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Thread started 07/31/05 4:05pm

krayzie

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Sly vs Prince : Who's the best ??

Sly vs Prince : Who's the best ??
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Reply #1 posted 07/31/05 4:06pm

kpowers

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prince
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Reply #2 posted 07/31/05 4:08pm

Rinluv

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No contest, Prince.
Some people think I'm kinda cute
But that don't compute when it comes 2 Y-O-U.
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Reply #3 posted 07/31/05 4:31pm

thesexofit

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Prince of course.

I find that slys songs sound the same. But, there u go. People say all prince sounds the same too.
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Reply #4 posted 07/31/05 5:44pm

sitruk7

Prince. Though I do wonder what would have happened if Sly had remained drug free. hmmm
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Reply #5 posted 07/31/05 7:39pm

sosgemini

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death.....

btw: without sly, there would be no prince..hence my refusal to answer this question..


razz
Space for sale...
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Reply #6 posted 07/31/05 9:21pm

MsLegs

sosgemini said:

death.....

btw: without sly, there would be no prince..hence my refusal to answer this question..


razz

highfive Preach wave
[Edited 8/1/05 1:29am]
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Reply #7 posted 08/01/05 12:30am

kpowers

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sosgemini said:

death.....

btw: without sly, there would be no prince..hence my refusal to answer this question..


razz

no... prince had the gift in him (with or without sly)
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Reply #8 posted 08/01/05 1:29am

sosgemini

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kpowers said:

sosgemini said:

death.....

btw: without sly, there would be no prince..hence my refusal to answer this question..


razz

no... prince had the gift in him (with or without sly)



bullshit....prince is a genius at "borrowing" previous used idears and perfecting them....if it wasnt for "every day people" there would never be "1999".....prince himself has admited that was the vibe he was going for.....

now, this is all IMHO...but if there wasn't sly i highly doubt prince would have achieved the same career he had..sure, he might have had a couple hits...but, who the fuck knows?

sorry to burst peoples bubbles....but i look at folks like TTD, P. Rushen, Ashford & Simpsons (solo), heck even wendy and lisa...and i see artist that are wonderfully talented that never achieved major longterm success.....i cant help to keep that in perspective and realize if prince hadnt had the influences he had....hadnt "gunned" to match or meet these folks, he never would have achieved the career he had..and would all be fans of a forgotten star who could have been...

trust, i know...im a huge wendy and lisa fan...and the path their career led them amounted to zero popular success...one different turn could have changed all that...thus i understand that one different turn could have turned prince into an obscure ttd-like powerhouse...
Space for sale...
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Reply #9 posted 08/01/05 1:30am

prettymansson

MsLegs said:

sosgemini said:

death.....

btw: without sly, there would be no prince..hence my refusal to answer this question..


razz

highfive Preach wave
[Edited 8/1/05 1:29am]


right on !!!! sly is the fonkiest dude ever!!!!!
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Reply #10 posted 08/01/05 1:31am

sosgemini

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let me qualify ashford and simpson..i know they are leagonds...yet when they attempted to go solo...they had one hit and then flopped....thats a telling example there.
Space for sale...
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Reply #11 posted 08/01/05 1:32am

MsLegs

kpowers said:

sosgemini said:

death.....

btw: without sly, there would be no prince..hence my refusal to answer this question..


razz

no... prince had the gift in him (with or without sly)

However, Sly influenced P a great deal with his innovative brand of Funk. Now, as the Org Funkologist fro, you know that I got to speak the truth on the funk. Old School is where its at no doubt.
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Reply #12 posted 08/01/05 2:23am

jacktheimprovi
dent

I'll handle this the way I handled to george clinton comparison and compare them level by level

Singing-both are great versatile singers. I think Prince has a better falsetto (but sly isn't lacking in that department, he just doesn't use it often or in a normal way) and sly has a better bass voice (think, family affair, I Hate to Love her). Also sly is a lot more unconventional a vocalist, growling, scatting, shrieking, hissing, mumbling, yodeling in all kinds of crazy-genius eccentric ways, and his voice is more appealing than prince's, who was definitely an acquired taste for me.

