What does everyone think?

I am really getting deep into Bowie at the moment. Really digging his music as classing it as far more serious and cooler then prince can sometimes produce. Also he seems to be able to pull the live feeling of music too unlike prince in the studio. However my first love is Prince. And digging the new stuff as well as old. What does everyone think?

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Both are fascinating artists with a fascinating musical journey to explore!

For me though, Prince. He hit me first and hardest, plus, he can do it all in terms of musical entertainment - both aural and visual.

eyewishuheaven said:

Both are fascinating artists with a fascinating musical journey to explore!

For me though, Prince. He hit me first and hardest, plus, he can do it all in terms of musical entertainment - both aural and visual.

its just fascinating i think. I would have love to have heard them working together. Bowie was so pushing great muscial sound and could create exciting music. And Prince could also.

I'm a big Bowie fan. But it is not the same approach at all. Bowie surrounds himself with the right producers and musicians. Amazing artist and singer. Quite a visionnaire. Extremely articulate. Good composer and melodist. But quite a poor musician (instrumentist). I have been close to him many times in concert and seeing him playing the guitar is everything but spectacular.

Prince is musical genius who can arrange, produce, perform. He is an amazing guitar, bass and keyboard player. But contrary to Bowie, he does not accept any help and any ideas from others. He is a workalcoholic who does not censore himself regarding his own material.

His approach is less intellectual than Bowie's and more instinctive.

My two favourite artists today. My life would not be the same without these two guys' music for sure.

But I always tend to feel something more special for Prince.

Stage wise, I have attended great and poor concerts from these two major artists. But when Prince is at his very best, it is incomparable.

Invalid question.

ohYeeeeeah said:

But contrary to Bowie, he does not accept any help and any ideas from others.

Yes, Prince could stand to take a page from the Book of Bowie in a few key areas:

• Collaborating respectfully with challenging artists
• Allowing his back catalogue to be preserved and cared for by people with the know-how to do it right
• Not acting like a pretentious buffoon when talking to the press

I'm guessing that on Prince.org, Prince will win.

Could be a different story on Bowie.org though.

RodeoSchro said:

I'm guessing that on Prince.org, Prince will win.

Could be a different story on Bowie.org though.

Bowie wouldn't win this discussion on the moon.

It took me a very long time to get into Bowie, for the longest I just couldn't find a way in, but I really grew to like his 70s stuff.

Bowie is way cooler of course, but Prince, well Prince is Prince. We're on the org right, we know the answer to the question.

Bowie is an extremely talented musician. He was ahead of his time in his hayday. I think many people don't understand him or his music or perhaps have never listened to anything other than what they hear on the radio. I respect him as a musician, but I have to go with Prince on this one!!

ohYeeeeeah said:

he does not accept any help and any ideas from others.

no he just steals the ideas plays the instrument himself and self credits .. good ole prince ..

bowie is ok but prince old songs are better .. prince new songs suck because the talent pool to steal from is weak .. one thing that makes other groups last longer than prince is that they keep their bands together .. bruce with the e street .. u2 .. tom petty and the heart breakers .. mick and the stones ... when the band stays together the music stays consistantly good or at least not as bad as most of prince solo efforts .. i am sure if prince had kept the revolution together and shown respect for their contributions his music would be respectable to this day ... he cant keep a group together more than a few years these days .. the result is weak live shows and weak collaborations and weak solo songs .. prince pretends he is reinventing himself with each new line up but really he is just watering down what was once magical ..

Empress said:

Bowie is an extremely talented musician. He was ahead of his time in his hayday. I think many people don't understand him or his music or perhaps have never listened to anything other than what they hear on the radio.

I think on this, he and Prince are very similar.

Bowie and Prince are the two most important pop / rock artists, if you ask me (at least male solo artists). You could of course say that Bowie is the more interesting conceptualist and Prince is the better musician.

