Beautifulstarr123 said:

...who rules? Your thoughts.

I believe Prince is our modern day Hendrix! Definitely in the top 5 best guitarists! His music is on another plane that I wish I could experience live over and over again. I am in a mild depression that the Oakland show is over, but feel blessed to have gone!

Miles said:

And yes, Jimi is undoubtedly the better all round guitarist, especially in lead playing. While very cool and flashy, none of P's solos hold a candle to Machine Gun from Band of Gypsies IMO. That track is the paragon of rock fusion guitar solos to me. Also, Prince has often relied too much on effects that mask his technique, while Jimi used a far narrower range of effects to far better 'effect', as it were .

Prince is obviously the better all round musician, as while Jimi was imo a better singer than he gets credit for, more accomplished on the keyboard than many realise (listen to Burning of the Midnight Lamp, that's him on harpsichord ), and was funky and supple on bass guitar (a lot of the bass parts on Electric Ladyland are Jimi overdubbing over Noel Redding after he left the band) and dabbled in drums, Prince was definitely the better multi-instrumentalist in his 20s, the only period we can compare with Jimi who left us at 27.

But Jimi was touched by God on the guitar. NOBODY can equal or surpass his awesome technique and pioneering contribution to the electric guitar, use of high volume and in the amount of 'soul' he brought to his playing.

Prince is great on guitar, probably the most accomplished player of both rhythm and lead guitar I know of who's alive, but, like all practitioners of psychedelic electric rock/ blues guitar since the late '60s, he plays in the long shadow of Hendrix.

Very well put. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I couldn't agree more about Machine Gun from Band of Gypsys.

jasminejoey said:

prince is good at counting to four in his head while playing rythm patterns and scales on guitar or any other instrument

jimi on the other hand absolutely destroys on guitar .. mops the floor with prince crappy new hair do .. prince with 3eg do not even come close to what hendrix did

jimi wrote as many great songs if not greater than prince

prince studied music .. jimi lived it .. prince has been trying to think his way back to the womb of his creation .. jimi felt it from birth

with the right help .. prince made his mark

jimi earned the worlds respect over and over and he couldn't even sing that good

jimi wins ..easily .. its a squash match up in here

brilliant

TrevorAyer said:

prince is good at counting to four in his head while playing rythm patterns and scales on guitar or any other instrument

jimi on the other hand absolutely destroys on guitar .. mops the floor with prince crappy new hair do .. prince with 3eg do not even come close to what hendrix did

jimi wrote as many great songs if not greater than prince

prince studied music .. jimi lived it .. prince has been trying to think his way back to the womb of his creation .. jimi felt it from birth

with the right help .. prince made his mark

jimi earned the worlds respect over and over and he couldn't even sing that good

jimi wins ..easily .. its a squash match up in here

TrevorAyer said:

prince is good at counting to four in his head while playing rythm patterns and scales on guitar or any other instrument

jimi on the other hand absolutely destroys on guitar .. mops the floor with prince crappy new hair do .. prince with 3eg do not even come close to what hendrix did

jimi wrote as many great songs if not greater than prince

prince studied music .. jimi lived it .. prince has been trying to think his way back to the womb of his creation .. jimi felt it from birth

with the right help .. prince made his mark

jimi earned the worlds respect over and over and he couldn't even sing that good

jimi wins ..easily .. its a squash match up in here

I agree Jimi is a better guitar player than Prince but his Royal Badness comes pretty damn close but i willl take Prince who has played most instruments on his albums, composes, produces, writes and arranges his own work and has done many others.......I take the guy who has one of the best male singing voice out there with an incredible range ("SOMEWHERE HERE ON EARTH, ADORE")......Released incredible diverse albums with songs that have crossed different genres.........Jimi might win but its not a Squash .....Prince is about music and probably most of the people who love his music........who gives a sh*t about his hair.............long as he delivers the music

SEXYMOFO said:

Anyone who thinks Prince is a better than or anywhere near as good a guitarist as Hendrix needs their head examined.

