Everyone always talks about him as a guitarist (And with good cause) and his piano playing, too. But I'm interested in his Drum playing since I know least about that. (People might have noticed I ask for tracks that he plays drums on alot)
So why not a little discussion on that. Because people say he's pretty good, maybe not as good as some of the people he's had in his band, but good.

ive always heard he was a basic drummer...
nothing special

however, i'm sure you can find some footage somewhere...
didn't he drum a bit on the aladdin dvd? (it's been a long while since i've watched that)

ok, just for 1 minute.
not longer.

check the madhouse albums (especially 8). he does great drum work on those . he's no sheila e., but he's .

he's does
[Edited 3/18/08 12:59pm]

purplepolitician said:

that i did not know - thanks!
i'll definitely be listening to that tonight...

He is a good drummer but is a better guitarist, keyboard and bass player.

He grooved for a bit on drums at one of the aftershows I saw last summer and it was really cool to see.

I think my favorite piece of drumming of his is 'I'm Yours' from the For You album. Some great fills in there for sure!

Perhaps he's less practiced at the drums because of his relience on drum machines in the 80's. Mind you at his best he's a great drum programmer.

He's a great drummer! One of my favorite live drum performances of his is "lady cab driver". the interplay between the snare and hi-hat is some smooth playing for sure. He plays exactly what's perfect for the song, and it's damn funky playing. I think that his drumming tends to get overshadowed by his guitar playing, singing, and programming. But he is a great great drummer.

Prince is a very good drummer!

SOTT
[Edited 3/18/08 13:58pm]

you seen "America?"
drum solo ftw dog

I think he's a lil underrated as drummer, as most of his songs have basic beats that any fifth grader could play and also his use of drum machines, but if you take some spectacular tracks of his you can hear his use of high hats and technical drumming is complex and you know... ballin. Seriously, he's really good! And he chooses some insane drummers for his bands you know? He's got good taste with Shiela E., Micheal Bland, John Blackwell, etc
[Edited 3/18/08 13:57pm]

thefunkydrummer said:

Do I need to get one of my live recordings to hear this or is that him playing for real on the studio version, too?


I think I'm going to go..."get"...some of the stuff everyone just suggested right now.

I love him on drums in America!

Dayclear said:

I think he looks a whole lot better than he sounds - bring back Mikey B

I've always loved his drumming in "Movie Star"

Rioub said:

Is that the electric variety??

I believe Prince could play anything well.

ToraToraDreams said:

the coolest ever quote that enybody ever dropped on princes drummin abilty, was when miles davis was talkin about him for the documentry shot round about, 87, 88..theres footage of the gig wit prince n miles at paisley and theres..rapid clips where miles talks about a diffrent aspect of his music ability, guitar, piano, bass..and when he gets 2 drums he says.."he plays the drums man..then he pauses and thinks deep 2 himself for a sec and says, man he plays them drums.." search 4 that if u aint seen it..yaldi

Personally, I think he's a great drummer! Darling Nikki is awesome playing!

I'm Yours. great drumming.

Everything on the first 4 albums is Prince playing drums, except for Private Joy on Controversy which is a drum machine. someone correct me if I'm wrong here...

coolcat said:

Without actually checking, that's what I would advise to play when you wanna hear Prince play drum. Madhouse 8 is Sheila on drums, not Prince...

Sander said:

Sorry, Madhouse 8 is all Prince and Eric Leeds. Sheila only played on Madhouse 16, as well as some of the tracks that ended up on Eric's Times Squared album.

pzlyprk said:

It really is? Damn. Thanks for info.

Just watched the America video, btw, that is some very good drumming...

weejimmy said:[."he plays the drums man..then he pauses and thinks deep 2 himself for a sec and says, man he plays them drums.." search 4 that if u aint seen it..yaldi[/quote]

I think the actual quote is "He plays the shit out of drums."

coolcat said:

Spot on. Although it was rumoured Morris Day played drums on Party Up (The song he wrote), but its never been confirmed.

My favourite Prince drumming is on Tamborine. And when he played the drums on this live he kicked arse.

He's not Michael B, but he is better than Bobby Z!

SquirrelMeat said:

I think Bobby might be the only drummer P had that P was BETTER than. Because, seriously, he's had some kick ass drummers in his band.

coolcat said:

And he played the drums for the first three songs off of Parade in one try. His technique always seems just a little sloppy when I see footage, but that's just me being very picky--I still love watching him play drums.

ToraToraDreams said:

He was better than Kirky J.,too!!
[Edited 3/19/08 21:06pm]

SquirrelMeat said:

yeah, 'Tamborine' is killer, but damn, you just listen to the MUSICIANSHIP on Madhouse 8, and you can see that P is a real hardcore MUSICIAN, that's how I view him mostly. Unfortunatly, the POP world and general public are so un-aware of his raw talent, not just writing/singing but his ability on everything.
Drumming/Programming/Percussion/Guitars/Keys and none of them set in one particular style. He just does it all, and in many different ways.

I wanna see more of his SOLO albums, and YES, he drums like a motherfucka!

To me Darlig Nikki stands out... because it is such a unique song (one of the greatest prince songs)... And the drums really carry it...

ToraToraDreams said:

I think he plays better than one of his earlier drummers.




[Edited 3/20/08 11:38am]