However, the biggest difference is that Bowie has made mostly depressive material whereas Prince has made uplifting music. Most of the classic tracks by Bowie are "anthemic" tracks about alienation, emotional difficulties or similar themes ("The Man Who Sold The World", "Rock'n'roll Suicide", "Heroes"). Even when he has made the occasional rocker or dance number they've had a high degree of irony to them ("Hang Onto Yourself", "Rebel Rebel", "Let's Dance").

Prince has never been afraid to write more directly about themes such as love, sex and partying and his production values have often been minimalistic and more to the point than Bowie's. Personally I think writing a piece of music that just sounds genuinely happy and is at the same time genuinely artistic is really hard. Bowie has written a huge number of amazing songs, but in this sense I have to ultimately choose Prince of the two.

Prince's antics might embarrass you more as a fan sometimes, but you know the guy's really put his heart and soul into the music.

NouveauDance said:

Empress said:

Bowie is an extremely talented musician. He was ahead of his time in his hayday. I think many people don't understand him or his music or perhaps have never listened to anything other than what they hear on the radio.

I think on this, he and Prince are very similar.

People who are not true Prince fans don't know anything beyond Purple Rain, When Doves Cry and Raspberry Beret. It's the same for Bowie. I realize a musician has to capture your attention, but I believe they have a lot in common.

Empress said:

Bowie is an extremely talented musician. He was ahead of his time in his hayday. I think many people don't understand him or his music or perhaps have never listened to anything other than what they hear on the radio. I respect him as a musician, but I have to go with Prince on this one!!

I agree with you but he is not a proper great instrumentist at all. His guitar skills and keyboard skills are very average. And my God, do not ask him to play his saxo.

But he is a melodist, he is quite a visionnaire, he has great musical ideas and his voice is a tremendous instrument on its own.

TrevorAyer said:

ohYeeeeeah said:

he does not accept any help and any ideas from others.

no he just steals the ideas plays the instrument himself and self credits .. good ole prince ..

bowie is ok but prince old songs are better .. prince new songs suck because the talent pool to steal from is weak .. one thing that makes other groups last longer than prince is that they keep their bands together .. bruce with the e street .. u2 .. tom petty and the heart breakers .. mick and the stones ... when the band stays together the music stays consistantly good or at least not as bad as most of prince solo efforts .. i am sure if prince had kept the revolution together and shown respect for their contributions his music would be respectable to this day ... he cant keep a group together more than a few years these days .. the result is weak live shows and weak collaborations and weak solo songs .. prince pretends he is reinventing himself with each new line up but really he is just watering down what was once magical ..

Thankfully not too many people on this site take your comments seriously.

WTF kinda question is this? PRINCE. Do u think Bowie could have written Sign O' times, or the gold expirience, or TRC ? Sure Bowie had his stuff and it's pretty good but theres no comparision. Prince has the voice of god compared to Bowie. Bowie can't move like Prince and Bowie tries to be weird but Prince is a natural. This isn't even a competition , nobody talks about david bowie anyymore anyways lol.

novabrkr said:

You could of course say that Bowie is the more interesting conceptualist and Prince is the better musician.

I'd also say Bowie is a better songwriter (certainly lyric-wise) better lead singer, and better at packaging his intelligence.

Both are great performers, though Prince is obviously a better dancer.

But in the end, there is no all around "better" artist. It's not a hundred yard dash. The sum of the parts and the whole are two totally different things

NDRU said:

novabrkr said:

You could of course say that Bowie is the more interesting conceptualist and Prince is the better musician.

I'd also say Bowie is a better songwriter (certainly lyric-wise) better lead singer, and better at packaging his intelligence.

Both are great performers, though Prince is obviously a better dancer.

But in the end, there is no all around "better" artist. It's not a hundred yard dash. The sum of the parts and the whole are two totally different things

Yeah lyric-wise. But I would not say better songwriter for sure as many of his compositions are G Bm C F Em...ish when Prince shows a lot more versatility and a richer vocabulary.