While Prince is a good guitarist, Jimi is one of the best of all time.

You ask this on any other forum outside of this Prince forum and people will laugh at you.

Prince never came up with such iconic riffs like on Purple Haze, Voodoo Chile, Little Wing, Foxy Lady.

The best he could do was Purple Rain and Let's Go Crazy which are not on the same level.

I used to think Prince was a great guitarist but that was before I got into rock music. There are far better guitarists. Guys like Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Slash, Eddie Van Halen, Dave Navarro, Nile Rodgers, Billy Corgan, Stevie Ray Vaughan. I could continue.

I would even say Kurt Cobain was a better guitarist. Although his technique was nothing special, he created his unique sound and produced iconic riffs like Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, Lithium.

However Prince is a genuine multi instrumentalist whereas the above guys focused purely on guitar so you can't expect him to be as good as those guys.

[Edited 3/16/14 17:02pm]

hmm...i would agree that jimi was a better guitarist overall..an innovator on the instrument...but i dont believe there is a wide gap...i have just saw him up close on the guitar and prince is unbelievably good...certainly in the top ten alive at the moment...and kurt cobain couldnt tie his high heels...of course prince is way better than jimi on everything else music wise...performing..vocals..songwriting..bass..keyboards...drums...so yes jimi heads him on the guitar but overall prince is the better artist by some distance.

[Edited 3/19/14 7:07am]

thebanishedone said:

Miles said:

And yes, Jimi is undoubtedly the better all round guitarist, especially in lead playing. While very cool and flashy, none of P's solos hold a candle to Machine Gun from Band of Gypsies IMO. That track is the paragon of rock fusion guitar solos to me. Also, Prince has often relied too much on effects that mask his technique, while Jimi used a far narrower range of effects to far better 'effect', as it were .

Prince is obviously the better all round musician, as while Jimi was imo a better singer than he gets credit for, more accomplished on the keyboard than many realise (listen to Burning of the Midnight Lamp, that's him on harpsichord ), and was funky and supple on bass guitar (a lot of the bass parts on Electric Ladyland are Jimi overdubbing over Noel Redding after he left the band) and dabbled in drums, Prince was definitely the better multi-instrumentalist in his 20s, the only period we can compare with Jimi who left us at 27.

But Jimi was touched by God on the guitar. NOBODY can equal or surpass his awesome technique and pioneering contribution to the electric guitar, use of high volume and in the amount of 'soul' he brought to his playing.

Prince is great on guitar, probably the most accomplished player of both rhythm and lead guitar I know of who's alive, but, like all practitioners of psychedelic electric rock/ blues guitar since the late '60s, he plays in the long shadow of Hendrix.

I agree about everything except Prince relied too much on effects that mask his technique part.

Prince always had technique.he used effects to achive certain sound ,not to mask his playing

The statement doesn't make sense anyway because Hendrix was one of the first to really mainstream feedback as a guitar effect in his playing, so was he "hiding" behind effects, or did he, like Prince, use effects to accentuate an already brilliant technical competency?

prince will just hit a flange and let it go up an down for a few bars and that is his solo .. he will hit the octave to give his solos more oomph .. he will hit the delay to play his horrible santana lite wannabe melodies that go nowhere ..

hendrix hiding behind effect .. ha .. hendrix owned that guitar .. hendrix made the effects work for him not relying on the effects like prince .. hendrix could make a wall of dissonant distortion sound like mozart .. why .. because he was feelin it .. prince just hits his pedals when he can't think of what to do next

prince has definately improved his guitar with the 3 eg but the 3 eg is not an adequate backing band and prince on guitar just cant make up for that .. nor is he very good save an occasional daring inspired solo ..

hendrix wrote great songs .. as good as prince .. who knows what other instruments jimi played but no doubt he was great on them as well .. props for letting great musicians work with him unlike prince who makes sure his band does not outshine him to the detriment of the music

overall .. jimi wins because jimi never ruined his catalog the way prince did .. jimi had a classic run that still blows anybody including prince out of the water .. prince had a classic run as a POP artist and POP is barely even a credible category of music .. it is general the most simplistic boring shit ever made .. even tho it sells .. it is mostly garbage ..

