When you think, after listening to 'Fury' from SNL and his RRHOF-performance, that Prince is the best guitarist alive, youre wrong...

When you listen to Richard Thompsons playing on "The way it goes" from the album "Mirror Blue" you will understand why...

(dont even bother me with insanely annoying nams like Steve Vai en Joe Satriani)

Peace

and if you think apples are the best fruit in town, wait until you try oranges.

smiles... of course

Anx said:

It's all about a tangelo, bitches.




licking the sweet, sweet juice offa the edit
[Edited 2/7/06 11:01am]

Riverpoet31 said:

So strange. I swear to God, I was just listening to this song on my iPod. Not to split hairs, but the title is "The Way That it Shows"...not "goes." Richard Thompson is an amazing guitarist. Always loved his playing.

FunkMistress said:

don't you mean t'angelos?

Anx said:

Nah, man. I'm more about "medicinal herbs" than fruit, y'know.

well, musicians like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai certainly dont understand a fuck about music, they should be buried deep..

Prince is a great guitarplayer, Richard Thompson is even better, lets burn a light for real musicians who express their SOUL!

well, i'd venture to say that thurston moore has a greater mastery of distortion and effects than prince does, but i still think they have their own niches, at which they're both brilliant in their own ways.

David Beckham plays football better than Prince.

Whan did Prince say he was the world's greatest guitar player?

Riverpoet31 said:

I don't get this whole "greatest or not greatest guitarist" discussion.

First of all, how do you measure greatness?

Second, I'd like to tell you a story. A friend of mine plays guitar, and he didn't know a f... about Prince. I told him how good he was on guitar and my friend always made jokes at me (obviously he just knew Prince as "that crazy-dressed pop star"). One day I played "Joy in Repetition" (live from ONA) for him, and he couldn't believe his ears. He said that Prince was really great and could play various styles. On the other hand, he also told me that Prince had technical limits and that someone like Vai was better (technically). My firend has a lot of that "L.A. metal" stuff (Vai, Satriani), so he played some Vai for me. I agreed that Vai was better technically, but also told him that the music was f..king boring as hell!!! That's like Czerny if you want to listen to piano music (piano players know what I mean)!

I can't comment on Thompson as I don't know his work (I'm not a guitar expert, to be honest).

Conclusion: Prince is excellent on guitar. There may be other great players outside, but what makes Prince really unique is that he is a great guitarist and also good on the piano, the bass, the drums and vocals. And he can write songs!

So, who needs that "greatest guitarist" discussion other than ranking freaks?
[Edited 2/7/06 11:29am]

EmancipationLover said:

For those who say Steve Vai doesn't understand a thing about music... try to strike a chord or even try to learn how to play! Listen carefully to everything he's done (his work with Dwizzle Zappa etc...) and learn folks!

Steve Vai is mistaking being a technical proficient player with being an artist, someone who lets his or her soul, vision and identity shine trough in what they are performing...

I watched a concert on TV he gave with a dutch orchestra an he bored my to dead....yes, technically a very good guitarist, but not touching my soul in any ways....

FunkMistress said:

Riverpoet31 said:

That's a good summary of Vai. I have the same problem with Satriani. It's almost like their music is TOO technically solid. It's void of character and timbre. Technically speaking, Kenny G is pretty solid. But you won't catch me listening to him. Give me Coletrane any day, complete with his mistakes and technical downfalls. It's about phrasing and passion and energy and...

FunkMistress said:

That's very funny.

Will this topic ever end. It's such a frat boys debate. Musical artistry is not about competition. It is not a sporting event. Everyone has favorites but enough already. There is no logical answer to the question. Is it about speed, tone, technical brilliance, guitar composition, virtuoisity...and so on. And why do great black guitarists always get left out of the debate (Eddie Hazel, Stanley Jordan, Vernon Reid, etc.)?

because its isnt about race either.....

EmancipationLover said:

I agree with you, EmancipationLover. This type of ranking is absolutely useless and serves no purpose other than to brute force one's own personal preferences onto others.

It is impossible to ever find a "best" guitarist, as every guitarist has their limitations and shortcomings, be it technical, emotional, musical, or whatever. This, of course, is obvious. In addition, as everyone's personal tastes in music vary greatly, their ideas of true greatness differ. I once read that Jack Black, comedian and guitarist for "Tenacious D," considered Angus Young the greatest guitar player ever. Do I agree with him? Absolutely not! Am I supposed to agree with him? No.

The thing about Prince is that he is about as complete a package as you can find: a great instrumentalist with plenty of soul and awesome songwriting skills. I pity the person who would one day attempt to compare Prince's songwriting to that of Stevie Wonder. Both of them are amazing, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable harmonically, melodically and lyrically, and to compare them is, as Anx so humorously put it, as futile as comparing apples and oranges.

