he's had wendy, mico, and so on... dez dickerson had that rock &roll attitude

As far as I'm concerned, yeah.

YUP.....

I would say no.

I would go with the one who's guitar playing earned them work with Seal, Neil Finn, Meshell Ndegeocello, Madonna, kd Lang, Rob Thomas, Sheryl Crow, Doyle Bramhall II, Lisa Marie Presley, Liz Phair, Nikka Costa, Gwen Stefani, Van Hunt,Nina Gordan, Nerina Pallot Victoria Williams and of course PRINCE again.

Yes, When Prince signed him on , it was because he had a lot of experience and also Dez had a lot of influence from Rock and New Wave artists rather than just black (Funk) guitarists. I think Prince appreciated that, because Dez was a musical sponge and fitted Prince's broad ranging criteria for his first group.
When u read the books about Prince, its clearly obvious Dez was a very articulate person off the stage too. He seems to be a virtual source of the early days (Prince was like a sea anemone at low tide). His playing clearly dominates the early concerts and some of the riffs off DM and Controversy must be his too.

This question has been asked many times on here. Again, it's usually based on if folks on here likes Wendy or not. Many people on here weren't even fans of P when Dez was in the group. Or even born for that matter. Many on here jumped on the bandwagon AFTER Purple Rain so maybe one of the reasons they even dug Prince in the first place could have had a lot to do with them seeing Wendy in the band. So they didn't know anything about P's history as an artist before ATWIAD or Parade and didn't care. So Wendy would be their one. But most people that was actually there BEFORE Purple Rain and was a fan of P's and had actually seen him in concert during this time would know that Dez would be the one. Won't go into how important Dez was to P on many different levels because that has been documented many times over. I think the more newbies read about Dez or see pictures of Dez tend to form a resentment type of thing towards Dez very much for the same reasons they resent Hendrix. But that's a different tale. I think Miko was cool for the period he played with P. Mike Scott fit where P was at that stage. "Best" is always subjective anyways. It should be "favorite", cuz as I said before, u have to be good at what u do to play with P anyways. Wendy if nothing else, was a good rhythm guitarist. She held the pocket on the Purple Rain tour. She's not a lead guitarist and that showed everytime I saw that tour live whenever she attempted to play the solo to When Doves Cry. She would hit bum notes left and right everytime.

blackguitaristz said:

That's a spot-on analysis!

Dez is definitely my favorite -- his presense and skills are unmatched as far as I'm concerned.. I wasn't even around, but I still wish Dez had stuck around until the end of the Purple Rain era.

I prefer Miko, then Dez.

Prince, of course, can hold down by himself, but I really wish he would bring back a second (rhythym) guitarist to his band.

For me it's a draw between Dez, Miko and Tommy (or was he a bass player?)

They all played thier booties off and were pretty cute.

guarinigirl2000 said:

Ummm...Tommy played keyboards.

Prince very seldom had bad instrumentalists in his groups, Andre Cymone, Dez, Bobby Rivkin, Michael Bland, Tommy Barbarella, Candy Dulfer, Levi Seacer Junior, Brownmark, WendynLisa, Matt Fink, Sheila E, Rhonda Smith, Mr Hayes, Sonny Thompson, Miko Weaver, Matt Blistan, Eric Leeds, Kirk Blackshire, Larry Graham, Gayle Chapman (all wonderful)

Or singers, Rosie Gaines, Jill Jones, Boni Boyer, Cat Glover (all incredible)

Its has rappers and dancers who were the poor choices, ie Mayte, Greg Brooks, Wally Safford, Tony M, Kirk Johnson, Damon Dickson, Jerome Benton (all no comment)

Its clearly obvious which parts had talent and which didn't

I'm going to say NO, but that's not a diss of Dez's playing. He wasn't the "best" but not the "worst". He's probably in my top 4 or 5.