I myself love real horns especially in Earth wind and fire and James Brown groups.However they just dont seem to"fit" Prince's music somehow for me.To me the Synth horn parts define and suit his music much better,What do you think?

kidmelody2012 said:

I myself love real horns especially in Earth wind and fire and James Brown groups.However they just dont seem to"fit" Prince's music somehow for me.To me the Synth horn parts define and suit his music much better,What do you think?

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A lot of horny talk on here lately. It's got me thinking about the horns in Darling Nikki and how those could possibly be synth horns. Seems impossible, but I've never heard of them using a session guy for that.

They sure fit as hell in the studio but sometimes sound forced on some live songs that didn't have them on the studio version (but not always, he found a great horns arrangement for Kiss for example).

's signature sound always was and always will be keyboards and drum machines.

SYNTHS. I cannot stress enough how amazing many of the songs from the 1985-1988 and even beyond that would be if Prince cut the horns and stuck to synths. He sounded like James Brown's Second Coming. No offense to the King of Funk but, I don't know who really wanted that

Prince already had his unique icy funk synth sound (1999, Purple Rain, outtakes, Mazarati, even the Family) and instead of reverting to horns he should have tried to capitalize on his synth sound. Janet Jackson certainly capitalized on it later in the eighties..

Gonna have to say synths. ANALOGUE synths. Not the nasty, cheap sounding digital synths that he's used at different times throughout his career.

Saying that, I do enjoy horns when they are well arranged and creative. Rockhard In A Funky Place would be an example of horns that really work. Also, imagine some lead synth tone playing the horn melody from Adore. It would sound like a porno

yes and billy jack bitch horn arrangement awesome

dandan said:

Gonna have to say synths. ANALOGUE synths. Not the nasty, cheap sounding digital synths that he's used at different times throughout his career.

Saying that, I do enjoy horns when they are well arranged and creative. Rockhard In A Funky Place would be an example of horns that really work. Also, imagine some lead synth tone playing the horn melody from Adore. It would sound like a porno

analog synths all the way

No offense intended to Mr Moops and his compatriots--but my general preference is for the synths. And that's particularly true for live performance of those tracks originally done with synths. There's a lot of fine horns on Prince studio tracks, though. But I tend to like those tracks as studio tracks--not in their live arrangements. (Lovesexy shows are an exception.) I might just like the streamlined live feel a smaller band gives--a horn section can fill a stage pretty quick.

But when I got on this boat, there were synths. It was part of THE sound. When a horn or two joined--it was okay, as long as they were an addition. When they're replacing something--that's when I don't like it.

thebanishedone said:

analog synths all the way

Horns are ok once in a while I suppose but the synths played a part of what attracted me to Prince in the first place.

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Growing up I loved other acts like the Cars and Missing Persons for the the synths in their music also. Just my cup of tea.

Synths, all day, errday. That's the Minneapolis sound right there.

I think it all depends on who is playing the real horns. If it's Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss, I'm with it! I also like Maceo Parker, Candy and Greg. However, Leeds and Bliss really work with Prince's live horn sound.

Synths. Anything else isn't the "Prince Sound".

Either synths or Eric Leeds and Eddie Minninfield, or both. I´m not a fan of big horn sections, and I think Maceo Parker is too much of a star himself to be in Prince´s band. Love Maceo, always have and always will, and it´s nice to see him play or tour with Prince but soundwise, as far as Prince´s music goes, my brain´s been programmed to prefer Eric Leeds over any other sax player with Prince.

Eddie M was a bad motherfucker! where is he?

kidmelody2012 said:

Eddie M was a bad motherfucker! where is he?

He released 2 solo albums: http://www.amazon.com/Edd...mus_dp_pel

Real horns all the way. They're an acknowledgement of the history and legacy of black music and always raise his show several notches.

If the horn breaks on the Arsenio Hall rendition of Mutiny don't give you chills then I genuinely feel sorry for you.

kidmelody2012 said:

Eddie M was a bad motherfucker! where is he?

In His Skin

why he not playing with prince now instead of those sorry azz saxes he got now?

thebanishedone said:

kidmelody2012 said:

Eddie M was a bad motherfucker! where is he?

In His Skin

EugeneKnight said:

Real horns all the way. They're an acknowledgement of the history and legacy of black music and always raise his show several notches.

If the horn breaks on the Arsenio Hall rendition of Mutiny don't give you chills then I genuinely feel sorry for you.

You must feel sorry for me then. That performance of Mutiny did nothing for me. All those horn players, and it still wasn't as good as one Eric Leeds. And for the record, I saw The Family/fDeluxe live in London two years ago, and they did Mutiny, and Eric tore it up.

Synths over horns is what makes Prince's early sound unique. I never want to hear "1999" with horns. Horrible.

EugeneKnight said:

Real horns all the way. They're an acknowledgement of the history and legacy of black music and always raise his show several notches.

Yeah, Adolphe Sax was one bad brutha.

SquirrelMeat said:

EugeneKnight said:

Real horns all the way. They're an acknowledgement of the history and legacy of black music and always raise his show several notches.

Yeah, Adolphe Sax was one bad brutha.

Militant said:

EugeneKnight said:

Real horns all the way. They're an acknowledgement of the history and legacy of black music and always raise his show several notches.

If the horn breaks on the Arsenio Hall rendition of Mutiny don't give you chills then I genuinely feel sorry for you.

You must feel sorry for me then. That performance of Mutiny did nothing for me. All those horn players, and it still wasn't as good as one Eric Leeds. And for the record, I saw The Family/fDeluxe live in London two years ago, and they did Mutiny, and Eric tore it up.

Synths over horns is what makes Prince's early sound unique. I never want to hear "1999" with horns. Horrible.

Yes, I do, but hey, what do I know? I'm the only one voting for horns in this thread.

Analog synth horns all the way. While I love some of his later tunes with a real horn section I get the biggest kick out of his Linndrum/Oberheim creations. The original Minneapolis Sound, like others have said, that is what it's all about for me. Quirky drumcomputer funk with synths and slap bass and funky rhythm guitar.

It just depends on the mood he is trying to go for. The synth horns on the album Purple Rain give it a very 80's pop feel, which works for a teenage audience.

I like it when Prince uses a real horn texture as inthe original sax sound for the bottom in the original demo of Elephants and Flowers. It's so much better than the album version. Also in a song like Crystal Ball or Come (album version) the horns provide a lot of strength and gravity. How would Hot Thing sound without real sax?

It's funny that up until Purple Rain's tour, Prince had stated that he thought real horns were not cool, and mostly stayed away from them. I bet this was because he was trying to distance himself from more mainstream, safer acts that crossed over like Earth Wind and Fire or the Commodores. He wanted to be a punk funk alien back then with an cartoonish almost parody horn sound of the keyboard.

After Purple Rain it seems like he wanted to use horns almost as a cultural texture, a way of sounding legit or authentic. But with something like Come or Billy Jack bitch , the horns are used as a lead feature and are even the most interesting aspect of those songs. (of course there is a bootleg that shows that those BJB crazy horn parts were recorded in a session that was not even related to Billy Jack Bitch. It's a bootleg that just has that horn section going through tons of musical phrases and patterns)

ufoclub said:

It just depends on the mood he is trying to go for. The synth horns on the album Purple Rain give it a very 80's pop feel, which works for a teenage audience.

I like it when Prince uses a real horn texture as inthe original sax sound for the bottom in the original demo of Elephants and Flowers. It's so much better than the album version. Also in a song like Crystal Ball or Come (album version) the horns provide a lot of strength and gravity. How would Hot Thing sound without real sax?

It's funny that up until Purple Rain's tour, Prince had stated that he thought real horns were not cool, and mostly stayed away from them. I bet this was because he was trying to distance himself from more mainstream, safer acts that crossed over like Earth Wind and Fire or the Commodores. He wanted to be a punk funk alien back then with an cartoonish almost parody horn sound of the keyboard.

After Purple Rain it seems like he wanted to use horns almost as a cultural texture, a way of sounding legit or authentic. But with something like Come or Billy Jack bitch , the horns are used as a lead feature and are even the most interesting aspect of those songs. (of course there is a bootleg that shows that those BJB crazy horn parts were recorded in a session that was not even related to Billy Jack Bitch. It's a bootleg that just has that horn section going through tons of musical phrases and patterns)

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in fact, all the crazy horn parts played in that session were intended for BJB. Most of the middle stuff (particularily my arrangement of T. Monk's "Well You Needn't") got edited out.

Why "Or"? There's obviously room for both. His career has lasted over 35 years and he's done so many different styles of music during it.

There was a period in the 1990s when analog-style synth horn parts almost disappeared from music, so he did the right choice by incorporating more real horn arrangements. It would have been pretty bizarre to have him do something that sounded like "1999" or "DMSR" in 1992. I'm sure there are plenty of people still today that aren't even aware that some people actually like synth horns.

I think I'm gonna quote the man himself to express my preference.

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From "Face Down":

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"Horns!!"

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Oh, wait--those are fake. Oh well.

MrMoops said:

ufoclub said:

After Purple Rain it seems like he wanted to use horns almost as a cultural texture, a way of sounding legit or authentic. But with something like Come or Billy Jack bitch , the horns are used as a lead feature and are even the most interesting aspect of those songs. (of course there is a bootleg that shows that those BJB crazy horn parts were recorded in a session that was not even related to Billy Jack Bitch. It's a bootleg that just has that horn section going through tons of musical phrases and patterns)

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in fact, all the crazy horn parts played in that session were intended for BJB. Most of the middle stuff (particularily my arrangement of T. Monk's "Well You Needn't") got edited out.

Again--I'm glad you show up on here, MrMoops. Nice to hear stuff from inside.