it's pretty obvious that prince realy loves to play guitar.
so the question is why he almost didn't play it on parade tour shows???
he played it only on head (sometimes) and purple rain.

what was he trying to prove?
i mean i know those parade shows were meant to be more like a soul revue,but so what.

when i listen to those 1986 shows i enjoy music but i simply miss his guitar solos.

how did people react when they seen that he don't play it at all???
were they dissapointed.

i mean just 2 years before many ppl saw him as a jimi hendrix succesor.
and i bet one year of not playing guitar effected his skills a lot.

thebanishedone said:

dude...the brotha's been playin guitar since he was a frickin teenager. how would one measly year of non-guitar playing affect one's skills? you don't need to constantly keep at whatever skill you have in fear of losing it.

me myself personally.....


i like "THAT" prince better than the "guitar playing" prince.

Im all for the splits and microphone stand tricks!

those who play any insstrument know that even if you don't play for a month you get rusty.
not playing a year you are completley out of shape.
your fingers loose feeling and pressure for that instrument.
so it's obvios that you don't know nothing about things you're talking about.

his playing on siugn o the times is nothing special.purple rain album have 10 times better guitar then sign o the times.
sign o the times was year after parade. tour

so just because he didnt play in concert every night he didnt pick up a guitar at all? Is this what you are suggesting? That would be like Prince taking a vow of chastity for a year...Im not seeing either happening

PurpleHeeler said:

I agree. I doubt there's a single night where Prince doesn't jam on his guitar.

The guy probably even picked up his guitar on both honeymoons and rocked a solo after sex.

Id rather see him dancin all funky on the floor than him holdin that guitar 4 the whole set.

prince is a musician,if you want dancer,entertainer,go to michael jackson,madonna concert.
us real music lovers let enjoy him playing the instruments.

thebanishedone said:

Like Jackson 5 said from the album Git It Together...


Its too late
Too late to change the tiiiiime

I've wondered the same thing too. Good question.

I think Prince just designed the show that way. Maybe he wanted to shake things up a little, maybe he wanted to dance more than he had been, maybe he felt like he wanted Wendy to show the world what she had, or maybe he just felt that the production values of that tour dictated that he not play guitar.

thebanishedone said:

Elitist

Like Jackson 5 said from the album Git It Together...


Its too late
Too late to change the tiiiiime [/quote]

So we all might as well just Hum Along And Dance.

cranshaw62 said:

That's fine, just don't say goodbye again. OK?
[Edited 7/14/05 9:40am]

I think you answered your own question when you pointed out the whole "soul revue" structure of the show. Prince had already proven his chops on guitar during the PR tour, and decided to show his skills as a James Brown style showman and band leader.

thebanishedone said:

actually i do know what i'm talking about, while you're bumpin your gums...any art that you gotta use your hands for applies here. i'm an artist, so yes i would have an idea.

i saw about 5 shows back then and i couldnt stop screaming like a girl long enough to realize his guitar was missing with miko and wendy playing fonkyass guitar...what could he have added ?????

he was probably recording Sign O The Times during the tour, so Im sure he did not go long without rockin out

what he could added?
well he could played his trademark riffs on song 1999.
or play funky guitar on love bizarre.
i mean i bet there were a lot of guitar lovers who wanted to see him with his guitar.
they only had chance on purple rain and head.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

as a musician and a PRO GUITARIST that makes my living from playing...i can tell u that its BULLSHIT to say a player will get rusty if he doesn't play for a month...PLEASE !!!
and who told u prince was not jamming at sound checks,...or in studios...or hotel rooms...??? back then he always used to have a mini studio set up in his hotel rooms...even had a full piano put in his rooms...if prince was getting rusty...he sure got some oil for his fingers quickly to be able to release sign of the times a few months later...

Because it was his image for the tour. It was supposed to be very different from the Purple Rain-thing a few years back. And what I've witnessed from video footage it worked.

thebanishedone said:

There was no reason for Prince to play guitar on the Parade tour, he had Wendy and Mico to cover that.

attended the shows myself: at the time I did not even think "jee he's is not playing his guitar"... the show was such an overwhelming display of soul-power, the audience did not miss his guitar work.
He jammed on the organ, piano, guitar in Head and the big finale on Purple Rain.
And he danced, sang, led the band. Enough!

Btw, I do recall he played guitar on 1999 as well... but I might be wrong (16 years is a long time...)

One extra consideration why he may have decided to reduce his guitar playing: in this tour the brass section was first introduced to his live-sound. Maybe he wanted to give them room?!

JediMaster said:

This show was all about his skills as a master front man/band leader. Working the band out with split-second hand signals (those hits! ), dancing his little ass off, stripping off his clothes, basically playing dominatrix and teasing and working the crowd into a frenzy. Hard to do all that with a guitar strapped to you.

thebanishedone said:

A tad arrogant perhaps? Chill out man - why you worrying about something that happened 19 years ago? Were you even there?

I was there and out of the 10 or so Prince gigs I'be been to, it was in the top 3. The vast majority of us in Europe had not been to the PR shows (although of course we'd seen video footage), and I personally didn't feel that anything was missing. In fact, it was the best night of my 16 yr long life (and yes, I had lost my virginity already).

I love his guitar playing, don't get me wrong, but I managed to soldier through that testing evening, and what was once a searing pain, is now just a dull ache.