I think one of the reasons for his not being respected as a guitarist is the fact that he doesn’t play much guitar on his records...when you want to impress someone about Prince’s guitar skills, you can’t pinpoint a particular sound...to Prince the idea is limiting. You can pinpoint individual tracks..there’s a whole lot of them, sure...but if you’re listening to one whole album, searching and waiting for him to play the guitar can be detrimental to the enjoyment of the music...say Emancipation, for example.I thought that dirty guitar solo on Sex in the Summer was cool, but it was played by K. Dyson, not Prince. Those legendary licks on Kiss were played by Wendy. I guess Prince doesn’t really care...he wants to known as an impressario, to whom the guitar is just one of the tools of the trade.But if there was someway to release all those live performances on record, maybe one release was all it would take for guitar-nerd critics to start appreciating him.Saay, if all those finger-lickin’ live chops were all released, how many LIVE prince treats could we get anyway? A hundred, a thousand? How come we don’t have even one? Raise your hands if you hear me, and pray The Artist is listening..!!!

mistermcgee said:

I could mention cats like Stanley Jordan, Eric Gales, Vernon Reid, Tony MacAlpine, Ernie Isley, Eric McFadden, George Benson, etc. who would smoke Prince on guitar, but you fans would just start naming off Prince songs..."Have you heard so in so, blah, blah, blah?" If you have to FIND a great song with guitar in it, then that is the answer to the question of why Prince is not deemed one of the greats. There's no question that he's damn good...but great? Depends on who you compare him to. Some of the guitarists I named are multi-instrumentalists as well, but they shine on guitar. Prince is good. If he spent more time on guitar, he be better but it would take away from his composing & arranging. As I have said in other posts, IMO Prince is a better keyboardist than he is a guitarist. He doesn't play anything on guitar that a good GIT graduate can't play. His style isn't really all that unique. His TONE is, but that's another discussion. Prince (IMO) is a greater all around artist than he is a solo instrumentalist. Sorry to break it to you fans, but Prince is NOT the end-all-be-all of music. He may be to some of the people on this site, but in REALITY, he isn't. I'd much rather he continue to write great songs rather than attempt to be a great solo instrumentalist. Prince has his niche already. This is a tired ass discussion. The rest of the world will NEVER see Prince as the "greatest guitarist". People should just move on and appreciate Prince's true strengths. Writing and arranging. He he is GREAT by being very good at so many things.

Mark Whitfield is better than prince

I think he is, especially by other musicians. The thing to me is that he doesn't FEATURE it all of the time. In fact, most of his hits, with the exception of "Let's Go Crazy", don't showcase this talent. "Kiss", "When Doves Cry", "Raspberry Beret", "TMBGITW", "1999"...hardly any licks at all, and certainly not "guitar rock".