Ask the Memphian: Did Prince ever play Beale Street?
Prince performing live on stage at the Hop Farm Festival, Paddock Wood, Kent, England on July 3, 2011. (CAP/MediaPunch/IPX file)
For most of those who saw Prince play on Beale Street that spectacular Sunday morning, the memories are a bit hazy as time, alcohol and exhilarated exhaustion have a way of doing that.
But it really happened.
Twenty-eight years ago, in the wee hours of a Sunday morning in front of a crowd of a few hundred people who each paid $25 to be there, one of the greatest musical forces of the modern age took the stage at the New Daisy Theatre on Beale Street.
That man was Prince, and while wearing something that looked like very expensive pajamas, he and his full band played 11 songs, eight of them covers, in an absolutely magical show that didn’t even last an hour.
It was a night people still talk about, a show that has long since gone past history to become a Memphis legend.
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Jody Callahan
Jody Callahan graduated with degrees in journalism and economics from what is now known as the University of Memphis. He has covered news in Memphis for more than 25 years.
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