I'd say very few. There's a good reason why he never did a real unplugged session, apart from that mini acoustic session on The Art of Musicology. The Truth and ONA bore me to tears.

In contrast, you can easily name any Stevie Wonder's songs that would sound good stripped down. We can go all day long.

Again, this comes down to songwriting skills. Remove the fancy arrangements and funky instrumentations, if the song still hold up well on a guitar or a piano, then you'll know how good a songwriter is. Most Prince's songs sound suck stripped down.

Regardless, here are some of the contenders IMO.

1. Sometimes It Snows in April.

2. How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore.

3. Reflections (very underrated). Sometimes Prince can write good lyrics.

4. ICNTTPOYM (kind of).

5. Diamonds & Pearls. No Scratch that. Sounds silly stripped down.

6. Nothing Compares 2 U.

7. Starfish & Coffee (sort of).

[Edited 2/18/15 20:04pm]

nuttynutmeg said:

Most Prince's songs sound suck stripped down.

^ wow..... you are extremely negative and critical..

You are a very strange "fan" here, imho.


Is this a "part 2" to your other thread: "Has Prince written ONE SONG that actually matters" ??

[Edited 2/18/15 20:41pm]

I think Prince's songs sound terrific stripped down. Strange Relationship (not really 'stripped down' but pretty minimalistic and focusing primarily on piano and vocals) from the Lovesexy Tour is one of my favorites (and I'm crazy for that 'oooooooh' croon he does when launching into When 2 R in Love right after). I also like One Night Alone a lot (2001-2003 was Prince ditching theatrics and going for 'real' music imo). A lot of times, I end up liking live versions so much that album versions become blah.. When You Were Mine, The Ladder, Hot Thing, Sign 'o' the Times, If I Was Your Girlfriend, I Could.. Man, It, Forever in My Life, Slow Love, etc... all sound much better live.

I love most of the albums but personally I feel that sometimes P makes the music a little too clogged and to-the-tip with way too many sound effects and vocal effects/background vocals (especially post-1987). So listening to the live versions with spontaneous rhythmic playing and his freer, clearer solo vocals takes the cake. I never understood why some of his songs have so many vocal effects/an entire choir when his live voice is so smooth and gets the job done

I love April Snow and Starfish and Coffee live, but I agree, Diamonds & Pearls live was disappointing. I've heard of a version where he sings in an even deeper vocal, but I have yet to find it.

CharismaDove said:

I think Prince's songs sound terrific stripped down. Strange Relationship (not really 'stripped down' but pretty minimalistic and focusing primarily on piano and vocals) from the Lovesexy Tour is one of my favorites (and I'm crazy for that 'oooooooh' croon he does when launching into When 2 R in Love right after). I also like One Night Alone a lot (2001-2003 was Prince ditching theatrics and going for 'real' music imo). A lot of times, I end up liking live versions so much that album versions become blah.. When You Were Mine, The Ladder, Hot Thing, Sign 'o' the Times, If I Was Your Girlfriend, I Could.. Man, It, Forever in My Life, Slow Love, etc... all sound much better live.

I love most of the albums but personally I feel that sometimes P makes the music a little too clogged and to-the-tip with way too many sound effects and vocal effects/background vocals (especially post-1987). So listening to the live versions with spontaneous rhythmic playing and his freer, clearer solo vocals takes the cake. I never understood why some of his songs have so many vocal effects/an entire choir when his live voice is so smooth and gets the job done

Finally, a rational answer

I agree with what you said that "sometimes P makes the music a little too clogged and to-the-tip with way too many sound effects and vocal effects/background vocals (especially post-1987).

To me that's just a window dressing for his not-so-great songwriting skills.

.

[Edited 2/18/15 22:15pm]

The thread is not closed. langebleu - moderator

The only similarity of this thread to that CLOSED thread is i

i don't see the point. Whatever makes a song good has a lot to do with what instruments it was written on, especially in pop. Of course Sign O the Times would sound like garbage on piano. How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore would sound like garbage on a fairlight. So?

.

If you're point is that prince songs are not 'intrinsically good' because they don't translate to different instruments and arrangements, I disagree very strongly with your notion of 'good'. I see no problem at all with a song leaning heavily on the specific instruments and sounds used.

.