Songwriting-Sly was the first eclecticist in funk and paved the way for every artist that attempted to recombine the splintered branches of the R&R/R&R family tree including Stevie, P-funk, EWF, the Isleys, hell EVERY R&B act of the 70s practically and of course Prince too. He infused elements of guitar rock, gospel, jazz and just pure pop into Funk and thus refined the formula laid down by James Brown. Apart from not having a virtuoso (or rather, loud-solo inclined) lead guitarist, Sly and his band were superior to nearly EVERY one of his immitators/successors. His music is some of the must perfectly distilled expressions of joy and hope and unity ever made, and while he recycled himself a few times, he certainly had a great variety of tunes and the ones he did recycle were of the calibur that genre-inventing pioneers like Chuck Berry could've made their entire careers out of. After doing all this, he took funk to it's deepest, darkest and most impenetrable with There's A Riot Going On and Fresh, which were so rhythmically complex people are still scratching their heads today. Prince is a great eclecticist as well, but he wasn't a genre-defining force the way sly was, and he had more uncredited partners in the creation of his music.

Production-As I said regarding George Clinton, Prince is destined to lose just because he made music in the 80s, and even helped influence the production aesthetic of the 80s which I think has aged poorly compared to that of the 60s and 70s. Even beyond the 80s though, I think prince often has too flashy or too artificial sounding/feeling production, overusing synths or drum machines which occasionaly produces a great fusion of electronic and organic, but sometimes causes the organic element to be lost. Sly always brought out the feel he was going for very well, whether it be bright and joyous or toxic and murky, and he was almost always tasteful, even when he would sometimes milk a gimmick for everything it was worth (think double tracked fuzz bass, but I love that sound anyway).

Musicianship/Instrumentalism-I'll call this one a draw since it's very hard to determine. We all know Prince is a great guitar player, and has at times played pretty impressively on drums, keys and bass. Sly on the other hand, is more difficult to determine because he could and would play all or most of the instruments himself (his engineer has said so and that it was basically a matter of whether or not someone else in the band could lay the track better than he could, which varied from time to time). Since sly's liner notes don't specify, we don't know which parts are played by who most of the time but ALL of the bass and drums parts on Fresh and Riot are great and at least some of them are sly himself. He may not like to do a flashy, Hendrixian guitar solo, but he's a great at rhythm and riffing, or at playing more understated and lyrically (ala Keith Richards meets Curtis Mayfield), and sly certainly plays a mean organ and piano. Beyond that Prince is not known to play any other instruments while sly is a great harmonica player (probably my personally favorite next to Stevie), and is speculated to play horns as well (he did major in trumpet performance, and there is that clarinet I mentioned in the other thread that nobody knows who played). Overall, I think I'll call it a tie since Sly plays/ed more instruments while prince is a certified virtuoso on at least a couple
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Reply #13 posted 08/01/05 2:49am

MsLegs

jacktheimprovident said:

I'll handle this the way I handled to george clinton comparison and compare them level by level

Singing-both are great versatile singers. I think Prince has a better falsetto (but sly isn't lacking in that department, he just doesn't use it often or in a normal way) and sly has a better bass voice (think, family affair, I Hate to Love her). Also sly is a lot more unconventional a vocalist, growling, scatting, shrieking, hissing, mumbling, yodeling in all kinds of crazy-genius eccentric ways, and his voice is more appealing than prince's, who was definitely an acquired taste for me.

Songwriting-Sly was the first eclecticist in funk and paved the way for every artist that attempted to recombine the splintered branches of the R&R/R&R family tree including Stevie, P-funk, EWF, the Isleys, hell EVERY R&B act of the 70s practically and of course Prince too. He infused elements of guitar rock, gospel, jazz and just pure pop into Funk and thus refined the formula laid down by James Brown. Apart from not having a virtuoso (or rather, loud-solo inclined) lead guitarist, Sly and his band were superior to nearly EVERY one of his immitators/successors. His music is some of the must perfectly distilled expressions of joy and hope and unity ever made, and while he recycled himself a few times, he certainly had a great variety of tunes and the ones he did recycle were of the calibur that genre-inventing pioneers like Chuck Berry could've made their entire careers out of. After doing all this, he took funk to it's deepest, darkest and most impenetrable with There's A Riot Going On and Fresh, which were so rhythmically complex people are still scratching their heads today. Prince is a great eclecticist as well, but he wasn't a genre-defining force the way sly was, and he had more uncredited partners in the creation of his music.