pop gets forgotten .. classics live on forever .. hendrix was a classic .. prince was almost a classic but has guaranteed he will be lumped in with all the other forgettable pop trash now that he has diluted his greatness with decades of rubbish

TrevorAyer said:

prince will just hit a flange and let it go up an down for a few bars and that is his solo .. he will hit the octave to give his solos more oomph .. he will hit the delay to play his horrible santana lite wannabe melodies that go nowhere ..

hendrix hiding behind effect .. ha .. hendrix owned that guitar .. hendrix made the effects work for him not relying on the effects like prince .. hendrix could make a wall of dissonant distortion sound like mozart .. why .. because he was feelin it .. prince just hits his pedals when he can't think of what to do next

prince has definately improved his guitar with the 3 eg but the 3 eg is not an adequate backing band and prince on guitar just cant make up for that .. nor is he very good save an occasional daring inspired solo ..

hendrix wrote great songs .. as good as prince .. who knows what other instruments jimi played but no doubt he was great on them as well .. props for letting great musicians work with him unlike prince who makes sure his band does not outshine him to the detriment of the music

overall .. jimi wins because jimi never ruined his catalog the way prince did .. jimi had a classic run that still blows anybody including prince out of the water .. prince had a classic run as a POP artist and POP is barely even a credible category of music .. it is general the most simplistic boring shit ever made .. even tho it sells .. it is mostly garbage ..

pop gets forgotten .. classics live on forever .. hendrix was a classic .. prince was almost a classic but has guaranteed he will be lumped in with all the other forgettable pop trash now that he has diluted his greatness with decades of rubbish

You're talking a bunch of superfluous stuff but its all rhetoric. Any one who listens to Prince's versions of Hendrix songs can tell there's nothing Hendrix did on guitar that Prince can't reproduce today. Everything else is an issue of style. Meaning its an issue of subjective taste. And just because you state something unequivocally doesn't means its less an issue of your subjective perspective. And notice I compare Hendrix and Prince at age 27 because at age there's less of a dispute. Hendrix was lightyears better than him at that age.

As for Prince not letting others outshine him? WTF kind of selective memory are you working with?? Nearly every drummer or keyboardist he's worked with are technically better than him. He let Larry play bass with him and Larry's far greater at bass than he is. If anything, people bitch on here about him giving other artists too much spotlight over the years.

Hendrix not spoiling his catalog because he died isn't something to be proud of IMO. Sure we romanticize people who die before their time, but no, it's still sad and I wouldn't boast about it.

As for denegrating pop, what you prefer to listen to is your prerogative obviously, but saying one genre of music is better than another is childish. The fact is, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in the past 35 years that has covered as many genres as Prince does. If you only listen to one genre of music, then much of what Prince has done won't interest you, but to call it crap because you don't like it, again, says more about you than it does about Prince's output.

Lezama your rebuttal is horrible! this guy just schooled you

lezama said:

TrevorAyer said:

prince will just hit a flange and let it go up an down for a few bars and that is his solo .. he will hit the octave to give his solos more oomph .. he will hit the delay to play his horrible santana lite wannabe melodies that go nowhere ..

hendrix hiding behind effect .. ha .. hendrix owned that guitar .. hendrix made the effects work for him not relying on the effects like prince .. hendrix could make a wall of dissonant distortion sound like mozart .. why .. because he was feelin it .. prince just hits his pedals when he can't think of what to do next

prince has definately improved his guitar with the 3 eg but the 3 eg is not an adequate backing band and prince on guitar just cant make up for that .. nor is he very good save an occasional daring inspired solo ..

hendrix wrote great songs .. as good as prince .. who knows what other instruments jimi played but no doubt he was great on them as well .. props for letting great musicians work with him unlike prince who makes sure his band does not outshine him to the detriment of the music

overall .. jimi wins because jimi never ruined his catalog the way prince did .. jimi had a classic run that still blows anybody including prince out of the water .. prince had a classic run as a POP artist and POP is barely even a credible category of music .. it is general the most simplistic boring shit ever made .. even tho it sells .. it is mostly garbage ..