Different songs work for different reasons. Sometimes it's the vocal performance, sometimes it's the arrangement, sometimes it's the chords, sometimes it's the melody, sometimes it's the rhythm, sometimes it's the specific sounds... for example electronic music relies a lot on the specific synth/drum/whatever sounds to make the song work. If you think that chord+melody songwriting is the only way for a song to be good, that's fine, but you're only limiting yourself. Other people are exploring other dimensions of music.

nuttynutmeg said:

I agree with what you said that "sometimes P makes the music a little too clogged and to-the-tip with way too many sound effects and vocal effects/background vocals (especially post-1987).

To me that's just a window dressing for his not-so-great songwriting skills.

and i happen to love that window dressing. I love how it sounds like he just plays back a track 15 times and dubs something else every time like it's nothing. "whatever, more vocals." I have no illusions about the skill required to do that. It's probably not some otherworldly ability unique to prince. I don't care that his songwriting is not genius by certain metrics. What matters is that his opinions about what should go where (musically) coincide with mine. If he saves a dull song by layering a hundred tracks on it, that's fun to me.

Get Off was looking pretty good stripped down, until he made that woman remove the audio from her video clip.

I think the OP nutty is a bit nutty. So many of his songs sound better to me stripped down to guitar or piano. My favorite concert moments have been those times. As in Lovesexy, the piano segment in which he played snippets of 10 songs. Or in the musicology tour when he was on his swivel seat and played just guitar for about 15-20 songs or even when he using the sampler set with just him at the piano. You can tell that so many of his songs start off with him practicing them on just the piano or guitar. Nutty, you can't be serious. Can U?

fusk said:

i don't see the point. Whatever makes a song good has a lot to do with what instruments it was written on, especially in pop. Of course Sign O the Times would sound like garbage on piano. How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore would sound like garbage on a fairlight. So?

.

If you're point is that prince songs are not 'intrinsically good' because they don't translate to different instruments and arrangements, I disagree very strongly with your notion of 'good'. I see no problem at all with a song leaning heavily on the specific instruments and sounds used.

.

Different songs work for different reasons. Sometimes it's the vocal performance, sometimes it's the arrangement, sometimes it's the chords, sometimes it's the melody, sometimes it's the rhythm, sometimes it's the specific sounds... for example electronic music relies a lot on the specific synth/drum/whatever sounds to make the song work. If you think that chord+melody songwriting is the only way for a song to be good, that's fine, but you're only limiting yourself. Other people are exploring other dimensions of music.

The point is simple: Name Prince songs that would still hold up well and sound good stripped down to their barebones, on a guitar or a piano. Of course songs like HCUDCMA would sound rubbish on a fairlight or on a farfisa, for that matter. And songs like Movie Star would sound silly on a guitar or a piano.

I'm not saying that Prince songs are not inherently or intrinsically good because they don't translate to different instruments and arrangements. Most of my favorite Prince songs would sound terrible on a guitar or a piano, and I hate most of his ballads, which in some cases hold up quite well stripped down. But I do believe that one of the characteristics of a great song, and in turn a great songwriter, is its adaptability to different instruments and arrangements. Take Stevie's songs for example, you can still feel its impact no matter what the medium of presentation is: acapella, piano, guitar, or orchestration. I wish I could say the same about most of Prince's songs. Is that a good or bad thing? Well, that depends. But the fact remains that very few of his songs would have the same impact stripped down.

Prince is a great producer/arranger/performer, but not that great of a songwriter. Maybe it's time for him to call Diane Warren for his next album.

SuperSoulFighter said:

I think nutty would have been very happy in the early 1960s folks scene, where everybody played acoustic guitars and wrote serious songs about what's wrong in the world. Until Bob Dylan plugged in his electric guitar... Seriously, Prince's great skill is that he can do so many different genres. In the funk, it's about the groove, the rhythm, the jam. Of course Housequake or The Gold Standard wouldn't work on acoustic guitar. But they're not supposed to. They're supposed to make you dance. That said, Prince does have a tendency to overload his songs with sound effects. I could do without those lasers on Breakdown for instance. That song would do fine with only guitar and piano. [Edited 2/19/15 2:26am]

Not a Dylan fan, acoustic or electric.

Anyway, songs that would still sound good on guitar or piano are not necessarily folk songs or composed in major keys. Stevie's superstition sounds funky whether in its original form or acoustic. The same goes for Bill Withers' Use Me or Who Is He...

As for Prince? Would Kiss, Pretty Man, Musicology, The Everlasting Now hold up well stripped down? I don't think so. Yes, they're funky but in a pretty one dimensional way. Remember the original acoustic version of Kiss? Shit, Rivkin salvaged that boring ass song.

