Was he better than Prince?

2freaky4church1 said:

Was he better than Prince?

as a guitarist he may have been, maybe. He was damned good but I'm no authority on guitar playing. as a songwriter, no, not in my opinion. nor as a showman or singer. great bandleader though and a control freak like prince.

He did read music, and he wrote it. Learned it by himself. Amazing.

2freaky4church1 said:

He did read music, and he wrote it. Learned it by himself. Amazing.

yes he did, but it's not that hard, i learned to read, i don't write very much but i'm sure I could. I think a lot of guys don't learn because it's really not crucial to being able to play for them. I like knowing how to read because I wanted something accurate if I played a cover song, i never liked how a lot of rock and roll musicians cover songs by just using the same chords.

3 chords are all you need.

2freaky4church1 said:

3 chords are all you need.

ya, i suppose, but i always wanted things perfect, some people just "interpret" things which is fine but I wanted to get closer with the arrangement etc..,

2freaky4church1 said:

Was he better than Prince?

PeteSilas said:

2freaky4church1 said:

Was he better than Prince?

as a guitarist he may have been, maybe. He was damned good but I'm no authority on guitar playing. as a songwriter, no, not in my opinion. nor as a showman or singer. great bandleader though and a control freak like prince.

Not even close... Zappa, as awesome as he was, wasn't that great at guitar playing, he could write amazing stuff for guitar but when played by Vai, Belew or Dweezil and the likes that was a whole new level and the details of his writing became apparent...
Zappa was thankfully too consumed with the other aspects of being a bandleader and making music then just to become some virtuoso on guitar, that would have been a waste...

Neversin.

Neversin said:

PeteSilas said:

as a guitarist he may have been, maybe. He was damned good but I'm no authority on guitar playing. as a songwriter, no, not in my opinion. nor as a showman or singer. great bandleader though and a control freak like prince.

Not even close... Zappa, as awesome as he was, wasn't that great at guitar playing, he could write amazing stuff for guitar but when played by Vai, Belew or Dweezil and the likes that was a whole new level and the details of his writing became apparent...
Zappa was thankfully too consumed with the other aspects of being a bandleader and making music then just to become some virtuoso on guitar, that would have been a waste...

Neversin.

just telling you how my ears hear it.

stpaisios said:

2freaky4church1 said:

Was he better than Prince?

'Whatever sauce you put around the melody is a matter of taste. What is important is the melodic line.' -- Ravel

Frank Zappa's music is full of sauce, while Prince's is full of melodic lines. Case closed. Prince is better.

love Ravel, have lots of his works, but he was a Romantic composer and this quote is his opinion on music, or rather his style of music. Zappa composed in a vast amount of styles, more than Ravel, there are melodies, just not i the way you're accustomed to themn being, like in a pop song, but Prince was n great writer of melodies either, so much of his stuff is just groove oriented. I mean, Alphabet St. for example, that's just a hook, not a true melody, the whole song's just a hundred tracks of sound effects and one line parts. Even the reved When Doives Cry is not a very good melody, we just like it for how it feels and the sonic elements, but it's simple as pie, in fact, with a kindergarten melody line.