Now, as for Riverpoet's assertion that great musicians express their soul...certainly true. However, your experience with Vai and Satriani, from what I read in your posts, seems to be superficial at best. Both of them are great musicians in the purest sense of the word, and both of them have soul. Admittedly, some of their music at times resorts to flashy scales and memorized patterns, and some of their ballads may be just a trifle banal and forced, but that is not to say that all of their music is devoid of soul. I would advise further listening to their music before setting your opinion in stone. In my very humble opinion (which I am even reluctant to convey), Malmsteen puts me to sleep INSTANTLY, as does MacAlpine and many other speed metal guitarists, but they are great musicians nonetheless, I can admit.

Eman, your Czerny-Vai analogy is probably a little skewed ... I would probably compare Vai to Liszt, a composer with occasional brilliant compositions who more often resorted to flash than heart.

Additionally, I have never heard Richard Thompson's music, but all of this has made me want to check him out.

I think it's very dangerous to start out comparing musicians publically. Do it for your own personal enjoyment. That's fine. But the second you decide to do a Venn diagram on Hendrix and Prince, or Vai and Prince, or Tatum and Monk, or Liszt and Chopin, you are going to run into some trouble. Much of what I have said is obvious, I just figured it needed to be said.

gmcb said:

As gmcb's post appeared whilst I was writing mine...

True, Vai's and Satriani's playing sometimes sounds almost over-rehearsed, as if every note was planned in advance. Not always, but sometimes. Compared to more natural players, like Van Halen, who probably did not engage in eight-hour practice sessions as Vai often did, their playing can sound staged, but they have moments of inspiration where raw playing wins out over the rehearsed.

A mix of practice and the natural is best. Extremes can often be dangerous. I've heard people say that the most cerebral of Bach and Hindemith is the antithesis of music, and I've heard others say the same about John Cage. Who's to know?

klaatu said:

I don't say he doesn't understand a thing about music. He is a brilliant player!!! All I say is that his compositions don't reach his standard of guitar playing.

Btw, I play three instruments myself (just not guitar).
[Edited 2/7/06 12:15pm]

To me Prince is the best guitar player ever! But thats because he's my favourite musician. I dont like to get into whos the best this or that, it's about who YOU like.
[Edited 2/7/06 12:15pm]

Riverpoet31 said:

You don't happen to work for Rolling Stone magazine do you?

Actually I think you'll find YOU are wrong. My uncle Pepi knows only one chord which he can't even play on his single string guitar with either of his amputated arm stumps. But the SOUL he can get out of one note, man. When I hear some cold two-handed egghead like Richard Thompson relying on all those tricks like multi-string chords and fancy 4 or 5 note melodies I shake my head and think of old uncle Pepi and his one note masterpieces - B flat is my favourite - my God, just thinking about it now brings a lump to my throat. So I raise a glass to my uncle Pepi, unquestionably the greatest guitarist who has ever lived, or will ever live!

To Pepi!

honestly thinks you dont even ever heard a richard thompson solo...

to empethize my point, when people talk about 'great guitarists' they mostly come up with technically, fast type of players, when music ultimately is about soul and 'making a deeper connection', so, YES, i am bragging now, but for every Vai or Satriani give me a:

- Thompson (of course)
- David Hidalgo, Los Lobos
- Nick Drake (I mean, you always talk about electric guitarists, but this is an acoustic guitarist who 'understands')
- Richard Loyd
- Robert Quine
- Peter Buck (REM, technically a 'nitwit', but creating more emotion with his jangle then some flashy, longhaired dude will ever will)

Riverpoet31 said:

I honestly don't separate guitarists into technical and non-technical. I like most of those you mentioned, including Richard Thompson, he plays some beautiful stuff, as well as guys like Vai and Satriani. They've all got different things to bring to the table and I would never even bother comparing them myself, I don't see the point. But if you want to, thats fine, I just wish people were a bit more open minded about the whole thang. To me, saying something like "Guitarist X can say more with one note or one chord than any technically adept player" isn't any less dumb than saying "Guitarist Y is great because he can play all of Coltranes sax solos with one hand at 350BPM". But hey, thats just my humble, but always correct, opinion.
[Edited 2/7/06 13:04pm]

I AM openminded, i dont like technical provicient guitarplayers, i love guitarists who let their soul shine trough




LOL

jdcxc said:

Half the discussion in the last thread on this subject was about Stanley Jordan, and I've seen Vernon Reid's name come up quite a few times in my time here. Hendrix gets mentioned often - apparently he was black, though that may be just a rumor. Prince is black too, you'll find there is the OCCASIONAL discussion of his guitar playing. But don't let the facts stop you, you see what you want to see.....its your universe, I just thank you for letting me be part of it.

Riverpoet31 said:

You's some wrong kinda hoe! Whatchoothank, you know it all n'ishnit?

I bet you prince will kick vai...satriani...and thompsons ass at funky rhythm guitar...and surly at making a body of work that has touched more people than all 3 of those cats put together...I dig them all and i have for years and years...but I bet u they all respect the hell out of prince...
[Edited 2/7/06 13:06pm]

Prince is halve black, a quarter phillipan, and a quarter italian.....

But those are superficial things, i mean, why should race be a subject when it comes to judging musical qualities?


Grow up, please..... (sigh)