Seen P a bunch of times. Some of the most moving moments of the concerts have been when he plays a piano or accoustic set. Removing the band leaves just Prince's voice and the melody of the song.

Case in point, there is a version of Oui Can Love (Funk) out there sung by Andy Alo with P on accoustic guitar. Gorgeous.

[Edited 2/19/15 5:54am]

Time 2 NIP the TROLL in the ASS.

Guitar:

When You Were Mine

Pink Cashmere

I Wanna Be Your Lover

Vicki Waiting

White Mansion

Dolphin

Can't Stop This Feeling I Got

Forever In My Life

I Wish U Heaven

Delirious

Piano:

International Lover

Moonbeam Levels

Do Me, Baby

Love 2 The 9's

Strollin'

Soul Santuary

Future Soul Song

Diamonds & Pearls

[Edited 2/19/15 6:05am]

.

[Edited 2/19/15 6:10am]

When he sat down in that revolving chair and played through stuff on the Musicology tour... it all sounded great.

nuttynutmeg said:

nuttynutmeg said:

I'd say very few. There's a good reason why he never did a real unplugged session, apart from that mini acoustic session on The Art of Musicology. The Truth and ONA bore me to tears.

In contrast, you can easily name any Stevie Wonder's songs that would sound good stripped down. We can go all day long.

Again, this comes down to songwriting skills. Remove the fancy arrangements and funky instrumentations, if the song still hold up well on a guitar or a piano, then you'll know how good a songwriter is. Most Prince's songs sound suck stripped down.

Regardless, here are some of the contenders IMO.

1. Sometimes It Snows in April.

2. How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore.

3. Reflections (very underrated). Sometimes Prince can write good lyrics.

4. ICNTTPOYM (kind of).

5. Diamonds & Pearls. No Scratch that. Sounds silly stripped down.

6. Nothing Compares 2 U.

7. Starfish & Coffee (sort of).

[Edited 2/18/15 20:04pm]

Any of them if done right. BTW, I can do "Diamonds and Pearls" on my 12-string, with a little phaser, and it kills.

Any with Chords.

The Question of U sounds awesome played on acoustic guitar.

Also We Can Funk; he did a very nice stripped down version of it a few years ago.

I love playing those two acoustically.

nuttynutmeg said:

The point is simple: Name Prince songs that would still hold up well and sound good stripped down to their barebones, on a guitar or a piano. Of course songs like HCUDCMA would sound rubbish on a fairlight or on a farfisa, for that matter. And songs like Movie Star would sound silly on a guitar or a piano.

I'm not saying that Prince songs are not inherently or intrinsically good because they don't translate to different instruments and arrangements. Most of my favorite Prince songs would sound terrible on a guitar or a piano, and I hate most of his ballads, which in some cases hold up quite well stripped down. But I do believe that one of the characteristics of a great song, and in turn a great songwriter, is its adaptability to different instruments and arrangements. Take Stevie's songs for example, you can still feel its impact no matter what the medium of presentation is: acapella, piano, guitar, or orchestration. I wish I could say the same about most of Prince's songs. Is that a good or bad thing? Well, that depends. But the fact remains that very few of his songs would have the same impact stripped down.

Prince is a great producer/arranger/performer, but not that great of a songwriter. Maybe it's time for him to call Diane Warren for his next album.

Fusk put it perfectly. Who cares if Prince's songs translate to acoustic guitar? It's definitely not a sign of a good song just becuase you can play it acoustically. The fact that If I was Your Girlfriend, When Doves Cry, Sign O The Times wouldn't translate to piano makes them lesser songs?

I disagree that Stevie's song translate to acoustic. I sure as hell don't want to hear Superstition, Sir Duke, Do I Do etc, etc on one instrument. They just sound bland. You're basically asking which Prince songs are made up of simple chord progressions. Not many, because that would be boring.

To be honest though I can give most of his stuff a go on a guitar with vocals whilst retaining the feel of the original. Try me and I'll post the cover here

Here's a list of songs I do already on guitar:

DMSR

Pop Life

If I Was Your Girlfriend

Mountains

I Wanna Be Your Lover

Do Me Baby

Ballad of Dorothy Parker

ICNTTPOYM

Adore

Forever In My Life

Play In The Sunshine

Raspberry Beret

Blue Light

HCUDCMA

Anotherloverholeiyohead

Sometimes It Snows

Little Red Corvette

Sign O The Times

Good Love

Last Heart

and many, many more.

[Edited 2/19/15 9:31am]

SanMartin said:

nuttynutmeg said: