Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Prince and the Revolution: Live Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 6, 2022

Joni Mitchell has been in the news quite a bit lately, and while not especially well connected to either Prince and/or The Revolution, a comment of hers may get to the core of some of the "issues" Prince faced during the time period immediately after the release of Purple Rain. As some quasi "liner notes" in the insert booklet included with this release get into, Prince was suddenly a "movie star" after that film came out, and quickly discovered that fans coming to his Purple Rain Tour pretty much wanted the movie (or at least its complete soundtrack) in concert settings, something that ultimately drove Prince to "cut the tour short" (again in the words of the insert booklet verbiage). In that regard, it may be salient to note (no musical pun intended) this kind of provocative analysis that Mitchell offered many years ago about a particular difference between performing arts and painting:

“That's one thing that's always, like, been a difference between, like, the performing arts, and being a painter, you know. A painter does a painting, and he paints it, and that's it, you know. He has the joy of creating it, it hangs on a wall, and somebody buys it, and maybe somebody buys it again, or maybe nobody buys it and it sits up in a loft somewhere until he dies. But he never, you know, nobody ever, nobody ever said to Van Gogh, 'Paint a Starry Night again, man!' You know? He painted it and that was it”.

Even aside and apart from the differences between various artistic media, musicians in general, and those who experience "hits" in particular, can find themselves trapped by that very success, consigned to repeating the same songs over and over (and over) again. And that may be at least one reason why this particular concert video exists, for a kind of ironic reason.

The Purple Rain tour was initially planned to be a worldwide event, as the writing in the insert booklet gets into, there was perhaps unavoidably a whole coterie of hangers on like label executives who were chomping at the bit in anticipation of mountains of cash pouring in. That was counterweighed by a couple of things, first of all Prince's desire not to be basically recreating the soundtrack of the film every night and to move on to other creative pursuits, but perhaps subliminally, at least as indicated by a couple of anecdotes shared by members of the band in the insert booklet piece, by the fact that being arguably the most famous band in the world at that point had interrupted the members' private lives pretty drastically.

What may be kind of ironic about Prince's desire not to get locked in to repeating the same thing endlessly is the fact that (once again referred to in the insert booklet writing) he rehearsed everything in this concert to within an inch of its veritable life, so that there may in fact not be a huge reliance on anything random. The show is absolutely relentless in its almost manic, propulsive energy and Prince and the Revolution provide not just forceful playing, but a stage full of tightly choreographed movement that you can almost see rippling out in waves of energy to the audience.

Because Prince decided to wind down the tour early, this was an early example of what might be called "streaming" in that the live concert was broadcast live to various European locales. The actual concert took place in Syracuse, New York, in what is termed the "cavernous" Carrier Dome on March 30, 1985. The liner notes describe the concert as a "compromise" Prince came to to offer the fans missing the live tour at least something in return, and while obviously a "consolation prize" of sorts, it's a thrilling piece of entertainment that documents Prince and the Revolution at the peak of their powers.

The setlist for the concert is:

1. Let's Go Crazy
2. Delirious
3. 1999
4. Little Red Corvette
5. Take Me with U
6. Yankee Doodle Dandy
7. Do Me, Baby
8. Irresistible Bitch
9. Possessed
10. How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore
11. Let's Pretend We're Married
12. International Lover
13. God
14. Computer Blue
15. Darling Nikki
16. The Beautiful Ones
17. When Doves Cry
18. I Would Die 4 U
19. Baby I'm a Star
20. Purple Rain

Prince and the Revolution: Live Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Prince and the Revolution Live is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Music's Legacy imprint with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.33:1. I wish I had more technical information on the workflow of this, but one way or the other, while an unsurprising upgrade from the now ancient VHS version, this is probably not going to set anyone's videophile heart beating faster. One of the things I'm a bit uncertain of is any film element (as opposed to videotape) that may have entered the production fray, since a cursory glance at the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review would seem to indicate what I guess might be video noise but has the look of almost 16mm levels of grittiness at times. From what little technical information I've been able to track down online, and maybe even dictated by common sense, the original concert was evidently videotaped and broadcast that way, but again I haven't been able to find any details on whatever technology might have been utilized. (If anyone can point me toward authoritative information to offer in this regard, Private Message me and I'll happily update the review.) The imagery is fuzzy to the point that midrange and especially wide shots can be almost devoid of fine detail and frankly even general detail. Close-ups fare at least a little better, and the good news is the richly saturated palette comes through the fray rather well, all things considered. Large swaths of either minimally lit or darkly lit material can also keep detail levels tamped down. The frenetic activity onstage can lead to some passing combing artifacts at times.

Update 6/9/22: Member BluNatureFilms kindly sent me a link to this really interesting article about the "enhancement" of the video for the Blu-ray release. I frankly never would have guessed that digital grain had been added to "mask camera distortions", but at least am happy to know my perception of something like grain wasn't completely off the mark.

Prince and the Revolution: Live Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The news is considerably better in the audio department, with a really nice sounding Dolby Atmos track, along with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 options. The Atmos track noticeably opens up even the "standard" 5.1 track, and there more ambient presence on the Atmos track as a result, which may not always redound to the approval of those who want to hear the band rather than the screaming audience. Music is really beautifully rendered on the Atmos track, and frankly sounded fine to me on both the 5.1 and 2.0 track as well as I toggled between them. Both the 5.1 and Atmos track keep things nicely spacious with clear layerings of Prince's often almost baroque accompaniments. Passing moments of interstitial "dialogue" are also rendered without any issues whatsoever.

Prince and the Revolution: Live Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While there is no bonus content on the Blu-ray disc itself, this handsomely packaged released comes with 2 Bonus CDs containing the entire concert. Each of the CDs and the Blu-ray disc have their own individual mini-LP like sleeve that fits into protective pockets in what is kind of an oversized Digipack housing that unfolds, displaying four panels with photos of Prince and the band.

Prince and the Revolution: Live Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Prince and the Revolution Live may not exactly be the "be all and end all" of Prince concerts that some of the PR hype surrounding this release states that it is, but it's still almost relentlessly energetic, even in its ostensibly "quieter" moments. Prince engages in almost Jagger-esque levels of swagger and stagecraft here, and the band is tight, both instrumentally and vocally as well as perhaps just as importantly, movement wise. The video side of things here is probably going to be the biggest hang up for fans, and so I heartily recommend parsing through the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, to get some idea of how things look. Audio is pretty spectacular, with sterling fidelity and really nicely full bodied sound. With caveats noted about the video, Recommended.