Prince's Rocktober continues with another lengthy jam at Paisley Park

He cut loose and went long at his Chanhassen complex Saturday, this time with Judith Hill playing along.

October 26, 2015 at 2:28AM
Prince, shown here in London in 2014, never allows cameras at Paisley Park.
Prince performed in London in 2014. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

For the third weekend in a row, Prince enticed fans to Paisley Park on Saturday night and wasn't a tease about ­performing.

A sharp contrast to the three-night dance party over Labor Day weekend at his Chanhassen studio complex — which cost $40 per night for less than four minutes of stage time by the host all weekend — Saturday's hastily announced shindig only cost $10 a head and amounted to well over two hours of Prince-led, funk-heavy performances.

Instead of jiving fans about taking the stage Saturday, the 57-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer repeatedly teased them about leaving. He said "thank you" and/or "good night" into the microphone about a dozen times before he really did unplug for the last time just before 3 a.m.

The raison d'être this time around was Friday's formal release of his protégé Judith Hill's album "Back in Time," which she recorded at Paisley Park with Prince's heavy involvement. Hill, 31, took lead on a few songs and played keyboards throughout the show but never took center stage, where a perfectly adjusted 5-foot-2 mic stand adorned with Prince's symbol stood all night. As with the prior weekends' events, the backing band featured only one member of 3rdEyeGirl, guitarist Donna Grantis, along with drummer Kirk Johnson, saxophonist Adrian Crutchfield and bassist Mono Neon.

The party started out with a couple quirky false starts — 10- to 15-minute jams that ended with Prince and the band leaving the stage in the smaller, club-sized "atrium" room for a half-hour-plus break.

One of those mini-sets involved an extended version of Hill's "Cry, Cry, Cry," which she performed a week earlier on "The Late Show With ­Stephen Colbert."

Another found her and Prince trading off lyrics on "As Trains Go By," a seething, topical tune off her record with lines that make his recent protest song "Baltimore" sound like "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," including, "They shoot you dead and leave your body out in the street," and, "How many bodies need to hit the ground?"

Bodies began disappearing from Paisley Park as the breaks wore on. Finally, though — around 1:15 a.m. with about 200 people left — Prince & Co. returned to the stage again and stayed for about 90 minutes.

He and the band intensely trudged their way through Hill's "My People," during which Prince bounced from organ to guitar back to organ. That bled into a call-and-response cover of Bill Withers' "Use Me," which ended with the host saying, "Thank you all for sharing this time with us." But there was still plenty of time left.

After a coolly down-tempo workout of Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," he hit the accelerator with a funkified tear through some of his own classics, starting with "Alphabet Street" and into "Sign o' the Times" and "Hot Thing."

Just when it looked like things really were over as the Time's "777-9311" came up over the speakers, Prince ran behind the drum kit and proceeded to play along, much to the delight of the crowd.

Twitter: ChrisRstrib • 612-673-4658

about the writer

about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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