I'd say Prince owes a good 50% of his success to the success and relatively recent passing of Jimi Hendrix. A lot of comparisons have been made between the two artists over the years and it seems Prince has consistently denied being much influenced if at all by Hendrix, but I don't buy it. For instance, while Prince might be more reminiscent of James or George during most of his live shows throughout his career, he has always had a more Hendrix-styled attitude in the studio.

Take Jimi's song "Third Stone From the Sun". If you took this song and played it back to back with something like "The Sensual Everafter" or really any number of live jams (think along the lines of Small Club's "Just My Imagination"). Not to mention, Prince aped the "strange beautiful" lyric for "Beautiful Strange" and its accompanying atmospheric and fusion-like music. Additionally, you have imagery from "Bold As Love" creeping into things like "Paisley Park" etc, vocal arrangements and melody from "Foxy Lady" poking through on things like "Peach" or "Temptation", and of course drumming from "Little Miss Lover" being sampled for the update to "Tick Tick Bang". You could also compare the "EXP" intro on Axis to the segues on Love Symbol.

Some of these might be far-reaching, but it's hard to deny (IMO) that there was huge borrowing from Hendrix's aesthetic for Prince's imagery and music throughout the 80s.

Other than performing "Red House", "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)", and "Spanish Castle Magic", has Prince really ever extensively performed Jimi songs? Certainly not like he does Sly (and before anyone says he probly aped more from Sly than Jimi and that Jimi aped from Sly too, that's another post ).

To this day, I've always thought "Lotus Flower" was his attempt at doing a Jimi album and that "Dreamer" was such an obvious rip off of the riff from "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" that it amazed me people praised it so much.

Jimi is good, but he is overrated...alot of his appeal comes from the fact that he was one of the first at pushing the limits of the electric guitar. It didn't hurt that he was a black man doing rock music either.

Prince has surpassed Jimi in every phase....playing, singing, theatrics, live performances, yet still gets no love from the general public. He will never come close to Jimi's stratosphere in the public eye.

I don't recall Prince ever saying he wasn't influenced by Jimi....I don't recall him ever bringing up his name actually. He does give lots of love and credit to Carlos Santana. I'd listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn over all of them, including Prince. He was magical.

Musically, I hear much more of a Santana influence than Hendrix but you´re right about the visual aspect, the imagery and the flamboyant stage persona, and of course the wardrobe during the mid 80s.

The musical influence became more obvious in the past couple of years. Not that it wasn´t there before but I think it became much more audible (and visible....think about those little hints like that Hendrix album he had in the limousine and other hints) in the past couple of years,as you said above......some songs on Lotusflower are an example for your theory.

But, all in all, I think Jimi wasn´t really that much of an influence in his earlier years.

And I wholeheartedly agree with Revolution´s post above.

I am just listening to the Lotusflower album and there is way more Jimi in there than Carlos.

You can go on about it forever but I am sure that Prince loves and is inspired by both.

Every serious guitar player rates these guys somewhere on the top of their list.

And anybody that calls Jimi "overrated" doesn't know what they are talking about it.

Tremolina said:

I am just listening to the Lotusflower album and there is way more Jimi in there than Carlos.

You can go on about it forever but I am sure that Prince loves and is inspired by both.

Every serious guitar player rates these guys somewhere on the top of their list.

And anybody that calls Jimi "overrated" doesn't know what they are talking about it.

I think it goes without saying that Prince is influenced the whole Beautiful Experience just like The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

I think the real time it shoes is not the Purple house stuff but how much Machine Gun has made it's way into Prince's music. Calhoun Square is basicly the bass riff from the end of Machine Gun and Habibi is an obvious jam on Machine Gun

I will say this though Prince's musical and visual palet are so broad that it would be hard to not let Jimi In.

I see it like Prince envokes the spirits of the artists that inspire him. I've seen George Clinton Maceo and Santana live and when lets them out you get the same feeling watching Prince do Santana or George as you do watching the orginal artist which is an amazing gift.

