Prince And The Revolution: Live is a digital live album of remastered audio from the Purple Rain Tour concert in Syracuse, on 30 March 1985.
This release is not counted as a posthumous album as it was an accompanying piece to an event and that no particular work was done on this recording (sequencing, editing, overdubs ...) which was already widely available in other forms before. The full show had been broadcast live (or semi-live) worldwide and later released on home video (initially as Double Live with the same artwork, before receiving a DVD release as part of the 2017 Purple Rain Deluxe (Expanded) Edition set). This album is referenced here for the sake of completeness.
Prince And The Revolution: Live was available to purchase and stream on 15 May 2020 (six months after the previous posthumous release, 1999 Super Deluxe Edition), and was released to coincide with a four-day video stream of the full show on YouTube to raise funds for COVID-19 relief efforts. The press release for the stream stated:
- "In collaboration with YouTube and Google, the streaming event will run in support of the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization (powered by UN Foundation and Swiss Philanthropy Foundation). Any viewer donations will include a matching component from Google (Google.org will match $2 for every $1, up to $5 million)."
Despite the album title and the live recording, the album itself was not officially released as a "Prince and the Revolution" album, and is listed on streaming and download sites as a "Prince" album titled "Prince And The Revolution: Live".
Promotion
The YouTube stream of the show’s video received wide press attention, with the audio album mentioned briefly in places. No separate promotion has been done for the album. The album reached position 19 on the American iTunes Chart.
2022 Re-release
The album was pulled from platforms when a physical release was announced and available to pre-order on 30 March 2022. The audio of this release has been remixed from the original 2" master reels, and the film (already released on Home Video format in 1985 and on the DVD included on Purple Rain Deluxe Expanded Edition in 2017) has been digitally enhanced onto Blu-ray video. This page will be updated after the release of this physical edition in June 2022.
|