pop gets forgotten .. classics live on forever .. hendrix was a classic .. prince was almost a classic but has guaranteed he will be lumped in with all the other forgettable pop trash now that he has diluted his greatness with decades of rubbish

You're talking a bunch of superfluous stuff but its all rhetoric. Any one who listens to Prince's versions of Hendrix songs can tell there's nothing Hendrix did on guitar that Prince can't reproduce today. Everything else is an issue of style. Meaning its an issue of subjective taste. And just because you state something unequivocally doesn't means its less an issue of your subjective perspective. And notice I compare Hendrix and Prince at age 27 because at age there's less of a dispute. Hendrix was lightyears better than him at that age.

As for Prince not letting others outshine him? WTF kind of selective memory are you working with?? Nearly every drummer or keyboardist he's worked with are technically better than him. He let Larry play bass with him and Larry's far greater at bass than he is. If anything, people bitch on here about him giving other artists too much spotlight over the years.

Hendrix not spoiling his catalog because he died isn't something to be proud of IMO. Sure we romanticize people who die before their time, but no, it's still sad and I wouldn't boast about it.

As for denegrating pop, what you prefer to listen to is your prerogative obviously, but saying one genre of music is better than another is childish. The fact is, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in the past 35 years that has covered as many genres as Prince does. If you only listen to one genre of music, then much of what Prince has done won't interest you, but to call it crap because you don't like it, again, says more about you than it does about Prince's output.

Why is there a Jimi VS Prince thread every other month

kidmelody2012 said:

Lezama your rebuttal is horrible! this guy just schooled you

lezama said:

You're talking a bunch of superfluous stuff but its all rhetoric. Any one who listens to Prince's versions of Hendrix songs can tell there's nothing Hendrix did on guitar that Prince can't reproduce today. Everything else is an issue of style. Meaning its an issue of subjective taste. And just because you state something unequivocally doesn't means its less an issue of your subjective perspective. And notice I compare Hendrix and Prince at age 27 because at age there's less of a dispute. Hendrix was lightyears better than him at that age.

As for Prince not letting others outshine him? WTF kind of selective memory are you working with?? Nearly every drummer or keyboardist he's worked with are technically better than him. He let Larry play bass with him and Larry's far greater at bass than he is. If anything, people bitch on here about him giving other artists too much spotlight over the years.

Hendrix not spoiling his catalog because he died isn't something to be proud of IMO. Sure we romanticize people who die before their time, but no, it's still sad and I wouldn't boast about it.

As for denegrating pop, what you prefer to listen to is your prerogative obviously, but saying one genre of music is better than another is childish. The fact is, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in the past 35 years that has covered as many genres as Prince does. If you only listen to one genre of music, then much of what Prince has done won't interest you, but to call it crap because you don't like it, again, says more about you than it does about Prince's output.

As two people who talk a lot but say very little its not at surprising you would like each other's posts..

awwww your little feelings hurt? im sorry

lezama said:

kidmelody2012 said:

Lezama your rebuttal is horrible! this guy just schooled you

As two people who talk a lot but say very little its not at surprising you would like each other's posts..

i chalenge Trevor Ayer and other orgers who critise Prince playing to record their version of Prince guitar solo that he played on 94 east track If You Feel Like Dancing.Prince showed how

amazing he was on guitar and he was what only 19 or 18 years old?

by the way solo is effects free aside from light distortion .

Gunsnhalen said:

kidmelody2012 said:

awwww your little feelings hurt? im sorry

Ummmm.... I prove you wrong and I get my feeling hurt? LOL... interesting line of thinking. I get this sneaking feeling that I'm arguing with a a 12 y/o. Ok little kid, you can get the last wordy word.. I'm still waiting to hear your demo proving you're the best musician on the org btw .