When I was at the 28th August Indigo aftershow I really felt like I was experiening Hendrix while hearing Prince. He's very good at not getting lost in mimiking and cheap cover imitations they always feel authentic... Princes Hendrix when he opens that box live really feels authentic which I don't think he could do without Hendrix beeing a major influence

Prince did mention hendrix when he was inducted into the UK hall of fame

50 percent's kind of high... I don't think Prince even gave much of a listen to Jimi until he was in his 30s. I think there's some things he identifies with - being from a small city (Seattle), building their own recording studios (Electric Lady), and maybe a few other things. He's already said that his guitar playing was closer to Santana's when he took to playing guitar. Prince has already covered "Red House" as "Purple House" on the "Power of Soul" tribute a few years ago.

Hendrix played one show in Minneapolis, Nov 2, 1968.

But I think Buddy Miles has played "Them Changes" with Hendrix, Santana, AND Prince. I think out of any album Prince would've been into, it would've been Band of Gypsys...

I mean, when you watch him play "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", he's doing Hendrix moves on a song Clapton played. And Clapton almost quit playing guitar when he first saw Hendrix. But when you see Jimi's history of the bands he was playing with from 62-66, his bandmates were very harsh on him. Little Richard was not going to let his backing guitarist upstage him. I have no idea how he did with Ike Turner, but he didn't last long in bands. There's no doubt there was a lot of on the job training, but around 1966, must have seen something that changed his whole guitar sound in that year. Maybe it was Bob Dylan "plugging in" because his girlfriend said he became obsessed with Dylan. Maybe it was Arthur Lee and Love, who was a psychedelic rock outfit in LA that a lot of people followed including The Doors and The Byrds....

dalsh327 said:

50 percent's kind of high... I don't think Prince even gave much of a listen to Jimi until he was in his 30s. I think there's some things he identifies with - being from a small city (Seattle), building their own recording studios (Electric Lady), and maybe a few other things. He's already said that his guitar playing was closer to Santana's when he took to playing guitar. Prince has already covered "Red House" as "Purple House" on the "Power of Soul" tribute a few years ago.

Hendrix played one show in Minneapolis, Nov 2, 1968.

But I think Buddy Miles has played "Them Changes" with Hendrix, Santana, AND Prince. I think out of any album Prince would've been into, it would've been Band of Gypsys...

I mean, when you watch him play "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", he's doing Hendrix moves on a song Clapton played. And Clapton almost quit playing guitar when he first saw Hendrix. But when you see Jimi's history of the bands he was playing with from 62-66, his bandmates were very harsh on him. Little Richard was not going to let his backing guitarist upstage him. I have no idea how he did with Ike Turner, but he didn't last long in bands. There's no doubt there was a lot of on the job training, but around 1966, must have seen something that changed his whole guitar sound in that year. Maybe it was Bob Dylan "plugging in" because his girlfriend said he became obsessed with Dylan. Maybe it was Arthur Lee and Love, who was a psychedelic rock outfit in LA that a lot of people followed including The Doors and The Byrds....

I don't think Jimi spent any noticeable amount of time actually working with Ike. Pretty sure that Tina had flat out denied that Jimi was ever part of the Revue and that Jimi was still with uh... I believe the Isley Brothers at the time. But there's some aspects of Jimi's swagger that borrows from wherever Ike got his swagger from. Part of it could be they were both tall brothers who were flashy bandleaders and played the blues.

Just seems to me that Prince is definitely displaying he knows some Hendrix very well. Especially "Third Stone from the Sun" - I really think Prince has taken some very clear notes on that track. I would go as far as to say that Prince very clearly studied Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love because little nuances that you only saw in Jimi's music are all over Prince's junk. It's not blatant enough to say that Prince was completely inspired by him because you look through Prince's catalogue and he owes a huge portion of his repertoire to George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. But I think part of Prince's sense of humor and overall imaginative side was very heavily inspired by Jimi at least up until 1989.

I can't remember right off the top of my head but I coulda swore he used very Hendrix-chord-esque riffs and fills in songs like "Positivity", "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and even "Billy's Sunglasses" (which, to me, sounds like he is channeling Jimi right away).

