It sonds so familiar, but I can't put my finger on it.

Any suggestions which older P song Screw Driver reminds u of ?

Screwdriver sounds like Prince fronting the Go-Go's.

Sonically its very similar to cause and effect in with a dead sounding DI'd accoustic guitar strumming chords that sits underneath the electric guitars.

There's also a synth patch from PRO 53 software synth that is completely out of the box with no alterations which comes across as a bit lazy sounding. You'd think with all the toys that P can afford he might use something a bit more exotic than a native instruments plug in.

Melodically its very similar too. Doesn't make enough of the guitar riff in the bridge in my opinion as that is the highlight of the song. The rest is a bit throw away.

Not a bad song, but I thought 'Same page, different book' was way higher in standard even with it's very stripped down nature, and the 'RNR affair remix' (the one that turned up on Japseyegirl or whatever) thing is growing on me too even though the vocal melody sounds odd at times with the backing track. I like the oddness of it to be fair!

Just an opinion though.

Sharp Dressed Man- ZZ Top and varios Rolling Stones tunes.

kidsherriff said:

There's also a synth patch from PRO 53 software synth that is completely out of the box with no alterations which comes across as a bit lazy sounding. You'd think with all the toys that P can afford he might use something a bit more exotic than a native instruments plug in.

If you're really capable of hearing that then would you like to tell us what preset is it?

Screwdriver reminds me of I Like It There and Act Of God (and maybe Hard To Get too). The fuzz guitar parts towards the end are somewhat reminiscent of what's heard towards the end of We Gets Up.

Guitar

Cinnamon Girl

The 1 U Wanna C

The Morning After

You know, it's from that mold of recent rock/pop songs.

Of course, let me think........its patch number 85.....no of course I can 't rememeber the number of the patch without going and turning on my studio computer and to be honest as I can't be arsed. Howverer, if you are questionaing how I would know this piece of information, the answer is because I am a studio engineer and the soft synth in question is the Native Instruments Pro 53 which is an emulator of the Profit 5 synth from the early 80's. Furthermore, I have had both the hardware synth and the softsynth and still use the softsynth to this day. I now use the sof synth solely because its easier than lugging around a big piece of kit. In short I know what I'm talking about!!!!!!!

Rant over! Does that answer your question.....thank you!

[Edited 1/23/13 6:15am]

I Like It There + Guitar

NouveauDance said:

Guitar

Cinnamon Girl

The 1 U Wanna C

The Morning After

You know, it's from that mold of recent rock/pop songs.

I agree they're the closest sounding to it but at the same time I think its still a bit different as well.

Probably as others have said its not as polished as his usual studio rock/pop songs and has got a raw grunge like sound.

One other thing I noticed - the way he sings 'screw' at around 3.10 - I dont remember him sounding like that before.

Thanks novabrkr and Marco81.

It indeed has a 'I Like It There' feel to it. Screw Driver would fit neatly on 'Chaos & Disorder'

kidsherriff said:

Of course, let me think........its patch number 85.....no of course I can 't rememeber the number of the patch without going and turning on my studio computer and to be honest as I can't be arsed. Howverer, if you are questionaing how I would know this piece of information, the answer is because I am a studio engineer and the soft synth in question is the Native Instruments Pro 53 which is an emulator of the Profit 5 synth from the early 80's. Furthermore, I have had both the hardware synth and the softsynth and still use the softsynth to this day. I now use the sof synth solely because its easier than lugging around a big piece of kit. In short I know what I'm talking about!!!!!!!

Rant over! Does that answer your question.....thank you!

[Edited 1/23/13 6:15am]

No, it doesn't answer my question.

The synthesizer you are referring to is the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (not "Profit 5"). I have hard time believing you have owned it if you are not even able to spell its name correctly.

TweetyV6 said:

Chaos & Disorder mixed with "I like it There"

The song and the video put together reminds me of Rock 'n' Roll Is Alive(And Lives In Minneapolis) from the Love 4 One Another VH1 TV Special!!

Reminds me of a few tracks, Chaos and Disorder, I Like It There... Good rock tracks with bad lyrics and no real riff !

I Like it There (which is a criminally underrated rocker).

None. It stands on its own.

I can play just about any Prince song on guitar and the key, chord progression and melody of "Screwdriver" isn't a knock-off of any song that I can think of.

Was this thread supposed to be about whether or not the song recycles a melody from another Prince song?

I really just meant it reminded me of "I Like It There" and "Act Of God" stylistically. The only song that I think it borrows from is "We Gets Up", but that's just the guitar part.

Now that I've given it some thought, "Endorphinmachine" is in the same key and has mostly the same chord progression. Or kind of the same, any way. THERE'S NO Bb IN "ENDORPHINMACHINE IS THERE, DAVE?

But I'd not go so far as to say "Screwdriver" is a rip-off of "Endorphinmachine" or anything like that.

It sort of reminds me of the Rembrandt's "I'll be there for you" from the T.V. show friends.

Reminds me more of CHAOS & DISORDER era than the DIRTY MIND era that I heard a local compare it to.

novabrkr said:

Was this thread supposed to be about whether or not the song recycles a melody from another Prince song?

No. It just reminded me of a song and I couldn't put my finger on it.

The song you pointed out, I like it there, was exactly what didn't come to my mind.

RodeoSchro said:

Now that I've given it some thought, "Endorphinmachine" is in the same key and has mostly the same chord progression. Or kind of the same, any way. THERE'S NO Bb IN "ENDORPHINMACHINE IS THERE, DAVE?

But I'd not go so far as to say "Screwdriver" is a rip-off of "Endorphinmachine" or anything like that.

Yup. Indeed no rip off, but in the same style. Agree.

Solo, from Come. Dead ringers

Guitar

The one you wanna see

It's it's own.

PERIOD.

its been many many years since that feeling of good surprise hit me, when listening to a new prince track.

GREAT