Rave Un2 The Year 2000 Prince video

Eagle Rock Entertainment

video

We’re going to retire 1999 after this.

Rave Un2 The Year 2000 is footage from a special concert performed by Prince (then under the name Prince Love Symbol) staged at Paisley Park Studios on 18 December 1999. The performance was televised on pay-per-view via Comcast’s In Demand service on 31 December to mark the turning of the Millennium. Prince did an appearance on The Early Show, CBS on the 28th to promote the TV event, as well as a rare extended interview with Larry King on CNN on 10 December to discuss the genesis of the song 1999, and his then latest album Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic.

Rave Un2 The Year 2000 features special guest performances by The Time, Larry Graham and Lenny Kravitz. George Clinton also appears in the concert but is included as an extra feature in the DVD. The full 280 minute concert needed to be edited down to two hours for broadcasting.

The concert is notable in that Prince performed what was intended to be his final ever rendition of 1999, deeming the song would lose its relevance post New Year’s Day 2000. The song’s prospect of partying in the face of armageddon certainly looked prothetic with the global havoc anticipated to be wrought by the so called Y2K computer bug but never amounted to anything. While remaining off his setlists for some period, Prince next performed the 1982 hit at his Super Bowl halftime show on 4 February 2006 and indeed continued to play it live hundreds of times throughout many tours since. One song that did see permanent change The Christ, is a renaming of Prince’s 1987 track The Cross.

The Time’s performance for the event was filmed on 17 December and incorporated into the footage of Prince’s show following on the 18th. Both shows were performed in the Paisley Park soundstage, affording capacity for 1,375 audience. Prince pulled out all the stops for this special concert, which reunites five of the original seven members of The Time: Morris Day, Jerome Benton, Jimmy Jam, Jellybean Johnson and Monte Moir. Their more recently recruited touring keyboardist Chance Howard would eventually join Prince’s own band the New Power Generation for his 2003 world tour. Rosie Gaines, having officially left Prince’s band in 1992 also makes a welcome guest appearance for Rave Un2 The Year 2000. As does James Brown’s former saxophonist Maceo Parker, completing the all-star lineup of this TV extravaganza.

The physical release of Rave Un2 The Year 2000 followed in VHS format on 5 June 2000, three weeks after Prince’s 16 May press conference in which he announced he would be reclaiming his birth name of Prince again, having changed his name to Prince Love Symbol on 7 June 1993 in protest with his then record label Warner Brothers. Rave Un2 The Year 2000 was reissued on DVD on 10 April 2006. It is a companion release to his current album Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, a project aimed to reboot his career as a commercial artist.

Special Features

Innerviews
Interviews with George Clinton, Lenny Kravitz, Morris Day, and Prince (8:34)
Bonus Groovez (encore outtakes)
Flash Light performed by George Clinton (4:30)
The Undertaker sax solo by Kathy Jensen (1:06)
The Undertaker harmonica solo by Jimmy Russell (1:04)
Release Yourself performed by Larry Graham, Prince and the NPG (3:41)
Peep This!
Advertisement for Newfunk Sampling Series (3:19)

2019 reissue

Rave Un2 The Year 2000 was republished on 26 April 2019 in DVD format by Sony Legacy Recordings, repackaged as a triple disc boxset with the albums Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic and Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic, as a collection titled Ultimate Rave. That June 1st, in the week what would have been Prince’s 61st birthday, Rave Un2 The Year 2000 was broadcast on the PBS network.

Performers

Vocals/Guitar: Prince Love Symbol
Drums: Kirk Johnson
Keyboards: Morris Hayes; Kip Blackshire
Bass Guitar: Larry Graham
Guitar: Mike Scott
Baritone Sax: Kathy Jensen
Trombone: Michael Nelson
Trumpet: Dave Jensen

Tracklist

Let's Go Crazy (2:22)
She's Always In My Hair (2:36)
U Got The Look (2:37)
Kiss (3:27)
Jungle Love [performed by The Time] (4:33)
The Bird [performed by The Time] (4:45)
American Woman [feat. Lenny Kravitz] (6:54) ¹
Fly Away [feat. Lenny Kravitz] (5:22) ²
Gett Off (2:39)
Gett Off [Houstyle] [feat. Rosie Gaines, Mike Scott, Maceo Parker] (6:44)
Talkin' Loud And Sayin' Nothing / It's Alright (2:46) ³
Everyday People [feat. Larry Graham] (8:44) ⁴
Higher [feat. Larry Graham] (6:02) ⁵
Purple Rain (10:47)
The Christ (4:19)
Purple House [feat. Maceo Parker] (9:27) ⁶
Nothing Compares 2 U [feat. Rosie Gaines] (4:02)
Take Me With U / Raspberry Beret (4:46)
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold (3:04)
Baby Knows [feat. Maceo Parker] (4:03)
1999 [Intro] (2:01)
Baby I'm A Star (1:39)
1999 (8:28)
End Credits (1:26)

¹ Written by Jack Richardson.
² Written by Lenny Kravitz.
³ Written by Larry Graham.
⁴ Written by Sly Stone.
⁵ Written by Sly Stone (as I Want To Take You Higher).
⁶ Written by Jimi Hendrix as Red House.