"The "..." Music Through the Years" Series
2019-Present, Ongoing
This live music series started the same way as the “Prince’s Spiritual Life and Journey” series, as an OUTTAKE or MUSIC XTRA on the channel. In that summer of 2016, months after Prince’s death, there were a lot of Prince video and live clips posted online by mourning fans and friends who wanted to share their Prince memories with others.
I was studying and researching, in preparation for starting “The Ritualistic Life and Murder of Prince” series (while also studying for bar exams), and came across so many rare pictures and videos of Prince; that my guides asked me to download all I could while it was there. As usual, what I was told was very true, and it seemed by the Fall, WMG, and Prince’s Estate had scrubbed the internet of all these rare gems posted online.
By the time I was ready to start creating and posting episodes of “The Ritualistic Life and Murder of Prince” series, I had collected 1000s of hours of concert clips and footage from throughout Prince’s 39-year music career. This was helpful for the series, since as long time viewers know, I start every episode with a live clip of Prince performing on a concert tour of the era we discuss in the episode, and the episode is also filled with many live clips, interviews, and other footage.
"The "..." Music Through the Years" series started in 2019 as a MUSIC XTRA of "The Ritualistic Life and Murder of Prince" series
Though the episodes of “The Ritualistic Life and Murder of Prince” series are generally multi-hour and extensive, there is no way I can ever include ALL the live footage I would like in an episode. When I was making “SEGMENT 11 Under The Cherry Moon”, “SEGMENT 12 The Parade Music (Pt.1), and “SEGMENT 12 The Parade Music (Pt.2), I really struggled with the live clips included since I had so many I wanted to use, but due to time constraints, couldn’t include everything I wanted.
That was when I thought I would make a MUSIC XTRA, or musical OUTTAKE, that featured the music from the “Parade” album by Prince & The Revolution of 1986. It was called The “Parade” Era Music Through the Years.
Once again, viewers loved it so much, I decided to make the 3rd ongoing series of the channel, “The…” Music Through the Years. In this live music series, we look at a specific album, era, or genre of music and watch Prince perform that music on various tours in footage spanning his 39-year career. Viewers of the series know that Prince usually toured the world each year from 1980-2016. This was Prince’s “routine” for most of his career.
He would start recording an album in the Spring, master the album by summer, and release the album in the Fall. Then he would tour from the Fall until Spring of the next year, and start it all over again.
In the summer of 2019, I decided to go back in the series and Prince’s career to make “For You” and "Prince" Music Through the Years, showing Prince performing the music from his first to albums. However, I could only find one clip of Prince performing his first minor hit, “Soft and Wet”, and that was from the “Parade” tour of 1986. The majority of the episode, shows Prince performing the hits from the “Prince” album through the years in some form on may of the tours of his music career, all the way up to 2016’s “Piano and Microphone” Tour.
Following was The "Dirty Mind” Music Through the Years” and The "Controversy" Music Through the Years”. I particulary enjoyed the “Controversy” episode, since my favorite Prince ballad “Do Me Baby” is on that album. Prince performed that ballad often through the years, and I had no choice but to include over an hours’ worth of clips of Prince performing “Do Me Baby” through the years.
After I concluded its corresponding episode in “The Ritualistic Life and Murder of Prince” series, I made the 2 -part: “Sign O’ The Times” Music Through the Years (Disc 1) and “Sign O’ The Times” Music Through the Years (Disc 2). I knew going in that since the “Sign O’ The Times” album of 1987 was a double album, this would be a double episode as well. Since this was one of Prince’s most beloved and acclaimed albums, I had plenty of concert footage, TV performances, and music videos of Prince performing these songs through the years.
2020 Episodes of "The "..." Music Through the Years"
For Prince’s 62nd birthday in 2019, I posted another multi-hour 2 part episode, “Prince “B-Sides” Through the Years (Pt. 1)” and “Prince “B-Sides” Through the Years (Pt. 2)”. You see, back when Prince first got into the music business in 1977, it was common to release 3 or 4 “singles” from an album. These singles would turn out to be the hit songs from an album. Then there was a “B-side” of the single record, that could be another track from the album intended to promote sales of the full album to the public. And I’m sure you will all agree, many of Prince’s “B-Sides”, “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore”, “17 Days”, “Erotic City”, and many others were so popular with Prince fans, that they became regular staples of Prince’s live shows through the years.
Then, in the 1990’s things changed a bit in the music business, and with the advent of CDs or compact discs, Prince began making EPs of 3 or more songs as “B-sides” to the main single of the EP. Prince would also make “Video EPs” or video collections of the single and its “B-Sides”. We look at several of these videos in the episode: “Horny Pony”, “Call the Law”, “Violet the Organ Grinder” and several more performances and videos of more 1990’s “B-Sides”.
The music industry changed again in the 2000s. Gone were the days of a single release with a “B-Side” or of CD “EP releases” or even a full album to have a hit. Now, artists could release a digital single alone, and the “B-Side” and full albums became obsolete. Prince shifted with this trend as well, and though he continued to record and release full albums, he began releasing digital singles as well. So, our review of Prince “B-Sides” end in the mid-2000s for this reason.