It is really hard to criticize these two guys really. They are so damn great.

riocoolnes said:

WTF kinda question is this? PRINCE. Do u think Bowie could have written Sign O' times, or the gold expirience, or TRC ? Sure Bowie had his stuff and it's pretty good but theres no comparision. Prince has the voice of god compared to Bowie. Bowie can't move like Prince and Bowie tries to be weird but Prince is a natural. This isn't even a competition , nobody talks about david bowie anyymore anyways lol.

You obviously don't know much of Bowie's material. Even when he was doing is 80's "mainstream" stuff he was still creative (just don't bring up dancing in the streets). I'll give you a few albums to peep and then you tell me if Bowie is not on par or better material than Prince.

Hunky Dory

Ziggy Stardust

Alladin Sane

Diamond Dogs

Young Americans (plastic soul)

Stattion to Station

Low

Heroes

Scary Monsters

Prince will always be my dude, but I'm not sipping the Purple Drink that much to not acknowledge how amazing Bowie is. Now do a comparison of Rick James and Prince and it will be Prince hands down.

Prince or Bowie???

A very unfair choice and these are the 2 main innovators of the Late 20th century music.

they are very differnet approche to music but at the end of the day they both have stepped over the supposed boundaries.

To Ricoolnes who said Bowie hadn't done The Rainbow Children or Gold experience should check out Bowie's Outside and Earthling..... you may just be a little surprised!!

riocoolnes said:

nobody talks about david bowie anyymore anyways lol.

You dweeb, what do you think this thread is!

NouveauDance said:

riocoolnes said:

nobody talks about david bowie anyymore anyways lol.

You dweeb, what do you think this thread is!

haha u got me there. Always loved his image more than his music. What happened to him btw? is he still making music or touring? Lol i though he was dead or something for a while.

ohYeeeeeah said:

NDRU said:

I'd also say Bowie is a better songwriter (certainly lyric-wise) better lead singer, and better at packaging his intelligence.

Both are great performers, though Prince is obviously a better dancer.

But in the end, there is no all around "better" artist. It's not a hundred yard dash. The sum of the parts and the whole are two totally different things

Yeah lyric-wise. But I would not say better songwriter for sure as many of his compositions are G Bm C F Em...ish when Prince shows a lot more versatility and a richer vocabulary.

It is really hard to criticize these two guys really. They are so damn great.

maaaaaybe...Prince certainly has some weird changes at times, but lots of his songs are simple blues chords (or even just one chord throughout)

I think your last comment is right on. They're both pretty much the top of the top. Tough to argue that either could have done what they did any better than they did.

i like prince songwriting better and prince has a great voice .. but .. bowies voice is off the charts .. prince voice is kind of boring actually .. its what he does with it that amazes me .. conversly .. bowies melodys often irritate me but he has one of those classic rich voices one of the best

Had recently been thinking about Bowie, and China Girl comes to mind as a great example of Bowie's genius. It's a simple un-PC song about lusting after a girl, but toward the end it takes a turn to a place very few songwriters could go--either lyrically or vocally--when he sings.

"I stumble into town just like a sacred cow
Visions of swastikas in my head
Plans for everyone
Its in the whites of my eyes
My little china girl
You shouldn't mess with me
Ill ruin everything you are
Ill give you television
Ill give you eyes of blue
Ill give you men who want to rule the world"

This takes the song to a climax, and then he comes back with the line that makes me fall in love with the China Girl myself

"And when I get excited
My little china girl says
Oh baby just you shut your mouth"

It's not Imagine, but it sure is a great moment.

My first Bowie album back in 1983/84 was "Let's Dance".

the title track,

Putting Out Fire (Cat People),

China Girl

extremely funky album.. brilliant album.

I own a 2cd compilation, and Changes on 2LP vinyl.

Great, especially Bowie's voice is something from another world.

however Bowie is far from Prince.

Not as influential, in my "musical life".

Both created exceptionally great work, in their own way.

TrevorAyer said:

i like prince songwriting better and prince has a great voice .. but .. bowies voice is off the charts .. prince voice is kind of boring actually .. its what he does with it that amazes me .. conversly .. bowies melodys often irritate me but he has one of those classic rich voices one of the best

This was a big circle you ran in.