Production-As I said regarding George Clinton, Prince is destined to lose just because he made music in the 80s, and even helped influence the production aesthetic of the 80s which I think has aged poorly compared to that of the 60s and 70s. Even beyond the 80s though, I think prince often has too flashy or too artificial sounding/feeling production, overusing synths or drum machines which occasionaly produces a great fusion of electronic and organic, but sometimes causes the organic element to be lost. Sly always brought out the feel he was going for very well, whether it be bright and joyous or toxic and murky, and he was almost always tasteful, even when he would sometimes milk a gimmick for everything it was worth (think double tracked fuzz bass, but I love that sound anyway).

Musicianship/Instrumentalism-I'll call this one a draw since it's very hard to determine. We all know Prince is a great guitar player, and has at times played pretty impressively on drums, keys and bass. Sly on the other hand, is more difficult to determine because he could and would play all or most of the instruments himself (his engineer has said so and that it was basically a matter of whether or not someone else in the band could lay the track better than he could, which varied from time to time). Since sly's liner notes don't specify, we don't know which parts are played by who most of the time but ALL of the bass and drums parts on Fresh and Riot are great and at least some of them are sly himself. He may not like to do a flashy, Hendrixian guitar solo, but he's a great at rhythm and riffing, or at playing more understated and lyrically (ala Keith Richards meets Curtis Mayfield), and sly certainly plays a mean organ and piano. Beyond that Prince is not known to play any other instruments while sly is a great harmonica player (probably my personally favorite next to Stevie), and is speculated to play horns as well (he did major in trumpet performance, and there is that clarinet I mentioned in the other thread that nobody knows who played). Overall, I think I'll call it a tie since Sly plays/ed more instruments while prince is a certified virtuoso on at least a couple


As the Org Funkologist fro, I can dig what ya saying b/c its definitely on the one.
[Edited 8/1/05 8:55am]
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Reply #14 posted 08/01/05 5:07am

prettymansson

right on... (and legs)
i think u need to share that funkologist title because i make my living being ...lookin...and living FONK !!!
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Reply #15 posted 08/01/05 8:18am

funkpill

SLY!!!!!

cool
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Reply #16 posted 08/01/05 9:08am

Aerogram

avatar

jacktheimprovident said:

I'll handle this the way I handled to george clinton comparison and compare them level by level

Singing-both are great versatile singers. I think Prince has a better falsetto (but sly isn't lacking in that department, he just doesn't use it often or in a normal way) and sly has a better bass voice (think, family affair, I Hate to Love her). Also sly is a lot more unconventional a vocalist, growling, scatting, shrieking, hissing, mumbling, yodeling in all kinds of crazy-genius eccentric ways, and his voice is more appealing than prince's, who was definitely an acquired taste for me.

Songwriting-Sly was the first eclecticist in funk and paved the way for every artist that attempted to recombine the splintered branches of the R&R/R&R family tree including Stevie, P-funk, EWF, the Isleys, hell EVERY R&B act of the 70s practically and of course Prince too. He infused elements of guitar rock, gospel, jazz and just pure pop into Funk and thus refined the formula laid down by James Brown. Apart from not having a virtuoso (or rather, loud-solo inclined) lead guitarist, Sly and his band were superior to nearly EVERY one of his immitators/successors. His music is some of the must perfectly distilled expressions of joy and hope and unity ever made, and while he recycled himself a few times, he certainly had a great variety of tunes and the ones he did recycle were of the calibur that genre-inventing pioneers like Chuck Berry could've made their entire careers out of. After doing all this, he took funk to it's deepest, darkest and most impenetrable with There's A Riot Going On and Fresh, which were so rhythmically complex people are still scratching their heads today. Prince is a great eclecticist as well, but he wasn't a genre-defining force the way sly was, and he had more uncredited partners in the creation of his music.