In August 2020, I was reminded of one of my visits to Paisley Park over the last 5 years, and a question a fellow visitor asked of the tour guide, “Did Prince ever record any covers by other artists?” Other visitors and myself, listed for them all the covers that Prince recorded and released through the years, and of course, there aren’t that many. I mentioned to the visitor that Prince often covered other artists live in concert, sometimes with that artist in duet form.
In the episode, “Prince “Covers” and Duets Through the Years”, we look at Prince performing covers that he recorded by other artists like Joni Mitchell, The Staple Singers, Led Zepellin, The Styllistics, Joan Osborne, and others. Then there were times when Prince strictly covered music live. Particularly in the last “19” years of his career, Prince would often hold complete shows with nothing but covers by other artists. We look at many of them here.
Sometimes, Prince would have a featured singer from his band like Boni Boyer, Rosie Gaines, or Liv Whitfield perform a cover by Aretha Franklin or Janet Jackson. Other times, Prince would duet with some of his friends like Chaka Khan, Lenny Kravitz, or CeeLo Green on some of their biggest hits.
In The “1999” Music Through the Years (Pt.1) and The “1999” Music Through the Years (Pt.2), we look at Prince’s first double album from 1982, “1999”. I understand that the “The…Music Through the Years” episodes will always be 2 hours or more, based on the number of years of tours Prince went on in his 39 year career. But in terms of the “1999” album, I should have known this would be a multi-part episode, and there would be no way around it.
This is because, “1999” was Prince’s breakthrough album, and a few of Prince’s biggest hits, “1999” and “Little Red Corvette” were on this album. The Part 1 of this episode is only Prince performing these 2 songs through the years, since again, these were 2 of Prince’s biggest hits and he always performed them.
The second album or disc of “1999” contains some of Prince’s most beloved tracks like “DMSR”, “Automatic”, and “Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)”, and it is a special treat to see Prince perform these songs in the later years of his life, often in new and unique arrangements.
2021 Episodes of "Music Through the Years"
In 2021, The “Around the World in a Day” Music Through the Years, episode highlights Prince’s big hit of 1985, “Raspberry Beret”. If you look at “SEGMENT 10: Around the World in a Day” from “The Ritualistic Life and Murder of Prince” series, you will understand why “Raspberry Beret” was the only hit from the album.
After the “Purple Rain” album, Prince really wanted to make a record for the longtime fans, a complete work to be regarded as a complete document or statement. Prince didn’t want any singles released from the album, instead preferring that fans find the album in the stores and appreciate the album as a whole. However, succumbing to pressure from Warner Brothers and the low sales of “Around the World in a Day”, Prince agreed to release "Raspberry Beret” as a single and make a video for it. There were other singles released from the album, “Pop Life”, “America”, and “Paisley Park”, but Prince didn’t promote them much in the United States, and released some “half-hearted” videos for the songs.
“Around the World in a Day” was more a critical success than a commercial one, so Prince did sing a few of the lesser known songs from the album through the years. This episode shows many of these performances through the years and the rare videos made for the singles from the album.
I make a special “Birthday Post” for viewers every year on June 7 in honor of Prince’s birthday. In 2021, I posted poll on the Patreon channel asking ‘Which Prince Tour would you like featured on the channel for Prince’s Birthday?” There were 10 tours to choose from: 1986’s “Parade” Tour, 1988’s “Lovesexy” Tour, 1990’s “Nude” Tour, 1992’s “Diamonds and Pearls” Tour, 1997’s “Jam of the Year” Tour, 2001’s “One Night Alone” Tour, 2004’s “Musicology” Tour, 2007’s “Earth” Tour/"21 Nights in London", 2011-2012 “20Ten” Tour/”Welcome 2 America”/"21 Nite Stand" Los Angeles, and 2016’s “Piano & A Microphone” Tour. Well, 2016’s “Piano & A Microphone” received the most votes, so I posted a 2-part “Birthday Post” for Prince’s 63rd Birthday.
First, on June 7, 2021, I posted the show that kicked off the tour in North America and Oceana: The January 21, 2016 “Gala Event” show at Paisley Park. This is a clear 1 HR 16 MIN professionally recorded audio of the 11pm show on that date.
Then, a few days later I posted the 2 HR 5 MIN “Music Through the Years” episode: “PRINCE: Piano & A Microphone Tour 2016”. This episode reviews clips from Prince’s last tour, with many never before seen performance clips, some professionally filmed; but most filmed by audience members on the cellphones. But despite this, the visual and sound quality of these performances is remarkable. In the episode, we looked at Prince’s last performances, solo, on piano at Paisley Park, Melbourne Australia, Oakland, CA, Montral Quebec, Toronto Ontario, and Atlanta, GA.
*”The…Music Through the Years” series is available to Patrons on the “Lovesexy” tier of support and higher on the Spooky Electric XPOSED Films Patreon page
*Stream all 5 ONGOING PRINCE SERIES from Spooky Electric XPOSED Films ONLY on Patreon and the Patreon App