Beautifulstarr123 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

Why is there a Jimi VS Prince thread every other month

Then you could start one next month

I have never started one about this. I like both artists, and see no point in comparisons. Plus Jimi had the better afro

novabrkr said:

However, I was just listening to the Band Of Gypsys album the other day and was thinking that there was really nothing on the album that Prince couldn't have played. Mind you, Hendrix did have his fair share of bog-standard solos and he relied on his mannerisms on plenty of his songs (they're often the same scales and patterns - anyone that's tried to figure out how to play his solos should know what I'm referring to). By this point Prince has certainly had a more diverse approach with his guitar work, but who knows how Hendrix might have evolved himself.

You are over-estimating Prince's guitar chops. In fact, Prince as a guitarist and pianist/keyboardist

is usually over-estimated by this forum. He's extremely talented and competent as a multi-instru-

mentalist. But certainly not virtuosic on any. The same goes for Paul McCartney and most multi-

instrumentalists!

an absurd question.
Jimi is king when it comes to guitar

duccichucka said:

novabrkr said:

However, I was just listening to the Band Of Gypsys album the other day and was thinking that there was really nothing on the album that Prince couldn't have played. Mind you, Hendrix did have his fair share of bog-standard solos and he relied on his mannerisms on plenty of his songs (they're often the same scales and patterns - anyone that's tried to figure out how to play his solos should know what I'm referring to). By this point Prince has certainly had a more diverse approach with his guitar work, but who knows how Hendrix might have evolved himself.

You are over-estimating Prince's guitar chops. In fact, Prince as a guitarist and pianist/keyboardist

is usually over-estimated by this forum. He's extremely talented and competent as a multi-instru-

mentalist. But certainly not virtuosic on any. The same goes for Paul McCartney and most multi-

instrumentalists!

Not true.Prince is a great guitar player.one of the best ever and his piano playing is just as good.there are numerous examples about this .

Asking someone who the best guitar players is is like asking what someone's favorite color is. Everyone has a different opinion. You go on some rock and guitar player boards and you can hear people talk about how sloppy a lead guitarist Hendrix was and you'll have others saying anyone saying he's not the best should be shot. Spin Magazine put out a magazine of best guitarists that even excluded Hendrix one year. In the end its pointless back and forth because unless ones talking about technical ability its all about style, and every trendsetting guitarist from Page, to Clapton, to King, to Van Halen to Hendrix to Prince had or has their own unique style and what appeals to one person won't necessarily appeal to the next.

lezama said:

TrevorAyer--

I'm interested in two things from your post. The first is just nonsense:

who knows what other instruments jimi played but no doubt he was great on them as well.

I think it's pretty obvious that skill at one instrument means absolutely nothing about skill on any other. But the other comment is half right, and I'm glad someone else realizes it, even if you're way off about what it means:

prince had a classic run as a POP artist and POP is barely even a credible category of music

I've said elsewhere that Prince is, when all is said and done, a pop artist, whose greatest work is pop, whose true vision and ultimate character as an artist is defined by pop. I disagree that pop is "barely even a credible category of music" because pop's omnivorous nature (ultimately it will take from anywhere) means that it has a great potential to create transcendent work, not least because it already trandscends the very generic (meaning "characteristic of a particular genre") restrictions that all the genre purists demand real music must abide by.

Obviously, in their willingness to try anything (and if it works, to keep trying it again and again) and to follow each fad to both its zenith and its nadir, the makers of pop produce a lot of crap. But they also produce some great things, too--and I've never seen anything (or heard anything, honestly) to convince me that the vast majority of stuff somewhere in the middle is intrinsically worse than what you'll find in any "credible category" of music. I don't expect people to admit that--but I'd be truly astounded if anyone could even begin to make a meaningful argument against it. Especially without resorting to ridiculous claptrap like "authenticity" or some sort of complaint about the number of songwriters or producers involved in a track, or some sort of blather about the use of computers. Those things might matter, in some way--but they are peripheral to the issue of the quality of the actual track (I will admit that pop is mainly about records).