Production-As I said regarding George Clinton, Prince is destined to lose just because he made music in the 80s, and even helped influence the production aesthetic of the 80s which I think has aged poorly compared to that of the 60s and 70s. Even beyond the 80s though, I think prince often has too flashy or too artificial sounding/feeling production, overusing synths or drum machines which occasionaly produces a great fusion of electronic and organic, but sometimes causes the organic element to be lost. Sly always brought out the feel he was going for very well, whether it be bright and joyous or toxic and murky, and he was almost always tasteful, even when he would sometimes milk a gimmick for everything it was worth (think double tracked fuzz bass, but I love that sound anyway).

Musicianship/Instrumentalism-I'll call this one a draw since it's very hard to determine. We all know Prince is a great guitar player, and has at times played pretty impressively on drums, keys and bass. Sly on the other hand, is more difficult to determine because he could and would play all or most of the instruments himself (his engineer has said so and that it was basically a matter of whether or not someone else in the band could lay the track better than he could, which varied from time to time). Since sly's liner notes don't specify, we don't know which parts are played by who most of the time but ALL of the bass and drums parts on Fresh and Riot are great and at least some of them are sly himself. He may not like to do a flashy, Hendrixian guitar solo, but he's a great at rhythm and riffing, or at playing more understated and lyrically (ala Keith Richards meets Curtis Mayfield), and sly certainly plays a mean organ and piano. Beyond that Prince is not known to play any other instruments while sly is a great harmonica player (probably my personally favorite next to Stevie), and is speculated to play horns as well (he did major in trumpet performance, and there is that clarinet I mentioned in the other thread that nobody knows who played). Overall, I think I'll call it a tie since Sly plays/ed more instruments while prince is a certified virtuoso on at least a couple


1, Prince is technically a better singer.
2. Because he came earlier, Sly has the advantage of being the groundbreaker, but I think Prince has shown himself to be a more adept songwriter in terms of styles, going deeper into some of them. Of course, that does not make the more important songwriter. Sly came first and did all these seminal songs.
3. I would say Sly did much better considering Prince's work in the 90s, but Prince gets points for humanizing lynn machines -- you can't discard him for his contribution to the 80's sound when he was one of the few examples of this sound's potential for being personal.
4. No way this a tie -- with Prince, it's not a question of him maybe playing this or that bit. You know he did and he did on stage too on occasion -- plus he is the better live performer by a mile.
[Edited 8/1/05 9:11am]
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Reply #17 posted 08/01/05 10:13am

laurarichardso
n

sosgemini said:

let me qualify ashford and simpson..i know they are leagonds...yet when they attempted to go solo...they had one hit and then flopped....thats a telling example there.

-----
Ashford and Simpson had more than one hit but, I must agree no Sly no Prince.
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Reply #18 posted 08/01/05 11:14am

DorothyParkerW
asCool

I love them both for similar and different reasons. This is similar to comparing Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis. Miles was hugely indebt to Louis, just like every jazz musician that followed. Similarly, Prince is hugely indebt to Sly, just like damn near every artist that followed. In both situations each artist was phenomenally talented and had the ability to create music that was progressive and accesible. Futhermore, the latter individuals (Davis and Prince) benefitted greatly from following in the footsteps of their mentors. That doesn't diminish the talents of the latter two, it just places their contributions in the proper context. End the end they are like 1 and 1A to me. Sly being 1 Prince being 1A.

BTW, for those individuals acting like Sly Stone existed in a vaccum, lets not forget that he took what James Brown was doing and married it to psychodelic rock. It's still "borrowing" to create a new sound so lets not go thru that flawed argument to prove a point.

[Edited 8/1/05 11:23am]
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Reply #19 posted 08/01/05 11:42am

MsLegs

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

I love them both for similar and different reasons. This is similar to comparing Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis. Miles was hugely indebt to Louis, just like every jazz musician that followed. Similarly, Prince is hugely indebt to Sly, just like damn near every artist that followed. In both situations each artist was phenomenally talented and had the ability to create music that was progressive and accesible. Futhermore, the latter individuals (Davis and Prince) benefitted greatly from following in the footsteps of their mentors. That doesn't diminish the talents of the latter two, it just places their contributions in the proper context. End the end they are like 1 and 1A to me. Sly being 1 Prince being 1A.

