Prince is truly one of the greatest guitarist's alive today. I often hear people say that others like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani would leave Prince in the dust. They obviously have not really dug into the talent of Prince. Maybe they need to listen to "The Ride, " "The Undertaker", or "Poor Goo" for starters.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of people jumped off of the "Beautiful" train after Purple Rain. When I speak to some people today, they are'nt even aware of the fact that Prince just recently released ONA.

They are truly deprived.
[This message was edited Tue Aug 12 13:16:00 PDT 2003 by bohurdle]
[This message was edited Tue Aug 12 14:34:19 PDT 2003 by bohurdle]

Theres a very big difference between Prince and the so-called great guitarists like Satriani and Vai.

Reguardless of who he makes music with, Prince knows how to express himself and even technically..he's a damn good guitar player.

Meanwhile people like Satriani and Vai just put fast guitar workouts on records. They might have the title of " Best guitarist in the world", and it might make you think "Woah, I wish I could do that" but when it comes down to giving their records a listen it's just simply boring because there's nothing great about hearing a guy burn up a fret board for an hour (although there are a few exceptions )..

Prince is gifted because he's great at both playing instruments and song writing. Steve & Joe should take note.

Steve Vai is a musical genious, he is not just about burning frets, he is not Michael Angelo from Nitro, just hear FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

I think y'all are comparing apples and cheesecloth here.

Prince's RHYTHM playing is what's under discussion - of which, there IS no other capable of his talent - though, I WOULD say, Nile Rogers and the guy in KC and the Sunshine Band, and the guy in the JBs, set the bar BEFORE Prince's first record. But I digress.

Vai, et al, ARE expressive guitarists with lots of talent. Great soloist. BUT, Prince is GOD on rhythm. He took the book and re-wrote it... but, if you listen to him, you'll HEAR Nile Rogers, and the guy from the JBs, etc.

So, in conclusion, the only greatest guitarist in the world is NUGENT! THERE! I SAID IT!

I am a humble follower of the funk. Check out this funk guitar extravaganza. www.blindslim.com/lola_reason_0810.rm

it is 100% the fault of prince that he is not given the repect he deserves for being a great guitarist. how is the average joe supposed to realize that the guy can tear it up on the guitar when he hasn't had the courage to release a rock oriented single since 'I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man ' back in '87. he got scared when his so called core audience ( african american r&b fans) began to call him a sell out for creating rock oriented guitar driven albums like Purple Rain and Around The World in a Day. prince was trying to bring people together by creating these masterpeace fussions of funk, rock and soul and in return, they called him a sell out. since then , he has almost always chosen to release middle of the road r&b/funk/ pop singles like Kiss, Alphabet Street, The Most Beautiful Girl, Cream, Betcha By Golly, The Greatest Romance, etc etc. so , when it comes to guitar players, you can't blame people for thinking Cobain,Hendrix, and Vaugn, instead of Prince.

Prince has become one of my favorite players over the past couple years cuz he plays so damn tasty! I have this version of him playing AUld Lang Syne/Pruple Rain with Miles Davis (another of the tastiest players living or dead!) and his solos are just awesome! But he is usually credited as a great songwriter first and foremost and I think because most people credited as songwriters aren't really great musicians, people think the same about Prince. Steve Vai and Joe Satriani? Apples to oranges, comparing them to Prince is senseless because they all do such different stuff. Kurt Cobain is a little different though. I think he's more comparable to Prince than you think. Technically Prince is a better player, but if Cobain had played like Prince, Nirvana woujld have sounded a little strange. Cobain himself once said, "I can't play like Andres Segovia, but Segovia can't play like me." He did what needed to be done for the purpose of the song and he did it well just like Prince does. Cobain was the reason I picked up guitar and 8 years, a ton of gigs, and a classical guitar degree later, I still find the emotion and primality in his playing I did before, and I hear that in Prince's playing too. But the bottom line is, everyone is good at different things because different things are important to different people. Prince is amazing in his way, but then again so are Vai and Satch, as well as Cobain. There's room for everyone, that's what's so cool about the guitar!

Very nice comments. About the Prince/Vai/Satriani/Cobain comparisons...
Well, critics usually praise Vai and Satriani much more because
They are really faster than Prince, but MAINLY because they play guitar 100% of the time. Same thing for Steve Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Tom Morello, Eddie Van Halen, Hendrix and Santana. It´s not about ´soul vs technique´ because everyone of these players have/had soul and style. But Prince had that flamboyant pop star image, and doesnt play guitar all time. There are some songs where he only sings and dances. On others, he plays keyboards
If Prince did solos like ´Joy in repetition´ (ONA live set) in every track, he would be much more recognized as a great player. He is great on rythm guitar too, but people seem to care less about it.
About Cobain, I think he was more of a songwriter than guitar player. He was revolutionary, and he changed the face of rock, like it or not. Although Prince has more skills as a musician, both were very innovative and creative at their times.

to all those in doubt about Prince's skills/technique in his guitar playing. 2 legends in the game have praised him...Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton!