To name a few..

Stevie Wonder.

Amazing run in the 70s

and I'd rather listen to 80s stevie than the crap Prince put out in the 90s. Stevie's last album is better to me than anything Prince put out since forever

MJ
bigger than life act, more consistent, better singer and entertainer.. He appeals to ALL age groups unlike Prince.

[Edited 11/14/14 12:53pm]

FunkyD said:

To name a few..

Stevie Wonder.

Amazing run in the 70s

and I'd rather listen to 80s stevie than the crap Prince put out in the 90s. Stevie's last album is better to me than anything Prince put out since forever

MJ
bigger than life act, more consistent, better singer and entertainer.. He appeals to ALL age groups unlike Prince.

[Edited 11/14/14 12:53pm]

skywalker said:

TrevorAyer said:

where is prince Like A Rolling Stone .. Voodoo Chile .. It's A Man's World or even Papa Don't Take No Mess .. or prince River .. this is classic music that never ages .. prince has a couple few songs that hold up to the all time greats .. but they all have just as many as prince if not more ..

Candidates for Prince’s “Like a Rolling Stone”: The Cross, 4 the Tears in Your Eyes, Count the Days, Welcome 2 the Dawn, Gold. - Candidates for Prince’s “It’s a Man’s World”: Nothing Compares 2U, Adore, The One, Dark - Candidate’s for Prince’s “Papa Don’t Take No Mess”: Billy Jack Bitch, Possessed. - Candidates for Prince’s Voodoo Chile: Dreamer, Poor Goo, etc. [Edited 11/14/14 12:56pm]

ok now go play your comparisons side by side with each other and laugh at the absurdity .. nothing u listed save sineads cover of Nc2u is even close to the all time classic level of the tunes I suggested .. Like A Rolling Stone is often considered the absolute greatest rock n roll song of all time .. dreamer and poor goo are utter shit next to Voodoo Chile and prince does not bother to play either save for rare occasions .. Voodoo Chile tore the house down every night .. Purple Rain is more Prince Voodoo Chile than junk like dreamer ... and billy jack bitch .. r u serious? compared to classic JB funk .. omg ... still the performance of Its a Mans world far surpasses any performance by prince on record for NC2U. its just raw and real and P is kinda over polished and stale at times in his delivery .. none of the prince songs u listed would be considered the top greatest songs of all time .. yet most all that i listed would ..

Graycap23 said:

FunkyD said:

To name a few..

Stevie Wonder.

Amazing run in the 70s

and I'd rather listen to 80s stevie than the crap Prince put out in the 90s. Stevie's last album is better to me than anything Prince put out since forever

MJ
bigger than life act, more consistent, better singer and entertainer.. He appeals to ALL age groups unlike Prince.

[Edited 11/14/14 12:53pm]

I am sure that MJ had great appeal with children.............I drop the mike and walk slowly away.

TrevorAyer said:

I think when you put absolutely everything on the table.....catalogue (inc. unreleased and written for others), the 'in the prime' period, musicianship, concert tours, quality level of his/her main instrument, showmanship, influence, multi genre songwriting, sales, the voice....I think he's right up there. If you just gave a ranking for all of those disciplines, some he'll score high (musicianship), some not so high (sales), but he'd be a contender.

[Edited 11/14/14 13:54pm]

nigel1013 said:

skywalker said:

TrevorAyer said:

ok now go play your comparisons side by side with each other and laugh at the absurdity .. nothing u listed save sineads cover of Nc2u is even close to the all time classic level of the tunes I suggested .. Like A Rolling Stone is often considered the absolute greatest rock n roll song of all time .. dreamer and poor goo are utter shit next to Voodoo Chile and prince does not bother to play either save for rare occasions .. Voodoo Chile tore the house down every night .. Purple Rain is more Prince Voodoo Chile than junk like dreamer ... and billy jack bitch .. r u serious? compared to classic JB funk .. omg ... still the performance of Its a Mans world far surpasses any performance by prince on record for NC2U. its just raw and real and P is kinda over polished and stale at times in his delivery .. none of the prince songs u listed would be considered the top greatest songs of all time .. yet most all that i listed would ..

