Prince’s 1985 ‘Live’ Album Gets First-Ever Vinyl Release
Prince and the Revolution's Live concert film will receive a vinyl, CD and Blu-ray release for the first time.
Prince and The Revolution: Live will arrive on June 3. It's available for preorder on the late artist's website in the aforementioned formats, as well as a collector's edition that includes three 150-gram LPs (purple, red and gold vinyl), two CDs, a Blu-ray video, a 44-page photo book, new liner notes and a poster.
The Live film was recorded during Prince's March 30, 1985, concert at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., while he was on tour in support of his chart-topping 1984 album Purple Rain. The set list appropriately included Purple Rain in its entirety, as well as six songs off its predecessor, 1999.
The Prince Estate is previewing the Live release with a video of the show opener "Let's Go Crazy." You can watch the performance and see the full Live track listing below.
Prince originally released Live on VHS; the album received a posthumous DVD release in 2017, and the audio became available digitally in 2020. The concert includes extended versions of many songs, including an 18-minute rendition of "Purple Rain" to end the show. The set also had various interludes and song snippets, including the aptly titled "Purple House," an ode to Jimi Hendrix's "Red House."
The members of the Revolution reflected on the simultaneous tightness and spontaneity of the Purple Rain tour in a 2017 Rolling Stone oral history, revealing that Prince would fine band members who made mistakes.
"If you missed a cue or played an extra horn punch or something, that was $500," keyboardist Lisa Coleman said. "He would withhold your money. It never happened to me. I'm lucky. Actually, I'm good at faking it. He never knew when I made a mistake." "It was literally the Olympics," guitarist Wendy Melvoin added. "We were like synchronized swimmers. If someone screwed up that thing, there's not even a bronze medal. You’re just off the team. This was high stakes."
Prince and the Revolution, 'Live' Track Listing
1. "Let's Go Crazy"
2. "Delirious"
3. "1999"
4. "Little Red Corvette"
5. "Take Me with U"
6. "Yankee Doodle"
7. "Do Me, Baby"
8. "Irresistible Bitch"
9. "Possessed"
10. "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore"
11. "Let's Pretend We're Married"
12. "International Lover"
13. "God"
14. "Computer Blue"
15. "Darling Nikki"
16. "The Beautiful Ones"
17. "When Doves Cry"
18. "I Would Die 4 U"
19. "Baby, I'm a Star"
20. "Purple Rain"