Get ready to Rock Hard in a Funky Place!
With Prince coming to town next week, I thought I would post a brief playlist of some of my favorite Purple Elvis tracks (this is probably foolish, as he and his people are notorious for being able to sniff and shut these kinds of playlists out - hence the reference to Purlple Elvis.).
This setlist includes some favorite extended versions from the past couple of decades. Unlike today’s remixes, where any aftermarket douchelord can come in and take your track apart and rebuild it any way they see fit, PE has always been the master of his own extended 12” takes. Most of these sound like the track stops where the radio and/or album version end, but the band just kept on playing. I get shit for playing some of these, because K often just wants to hear the radio version, and doesn’t like so much the masturbatory effect of the band continuing to crank it out well past the 8 minute mark.
On top of some of these 12” cuts, it would not be a fair collection if I didn’t include at least a couple of my favorite PE side projects. Somewhere I still have my copy of The Family on cassette, and their original version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” still can bend nails. I have thrown in a couple of faves from them, Sheila E, The Time and the Jesse Johnson Revue. No appearance from the dreadful Carmen Electra disc that Prince was responsible for circa 1990.
To wrap this up on a nostalgic note, I remember hitting Skate-a-long USA in 7th grade and hearing the version of “Little Red Corvette” included here. I looked everywhere to find it, and being 13 with no money and in 1983 with no internet was never able to track this 12” down. The sound quality is not perfect, and this song has been played to death, but the extra verse where he keeps talking about being draped in a “velvet sweat” is still confusing and amazing.
Hope to see everyone out at the show next week. If you have not seen the Purple Elvis before, keep in mind that he really does read the crowd, and if they are into it he will bring the funk all night, if they are not into it he will drop it faster than a high top fade in the hot sun.
playlist -> http://countryclubofthezeroseven.blogspot.com
