Open Sessions 5CD
4DaFunk
Catalog # 4DF 006-007-008-009-010
Release Year  2005
5CD Length 66:22 / 64:04 / 64:08 / 66:55 / 68:08
Date/Venue Paisley Park, Chanhassen August / September 1995
Source Audience Recordings
Quality EX
Rating 4.75/5.0

Track Listing
Paisley Park Concerts Paisley Park, Chanhassen August / September 1995

Disc 1
Paisley Park : 30th August 1995 (am)
1. M’lady 2. Glam Slam Boogie 3. Count The Days 4. Big Fun 5. The Good Life (including Big City Remix) 6. The Girl Can’t Help It 7. Que Sera Sera 8. Think 9. I Love U In Me 10. Return Of The Bump Squad 11. Get Wild

TC Jammers – Paisley Park : 18th August 1995
12. High Fashion 13. Mutiny

Disc 2
Paisley Park : 2nd September 1995
1. (Lemme See Your Body) Get Loose 2. Pussy Control 3. Days Of Wild 4. We March 5. Love…Thy Will Be Done 6. Funky 7. Honky Tonk Women 8. Jailhouse Rock 9. The Ride 10. M’lady 11. Now (including Babies Makin’ Babies) 12. Funky Stuff 13. The Cross

Disc 3
Paisley Park : 9th September 1995
1. Purple Medley 2. Endorphinmachine 3. Shhh 4. Now (including Babies Makin’ Babies) 5. Funky Stuff 6. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World 7. Days Of Wild 8. Pussy Control 9. Letitgo 10. Pink Cashmere 11. Return Of The Bump Squad 12. Hair (intro) – 777-9311 (intro)

Disc 4
1. Get Wild (including Rock N’ Roll Is Alive) 2. Race (including Girls And Boys)

TC Jammers – Bunker’s Bar & Grill, Minneapolis : 12th June 1995
3. Judgement Day 4. One Never Knows 5. We’ve Got Each Other 6. Since You’ve Been Gone 7. Rich Man 8. Too Funky

Disc 5
Paisley Park : 20th September 1995 (am)
1. Sometimes It Snows In April 2. I Love U In Me 3. Sweet Thing 4. Dolphin 5. Return Of The Bump Squad 6. Days Of Wild 7. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World 8. Eye Hate U 9. The Ride 10. Flash Light

Comments
Fink's Comments (rates this release 4.75/5.0)
Everything on here has been sourced from the “Open Sessions” series of discs, and anyone familiar with their content won’t need reminding of the quality of both the recording and the performances. Each volume suffered from a few very minor flaws and a number of the recordings were slightly thin and lacking any real depth. Released under the subtitle of “4DF’s Remastered Series” should be enough to tell you that the source recordings have been fully remastered, however as with most other 4DaFunk releases various flaws/glitches have been rectified and the resulting recordings are vastly superior to the originals. Whilst 4DaFunk may be a “fan label”, their work on here is as impressive as anything carried out by Sabotage, etc and this release is certainly their finest achievement as of May 2006.

Disc 1 has been sourced from the ‘Open Sessions Volume One’ release and is fairly typical of the content of the remainder of the set. Apparently the show was billed as “The NPG with Tora Tora”, so it should come as no surprise that 5 out of the 10 tracks played are from the Exodus album and it’s amongst these tracks the highlights of the show are to be found. A rather bland version of ‘Glam Slam Boogie’ leads in to a trio of Exodus tracks beginning with ‘Count The Days’. ‘Big Fun’ follows and whilst it has a very extended intro, it’s mainly an instrumental take with a fair amount of emphasis on the bass. ‘The Good Life’ is very lengthy and contains part of the ‘Big City Remix’ complete with a number of rapped verses. A bizarre threesome follows with shortened versions including 1 minute of ‘Que Sera Sera’ and a brief ‘Think’ before things return to normal with a mellow ‘I Love U In Me’. The closing two Exodus tracks really mark the highlight of the show and account for around 20 minutes including an extremely frantic ‘Get Wild’ finale. Disc 1 closes out with Prince guesting on guitar with TC Jammers at a Paisley party.

Disc 2 is sourced from the original ‘Open Sessions Volume Two’ release, and whilst the quality is excellent, it is probably the weakest of the shows contained in here. There is some distortion during the opening ‘Loose’, however it does quickly settle down. The audience level is slightly more audible during this recording and the recording lacks the “punch” found on the others. The show itself is another excellent example of the Paisley summer 1995 shows with rare performances of both ‘Love…Thy Will Be Done’ and ‘We March’ amongst the more normal Gold Experience tracks.

Discs 3 and 4 are sourced from ‘Open Sessions Volume 3’ and the show is certainly the most focused concert contained within the set and representative of the Japanese 1996 tour. Had the 1995 summer tour dates of Japan not been postponed, perhaps this is what the Japanese folks would have been treated to. It begins with a full length 11 minute ‘Purple Medley’ before moving through abridged versions of ‘Endorphinmachine / Shhh’. The mid section of the show is pretty straightforward, but again ‘The Return Of The Bump Squad’ is a sheer joy to listen to, as is the 15 minute version of ‘Get Wild’ and the closing ‘Race’. Disc 4 also contains TC Jammers set from Bunker’s with Prince joining them on stage for a few numbers.

Disc 5 is sourced from the ‘Open Sessions Volume Four’ release and begins somewhat subdued with Prince making reference to Mayte being away. To match his mellow mood the show begins with a few slow tracks. Prince disappears offstage and Sonny T leads the band through ‘The Return Of The Bump Squad’ before Prince returns during ‘Days Of Wild’. ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The World’ is less a performance of the song, and more of an opportunity to publicly bash Warner Bros. (again) before leading into ‘I Hate U’ (lovingly dedicated to Warners). Dallas Austin joins the band for ‘The Ride’ and Prince announces he is to be the producer of the upcoming Emancipation album – something which evidently didn’t go to plan.

So, what do we say about this mammoth collection? Fades and drop-outs have been rectified, the audience level has been reduced and the audio has been boosted. Those things alone make this release worthwhile, however add to that the unbelievably good content of the performances themselves and you have one of the best fan “re-workings” of the past 12 months.

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