3121 (2006)
If this was a list of greatest live songs Fury would almost certainly be top 20. Blistering performances on Saturday Night Live and The Brit Awards excited fans and girded them for a snarling rock behemoth on the upcoming 3121 album but the studio version couldn’t quite live up to the incendiary hype. Its influences were too evident. Made from rubbing the flint vocal structure of Girls & Boys with the steel synth hook of 1999, the resulting guitar flames that lick at the track never quite reach the heights of his televised inferno but playing it ear-bleedingly loud goes some way to make up for it. The single release also featured some his best artwork to date, going for a psychedelic Hendrix vibe, but if you were thinking of trying to convert any Jimi lovers I’d play the b-side – the Brits performance with Wendy and Sheila E – where his guitar immolates the minor-key recycling of the aforementioned 1999 riff. Hell hath no fury like a Telecaster shredded.
My thoughts exactly!
I remember watching the live Brit Awards version first, being excited and then firing it up on my home music system and being prepared to dance hard like it’s the synth riff from “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” or something. Then when I heard the studio version, I just kinda shuffled my feet a little bit and then went to get some snacks.
Prince’s guitar shredding always seems to be better heard live. No studio record comes to mind that comes close to his most famous live performances (I’m not talking about dreamy and slow ‘Purple Rain” style licks, but about loud, psychedelic shredding). Maybe I’m overlooking some, but yeah, not one comes to mind.