answer is yes.
after i saw steve vai peformance on crossroads guitar festival dvd.
my friends were impressed by steve's playing.
so when i put prince playing the ride from las vegas dvd.
they couldnt take yes off him.
they loved prince's teraing theguitar.
kid was in rare form that nite.

Prince could do more guitar stuff if he really wanted to, but instead he'd rather substitute guitar parts for horn parts.

EvilWhiteMale said:

Shame that is, but the horns were prince's first love

Y does he have 2 use them soooo much!

andykeen said:

I'd like to see WAY more guitar from him in the future. *Fingers crossed*
[Edited 3/5/05 8:43am]

andykeen said:

Not actually true. Prince didn't use horns at all between '78 and '85. Synths were used instead and he was loving the guitar long before he considered using horns. He sure does love them now though.

vivid said:

It's time 4 a new direction
It's time 4 jazz 2 die
4th day of November
We need a purple high

I think Steve has been influenced by Prince.

He now does the pre-ticket sale deal on his site. And something called The EVO Experience where you can do a meet and greet and see a close up of his guitars and amps.

And even though he is with a major he sells unreleased tunes on his site.

cranshaw62 said:

Steve Vai is a class act. He credits Prince with being an innovator and respects him as a musician.

Vai is one of the true giants of guitar. It's high praise from him when he says Prince is great.

Prince, to his credit, can do so many things well, that it is easy to see him developing into a guitar virtuoso if that is all he wanted to be.

I would love to see Prince just play the hell out of his guitar among some recognized players--Clapton, Vai, Malmsteen, Santana, B.B. King, McLaughlin, Jimmy Vaughn. Not trying to upstage them, but just to jam with them. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the closest thing I've ever seen to something like that and we all saw how that turned out!

Has anyone ever seen Prince jam out on guitar with another guitar great, e.g. Carlos Santana? Other than playing next to Lenny Kravitz who is not really known for his guitar playing, I've never seen it.

Prince could mop the floor with Vai's tired 64th note rambling. Prince plays the guitar, whereas Vai OVER-plays the guitar. Man, does he OVER-play it. It's annoying as f*ck to listen to.

poetbear68 said:

Once again the postings take a nose dive with negativity. After a nice post about how Vai gives respect and credit to Prince as a musician,(where most people unfortunately talk about his name change or whatever) the last post says Prince could mop the floor with Vai.

Are you kidding me? I love Prince's guitar playing and he has that intangible quality of playing the right notes at the right time, but come on.

Guitar is very subjective..... Vai is an out of this world composer, guitarist, and legendary transcriber who @ 18 was coming 99% close to transcribing Zappa's most difficult work. Then performed stuff on guitar written for other istruments with ease.

Vai is very humble about his skills.. Your comment comes of like the same ignorant people who really claim to love everything Prince has ever done with out any criticism.

poetbear68 said:

Good joke...
Vai can do eveything on his guitar that Prince does, Prince can't do everything Vai does on his guitar...

Neversin.

There is no doubt that Vai is a "guitar-god" - the man is amazing. BUT (and, bearing in mind this is all subjective, not just opinion on guitar playing) I have to say I don't agree with the "out of this world composer"!!

I mean, technically, his songs are amazing. Production, superb. But, he doesn't seem to understand "space" in the same way that some of the greatest songwriters do (including, of course, Prince) and his tunes just end up being an excuse to show off his virtuosity on guitar. Hence, they are technically supreme, challenging, but ultimately soulless pieces of work. It might go "whizz-bang", but if it doesn't move the soul, what's the point?

And, of course, if you watch any of the Vai videos, the preening and narcissitic self-indulgence that goes on (far worse than Prince) is cheesey and laughable. Still an amazing guitarist though, and I loved his work with Zappa.

And, perhaps, therein lies the difference - Vai is a guitar player, Prince is a lot of things. The guitar master versus the Jack of all trades

I think it is really difficult to know exactly how good Prince could really be on guitar. In concert he normally plays guitar (Rhythm and lead), piano, keys, sometimes drums, sings lead vocal, dances, etc...the other "Guitar Gods" (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen, Ingwie Malmsteen, etc...) just play guitar so it is really hard to compare.

I would love to see Prince perform in a G3 type situation with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and say Ingwie. No vocals, just a smoking hour plus set of Prince only jamming on guitar. Then a 45 minute jam session with all four to close out the concert.

Sowhat said:

First off, let me say again: Steve Vai is one of the most humble but talented guys around. No "fockin' fury" moments for him. Second, he always give props to other musicians whom he respects, Prince being one of them. Third, Prince in a G3 situation would be cool as s**t, but he would be the odd man out.

