This is a video of Prince doing a benefit at a Minneapolis club, performing a version of Purple Rain that would go on, after editing, to become the album version of the song.
As you watch the video, check the comments/subtitles to watch for where the album version edits occur. Fascinating to watch this source material of such an important (to me at least) work.
Check this link and this link for some more detail on that 1983 benefit.
Very cool. Fantastic song by a fantastic musician.
Saved for later viewing. Was this video ever released commercially, too?
Wow, thanks for this, one of my all time favorites. Hope his estate will make some of these recordings available to everyone someday.
Not commercially as such. This surfaced a year or so ago from memory. There are some great stories / blogs about this night and how it all went down.
Sounds like they are working on a lot of things. Their first official release of “vault” stuff is scheduled for 2019. They have a guy working through it all for them and even he says its a bit overwhelming.
Whenever I watch this version or listen to some of the other unreleased / extended stuff from around this time I am always reminded of that Apple video – a thousand no’s for every yes.
Growing up I always yearned to hear an extended version or original versions of some of Prince’s songs. But later when you hear them and the bits that were cut out, you realise its a much better song for it.
A lot of people get excited about whats in the “Vault” of unreleased tracks and versions. I agree with what Prince once said – its in the Vault for a reason – it wasn’t that good (by his standards).
Terrific that more people will see this. It’s a fantastic night – half the Purple Rain album is taken from this performance. It was Wendy’s first live show with the band.
Forgot to mention – most of the “performance” footage from the recently released video for Prince’s version of “Nothing Compares to You” is the rehearsal footage for the Purple Rain concert. There is loads more of it online but it was nice to see them put some out. Bit of an odd match for the song but whatever.
Similar things can be said for movies and television. It’s on the cutting-room floor for a reason, and not always because of running-time restrictions.
amazing. brilliant.
i spent my coming of age in that club, too many good times. never realized the alumn release was recorded there…