Purple Rain Tour, 1985

Warner Bros & Paisley Park later released a live concert video: Prince and the Revolution: Live

On March 29, 1985 Harry Brown & I climbed into Mike Rowe’s car and left Boston for Syracuse NY. We were on our way to see our hero Prince on the Purple Rain Tour. So we brought a lot of alcohol & other assorted drugs. After the 5 hour drive we pulled into Cornell University in Ithaca NY where we planned to spend the night. I forget who’s dorm room it was, but I remember exactly what it looked like. We proceeded to get more drunk and then out came the mushrooms. I probably would not of taken them had I not already consumed most of a case of beer, since psychedelics were not really my thing. As we wandered around the campus I wondered why Harry’s speech had slowed down to half speed – he was pretty fucked up I thought to myself. We were shown Carl Sagan’s Cliffside house across the river that Cornell fraternity boys often amused themselves by shooting gerbils at.

I found myself in a hallway lined with human brains. Harry had been down to the river and had come back with blood running profusely down his arm. As the mushrooms took effect I found myself running back to the safety of the dorm room. I spent the rest of the night wide awake trying in vain to get Paul McCartney & Wings to stop playing on the record player. The player was somehow precariously placed way up high near the ceiling and in my compromised state I could not reach it. I found that the only way I could get a Wings song to stop playing was to listen to every word; if I lost focus and missed a word, the song would start up again. The Hendrix poster on the wall had come alive and played Aerosmith & Dylan songs for me, but sadly couldn’t override Paul on the stereo. I would try to stick my head out of the door but every time I did, bloody Harry would stick his head out of a door down the end of the hall. This would freak my shit out and I’d run back to the top of the bunk-bed and pull the covers over my head trying desperately to drown out Wings’ songs. Mike was in the lower bunk and I accused him of making the bed move around every 5 minutes. I debated beating myself over the head with a brick to gain the sanctity of unconsciousness, but after a few half-hearted attempts gave up.

In a pretty hungover state we headed to the Carrier Dome in nearby Syracuse to see Prince. It was a 49,000 capacity stadium and is the only concert that I have ever attended where screaming fans drowned out the band. Perhaps Prince was ready for this as he had music being pumped out from all 4 corners of the stadium. I was duly impressed, he did not disappoint. He could do all those moves I’d seen in the videos and the movie Purple Rain that we had watched a million times that summer. I did notice that he did not stand near any other musician on stage – likely concerned about height issues or lack thereof. At one point he turned around placed his hand on his backside and asked all the women in the crowd if their boyfriends’ asses looked this good. “I doubt it. I doubt it.” he said.

March 30, 1985

“Let’s Go Crazy” (5:30)
“Delirious” (2:46)
“1999” (includes “Reveille” interpolation) (4:15)
“Little Red Corvette” (5:10)
“Take Me with U” (4:15)
“Yankee Doodle Dandy” (Interlude) (6:10)
“Do Me, Baby” (includes “Purple House” spoken intro) (4:40)
“Irresistible Bitch” (2:00)
“Possessed” (4:24)
“How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore” (5:05)
“Let’s Pretend We’re Married” (4:15)
“International Lover” (1:00)
“God” (8:30)
“Computer Blue” (4:30)
“Darling Nikki” (4:00)
“The Beautiful Ones” (includes backwards “The Dance Electric” and wind chime intro) (7:30)
“When Doves Cry” (8:15)
“I Would Die 4 U” (3:50)
“Baby I’m a Star” (10:00)
“Purple Rain” (18:24)