I think Jimi pulled quite a lot out of the whole hippie culture which included the psychedelic rockers like himself and The Doors and Jefferson Airplane and The Animals. That's another thing I'd never thought of - Jimi and The Animals were pretty close and "House of the Rising Sun" is one of the best rock songs of all time. I wonder if P ever covered it? I actually think he could pull it off if he stayed away from his falsetto and really brought that creepy vibe from the organ on the track.

A couple of other instances of Prince performing 'Hendrix' songs - 'All Along the Watchtower' which appeared live in the sets of 2007/2008. This is clearly based on Hendrix' cover rather than Dylan's original. Also the 'Wild Thing' section of Crimson and Clover on Lotusflow3r, Hendrix covered this often in his live sets - there are countless official recordings circulating...

ummm..lets not forget Prince doing Jimi while playing my guitart gently weeps..he was posing as jimi, especially when he turned around and leaned back and almost over..THAT was a total jimi move.

sure, i can see how it is reasonable to suggest he's been influenced by jimi as a guitarist.

i think he may have been influenced by jimi idealogically as well:

"when the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - JH

Revolution said:

Jimi is good, but he is overrated...alot of his appeal comes from the fact that he was one of the first at pushing the limits of the electric guitar. It didn't hurt that he was a black man doing rock music either.

Prince has surpassed Jimi in every phase....playing, singing, theatrics, live performances, yet still gets no love from the general public. He will never come close to Jimi's stratosphere in the public eye.

I don't recall Prince ever saying he wasn't influenced by Jimi....I don't recall him ever bringing up his name actually. He does give lots of love and credit to Carlos Santana. I'd listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn over all of them, including Prince. He was magical.

talk about overrated

he's apes Jimi half the time

playing fast/having skills does not equal to good music

he doesn't evoke any emotion to me whatsoever

I don't agree with that statement at all , it's nonsense

Prince is so much more than just rock

yes , there were hendrix influenced songs obviously as there were songs influenced by Santana

he borrowed a little of them both but

if anything , he copied Jimi's clothing style during the purple rain era

Prince did Villanova Junction , Who Knows and Little Wing in concert

(although the latter was propably a wardrobe change since he wasn't playing guitar)

and for the umpteenth time

the riff in Dreamer is not a rip-off , it's similar though

Spinlight said:

I'd say Prince owes a good 50% of his success to the success and relatively recent passing of Jimi Hendrix. A lot of comparisons have been made between the two artists over the years and it seems Prince has consistently denied being much influenced if at all by Hendrix, but I don't buy it. For instance, while Prince might be more reminiscent of James or George during most of his live shows throughout his career, he has always had a more Hendrix-styled attitude in the studio.

Take Jimi's song "Third Stone From the Sun". If you took this song and played it back to back with something like "The Sensual Everafter" or really any number of live jams (think along the lines of Small Club's "Just My Imagination"). Not to mention, Prince aped the "strange beautiful" lyric for "Beautiful Strange" and its accompanying atmospheric and fusion-like music. Additionally, you have imagery from "Bold As Love" creeping into things like "Paisley Park" etc, vocal arrangements and melody from "Foxy Lady" poking through on things like "Peach" or "Temptation", and of course drumming from "Little Miss Lover" being sampled for the update to "Tick Tick Bang". You could also compare the "EXP" intro on Axis to the segues on Love Symbol.

Some of these might be far-reaching, but it's hard to deny (IMO) that there was huge borrowing from Hendrix's aesthetic for Prince's imagery and music throughout the 80s.

Other than performing "Red House", "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)", and "Spanish Castle Magic", has Prince really ever extensively performed Jimi songs? Certainly not like he does Sly (and before anyone says he probly aped more from Sly than Jimi and that Jimi aped from Sly too, that's another post ).

To this day, I've always thought "Lotus Flower" was his attempt at doing a Jimi album and that "Dreamer" was such an obvious rip off of the riff from "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" that it amazed me people praised it so much.

Why are you making shit up? Liar.

Spinlight said:

Tremolina said:

I am just listening to the Lotusflower album and there is way more Jimi in there than Carlos.

You can go on about it forever but I am sure that Prince loves and is inspired by both.

