Okay this has been on my mind for a very long while. Ever since I saw Prince playing with Chaka Khan and the gang on the BET awards, I've been wondering this--why does Prince screw up that pretty face of his while he's playing guitar? Is that something he's recently picked up or has he always done that, or is he feeling the music a bit too much? Please tell me before my mom says he looks like he has Tourette's for the umpteenth time (and we argued for the umpteenth time too!)

Here is a pic I found that illustrates Prince's facial motions.

too funny...bad camera angle though.....he's always laughing

LOL. Those faces are nothing new. Simply put, the brother's feelin' what he's playin'.

I wonder if anyone's ever really studied why people make "screwy guitar faces". I've seen other musicians faces twist a little, but guitar players OMG! Prince has always made the strange faces I've seen many players make, but he seems more in control of some of them now - maybe trying not to look too strange...

But really, there's something about feeling the music and it screwing with your face...I was in a great choir once and we were so in tune and I felt my face beginning to contort in ecstacy... what's that about??

The scientific term is faciumuglium sometimes when you’re feeling it you get the ugly face. Ask any musician friends of yours. Ok faciumuglium I just made that word up but the other part is true.
[Edited 10/21/06 19:55pm]

It's the funk face! It's beautiful 2!

Well to me he never looks goofy..he just looks like he is in the throes of sexual ecstacy.

I love watching Prince perform and making The Funk face.

he feels his music. He wrote them and gave birth to them.

/

Prince is the BEST

It's called "Feelin the Funk", you've gotta be FUNKY to understand it. people get it sometimes when they reach an Orgasm too, tell mom that!
[Edited 10/22/06 9:20am]

Krystal666 said:

I don't know about the face, but that cream outfit is KILLER!

Funk Face.... I like that. Its one of the many things I love bout him

Why stop at just the guitar faces?
He's full of expressions no matter what he's doin on stage.

FruitToAttractBears said:

Yummy!

My husband plays guitar, and I asked him why he makes faces when he plays. He said that he's not concious of it, buy he is mimicking the sounds the guitar makes.

dustysgirl said:

Exactly...Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana do it too.

sitruk7 said:

I was at the aftershow and his photographer Ashfin came up and Prince began instantly mugging for the camera screwing up his mouth as he played: on cue.

Ash left and Prince stopped with the bells palsy schtick

myfavorite said:

You'll have to forgive the "bad angle." I'm not a professional photographer, just a fam trying to get a few cool shots it to remember my night.

the facial expressions are occuring in conjuntion with his hand movement. this happens in more than just music. my husband's mouth moves when he is working on fixing something. i can't quite remember where i heard this(probably on discovery channel) but man began developing language around the time that he began using tools so there is some sort of connection with the mouth and intricate hand movement.

in that first picture he looks as if he's about to sneeze.

kejourner said:

Like when we put on eye makeup and our mouths open

Krystal666 said:

Egh..thx for ruinin my fantasies lol..

i love the facial expressions.

guarinigirl2000 said:

Relax Relax. He's alwayz like dat. He is probably bragging to himself in his mind "man i rock da house when i make this guitar scream". I do it 2. . Mayb that where i got it from.

Either that or he is having one fantastic orgasm!

guarinigirl2000 said:[quote]Okay this has been on my mind for a very long while. Ever since I saw Prince playing with Chaka Khan and the gang on the BET awards,
Here is a pic I found that illustrates Prince's facial motions.

This is what I was talking about last week. I was saying that Prince seems as though he is performing but his Heart really isn't in it anymore. I don't know if the photo you posted was a photo from the BET awards but I know exactly what faces your talking about. It seems as though he is just going through the motions. He makes these faces but you can tell there is no real emotion there.
I think he needs to lose this Jehovia Witness stuff alone. As a mater of fact I think this was the first time I heard him give a shout out to Jehovia on this particular BET award show. Believing in God is one thing, and being a Jehovia Cronie is another. If he is not careful they will suck the life and the creativity right out of him. I can't wait until he slips up and says his first cuss word in a live show. Man I really miss hearing Erotic City, just because he is not able to cuss anymore.

These facial expressions of Prince have always been proof to me he's putting all of his emotions in his guitarplaying: just like those spastic movements Joe Cocker shows when he sings, the eyeball movements of Micheal Stipe when he sings a ballad, just proof these artists are 'loosing themselves' in their music.
It might look a bit weird and scary or silly on the surface, but when you think about it its just touching to see artists putting so much of themselves into their music.

U CANNOT play FUNK and NOT get the Vapors.....that's against the LAW.

FruitToAttractBears said:

Sweet, sweet Princey's lips...Luscious, velvety, moist, and pure funky honey....