Prince #SAB 001-002 Driving 2 Midnight Mess

 

Driving 2 Midnight Mess

2 CD
Label : Sabotage Records
Catalogue : #SAB 001-002
Disc Length : 75:59 / 75:47
Source : Audience Recordings
Sound Quality : VG+
Year Of Release : 1996

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Disc 1

Lovesexy Tour Aftershow - Grosse Freiheit 36, Hamburg : 31st August 1988 (am)

1. Just My Imagination   2. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic   3. Girls And Boys   4. Venus De Milo   5. Starfish And Coffee   6. Raspberry Beret   7. People Without   8. Condition Of The Heart   9. Still Would Stand All Time   10. Strange Relationship   11. A Love Bizarre   12. I'll Take You There

Paisley Park, Chanhassen : 31st December 1987

13. It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

Disc 2

Lovesexy Tour Aftershow - Grosse Freiheit 36, Hamburg : 31st August 1988 (am)

1. Blues In C - Down Home Blues   2. Cold Sweat   3. God Is Alive   4. I Wish U Heaven (including Alphabet St.)   5. Purple Rain

Lovesexy Tour Aftershow - Camden Palace, London : 26th July 1988 (am)

6. Happy Birthday   7. Forever In My Life   8. Strange Relationship (including Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic)   9. Just My Imagination   10. River Kwai March   11. Under The Cherry Moon   12. Six   13. Dead On It   14. Housequake   15. Miss You

COMMENT

Two fascinating Lovesexy aftershows. The sound quality on both, while being very good, has a fair amount of tape hiss and the Grosse Freiheit recording is incomplete and has a number of drop-outs and the occasional fade. Unfortunately the Camden Palace recording is also incomplete and Sabotage have inserted parts from the circulating video of the show (Fargnoli's footage from the BBC Omnibus Documentary) which makes the actual Camden Palace recording sound rather poor in comparison - not one of Sabotage's better idea's IMO. The Freiheit show features a number of rare and exclusive moments. The piano medley from the Lovesexy Tour is performed, albeit slightly differently from the main show's performance. 'People Without' is again performed, however this time it is more an instrumental jam than the Het Paard van Troje improvised version. Taylor Dane guests onstage for 'Still Would Stand All Time' and proceeds to attempt to scream Boni off the stage. 'God Is Alive' features a short speech by Prince (called Camille's Story on the booklet) and explains his reasoning for pulling the Black Album (from Camille's perspective). The Camden Palace show again is incomplete and is a rather messy affair. The closing 'Miss You' has been taken from the BBC Omnibus documentary, however it lasts barely 20 seconds before it fades out and it's inclusion is rather baffling and pointless. The remainder of the show is an excellent aftershow from the 88 period and includes a lengthy up-beat groove on 'Strange Relationship' with some guitar work from 'Rave', and Mica Paris guesting on 'Just My Imagination'. Overall this is not Sabotage's best effort. The editing and inclusion of some parts is rather strange, however as it is their first releases, and they have gone on to bigger and better releases - then it's excusable. That said, I actually really enjoy the Grosse Freiheit aftershow, so purely for it's inclusion this release gets the thumbs up from me.

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