I revisted the 'Art of Musicology' video where Prince seemed to be reeling off some of his classics spontaneously. It had me thinking about whether this was planned or if he could play any of his songs just like that.

I know that for the 'Earth Tour' he rehearsed 150 songs. Does anyone know if he's played anything to the request of the audience? Surely it's impossible to remember the notes and lyrics of ALL of his songs...

at a gig last year (the conga room show with michael b / sonny t) someone shouted "play I LIKE IT THERE"

prince goes "what d'ya wanna hear?"

"I LIKE IT THERE!!!!!!"

and in it slams on the guitar!

[Edited 9/24/10 9:48am]

That's crazy that he played that just then and there.

I shouted "Michael Jackson" when he asked at an aftershow in o2 LOL. Everyone laughed, he looked and smiled but I can't remember what request he did accept. I was too much in a daze.

I'm starting to think that when it comes to his musical talent there is no impossible!

The Grateful Dead regularly had 200 songs somewhat rehearsed and available to perform in the latter stages of their touring career, even though they would only work up to around 90 of them over the course of a tour. Something tells me Prince might have a slightly better memory recall than those guys did at the time. I doubt he has every song he's ever written rehearsed and ready to perform with the band. But I wouldn't doubt that he could play most of them himself if he gave it a little effort.

lopez568 said:

I shouted "Michael Jackson"

You should be crucified.

lopez568 said:

That's crazy that he played that just then and there.

I shouted "Michael Jackson" when he asked at an aftershow in o2 LOL. Everyone laughed, he looked and smiled but I can't remember what request he did accept. I was too much in a daze.

I'm starting to think that when it comes to his musical talent there is no impossible!

vitriol said:

lopez568 said:

I shouted "Michael Jackson"

You should be crucified.

Don't be hating, it was my one and only chance to get his attention and it just came out. Plus he seemed to take it in jest.

I'd say his knowledge of chords/scales/intervals helps in this regard. It's no different from remembering how to spell words. Have you noticed that when you type (assuming you're an experienced typist), for a lot of words you don't even have to consciously think of how to spell them, it just comes out automatically? Same thing with remembering music. So long as you have a good bank of base-words in your vocabularly (or in this case, chords and scales etc.), you're able to play along to music no problems. It's the same knowledge that allows jazz musicians to improvise. I reckon it's harder for him to remember lyrics than it is chords/notes - which is why he often has a lyric prompter somewhere in front of his microphone stand.

But anyway, in regards to the Art Of Musicology performance, he pretty much played the same stuff he did regularly on the Musicology Tour acoustic set, so I'd also argue that it was well rehearsed.

[Edited 9/24/10 16:05pm]