Every serious guitar player rates these guys somewhere on the top of their list.

And anybody that calls Jimi "overrated" doesn't know what they are talking about it.

Yeah but I'd say this is bullshit too:

Spinlight said:

I'd say Prince owes a good 50% of his success to the success and relatively recent passing of Jimi Hendrix.

Dewrede said:

I don't agree with that statement at all , it's nonsense

Prince is so much more than just rock

yes , there were hendrix influenced songs obviously as there were songs influenced by Santana

he borrowed a little of them both but

if anything , he copied Jimi's clothing style during the purple rain era

Prince did Villanova Junction , Who Knows and Little Wing in concert

(although the latter was propably a wardrobe change since he wasn't playing guitar)

and for the umpteenth time

the riff in Dreamer is not a rip-off , it's similar though

The riff on Dreamer is a straight rip off. Obviously it's not exactly the same, but that's not the point. I didn't say he sampled Jimi, I said he totally ripped off one of his most famous riffs. He made a Jimi-esque song and bit a Jimi-esque riff.

50% might be nonsense, but given that P came out not even 10 years after Jimi died and was a black man leading a multi-racial band doing rock/funk/blues... This doesn't have to be a completely overriding factor in his success, but it can certainly lend a hand. The American musical audience has a short memory.

Spinlight said:

dalsh327 said:

50 percent's kind of high... I don't think Prince even gave much of a listen to Jimi until he was in his 30s. I think there's some things he identifies with - being from a small city (Seattle), building their own recording studios (Electric Lady), and maybe a few other things. He's already said that his guitar playing was closer to Santana's when he took to playing guitar. Prince has already covered "Red House" as "Purple House" on the "Power of Soul" tribute a few years ago.

Hendrix played one show in Minneapolis, Nov 2, 1968.

But I think Buddy Miles has played "Them Changes" with Hendrix, Santana, AND Prince. I think out of any album Prince would've been into, it would've been Band of Gypsys...

I mean, when you watch him play "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", he's doing Hendrix moves on a song Clapton played. And Clapton almost quit playing guitar when he first saw Hendrix. But when you see Jimi's history of the bands he was playing with from 62-66, his bandmates were very harsh on him. Little Richard was not going to let his backing guitarist upstage him. I have no idea how he did with Ike Turner, but he didn't last long in bands. There's no doubt there was a lot of on the job training, but around 1966, must have seen something that changed his whole guitar sound in that year. Maybe it was Bob Dylan "plugging in" because his girlfriend said he became obsessed with Dylan. Maybe it was Arthur Lee and Love, who was a psychedelic rock outfit in LA that a lot of people followed including The Doors and The Byrds....

I don't think Jimi spent any noticeable amount of time actually working with Ike. Pretty sure that Tina had flat out denied that Jimi was ever part of the Revue and that Jimi was still with uh... I believe the Isley Brothers at the time. But there's some aspects of Jimi's swagger that borrows from wherever Ike got his swagger from. Part of it could be they were both tall brothers who were flashy bandleaders and played the blues.

Just seems to me that Prince is definitely displaying he knows some Hendrix very well. Especially "Third Stone from the Sun" - I really think Prince has taken some very clear notes on that track. I would go as far as to say that Prince very clearly studied Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love because little nuances that you only saw in Jimi's music are all over Prince's junk. It's not blatant enough to say that Prince was completely inspired by him because you look through Prince's catalogue and he owes a huge portion of his repertoire to George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. But I think part of Prince's sense of humor and overall imaginative side was very heavily inspired by Jimi at least up until 1989.

I can't remember right off the top of my head but I coulda swore he used very Hendrix-chord-esque riffs and fills in songs like "Positivity", "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and even "Billy's Sunglasses" (which, to me, sounds like he is channeling Jimi right away).

I think Jimi pulled quite a lot out of the whole hippie culture which included the psychedelic rockers like himself and The Doors and Jefferson Airplane and The Animals. That's another thing I'd never thought of - Jimi and The Animals were pretty close and "House of the Rising Sun" is one of the best rock songs of all time. I wonder if P ever covered it? I actually think he could pull it off if he stayed away from his falsetto and really brought that creepy vibe from the organ on the track.

