JimRockford said:

Exactly. Prince obviously liked using synths. It suited his style of self recording in the middle of the night without the need for other musicians.

I think it was Sheila's live band that seemed to influence him into putting it on to vinyl. We got the 12" of I would die 4 U, followed closely by Temptation and the Ladder. Then the flood gates opened with the 86 tour.

vainandy said:

and their ain't nothing wrong with jazz

JimRockford said:

yes i do agree that u r clueless about soul music in general i will agree with u on that and his music has been and will always have soul. if u want rock then try van halen

L4OATheOriginal said:

Yeah, I'm clueless because I hear what is there & don't try to make up bullshit about what it should have been, but substituted.

You got me all figured out...

JimRockford said:

so when someone else pointed out that the synth lines were used as horn elements, that person is just bullshitting as well huh?

i suggest u don't listen 2 earth wind and fire either ..it's 2 soulful and full of hornz as well

L4OATheOriginal said:

Yes, they would be equally stupid...

Thanks for the tip. I will avoid Earth, Wind, & Fire.

Twiki said:

I'll try.

vainandy said:

You are correct, sir. And you are also correct that much too often Prince's use of horns veers into jazz. And that is not a good thing. It took a lot of the tasty nastiness and venom out of Prince's music imo.

And also remember that, according to writer Jon Bream, Prince used to actively hate the sound of real horns and that was a big reason why he used synths.

He had a signature sound with the synths and the LinnLM1 drum machine. He should have stuck with that a whole lot longer.

LinnLM1 said:

so it's all eric leeds and miles davis's fault 4 prince going in2 jazz then. understand that when u r younger u have a tendancy 2 hate ur parents style of doing things, but as u mature u start embracing their likes or dislikes. so the natural progression of musical style 4 prince. hence the inclusion of hornz in the mix and if u think his horn work sucks, listen 2 the live version of kiss during sott and the lovesexy tours.

Prince was always horn-y.

L4OATheOriginal said:

Nicely said!

I think when Prince started recording stuff with Sheila the real horns appeared. There is a killer sax solo at the beginning of Glamorous Life and Prince never had any horns in his music before then. Prince had horns in his Purple Rain tour also. Prince didn't get jazzy until Sheila appeared.

SanDiegoFunkDaddy said:

There's also a simply sweet sax in Love Bizarre throughout the third verse.

L4OATheOriginal said:

Other conversation aside..

I gotta disagree with you on this one O.G.

One of the MAIN reasons I got into Prince was that he rocked. The mixture was intoxicating. And I did listen to VH at the time.

Music having soul is not the same as it being R&B etc...I know you know that.

I don't want to talk around in circles...I think you know me well enough to get what I'm saying.

The R&B "soul" element has ALWAYS been in Prince's music...but it is one of many elements and regardless of which element is predom. in a particular song/project...Prince's music has soul...spirit.

Get it? Got it? Good!

Eric and Matt together were the best use of horns that complemented and ADDED to Prince's style and worked with the synths.
(I actually think Lisa or Fink often doubled his parts with the synth live).

The later versions (NPG, Musicology) are cute, but too Vegasy and not particularly "Prince-specific".

It's weird because Eddie M guesting on the Purple Rain tour finales/encores is what started it all. And, while I've seen Eddie really blow on some of Sheila's later shows, back then he sounded kinda rough and not in a good way. On the PR tour he would hit these weird squeaky notes that sounded awful.

Eric, though is the man.
[Edited 5/17/08 14:43pm]

All the horn shit sucked...