The Park 2004 6CD
Sabotage Records
Catalog # SAB 318/319/320/321/322/323
Release Year 2005
6CD Length 79:11 / 78:42 / 79:16 / 79:55 / 77:56 / 76:38
Date/Venue Paisley Park : 17th,18th,19th June 2004 and Excel Energy Center, St. Paul : 16th,17th,18th June 2004
Source Audience Recordings
Quality EX
Rating 4.5/5.0

Track Listing
Disc 1
Conversation Piece - Paisley Park : 17th June 2004 (am)
1. No Diggity 2. (Not Just) Knee Deep

Musicology Tour Aftershow - Paisley Park : 17th June 2004 (am)
3. The Ride 4. Miss You 5. A Real Mother For Ya 6. I Know You Got Soul 7. It Takes Two (including Sex Machine) 8. Instrumental Jam 9. Housequake 10. All The Critics Love U In Minneapolis 11. House Party 12. Prince And The Band

Disc 2
1. Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance 2. Glide 3. Brick House 4. Dear Mr. Man (including One Nation Under A Groove)

Conversation Piece - Paisley Park : 17th June 2004 (am)
5. The Rainbow Children (instrumental) 6. That's Why I'm Crying 7. Stop On By 8. Is It A Crime? 9. Funky Stuff 10. Feel Like Makin' Love 11. (I Feel Like) Bustin' Loose

Disc 3
Musicology Tour Aftershow - Paisley Park : 18th June 2004 (am)

1. Footprints 2. Dear Mr. Man (including Hit The Road Jack) 3. I Know You Got Soul 4. Skin Tight 5. D.M.S.R. 6. House Party 7. Sexy Dancer 8. Peach 9. Prince And The Band

Disc 4
1. Beautiful Strange

Musicology Tour Aftershow - Paisley Park : 19th June 2004 (am)
2. Call My Name 3. Joy In Repetition 4. Girls And Boys (including Mustang Sally) 5. Knock On Wood 6. What Is Hip? 7. Something In The Water (Does Not Compute) 8. Speechless

Disc 5
1. Shake Everything You've Got (including More Bounce To The Ounce) 2. Superstition 3. 777-9311 (instrumental) 4. Brick House 5. No Diggity (including La Di Da Di) 6. The Jam 7. Purple Rain 8. Adore

Kip Blackshire - Paisley Park : 19th June 2004 (am)
9. Everyday People (including Dance To The Music)

Disc 6
Musicology Tour - Excel Energy Center, St. Paul : 16th June 2004

1. Little Red Corvette 2. Cream 3. Telemarketers Blues 4. 12:01 5. Raspberry Beret 6. Sweet Thing (intro) - Smoke On The Water (intro) 7. Adore 8. Alphabet St. 9. You Can Make It If You Try 10. The Beverly Hillbillies Theme 11. Georgia On My Mind - What'd I Say? 12. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

Musicology Tour - Excel Energy Center, St. Paul : 17th June 2004
13. Little Red Corvette 14. Cream 15. Alphabet St. 16. Prince And The Band 17. Jailhouse Rock (intro) 18. 12:01 19. Raspberry Beret 20. Sometimes It Snows In April

Musicology Tour - Excel Energy Center, St. Paul : 18th June 2004
21. Little Red Corvette 22. Cream 23. (Sometimes I Feel Like A) Motherless Child 24. Jailhouse Rock 25. Raspberry Beret 26. Telemarketers Blues 27. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man 28. Alphabet St. 29. On The Couch 30. 7 31. Prince And The Band - Whole Lotta Love

Comments
Dean's Comments  (rates this release 4.5/5.0)
This is probably one of Sabotage's better releases of 2005, and the quality of the Paisley Park shows on here are certainly an improvement over the previous Ladybird release. The exact same source recordings have been used for both Ladybird's 'Musicology Celebration Vol. I, II & III' and this Sabotage release, however Sabotage have evidently spent a little more time and effort into making the recordings sound their best, whereas the Ladybird releases appeared within a 3 months of the actual shows taking place and are slightly rough around the edges (although still of EX quality).

The sheer amount of material on here is rather staggering, and it would be nearly impossible for me to comment on each and everything (the joy of 6cd sets), however all the shows featured have various highlights and there are some inspired performances throughout. One of the most interesting aspects of the shows is how much freedom Prince gives to the various band members, and at times they are more audible than Prince himself. Chance Howard and the members of the N.P.G. are to the fore on nearly every performance. When Prince does perform though, there are are excellent (and rather unique) versions of 'Beautiful Strange, Joy In Repetition, Something In The Water and Purple Rain', not to mention some rarities including the all too brief 'Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance'.

Discs 1 to 5 are made up of various "aftershow" performances from Paisley Park, whilst Disc 6 features the 3 acoustic sets from the 3 St. Paul Musicology shows. Again the quality is much improved over the Ladybird release, however the disc is a slight let-down and repetitive. The packaging is rather unimpressive and bland. The text in the booklet is hard to read (white text on silver background is not a good combination), and I'm not 100% certain Sabotage have their dates, etc correct. Packaging aside, and concentrating on the content of the discs, this is an excellent release. Aftershows on the Musicology tour were rather thin on the ground (and certainly almost non-existent in terms of circulating), so these Paisley Park shows make nice substitutes. One last small note is that the clear plastic box this comes in has fallen to pieces within a few days of me having it. If you are going to package 6 discs in one box - at least use something a bit more sturdy :-(

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