BTW, for those individuals acting like Sly Stone existed in a vaccum, lets not forget that he took what James Brown was doing and married it to psychodelic rock. It's still "borrowing" to create a new sound so lets not go thru that flawed argument to prove a point.


[Edited 8/1/05 11:23am]

nod
[Edited 8/1/05 12:06pm]
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Reply #20 posted 08/01/05 12:02pm

PurpleKnight

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I never saw the appeal in Sly's music, really. A lot of his songs sound the same and just don't hook me.

I know how influential and important he is in music history, but he just doesn't connect with me.

[Edited 8/1/05 12:02pm]
The world is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.

"You still wanna take me to prison...just because I won't trade humanity for patriotism."
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Reply #21 posted 08/01/05 2:22pm

jacktheimprovi
dent

Aerogram said:

jacktheimprovident said:

I'll handle this the way I handled to george clinton comparison and compare them level by level

Singing-both are great versatile singers. I think Prince has a better falsetto (but sly isn't lacking in that department, he just doesn't use it often or in a normal way) and sly has a better bass voice (think, family affair, I Hate to Love her). Also sly is a lot more unconventional a vocalist, growling, scatting, shrieking, hissing, mumbling, yodeling in all kinds of crazy-genius eccentric ways, and his voice is more appealing than prince's, who was definitely an acquired taste for me.

Songwriting-Sly was the first eclecticist in funk and paved the way for every artist that attempted to recombine the splintered branches of the R&R/R&R family tree including Stevie, P-funk, EWF, the Isleys, hell EVERY R&B act of the 70s practically and of course Prince too. He infused elements of guitar rock, gospel, jazz and just pure pop into Funk and thus refined the formula laid down by James Brown. Apart from not having a virtuoso (or rather, loud-solo inclined) lead guitarist, Sly and his band were superior to nearly EVERY one of his immitators/successors. His music is some of the must perfectly distilled expressions of joy and hope and unity ever made, and while he recycled himself a few times, he certainly had a great variety of tunes and the ones he did recycle were of the calibur that genre-inventing pioneers like Chuck Berry could've made their entire careers out of. After doing all this, he took funk to it's deepest, darkest and most impenetrable with There's A Riot Going On and Fresh, which were so rhythmically complex people are still scratching their heads today. Prince is a great eclecticist as well, but he wasn't a genre-defining force the way sly was, and he had more uncredited partners in the creation of his music.

Production-As I said regarding George Clinton, Prince is destined to lose just because he made music in the 80s, and even helped influence the production aesthetic of the 80s which I think has aged poorly compared to that of the 60s and 70s. Even beyond the 80s though, I think prince often has too flashy or too artificial sounding/feeling production, overusing synths or drum machines which occasionaly produces a great fusion of electronic and organic, but sometimes causes the organic element to be lost. Sly always brought out the feel he was going for very well, whether it be bright and joyous or toxic and murky, and he was almost always tasteful, even when he would sometimes milk a gimmick for everything it was worth (think double tracked fuzz bass, but I love that sound anyway).

Musicianship/Instrumentalism-I'll call this one a draw since it's very hard to determine. We all know Prince is a great guitar player, and has at times played pretty impressively on drums, keys and bass. Sly on the other hand, is more difficult to determine because he could and would play all or most of the instruments himself (his engineer has said so and that it was basically a matter of whether or not someone else in the band could lay the track better than he could, which varied from time to time). Since sly's liner notes don't specify, we don't know which parts are played by who most of the time but ALL of the bass and drums parts on Fresh and Riot are great and at least some of them are sly himself. He may not like to do a flashy, Hendrixian guitar solo, but he's a great at rhythm and riffing, or at playing more understated and lyrically (ala Keith Richards meets Curtis Mayfield), and sly certainly plays a mean organ and piano. Beyond that Prince is not known to play any other instruments while sly is a great harmonica player (probably my personally favorite next to Stevie), and is speculated to play horns as well (he did major in trumpet performance, and there is that clarinet I mentioned in the other thread that nobody knows who played). Overall, I think I'll call it a tie since Sly plays/ed more instruments while prince is a certified virtuoso on at least a couple


1, Prince is technically a better singer.
2. Because he came earlier, Sly has the advantage of being the groundbreaker, but I think Prince has shown himself to be a more adept songwriter in terms of styles, going deeper into some of them. Of course, that does not make the more important songwriter. Sly came first and did all these seminal songs.
3. I would say Sly did much better considering Prince's work in the 90s, but Prince gets points for humanizing lynn machines -- you can't discard him for his contribution to the 80's sound when he was one of the few examples of this sound's potential for being personal.
4. No way this a tie -- with Prince, it's not a question of him maybe playing this or that bit. You know he did and he did on stage too on occasion -- plus he is the better live performer by a mile.
[Edited 8/1/05 9:11am]



1.I'm not so sure about that, I think there are definitely things that sly could do with his voice that prince couldn't and vice versa. I'm not claiming to be an expert on vocal technique, but I think the question is more ambiguous.
2.I agree for the most part. I don't think that prince's greater stylistic range makes him better since he had the benefit of nearly two decades of popular music that sly didn't, and prince didn't exactly master everything he tried, nor is eclecticism the only measurement of songwriting prowess. We also have no idea what kind of music Sly's been making since his commercial absence, but reports from those who've heard it say it may turn a few heads if it was ever released.
3. I agree with what you're saying, I think prince definitely used drum machines in a very innovative and humanized way, but I think he would've sounded better if his career occured a decade or so earlier and the overall sound of much of his music is a major turnoff to most people I've tried to turn on to prince, I haven't had the same problem with Sly. Incidentally Sly was perhaps THE first person to use drum machines on his recordings.
4.Again, I think the question is more ambiguous than you realize. Bootsy Collins, who is himself a multi-instrumentalist virtuoso and one of THE bass masters says that Sly is the most talented musician he's ever worked with, and Bootsy's worked with Eddie Hazel, Junie Morrison (who was making one-man funk jam albums before prince's career started), Mike Hampton, Buckethead, Bernie Worrell (and he must have met and jammed with prince at SOME point) and many other instrumental wizards. Larry Graham, who was proficient on drums, guitar, saxophone, and harmonica as well as being a master of the bass considers Sly the true leader and the greatest talent in the Family Stone. Esteem from his colleagues aside, I know that Sly can play more instruments than prince and that the only instrument that I know for sure Prince can play better than Sly is the guitar, and even that I'm not entirely positive about.
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Reply #22 posted 08/01/05 2:43pm

DorothyParkerW
asCool

I have an idea, why dont we let them run a race, or swim laps while playing bass guitar, or see who can carry their drumset into the studio the fastest, balance the most sheets music on their heads while looking at the recording console, then we can determine who's the best. These threads are always funny because opinions do not determine a winner. Some people will favor Sly, some will say Prince and others like me see them as equals. See art is not like sports, its subjective. I just don't understand why we have to make a competition out of everything. Why can't we appreciate the immeasureable contributions that both musicians made because they BOTH charted new courses and made an enormous impact on music.
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Reply #23 posted 08/01/05 2:58pm

jacktheimprovi
dent

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

I have an idea, why dont we let them run a race, or swim laps while playing bass guitar, or see who can carry their drumset into the studio the fastest, balance the most sheets music on their heads while looking at the recording console, then we can determine who's the best. These threads are always funny because opinions do not determine a winner. Some people will favor Sly, some will say Prince and others like me see them as equals. See art is not like sports, its subjective. I just don't understand why we have to make a competition out of everything. Why can't we appreciate the immeasureable contributions that both musicians made because they BOTH charted new courses and made an enormous impact on music.


What I don't understand is why people get irritated by a little dispute or conflict of opinion. I think it's healthy and normal for people to disagree and to argue, otherwise they aren't really thinking. Exercising critical thought and using comparative analysis to do so is a GOOD thing. Now I can see where you're coming from about perhaps the methods of comparing or the desire to name a "best" out of sly or prince being somewhat silly, but I don't have any problem with a little confrontation of viewpoint, hell I relish in it, and quantifying or comparing things is part of how we define the world around us.
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Reply #24 posted 08/01/05 3:07pm

DorothyParkerW
asCool

jacktheimprovident said:

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

I have an idea, why dont we let them run a race, or swim laps while playing bass guitar, or see who can carry their drumset into the studio the fastest, balance the most sheets music on their heads while looking at the recording console, then we can determine who's the best. These threads are always funny because opinions do not determine a winner. Some people will favor Sly, some will say Prince and others like me see them as equals. See art is not like sports, its subjective. I just don't understand why we have to make a competition out of everything. Why can't we appreciate the immeasureable contributions that both musicians made because they BOTH charted new courses and made an enormous impact on music.


