Personally, I found it a little disappointing that he would use one...

(pic borrowed from concerts forum, irinact's post)

don't really see the difference between this and the binder of lyrics he used to keep at his feet at the front of the stage.

Even Prince can get caught up in the moment of 20000 people screaming at him and lose his place during a song. Hell I could'nt remember my name after the 12/18 show.

So my answer to the teleprompter, LET EM HAVE IT!!!

Not to sound like a jerk, but I don't think you should be disappointed in anyone using a teleprompter in front of thousands of people, until you can deliver a concert without one. Just saying.

Nothing's wrong with him using one.

And if he did the same setlist night after night (in which case, he wouldn't need a prompter), people'd bitch about that, too.

BlackAdder7 said:

Personally, I found it a little disappointing that he would use one...

(pic borrowed from concerts forum, irinact's post)

"Personally, I found it a little disappointing that he would use one.."

Why, because he isnt some unattainable god status and is human like most music artist in concert? [Flame snipped - Mars23].

errant said:

don't really see the difference between this and the binder of lyrics he used to keep at his feet at the front of the stage.

I think a person running onto the stage to change the lyric sheets every so often would be a distraction from Prince.

If it's any consolation, the fact that he has teleprompters on stage doesn't mean he's relying on them constantly throughout every concert. He may have to just glance at them every so often as a backup if he goes blank on some of his lyrics.

Also, keep in mind, he's been in the business for more than 30 years and has an expansive body of work. Anyone with such a massive number of songs in his repertoire is bound to be rusty on some of them--particularly ones that he doesn't perform as regularly as some of the others.

Hell, today I was listening to an Ani DiFranco album that I hadn't listened to in a while, and I was surprised at how many of the lyrics I flubbed. I had this stuff memorized before. So I certainly don't fault Prince for using teleprompters.

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[Edited 2/9/11 21:29pm]

errant said:

don't really see the difference between this and the binder of lyrics he used to keep at his feet at the front of the stage.

Exactly. He's been using that binder since that at least 2002. Not really sure what all the fuss is about regarding the teleprompter.

If he dropped the teleprompter, he would probably stick to playing songs like Raspberry Beret and Purple Rain and asking the audience to sing along. You can't ask him to work rare songs into the set list and also expect him to memorize all the lyrics. Paul McCartney admitted when he accepted his Gershwin Prize recently that he only knows a few of his songs and has to learn the others when he goes out on tour. I don't know whether Paul has written more songs than Prince, but it might be close when you consider all the stuff in the vault.

his guitar tech on the musicology tour told me that during the acoustic part of the show prince would choose what song he would do right before he'd start playing it. so vince had to figure out what song he was playing before the vocals came in so he could get the lyrics up on the teleprompter on time.

MarquessMarq said:

Not to sound like a jerk, but I don't think you should be disappointed in anyone using a teleprompter in front of thousands of people, until you can deliver a concert without one. Just saying.

I couldn't care less if he uses one, he's used a lyric book for years, but please not this bullshit again.

I wonder if on the teleprompter he's using lyrics with those stupid childish princebonics or for his own use he prefers real plain normal English.

I don't see anything wrong in using it, but thinking about it twice since he's ALWAYS playing the same songs over and over he shouldn't need it.

I don't see any difference between him using this and a musician having sheet music in front of him.

Having said that, I bet he doesn't need a teleprompter to remember all those endless fucking sly stone/Grand Central Station, etc tracks he's been playing constantly for the last 10 years. Bet he knows those off by heart now.

toejam said:

errant said:

don't really see the difference between this and the binder of lyrics he used to keep at his feet at the front of the stage.

Exactly. He's been using that binder since that at least 2002. Not really sure what all the fuss is about regarding the teleprompter.

I saw him using it as early as 1998 on the Newpower Soul tour at the Aragon Ballroom in Chciago.

errant said:

toejam said:

Exactly. He's been using that binder since that at least 2002. Not really sure what all the fuss is about regarding the teleprompter.

I saw him using it as early as 1998 on the Newpower Soul tour at the Aragon Ballroom in Chciago.

I was just going to post the same. I first saw him using the lyrics binder in 1998, too.

I don´t mind him using a teleprompter or lyrics binder but I don´t really understand why he has been needing them after the mid 90s. He didn´t need them during Purple Rain, SOTT, Lovesexy or any other tour before 1998, and he had a changing setlist back in those days and played in front of thousands of people, too. The other thing is that he even needs his lyrics when he plays songs that are part of the setlist almost every night.

