I think it's interesting that Prince has no horn section on his current tour. Horns have been a centrical part of the Prince sound since the beginning, and I'm curious as to why he would select not to include horns in his current tour lineup. As a result, the lack of explosive funk and raw soul is evident in his performances as he played a medley of his most famous pop hits. Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic show, but it fails in comparison to his previous performances and it's contributing band members.

Your thoughts?

Agree without Horns Prince is not Prince. Maybe he skipped the horns cause he's got too many bills to pay and since he's greedy, he doesn't wanna spend cash on the horns. This is the only explanation to me!

bohurdle said:

Horns have been a centrical part of the Prince sound since the beginning

No they haven't. Prince didn't have a horn section in his band, or on his records till 1986.

I personally can do without them. Replacing horn lines with synths is what the Minneapolis Sound is all about, anyway.

Militant said:

bohurdle said:

Horns have been a centrical part of the Prince sound since the beginning

No they haven't. Prince didn't have a horn section in his band, or on his records till 1986.

I personally can do without them. Replacing horn lines with synths is what the Minneapolis Sound is all about, anyway.

Prince without a horn section is like James Brown without a horn section!! James passed Prince the baton!!

Militant said:

bohurdle said:

Horns have been a centrical part of the Prince sound since the beginning

No they haven't. Prince didn't have a horn section in his band, or on his records till 1986.

I personally can do without them. Replacing horn lines with synths is what the Minneapolis Sound is all about, anyway.

Exactly. He toured without them for 5 or 6 years in the 90s too.

Also: Centrical?

Speaking as someone who has seen Prince both with and without a horns section now, the Welcome 2 Americas shows are easily the strongest I've personally witnessed. I'd even say the horns cheapened certain sets. Don't talk smack unless you've been to one of the shows yourself, yeah?

It was still a great show without the horns.

jpnyc said:

It was still a great show without the horns.

I agree. I wouldn't have changed a thing

....But then I just watched the video of The Revolution rehearsal video with Eric Leeds.

Eric Leeds is ridiculous!

Give me a Prince and the Revolution reunion tour. Please

yeah, W2A was definitely a better experience than with horns, for me.

It was very old school and Prince without horns is about as Old School as you can get.

Imiss MICHEAL !!!!!!!!!!!

man, F them horns

I like the horns section. Adds a great sound to many of his songs.

One thing I never understood though is why he had two sax players and one trombone player but no trumpet player during Musicology tours. Glad he brought the trumpet back during the 3121 era.

I prefer synths but the weak assed workstations that are utilized these days never generate enough power and fail to recreate the vintage sounds.

I hate hearing 1999 on modern keyboards/ with horns. shit sounds weak.

I prefer the horns.

He hasnt had the hornz since 2007...

Tours / era's that had had horns: (Or 'i have too much time on my hands')

Purple Rain Tour (1984-85)
Parade (1986)
Sign o the Times (1987)
Lovesexy (1988-9)

Diamonds and Pearls (1992) [NPG horns]

Act 1 & Act 2 (1993) [NPG horns]

Rave un2 the Jor Fantastic Promotional Tour (1999) [NPG horns / Maceo]

Hit n Run / Celebration (2000-1) [Najee on sax]

One Nite Alone (2002)

World Tour (2003)

Musicology2004ever (2004)

3121 Era (2006) [Occasionaly had some guest horn players, but more than often not]

o2 (2007)

Since then, no horns.

Militant said:

bohurdle said:

Horns have been a centrical part of the Prince sound since the beginning

No they haven't. Prince didn't have a horn section in his band, or on his records till 1986.

I personally can do without them. Replacing horn lines with synths is what the Minneapolis Sound is all about, anyway.

I agree. I believe the first time I heard a sax on a studio Prince recording was on "Temptation" in '85. Although, Eric Leeds played sax live during the Purple Rain tour.

He used to mimic horns with synths, in the beginning. I kind of prefer real horns only on songs that were recorded with them. I don't like live horns on "I Wanna Be Your Lover" or "1999". Yecccch!

Sometimes it works though. Musicology is an example.

[Edited 3/31/11 6:07am]

[Edited 3/31/11 6:07am]

Personally, I always prefer the tours without a horn section.

Mostly because Prince always over uses them when they are there. He feels the need to have them replace all the main keyboard lines, and it makes the song sound too cabaret.

Sure it works on Girls & Boys......

But Lets Go Crazy and Delirious? No Prince. Leave that shit alone!

Also, I was getting sick to death of breakouts. I shudder at the words, "Maceo, blow your horn!". There were simply too many.

The beginning of what? Horns showed up on the Around the World in a Day project.

I prefer a break from the horns!!!

HATE the horns!!! Hoping for a Detroit show so that I can enjoy it!!!

No horns last night... but a lot of good guitar and funk!!

intherain39 said:

HATE the horns!!! Hoping for a Detroit show so that I can enjoy it!!!

Ditto!

minneapolisFunq said:

I prefer synths but the weak assed workstations that are utilized these days never generate enough power and fail to recreate the vintage sounds.

I hate hearing 1999 on modern keyboards/ with horns. shit sounds weak.

I agree.

That's why I prefer him to have horns live these days, so that it will introduce some life to the sound. That's not a dig at his keyboard players either, but songs like "1999", "Controversy" and the like just aren't cutting it with the current boards. Of course, there are no really other VCO polysynths currently in production than, say, the Alesis Andromeda (which just got discontinued as well). The Minneapolis sound, after all, was heavily dependent on chords.

novabrkr said:

minneapolisFunq said:

I prefer synths but the weak assed workstations that are utilized these days never generate enough power and fail to recreate the vintage sounds.

I hate hearing 1999 on modern keyboards/ with horns. shit sounds weak.

I agree.

That's why I prefer him to have horns live these days, so that it will introduce some life to the sound. That's not a dig at his keyboard players either, but songs like "1999", "Controversy" and the like just aren't cutting it with the current boards. Of course, there are no really other VCO polysynths currently in production than, say, the Alesis Andromeda (which just got discontinued as well). The Minneapolis sound, after all, was heavily dependent on chords.

Yeah, the analog synths do have a fatter sound. You can get real close with some of the analog-modeling soft synths. The Prince camp used Oberheim keyboards heavily in the 80's. I saw The Time last year (original lineup) and I noticed that Jimmy and Monte had Oberheims on the stage. Still sound good. I can't imagine Prince not having the old boards still, unless Dr. Fink took them all with him...LOL

[Edited 3/31/11 10:35am]

I can see why he wouldn't tour with Oberheim -type of synths as they are pretty hard to replace if something goes wrong. However, he doesn't seem to be using the Oberheims or the other old analog polysynths on his studio material either, so it can't be just about that. Of course, it's possible that I could be wrong and that he's using them on some songs. I'm just not hearing it myself. I hear the Linn, but that seems to be more or less the only vintage unit that's featured on his recent material.

I have allways loved Maceo, Eric and Candy. Just love the sound of horns

However, most important is P playing the guitar and singing. And the piano, would not want to miss that.

And when he's having a great time, the show is greater than great. That's the most important ingredient there is. P enyoing himself and love going back and forth with the audiance.

intherain39 said:

HATE the horns!!! Hoping for a Detroit show so that I can enjoy it!!!

in total agreement, and he betta get his arse to detroit!!!

no horns? good. now let's lose the army of back-up singers while we're at it.

I'm glad the horns are gone, they've been sounding really weak and somewhat cheesy recently, I loved the horn section on the sign o the times movie and the lovesexy tour but the ones he uses on the musicology tour sound really lame and thin. Stick the guitar and synths I say