And I know that in pop, someone will always be trying new (and old) things within the broader range of the genre, knowing that the audience might be open to something different, even while a single sound might be most prevalent at any given time. Even if I'm starting to get bored with the current big trend, there's going to be a new dominating trend in a few years anyway. I don't sense that with other genres, which seem to get comfortable, to stagnate, or even to ossify for extended periods. Admittedly, I'm put off by even the slightest hint of a whiff of purist elitism, so I might be way off in the way I see some genres because of their proponents.

I really don't see how anyone who hates pop, though, would find enough interesting in Prince's work to justify hanging around a forum (or even visiting it to begin with) that has as its foundation a general appreciation of his music. No matter what more "credible" genres you might prefer, there's got to be people working in more pure forms of those genre that do as well or better in them than Prince does--and who would give you more of whatever genres you like. If you really think so little of pop music, how do you find enough in Prince's work to make it worth your time to come here at all? But that's not a question I have just for you, but for lots of people. I just don't get it.

eddie

i like good music .. sometimes good music becomes pop music because it is just that good .. prince is a perfect example .. he has some very very good music

when good music becomes popular record companies shove years worth of pure shit copy cat music down consumers throats in an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the good music .. the result is 99 percent of pop music is rubbish .. like fast food compared to a home cooked meal from scratch .. one is the real thing and tastes great .. the other is a cheap immitation that tastes like shit

its not hard to enjoy prince if u like good music even tho he is pop .. diamonds and pearls is pure pop cheese but it is just so good i cant resist it .. never be another like me is pure pop cheese but it is so bad it makes me want to stab my ears with a screwdriver .. never be another is prince cashing in on what originated as good music .. prince has become a producer of the fast food instead of the originator of the home cooked meal he once was .. it is rare that prince is not trying to cash in on some genre that was worn out years ago .. including the genre he created .. this is why his music leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths / ears these days .. its a cheap immitation of prince .. its like when your favorite brand starts buying cheaper ingredients and it just doesn't taste right anymore .. prince once cooked with the finest ingredients (rev era) not so much anymore 3 eg

as for my assumption that jimi played multiple instruments .. i can imagine non musicians find it hard to fathom anyone learning more than one .. but most long time musicians and seriously MOST dabble in other instruments .. considering jimi was one of the greatest of all time, i find it impossible that he wasnt talented on other instruments as well .. i mean he probably didn't brag about his ability to play the triangle and bongos like prince does but it is safe to conclude he was pretty damn good on more than just the guitar .. once u master one instrument most other instruments come naturally anyway .. its all music its all connected and played similarly on any instruments .. its like a language .. once u learn it you can apply it to other instruments easily .. i could be wr0ng .. lol .. just kidding .. i am always right

Beautifulstarr123 said:

Slightly off topic, I wonder if Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain died mysteriously, like murder or is it just conspiracy theories?

personally I believe courtney killed kurt .. i believe yoko helped the gov kill lennon .. hendrix .. who knows .. jfk was the gov tho .. and so was michael who had begun speaking out about the gov before being murdered

no be honest..they all were drug addicts...stop trying to blame someone else

TrevorAyer said:

Beautifulstarr123 said:

Slightly off topic, I wonder if Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain died mysteriously, like murder or is it just conspiracy theories?

personally I believe courtney killed kurt .. i believe yoko helped the gov kill lennon .. hendrix .. who knows .. jfk was the gov tho .. and so was michael who had begun speaking out about the gov before being murdered

Prince is a VASTLY superior musician/composer, being capable if not great on 10+ different instruments.

While it is polite (and viral) to say that Hendriz was a superior guitarist, I am not so sure that is right either.

Hendrix could do pentatonic blues VERY well, and was very inventive (out of necessity) with respect to feedback and effects, coming early on in the history of electric guitar.

But as far as other styles on the plank are concerned he was pretty limited.

Name a Hendrix acoustic song.

No modal playing.

As far as ROCK AND ROLL IMAGE GOES--HE RULES.

His ability to take LSD and still function was UNPARALLELED, that is true.

Also, he is dead; which, unfortunately, helps.