One of the most important aspects of Princes greatness that I have always felt has been underestimated by the media and the public at large; is Prince's skills as a producer. We often read about Pharrell and Timbaland or Swizz Beats, but Prince's production skills don't get mentioned as often as his live performance capabilities or his guitar-playing.

Is there one song, that you feel highlights his greatness as a producer?

I'll start it off - I love his vocal arrangements on 7. There's a gravelly tone in the bass harmonies that is (to me) uniquely Prince.

So many - obviously every album from Prince's "peak period", especially Sign o the Times, 1999, Purple Rain, Parade. I love Diamonds and Pearls sonically. Prince always had some interesting things going on production wise that made even his blandest songs unique.

When Doves Cry would be a great example for me. And the Parade album. Sexuality and Controversy. Lady Cab Driver. 1999 too.

• I second your opinion. I think that one place where this really shows is in the difference between listening to many of his songs with or without decent headphones. It's not every song/album, obviously, but for so many of his songs it's like the difference between a 2-D and a 3-D movie.

• 7 is my all-time favorite Prince song. I loved it from the first time I heard it played, and I think it's really hard to describe just how different it was from anything else on the radio at the time. It just caught me and fascinated me. The amazing thing is that I still occasionally pick up something "new" from songs I've been lsitening to for, what, decades. I just noticed a little bass lick in 7 a couple of months ago that I just hadn't heard before. I'm a sucker for anything that has those thickly-layered harmonies (Incense and Candles comes to mind as well; another one that I thought exploded with headphones) or just lots of "auditory information". I liked much of 1999 (my first album) because of that. I used to lay down with my head on my little portable tape recorder to get as much as I could out of it! (How about the part in Automatic where his voice just shifts smoothly from one ear to the other? It's like the auditory version of reading a book by scanning your eyes across it.)

• And I don't know if it makes me strange, but I am always absurdly tickled when I hear some little sound effect that Prince makes -- snapping, clucking his tongue, stuff like that. It's like finding an Easter egg. I think one of the reasons it fascinates me so much is because I know that it was a deliberate production choice to either keep or add the sound, and I think -- ironically -- it really adds to the casual, off-the-cuff feel of some of his work.

I could gush for hours about this, but I'll stop there. [Sorry for the bullet points; the html looks right, but I can't get the preview post to separate the paragraphs otherwise.]

Yeah, I would agree that the peak 80's stuff is awash with great examples of his supreme production skills. I think the thing that emphasises his brilliance is the fact that tracks like 7 and When Doves Cry sound like no-one else; they could only come from Prince.

Also, I completely agree about the headphones comment. Prince added so many extra elements to each verse and chorus- he never sat back and just let a repetitive loop play (unlike so many contemporary producers).

I think Princes producton isn't mentioned as much because he didn't really work with; or release the songs he did with/for other artists. It's hard to become known as a hot/great producer if you only ever produce your own material.

Noodled24 said:

I think Princes producton isn't mentioned as much because he didn't really work with; or release the songs he did with/for other artists. It's hard to become known as a hot/great producer if you only ever produce your own material.

I think that's more true for his 90's stuff when he produced less protege albums, but I think you can argue that the Minneapolis Sound was dominant in the 80's due to Prince's production on The Time and Vanity 6 albums (not to mention Sheila E and The Family) as well as on his own albums. I guess the whole Jamie Starr persona muddied the waters somewhat. But when one looks at the acclaim Jam and Lewis and Teddy Riley got for their production in the late 80's early 90's, it's clear that rn'b producer's profiles were beginning to rise. Maybe Prince was too multi-faceted for the mainstream media to focus on this one aspect.