I think some of the styles sound similar mostly because Prince and Jimi had gone to the same source, but Jimi had been in the middle of it and playing it. Also remember there's a fair amount of jazz in the Experience era and Prince's dad prob. had a ton of jazz recordings that Prince would've grown up listening to.

When you look and listen to black artists of the 50s and 60s, they were formidable musicians. They had to be. Hendrix had to leave the US if he was going to establish himself as his own man, and the way he was marketed in the UK worked in his favor, unfortunately he had a manager that overworked him on the road. The studio was his refuge.

dalsh327 said:

Spinlight said:

I don't think Jimi spent any noticeable amount of time actually working with Ike. Pretty sure that Tina had flat out denied that Jimi was ever part of the Revue and that Jimi was still with uh... I believe the Isley Brothers at the time. But there's some aspects of Jimi's swagger that borrows from wherever Ike got his swagger from. Part of it could be they were both tall brothers who were flashy bandleaders and played the blues.

Just seems to me that Prince is definitely displaying he knows some Hendrix very well. Especially "Third Stone from the Sun" - I really think Prince has taken some very clear notes on that track. I would go as far as to say that Prince very clearly studied Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love because little nuances that you only saw in Jimi's music are all over Prince's junk. It's not blatant enough to say that Prince was completely inspired by him because you look through Prince's catalogue and he owes a huge portion of his repertoire to George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. But I think part of Prince's sense of humor and overall imaginative side was very heavily inspired by Jimi at least up until 1989.

I can't remember right off the top of my head but I coulda swore he used very Hendrix-chord-esque riffs and fills in songs like "Positivity", "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and even "Billy's Sunglasses" (which, to me, sounds like he is channeling Jimi right away).

I think Jimi pulled quite a lot out of the whole hippie culture which included the psychedelic rockers like himself and The Doors and Jefferson Airplane and The Animals. That's another thing I'd never thought of - Jimi and The Animals were pretty close and "House of the Rising Sun" is one of the best rock songs of all time. I wonder if P ever covered it? I actually think he could pull it off if he stayed away from his falsetto and really brought that creepy vibe from the organ on the track.

I think some of the styles sound similar mostly because Prince and Jimi had gone to the same source, but Jimi had been in the middle of it and playing it. Also remember there's a fair amount of jazz in the Experience era and Prince's dad prob. had a ton of jazz recordings that Prince would've grown up listening to.

When you look and listen to black artists of the 50s and 60s, they were formidable musicians. They had to be. Hendrix had to leave the US if he was going to establish himself as his own man, and the way he was marketed in the UK worked in his favor, unfortunately he had a manager that overworked him on the road. The studio was his refuge.

This makes a lot of sense - they did go back to the source. I pulled my Hendrix Experience stuff out recently cuz he was on the radio due to the death of his anniversary and had forgotten about all the things that sound like Prince lifted them right off the Bold As Love record, but it could be that jazz sensibility mixed with blues chops that the 2 of them are so good at!

Spinlight said:

dalsh327 said:

I think some of the styles sound similar mostly because Prince and Jimi had gone to the same source, but Jimi had been in the middle of it and playing it. Also remember there's a fair amount of jazz in the Experience era and Prince's dad prob. had a ton of jazz recordings that Prince would've grown up listening to.

When you look and listen to black artists of the 50s and 60s, they were formidable musicians. They had to be. Hendrix had to leave the US if he was going to establish himself as his own man, and the way he was marketed in the UK worked in his favor, unfortunately he had a manager that overworked him on the road. The studio was his refuge.

This makes a lot of sense - they did go back to the source. I pulled my Hendrix Experience stuff out recently cuz he was on the radio due to the death of his anniversary and had forgotten about all the things that sound like Prince lifted them right off the Bold As Love record, but it could be that jazz sensibility mixed with blues chops that the 2 of them are so good at!

What bullshit! Why are you such a braggart and liar???

