After only a few months of touring in support of his commercial breakthrough Purple Rain, Prince was eager to move on. Locked into a rigid nightly routine of rehearsing and performing, he grew restless reliving a body of work that, in his mind, he had already perfected. To stave off his growing boredom, he would tweak the show from one stop to the next, shuffling the setlist and dropping in new songs for his band, the Revolution, to learn during soundchecks. In between shows, he’d retreat to a mobile recording system set up on his tour buses, or, time permitting, have a local studio booked during extended layovers. He oversaw Romance 1600, the sophomore album by his percussionist and apprentice Sheila E., from start to finish in these moments of downtime. He also had his own follow-up, Around the World in a Day, completed and ready to go, to the surprise of his band.
With a couple of months still remaining, he sat his crew down and announced he was cutting the tour short. Everyone around him was bewildered. Purple Rain was still brand new and at the peak of its popularity; the album had the potential to be toured for another year at least, but Prince would not be swayed from his course. He was ready to close the book—but he wanted to end his time on the road with a purple flash that could be seen from every corner of the world. It was decided in March 1985, as the final dates were approaching, to record a concert for home video and beam the event live to Europe. At the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York, Prince and the Revolution tightened up their act and put on the performance of their lives. This wouldn’t be just any Purple Rain show—it would be the definitive document.
With this concert film finally receiving the deluxe treatment it’s desperately needed, it’s clearer than ever why Prince and the Revolution: Live was such a special moment. The source recordings, which have been sitting in Prince’s Paisley Park vault for the better part of three decades, have been given a full remaster, far exceeding the compressed sound of the original videocassette that bootleggers have been copying for years, or even the DVD included with the lavish Purple Rain — Deluxe Expanded Edition from 2017. Every detail can be appreciated with crystal clarity, from Prince’s breathy sighs when he stretches his falsetto to its limit on the bluesy ballad “How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore” to his confident chuckle between verses on “Irresistible Bitch.”