wallysafford said:

There it is. Player, u are THE first cat that I've seen ever to mention that on here. Thought I was the only cat that had known that fact. Yeah, Andre STILL has that bass. It's clear as day on the "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" video.

wallysafford said:

Dr. Fink and Suffered from the same race situation that exist in the USA also. It is clear that nobody in these forums black or white has an issue with race, How could any Prince Fan? Being black guitarist myself I feel that Prince has not gotten his props as much as due dew to white and black racism. Black stations rarley play anything with rock guitars in it unless you can dance hip hop to it or you reach Mega stardom where they can't ignore you. If the world was Europe we would not be having this discussion. Many of my african friends listen to everything from Dylan to Prince top Snoop. This country's stations have on;y began to diversify the music. I see now that black stations tend to be onesided while the pop stations seem to play all styles.

Let's break the doors down and get Fink where he should be as well as Lenny on black stations. If it was not for white stations the children would never get to hear Hendrix.

ELBOOGY said:

does this make sense?
once again,you show yourself to be [Flame bait snipped - luv4u].
don't try and play nice with me now,you have shown your true colors.[/b]
[Edited 6/23/05 4:28am]

wallysafford said:

And all of them were surprised at his porficiency on a myriad of other instruments when they got him into the studio. I just wish I could have been present to see him walk into the studio as an unknown teenage musician then proceed to plant jaws firmly on the floor with his unbelievable ability. Can u imagine the reactions and conversations about the wunderkind when he left? When you look at the various documentaries like Omnibus' Prince of Paisley Park, its amazing to see the respect and awe those in the early years express when they talk about encountering the then unknown aspiring musician, be for he was PRINCE. It's also very telling when you watch the documentary that was filmed right around the Lovesexy Tour and listen to the respect and awe that professional music engineers have for his ability. Femi Jiya and the other engineer whose name escapes me now, both said they had worked with the best studio musicians in LA and London, many of whom were the best studio musicians in the world, and each said that none of them came close to Prince. People just do not realize how talented he truly is.
[Edited 6/23/05 12:15pm]

neontelephone said:

No, I know. I didn't say by all.

blackguitaristz said:

neithier did I.

bassmaniac said:

The R&B stations in America r owned by whites and dictated 2 by whites! That's y Black Artist have 2 crossover 2 get Props from the so called mainstream!

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

Yeah, man. Again, u are on it. Look, when I had done some stuff with Andre and Morris in 95, they talked about how vicious P is when he is recording. Especially Andre. This two were like brothers, Andre's mom pretty much raised P. Anyway, Andre said that's all P does. Is practice, practice, practice.

the none prince fans still go on about purple rain.fuck me that was 22 years ago,if only theyd open there ears.Hes made loads of cds since then,no 1 knows about.

4nowneway said:

Yeah you're right. He makes it look so easy, but if you ever tried to play the instrument, you can't help but to be astounded by his skills. Part of what made me such a huge fan from the beginning; was trying to decipher and transpose his music. I would sit down and listen to a track, and try to write his music out so that I'd have his sheet music. It proved to be an extremely challenging task, because of the complicated and ingenius chord progressions, combinations and extensive rythmic patterns. After that I was a fan for life.

I always thought the same. He blew everyone away on his solo performance (My Guitar Gently Weeps) when he was inducted that year in The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony.

mellow1 said:

See, I wasn't surprised at his solo at all. But, yeah, I agree witcha. He did blow people's mind that night. I was happy for him. But see, P KNOWS when to truly shine on the axe. This was his night, with tons of is peers in the audience. With that type of situation, P is going to throwdown. He did the same thing back in 85 at the American Music Awards. Again, that was his night. He was at the height of his popularity with Purple Rain. When he performed that song that night, with all of his peers in the crowd, P turned it out on his solo. He jumped down from that huge cake looking platform he was on, down onto the bottom stage and wailed! By him doing that, getting on the bottom stage, he KNEW that everyone would see how short he truly is. But, he was showing, even though he knew he was small, he could still throwdown hard on guitar. I'll never forget that. Prince was sending a message by simply jumping down off of that platform for his solo. That's a performer.

and the bit when he knocks over the mic stand to let his guitar do the talking is fekking genius!!!!!

I've stayed off this topic because it's threatening to veer off the rails any second, but focusing only on Prince's guitar skills:

He's very, very good.

Good melodic sense, a master showman, excellent musician.


Too many times we fall into the trap of treating guitar-playing as if it were an olympic event or a fashion show. Faster, faster, faster is better! Oooh, look at how many strings on his guitar! Wow, that was a really complex classical piece played really loudly through a Marshall amp!! Dude, did you see how cool his hair looked?? Nice tats!!!

Technical skill is one aspect of being a good player, but not the only one.
The notes have to *mean* something. They have to convey some kind of an emotion. They have to connect to each other in meaningful ways and also have to connect with the audience in ways other than an aural assault on the eardrum. If speed is all that mattered, we can just take any piece of music and crank it up to twice, three times, four times the original speed.

Not the way to go...

In the 80's the perception of what made a great guitar player was seemingly limited to--how quickly can they play Eruption, which metal band are they a member of, and how much can they play like Stevie Ray or Yngwie, with Yngwie being the preferred model for guitar god status. These are the guys who made the cover of all the Guitar magazines; Prince at one point was considered one of the ten WORST guitarists, because of the backlash against him in the late eighties, post-Purple Rain period.


It's all rubbish. Fashions come and go, cool become cheese becomes retro.
All that matters is the music.


Everyone is different and even Steve Vai has noted that people miss out on a lot of what he's doing because they are focusing too much on the pyrotechnics.

Carlos Santana will never be as fast as some of the 80's shred demons, but when he plays, you KNOW it's him. He's got his own distinct sound. Prince does the same thing when he plays, for instance, Joy in Repetition or even Let's Go Crazy...( ). George Benson, Stanley Clarke, Henry Garza, and God Knows Who Else are all great guitarists but for different reasons.

williammelvinhicks said:

That shit was loud too! If u look, when he does that, u can see Tina Turner jump in her seat, very shocked.

Jimmy Page is a better rhythm guitar player, and Eric Clapton has a better vibrato.

Until Prince releases the ultimate killer guitar album, he will continue to be seen as a danty midget that treats the guitar like a toy.

He almsot did it with TRC, but his porno tinged jazz music is too much on the album.

Prince has yet to release an album that fully demonstartes his mastery of the guitar.

He has improved greatly since the 80's though.

Prince is a second tier guitar player, along with his buddy Santanna.

DaX said:

Huh? Prince does it LIVE! He does'nt have 2put out an album 2 show his guitar skillz.Like George Clinton use 2 say..."lets take it 2the stage MF"! Prince would devour them in a live performance.

Dax, you are a tit.

Once again technical ability is being judged over motherfucker ability.



No one comes anywhere remotely close to Prince when it comes to being a motherfucker on the guitar.

Led Zep bore the tits off me. Clapton.....puleeease!!

Prince is the shit. And you know it.