Spinlight said:

Dewrede said:

I don't agree with that statement at all , it's nonsense

Prince is so much more than just rock

yes , there were hendrix influenced songs obviously as there were songs influenced by Santana

he borrowed a little of them both but

if anything , he copied Jimi's clothing style during the purple rain era

Prince did Villanova Junction , Who Knows and Little Wing in concert

(although the latter was propably a wardrobe change since he wasn't playing guitar)

and for the umpteenth time

the riff in Dreamer is not a rip-off , it's similar though

The riff on Dreamer is a straight rip off. Obviously it's not exactly the same, but that's not the point. I didn't say he sampled Jimi, I said he totally ripped off one of his most famous riffs. He made a Jimi-esque song and bit a Jimi-esque riff.

50% might be nonsense, but given that P came out not even 10 years after Jimi died and was a black man leading a multi-racial band doing rock/funk/blues... This doesn't have to be a completely overriding factor in his success, but it can certainly lend a hand. The American musical audience has a short memory.

Where's your PROOF??

Oh there is none.

Because you try to come off as an authority but you're just a lying punk.

robinhood said:

sure, i can see how it is reasonable to suggest he's been influenced by jimi as a guitarist.

i think he may have been influenced by jimi idealogically as well:

"when the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - JH

I stand by the idea that Bold As Love is a source for direct rip offs, though. Seriously, pull out the record and listen. And then listen to "Third Stone from the Sun" and tell me Prince hasn't blatantly bitten.

And I don't even mind that he has - its a good source to bite from. Axis is one of the best albums of all times, imo.

Spinlight said:

robinhood said:

sure, i can see how it is reasonable to suggest he's been influenced by jimi as a guitarist.

i think he may have been influenced by jimi idealogically as well:

"when the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - JH

I stand by the idea that Bold As Love is a source for direct rip offs, though. Seriously, pull out the record and listen. And then listen to "Third Stone from the Sun" and tell me Prince hasn't blatantly bitten.

And I don't even mind that he has - its a good source to bite from. Axis is one of the best albums of all times, imo.

You mind big time! And you're an idiot.

Spinlight said:

robinhood said:

sure, i can see how it is reasonable to suggest he's been influenced by jimi as a guitarist.

i think he may have been influenced by jimi idealogically as well:

"when the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" - JH

I stand by the idea that Bold As Love is a source for direct rip offs, though. Seriously, pull out the record and listen. And then listen to "Third Stone from the Sun" and tell me Prince hasn't blatantly bitten.

And I don't even mind that he has - its a good source to bite from. Axis is one of the best albums of all times, imo.

in my opinion, jimi is a great influence on any guitarist and/or philosopher, but i guess we wont know for sure if Prince blatantly bit unless we ask him.

but even then we may not get a straight answer lol

Revolution said:

Jimi is good, but he is overrated...alot of his appeal comes from the fact that he was one of the first at pushing the limits of the electric guitar. It didn't hurt that he was a black man doing rock music either.

Prince has surpassed Jimi in every phase....playing, singing, theatrics, live performances, yet still gets no love from the general public. He will never come close to Jimi's stratosphere in the public eye.

I don't recall Prince ever saying he wasn't influenced by Jimi....I don't recall him ever bringing up his name actually. He does give lots of love and credit to Carlos Santana. I'd listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn over all of them, including Prince. He was magical.

What are you talking about? Rock music was invented by Black men. Jimi was just bringing it back to its source. And I would disagree with your view that P gets no love from the general public. He has achieved more popularity than Jimi ever did.

Prince knows exactly where Jimi and himself fit in the line of great guitarists. Whatever you think about him, he has always had respect for the greats and musicians in general.

jdcxc said:

Revolution said:

Jimi is good, but he is overrated...alot of his appeal comes from the fact that he was one of the first at pushing the limits of the electric guitar. It didn't hurt that he was a black man doing rock music either.

Prince has surpassed Jimi in every phase....playing, singing, theatrics, live performances, yet still gets no love from the general public. He will never come close to Jimi's stratosphere in the public eye.

I don't recall Prince ever saying he wasn't influenced by Jimi....I don't recall him ever bringing up his name actually. He does give lots of love and credit to Carlos Santana. I'd listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn over all of them, including Prince. He was magical.