I´ve never seen look at the lyrics of newer songs though. From the Gold Experiennce days til today, he rarely looks at the lyrics sheet when he plays newer songs, maybe because those are fresh and he rehearses them more often (yet doesn´t play them very often in concert ).

I don´t mind him using a teleprompter or lyrics binder but I don´t really understand why he has been needing them after the mid 90s. He didn´t need them during Purple Rain, SOTT, Lovesexy or any other tour before 1998, and he had a changing setlist back in those days and played in front of thousands of people, too.

He probably reached a breaking point when he finally written so many songs that he couldn’t remember them anymore.

Plus he's 52. I know my memory ain't what it used to be and I'm 33. Let him use his temeprompter.

52y.o. is NOT an old man! You talk like he is 90 y.o.

Nothing wrong using teleprompters, now days many people who give speeches or artists use them all the time. Plus Prince has a gazillion songs he wrote. Even if he has a great memory, after a long break, he doesn't want to mess up his own songs in concert.

.

[Edited 2/10/11 10:25am]

errant said:

toejam said:

Exactly. He's been using that binder since that at least 2002. Not really sure what all the fuss is about regarding the teleprompter.

I saw him using it as early as 1998 on the Newpower Soul tour at the Aragon Ballroom in Chciago.

We were at the same concert.

But I was waaaaaaaaay in the back, due to an unadventureous hubby, so I didn't see any binder.

With as many songs Prince has written over the years, anyone would need some help. 30 plus years of music, not including unreleased material, Prince probably doesn't even remember the lyrics to Batdance and that's mostly instrumental. LOL

PS it runs on Windows.

XP I think.

I would say Prince is not the only artist to use that.

Heck, don't they use that for people reading the news and stuff???

vitriol said:

I wonder if on the teleprompter he's using lyrics with those stupid childish princebonics or for his own use he prefers real plain normal English.

I don't see anything wrong in using it, but thinking about it twice since he's ALWAYS playing the same songs over and over he shouldn't need it.

as a matter of fact, yes, he does use it that way, so that way is faster to read and fits more text in the screen. He even uses the "eye sign" instead of an "I" in his telepromters.

Here the close-up of one of the photo I took on 2/07, I cropped it so u can see.

[img:$uid]http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6945/dsc08439.jpg[/img:$uid]

He's human, let it go.

Teleprompter or lipsync....which method would you prefer he use to insure his concerts flowed smoothly, lyric-wise?

I'd pick teleprompter myself.

Nikademus said:

Teleprompter or lipsync....which method would you prefer he use to insure his concerts flowed smoothly, lyric-wise?

I'd pick teleprompter myself.

Exactly.

I think Prince rarely uses the teleprompters on stage, it's just in case (and 4 the ladies).

irinact said:

vitriol said:

I wonder if on the teleprompter he's using lyrics with those stupid childish princebonics or for his own use he prefers real plain normal English.

I don't see anything wrong in using it, but thinking about it twice since he's ALWAYS playing the same songs over and over he shouldn't need it.

as a matter of fact, yes, he does use it that way, so that way is faster to read and fits more text in the screen. He even uses the "eye sign" instead of an "I" in his telepromters.

Here the close-up of one of the photo I took on 2/07, I cropped it so u can see.

[img:$uid]http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6945/dsc08439.jpg[/img:$uid]

Every newscaster in the world uses one, every orchestra in the world has the music in front of them. Would you go up to the musicians at the local philharmonic and say, "What kinda musicians are you? You can't play without the music in front of you?" or ask Tom Brokaw, "why didn't you memorize all your news stories? What kind of journalist are you?"

It has nothing to do with him being old or forgetting the lyrics. It has to do with keeping his place in the song. In addition to being the singer, he's also the guitarist and band leader. While he's remembering dance steps, which notes to play, what city he's in, where the edge of the huge shaped stage is, and what song comes next, he also has to remember the words to about 100 songs, and where he is in that song. Am I on verse one or verse two? Is this the 3rd or the 2nd chorus? And most of those 100 songs are different than the 100 songs he had prepared for the last tour.

Like someone else said, if he did the same setlist every night with the same arrangements, same solos, etc. Then he might not need one, but then people would bitch about that too. He probably wouldn't need a prompter if he did those medleys, since they're just the first verse and the chorus. But everyone bitched about those too. So give the guy a break, he's just trying to make the show run smooth.

I do think it's ridiculous he has the instead of the letter I.

My $0.02

Chas