A co-worker of mines is a huge Led Zepplin Fan. Everytime we discuss music and I of course bring up Prince, He say's the same thing over and over. A musician can never grow if he or she Produces themself. Prince can't produce himself and his music suffers from it. I feel P. has done fine on his own throughout the years, but do any of you think Prince may have benefited from allowing someone else to take the reigns. Just curious. What may have been. Example, what would a Stevie Wonder Produced album sound like. Or Quincy Jones? Please no MJ references just throwing out ideas.

Prince doesn't need a producer!

Prince just needs a long vacation where he's doing nothing but gambling, smoking blunts, and having sexy with nasty ass hookers.

The music would definately be more inspiring.

Would Prince let anyone ( else ) take the reigns ? Who would dare ?

Just asking ...

virginie74 said:

AtWaD and Parade were pretty much done by Wendy and Lisa... so why not now? but not W and L someone that knows how to produce.

prince is an excellent musician and a great creator of melodies and lyrics, but i don't think he has a sense of music outside of his own little sphere, and i don't think he cares. of course collaborating with a producer would be a fantastic challenge for him, but it'll never happen because prince doesn't want to be challenged by anyone but himself.

he may also be afrade that if someoe else did produce him it would be a huge hit and then it would make Prince look bad. like he could only make a HIT with some help... maybe PRINCE needs to listen to "Old Friends for Sale" again?

Imago said:

Smoking weeddddd

SlamGlam said:

I don't think so...

I was thinking about this producing thing. I do think it would be really interesting for us, the fans, to hear Prince produced by someone else. (And no, not produced by Prince, you cheeky muppet). I think also that it could produce some of the most exciting music of his career. But... I also think that it shouldn't happen, because the whole deal with P is that he makes the music entirely himself, what you hear on record is what is coming directly out of his brain. In a way, I'd be disappointed with him if he did lose faith in his own abilities enough to bring someone else in.

Prince does Prince like nobody else could.

I liked it when Prince produced ... LOL Truly the Gemini way to do things.

Seriously, Prince could never be produced by anyone, he's too much of a control freak. He barely lets anyone direct him in video and film...

If he were to allow someone? It should be Wyclef...

Prince produces himself just fine. He's had 4 USA number one albums, I should think that's more than most producers or artists producing themselves, certainly over the time period involved. 3121 being number one surely makes him an 'in' producer right now (alright, the ticket promotion helped but only because he has built a fan-base that are so desperate to see him live that they would buy multiple copies. I'm sure many other artists would utilise that promotion strategy if they could). I'm sure there are many artists who would love Prince to produce them if only he was someone they could hire.

I think the definition of 'producer' has changed over the years, particularly recently with the huge amount of singers incapable of producing a note themselves or of having an original song idea. A producer should be someone who enables the artist or band to achieve the vision they have for their music but don't have the over-all knowledge to accomplish it. Someone to book the studio, hire technicians and session musicians, make day to day decisions on how best to record the music to achieve the effect the artists envisage. For all of that, Prince doesn't need anyone.

These days producers now create the sound for the artist - they have a particular sound the artist comes to them for and direct the artist so that they fit in with this sound. If Prince did this, sure his music might sound a bit like someone elses, but is that what we want? Is that growth? A producer is there to make a hit album, not encourage growth.

I refute the idea that Prince's music has not grown over the years, it's grown as much as any other artist I could think of and therefore the notion that 'a musician cn never grow if they produce themselves' is false. Each of Prince's albums have been unique visions from his own imagination, not the imagination of anyone else, and not all have been completely successful but part of growth is making mistakes, not constantly taking a safe established route ie changing your sound and trying new things.

Most people say that Prince should have a producer to stop him from releasing certain songs or make him re-do songs better. You would be hard to find someone with the experience that Prince has whose decisions are going to be any more valid than Prince's own. Even people with the calibre of Quincy or Stevie can make mistakes, and often do, so that is not inherently a solution.

Imago said:

Ha !!
TRUTH SPOKEN

metalorange said:

totally disagree..there have always been producers who molded the artist and there always have been producers who were less hands on...same as it ever was.


artist who are less hands on but create an enviroment for the artist to thrive:

jon brion
tchad blake
rick ruban
craig street
andy kaulkin

prince should do himself a favor and call any one of these pronto...

SlamGlam said:

Not to beat a dead horse but isn't this a bit of an overstatement?

