from Mars, are women from Venus? Would you feel like a star if I showed you my….house”. Comes as part of Sabotage’s 3cd set packaged in a cardboard wrap-around sleeve.

Disc 2

Paisley Park : 18th June 1995 (am)

1. Big Fun
2. The Jam
3. I Believe In You
4. Bud Light Interlude
5. Glam Slam Boogie
6. Volkswagen Blues
7. Santana Medley

New Power Madhouse (Studio Outtakes EX+)

8. 17
9. Rootie Kazootie
10. Space
11. Guitar Segue
12. Asswoop
13. Ethereal Segue
14. Parlor Games
15. Michael Segue
16. (Got 2) Give It Up
17. Sonny Segue

COMMENT

The first half of this disc contains the second half of the Paisley Park 18th June show (the first half can be found on Paisley Park Extravaganza Part 1). The quality is exactly the same as the previous half of the show, and it unfortunately suffers from the same problems with certain audience members as the first half does. This portion of the show kicks off with a great version of ‘Big Fun’, and the show also appears to have the same microphone problems as the first half with Prince constantly shouting at the sound engineers to balance the levels out correctly. There is a track listed on here as ‘Volkswagen Blues’ which appears rather puzzling at first. It is listed on various on-line sites, along with Upton’s The Vault book as being an unreleased track, but it is nothing more than a seemingly improvised version of BB King’s “How Blue Can You Get” with Prince rearranging the lyrics to suit his own style – certainly not worthy of being classed as an unreleased track. The show closes with a very lengthy version of the ‘Santana Medley’. The second half of the disc is made up of the unreleased NPG 1995 project ‘New Power Madhouse’. As with the other discs in this 3cd set, this comes with it’s own jewel case and accompanying artwork – intended to be kept with the others in a cardboard warp-around sleeve. One of Sabotage’s earliest releases, and a very high quality product containing a great Love 4 One Another Paisley Park concert from mid 1995.

Disc 3

Paisley Park : 18th September 1995

1. Intro – The Jam
2. I Believe In You
3. The Cross
4. The Ride
5. Now
6. Babies Makin’ Babies
7. Instrumental Jam
8. Rock N’ Roll Is Alive
9. Sex Machine
10. Johnny
11. Return Of The Bump Squad
12. Get Wild (including Rock N’ Roll Is Alive)

Paisley Park : 10th October 1995 (Listed as 7th October 1995)

13. We March 14. Love…Thy Will Be Done 15. Starfish And Coffee

Bonus

16. Rock N’ Rill Is Alive (Tony Fly Mix)

COMMENT

The final instalment of Sabotage’s fantastic Paisley Park 2cd set. This particular disc differs from the others as the show featured is the 18th September 1995 show played after a Gold Experience listening party was held. The show is far less structured than many from the same period with far more emphasis on loose jamming and various crowd chants. That said there is a stunning very guitar heavy version of ‘The Cross’ played. Tracks #7-10 are basically a long jam with various crowd call-and-chants centred around ‘Rock N Roll Is Alive’. Next up is the short 15 minute set played after the filming of various video’s for the Gold Experience and the Love 4 One Another broadcast on 10th October 1995 (listed as 7th October 1995 on the reverse sleeve). The set includes a version of ‘Love…Thy Will Be Done’ which Prince dedicates to Time Warner for releasing the Gold Experience album. The final bonus track is the radio broadcast of ‘Rock N Roll Is Alive’ by the Minneapolis DJ Tony Fly. The sound quality throughout is consistently excellent, however the 10th October 1995 recording is rather heavy with a fair amount of audience noise. On it’s own this is a great release, but combined with the other 2 discs from this 3cd set, it becomes a fantastic addition to an already quality filled release. A stunning early release from Sabotage.