What I don't understand is why people get irritated by a little dispute or conflict of opinion. I think it's healthy and normal for people to disagree and to argue, otherwise they aren't really thinking. Exercising critical thought and using comparative analysis to do so is a GOOD thing. Now I can see where you're coming from about perhaps the methods of comparing or the desire to name a "best" out of sly or prince being somewhat silly, but I don't have any problem with a little confrontation of viewpoint, hell I relish in it, and quantifying or comparing things is part of how we define the world around us.



I agree with your point, but some people in this thread are not assessing things critically. Your posts have made sense becasue you are dissecting their abilities and not taking shots at either in your informed assessment. I don't mind that at all. I despise these threads because they generally become mean spirited by people on various sides of the discussion. Some get huffy because they feel one gets too much credit, while others will feel that the person they like is not being taken seriously enough. My point is this, I do not mind comparing the two, but when the talk centers on putting one down to build up the other, the conversation becomes juvenile. That's not critical thinking, thats a dick measuring contest. lol
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Reply #25 posted 08/01/05 3:16pm

SPYZFAN1

Cats like Prince and Rick James picked up the ball where Sly dropped it off.
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Reply #26 posted 08/01/05 3:17pm

whodknee

sosgemini said:

death.....

btw: without sly, there would be no prince..hence my refusal to answer this question..


razz



So..... you're saying Sly is Prince's real daddy? eek
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Reply #27 posted 08/01/05 3:23pm

whodknee

sosgemini said:

kpowers said:


no... prince had the gift in him (with or without sly)



bullshit....prince is a genius at "borrowing" previous used idears and perfecting them....if it wasnt for "every day people" there would never be "1999".....prince himself has admited that was the vibe he was going for.....

now, this is all IMHO...but if there wasn't sly i highly doubt prince would have achieved the same career he had..sure, he might have had a couple hits...but, who the fuck knows?

sorry to burst peoples bubbles....but i look at folks like TTD, P. Rushen, Ashford & Simpsons (solo), heck even wendy and lisa...and i see artist that are wonderfully talented that never achieved major longterm success.....i cant help to keep that in perspective and realize if prince hadnt had the influences he had....hadnt "gunned" to match or meet these folks, he never would have achieved the career he had..and would all be fans of a forgotten star who could have been...

trust, i know...im a huge wendy and lisa fan...and the path their career led them amounted to zero popular success...one different turn could have changed all that...thus i understand that one different turn could have turned prince into an obscure ttd-like powerhouse...


I don't mean to pick on you, but that's ridiculous. Unlike the others you mentioned, Prince is one of the greats because of his vision. It takes more than the talent these folks you mentioned have to be huge. There is no alternate universe where TTD, Wendy and Lisa, and Ashford and Simpson of all people are great on the level of Prince. You're kidding yourself if you think that. I do agree that Prince had help-- hell we all have help just to make it past birth-- but it's more than chance and luck. It's by design that Prince is who he is.
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Reply #28 posted 08/01/05 3:27pm

whodknee

As for the question. That's really unanswerable to be honest. Let's put it this way. There's nobody I've heard of, save for maybe Jimi, that I'd say is better than either of these two. Of course, you could argue that too.
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Reply #29 posted 08/01/05 5:24pm

Thumparello

whodknee said:

As for the question. That's really unanswerable to be honest. Let's put it this way. There's nobody I've heard of, save for maybe Jimi, that I'd say is better than either of these two. Of course, you could argue that too.




They'll never be another Sly or Prince. Tough question. Sly fucked his career up cause the drugs became to important to him,he just didn't give a shit.

They have both made an incredible contribution to music . That question will be left up for music history to decide.
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