Prince's guitar playing, while being my primary inspiration for learning the guitar, is from a different tradition. The 80's guitar gods and the metal heads go for the Cramming-Every-Note-Into-Every-Space approach. It is guitar as sporting event, but faster does not mean better. It's like the auctioneer versus the orator; the auctioneer will speak more words per minute, but is he saying anything worth listening to?

How fast did Lincoln recite the Gettysburg address? How quickly did Martin Luther King tell us about his dream?

Some of the most powerful and moving things in the world are in the pauses.

Funk guitar, blues guitar, jazz guitar, heck, even classical guitar, all have their uses for speed, but it isn't the only thing they try to do. Metal guitar, in particular the Yngwie school, worship speed. That's what they specialize in, it is what they do.

Steve Vai is a tremendously accomplished musician who happens to play guitar. Prince is a tremendously accomplished musician, period.

No need to compare the two...

Alasseon said:

Very smart, sensible and accurate post. Thank you.

Alasseon said:

I absolutely enjoyed reading your post!.

Neversin said:

So true! As it's been already said on this thread, Vai has mad respect for Prince (at least in 1990 he did ) Anyways, I remember reading an article where Vai said Prince doesn't explode on the guitar like he want's him to. So, Vai recorded on song titled "The Animal" on his "Passion and warfare" album which is supposedly the way he'd like to hear prince playing guitar! No lie! It's a tight track. Yeah, when it comes to guitar, Vai's in another time and space.

sinisterpentatonic said:

Hahaha! No WAY!!! Okay, now I have to go get the CD out of storage and give it another listen... Where did you hear that about Vai?

EvilWhiteMale said:

I have to agree..... the horns are starting to grate on me a little

Alasseon said:

Man, this was in one of them guitar magazines before he released P&W. I think I read about this in like 89 or 90.

BlaqueKnight said:

Didn't Zappa call Stevie a "stunt guitarist"?

:I think the real question here is can Steve Vai, impress anyone, after they see Prince?

I caught Steve in concert once. It was like watching a tribute to Prince. He came out in this purple outfit, and basically started mimicking Prince. It was kinda sad actually.

Everything he did, the way he played, his stage anitcs... I just kept thinking to myself, this is sooooo familiar.

In 1978, Prince established himself as the dominant guitar force in music. In 2005, he has yet to relinquish this position. It all started with a little ditty called I'm Yours.

Prince, is the greatest player... to ever hold a guitar!

sinisterpentatonic said:

I have no idea what Zappa called Vai. I do know that Vai is nothing like the speed metal counterparts that some of the people on this site clump him into. His solos have character and personality and yes, he "stunts" as well. He is the showman of showmen on guitar live. If you check out Live at the Astoria London, you'll see him do some wild shyt! I like Satriani, but he's kinda boring to watch whereas Steve lights up the stage. You could call him the Prince of metal guitarists in the performance sense. Like I said, it would seem that a lot of Prince fans are unfamiliar with Steve's works. Its to be expected, This is Prince.org afterall. Steve makes music that guitar players would have more of an appreciation for; Prince is a pop star.

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

"Dominant guitar force in music"??
Obviously you don't know anything about guitar players and guitar music in general to claim something as idiotic as this...

Neversin.
[Edited 3/9/05 9:06am]

Neversin said:

Uh... OK. I think you have it backasswards there.

You obviously don't have a clue, about this instrument, music or life to think that statement was idiotic.

Go back to whatever rock you crawled out from under.

Actually, after I heard Steve Vai perform "The Reaper Rap" on the Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey soundtrack, I feel that there is no going back to that no talent loser known as Prince.

Neversin said:

Neversin, don't bother. There will be posts and posts of fanrants trying to rationalize prince into guitar greatness. They don't know and ignorance is bliss for most. Different people are moved by different things and some people don't know how to seperate what they like from what really is.
I don't like Malmsteen, but I would never sit here and call him a lame guitarist because he's not. He prefers to play shit that I have no interest in hearing. That in and of itself does not have any bearing whatsoever on his abilities. Some people around here don't see things the same way.
[Edited 3/9/05 9:24am]

LovesexyIsThe1 said:

Obviously you've been living under a rock since you just proved with your post that you haven't got a clue about guitarists and guitar music to say that a rather mediocre and very limited player like Prince is the greatest player to ever hold a guitar (sure he did some amazing solo's and some very cool stuff on guitar but that's another point...)
So brush up on your guitar knowledge before spreading the bullshit that you just did...

Neversin.