What are you talking about? Rock music was invented by Black men. Jimi was just bringing it back to its source. And I would disagree with your view that P gets no love from the general public. He has achieved more popularity than Jimi ever did.

Prince knows exactly where Jimi and himself fit in the line of great guitarists. Whatever you think about him, he has always had respect for the greats and musicians in general.

I am actually far les interested in a conversation about who is the better guitar player. It's entirely unfair. But as far as, "this person's aesthetic moves me and I'm going to nudge and wink and nod in his direction"?? Then Prince is a very social student.

jdcxc said:

Revolution said:

Jimi is good, but he is overrated...alot of his appeal comes from the fact that he was one of the first at pushing the limits of the electric guitar. It didn't hurt that he was a black man doing rock music either.

Prince has surpassed Jimi in every phase....playing, singing, theatrics, live performances, yet still gets no love from the general public. He will never come close to Jimi's stratosphere in the public eye.

I don't recall Prince ever saying he wasn't influenced by Jimi....I don't recall him ever bringing up his name actually. He does give lots of love and credit to Carlos Santana. I'd listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn over all of them, including Prince. He was magical.

What are you talking about? Rock music was invented by Black men. Jimi was just bringing it back to its source. And I would disagree with your view that P gets no love from the general public. He has achieved more popularity than Jimi ever did.

Prince knows exactly where Jimi and himself fit in the line of great guitarists. Whatever you think about him, he has always had respect for the greats and musicians in general.

The hippies at the festivals didn't know squat about the history of rock...they knew that, at that time, rock was for white folks, period. Then along comes a colored kid who could play like that. He's taken on a guitar status that is at the top in all of the polls. It's ingrained in pop culture. guitar = hendrix.

What i'm saying is that Prince has surpassed him. Point blank. Yet, where are those poll results?

Don't worry, i'll wait (sorry, listening to Katt Williams lately).

No radioplay means no general public. Jimi at least has a format. The rock stations adore him. Prince fits in nowhere. Prince has his hardcore fans, but the public has turned its back on him for good.

Spinlight said:

jdcxc said:

What are you talking about? Rock music was invented by Black men. Jimi was just bringing it back to its source. And I would disagree with your view that P gets no love from the general public. He has achieved more popularity than Jimi ever did.

Prince knows exactly where Jimi and himself fit in the line of great guitarists. Whatever you think about him, he has always had respect for the greats and musicians in general.

I am actually far les interested in a conversation about who is the better guitar player. It's entirely unfair. But as far as, "this person's aesthetic moves me and I'm going to nudge and wink and nod in his direction"?? Then Prince is a very social student.

[snip - mars23]

dalsh327 said:

50 percent's kind of high... I don't think Prince even gave much of a listen to Jimi until he was in his 30s. I think there's some things he identifies with - being from a small city (Seattle), building their own recording studios (Electric Lady), and maybe a few other things. He's already said that his guitar playing was closer to Santana's when he took to playing guitar. Prince has already covered "Red House" as "Purple House" on the "Power of Soul" tribute a few years ago.

Hendrix played one show in Minneapolis, Nov 2, 1968.

But I think Buddy Miles has played "Them Changes" with Hendrix, Santana, AND Prince. I think out of any album Prince would've been into, it would've been Band of Gypsys...

I mean, when you watch him play "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", he's doing Hendrix moves on a song Clapton played. And Clapton almost quit playing guitar when he first saw Hendrix. But when you see Jimi's history of the bands he was playing with from 62-66, his bandmates were very harsh on him. Little Richard was not going to let his backing guitarist upstage him. I have no idea how he did with Ike Turner, but he didn't last long in bands. There's no doubt there was a lot of on the job training, but around 1966, must have seen something that changed his whole guitar sound in that year. Maybe it was Bob Dylan "plugging in" because his girlfriend said he became obsessed with Dylan. Maybe it was Arthur Lee and Love, who was a psychedelic rock outfit in LA that a lot of people followed including The Doors and The Byrds....

50 percent is ridiculously high and can hardly be considered even close to being accurate by any measure.