The last thing Prince needs is a producer. A producer would have him sounding like all the other bullshit on the radio. Prince needs to do everything by himself.

vainandy said:

the producers i mentioned dont fit into your category...theres a whole slew of artist out there making great music that doesnt get radio airplay...just because radio music sucks doesnt mean that talent is dead.

Very true but if Prince were to get a producer, that would mean he's trying to get a hit. If someone wants a hit these days, they have to sound like everyone else to get plenty of radio and video airplay.

vainandy said:

i'm looking for quality in sound, not a hit...theres potentional in prince for more consistent albums if he were to be challenged by a rick ruben or tchad blake...blake expecially. his binary recording technique creates a wonderful soundscape that prince has never attempted to achieve. i wonder if he is even aware of it...or rick ruben's style of challenging an artist to reach deep inside themselves...or andy kaulkin's "live band" one take production on Bettye Lavette's "I've Got My Own Hell To Raise"...theres a bunch of new approaches to production that prince could learn...thats what why i would be interested in a production collaboration.

sosgemini said:

I disagree, because...

a) Producing is taking the overall artistic responsiblity of the musical outcome. I don't see how anyone else could do that with Prince.
Prince would not be "Prince", if that part will be taken out. However I agree with that post, which said that Prince could be more risky with his present productions.

b) Producing is not just making better "sounds" for someone. For instance, Bruce Swedien took that responsiblity with Michael Jackson's Thriller; not Quicy Jones. George Martin was hardly just engineer in those classic Beatles record- someone else did those "quality" sounds.

c) I don't know, what's the definition of quality sound. The individual tracks(drums, bass, guitars etc.) in those old "classic Prince-albums" (like Dirty Mind, 1999, ATWID, Parade, SOTT) sounded all like they were taken out from someone's demos. However, as a whole, they were rich and creative albums; mostly because of the one man's "overall creative" vision.

Get Rick Rubin in for some of that Johnny Cash/Neil Diamond magic!

I think he's doing alright on his own!

Prince does not need a producer. He does fine by himself. However, it
would be nice to see him work with some fellow twin city funksters
like jam and lewis and them bad @ss boys from st paul mint condition.

I definitely feel that Prince needs an outside Producer at this point. He's done some amazing work on his own over the years, but let's be honest.. he has not reached his previous levels of greatness on a consistant basis for the last 10 years or so. Prince is too much in "his own head", and needs some outside advice. NOT a producer who'll just mold him to conform to current trends, but somebody who could expose him to different things, and tell him if something isn't working (lot a lot of stuff on "TRC").

When there was that "Prince Vs. U2" thread, I said one of the main reasons I think U2 have done better work in the last decade than Prince, is that they always used outside Producers to help hone their material (and also took longer between releases to do that as well ) .

Most of the greats have used producers : Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Springsteen. Even Zeppelin, that essentially produced themselves , had strong engineers and a hands-on manager

jjhunsecker said:

100% correct!
He needs somebody (not a friend, not a Jam and Lewis, not a 'Larry', not a yes-man, and most definately not a current hip-hop producer), a serious outside producer, somebody that will push him and help him find himself and his potential again. Sosgemini was on the right path.

Pity his ego will never allow this...

Welcome to The Hef Years...

I tend to agree with those saying he does need a producer. But it's not going to happen. I think we have to accept that it's him producing himself or nothing.

i think Prince is more than capable of producing himself.
But it would be nice to hear someone else lending a hand.
If Prince could ever allow someone like Arif Mardin to produce his record that would be really cool.Did you know that Mardin wanted Prince to play guitar on
Chakas' I Feel For You?Prince had to turn it down because he was too busy.

SlamGlam said:

They did not produce that... it all sounds like typical prince production, just listen to those girls albums to find out what they sound like on their own.

the brotha's too bull-headed to let that happen. deal.

Prince does need a producer.....himself. PERIOD.

prince needs some good old fashion compitition,to inspire him.i've said it b4,
if some brother was out there killing that guitar all over mtv and banging out some good songs and making a name 4 himself, prince would explode.u would probably get a new cd real soon.hard to get inspired by this fast food music we are being feed by the record companies,prince hears this garbage to. so all he can do now is not bore himself.give him someone else out there kicking butt and u will light a fire under his as_
just like in purple rain the kid needs some compitition. like yesterday.

I don't think that he needs to let someone else produce his album. Maybe he should do a collaboration with someone. Only another musical genius would be able to produce an album for him like Stevie Wonder. Stevie will make a song for an artist rather than just having them sing his song. But, I still say don't rock the boat. If it it ain't broke, don't fix it. Just relax and let it float!