Man, we are comparing music styles not "which do you like better/is more of a classic". - Do I think Dreamer is better than Voodoo Chile? No. But the fact is that Prince can easily match the styles of each the songs you mentioned. In fact he sometimes does it in a single album. That's all. Preference is in the eyes/ears of you. - The initial post was asking for artists that can do various styles like Prince. - Prince can do James, Dylan, Jimi. Dylan cannot do the style of "Sexy MF", Jimi couldn't do "If I Was Your Girlfriend" (though that'd be wonderful to hear) and James couldn't do "Raspberry Beret". Get it? - Also, not to be rude, but I am suspecting an age difference between a lot of us on this board. Your tastes seem to gravitate about a decade or two earlier than mind. Which is why, maybe, Prince makes us meet in the middle? - For example: I never would take Stevie's 80's output over Prince's 90's. Never. Maybe that poster just likes Stevie better regardless of age? I dunno. Also, depending on a person's birthday, "Nothing Compares 2 U" is more classic than "It's a Man's World". [Edited 11/14/14 13:45pm]

oops double post

[Edited 11/14/14 15:00pm]

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

skywalker said:

TrevorAyer said: Man, we are comparing music styles not "which do you like better/is more of a classic". - Do I think Dreamer is better than Voodoo Chile? No. But the fact is that Prince can easily match the styles of each the songs you mentioned. In fact he sometimes does it in a single album. That's all. Preference is in the eyes/ears of you. - The initial post was asking for artists that can do various styles like Prince. - Prince can do James, Dylan, Jimi. Dylan cannot do the style of "Sexy MF", Jimi couldn't do "If I Was Your Girlfriend" (though that'd be wonderful to hear) and James couldn't do "Raspberry Beret". Get it? - Also, not to be rude, but I am suspecting an age difference between a lot of us on this board. Your tastes seem to gravitate about a decade or two earlier than mind. Which is why, maybe, Prince makes us meet in the middle? - For example: I never would take Stevie's 80's output over Prince's 90's. Never. Maybe that poster just likes Stevie better regardless of age? I dunno. Also, depending on a person's birthday, "Nothing Compares 2 U" is more classic than "It's a Man's World". [Edited 11/14/14 13:45pm]

See? Age divide on the org. Jordan, not Lebron?

[Edited 11/14/14 15:14pm]

skywalker said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

See? Jordan, not Lebron?

Jordan's better!

nigel1013 said:

Graycap23 said:

I am sure that MJ had great appeal with children.............I drop the mike and walk slowly away.

Same old tired jokes but you can't deny the truth..

MJ's ability to make universal songs was out of this world. Ask younger folk today what they think about Prince and they will barely care about anything he does / did. And MJ had better jugdgement on music he put out. Instead of dropping 3 CD albums full of duds he had way better quality control over his work as well as Stevie. And they never constantly had to remind everyone that their music is great and real to get people's attention. They let their music speak and hit instead of coming up with excuses. they put out great music without all the bullshit that comes with Prince territory

[Edited 11/14/14 15:27pm]

SoulAlive said:

pdiddy2011 said:

And I wouldn't even consider Michael Jackson - even though I am a BIG fan. He didn't write most of his stuff and I believe most of his biggest hits were written by someone else. And obviously, he didn't have much to do with playing any music. I do admit, though, he was EXCELLENT at what he did.

That's false.Michael wrote most of his biggest hits ("Don't Stop Til' You Get Enough","Beat It","Billie Jean").The latter,in fact,became his signature song.

Excuse me - MJs biggest hits were produced by someone else; i.e., someone else (Quincy Jones) is as credited as much with the final sound as MJ. (And there was never any argument from MJ that Quincy Jones was the architect of Off the Wall and Thriller.)

To clarify, though, most of his songs - in general - were written by someone else. Case in point, on his greatest selling album by far, Thriller, MJ wrote 4 of 9 songs. On his "coming out" album, Off The Wall, MJ wrote only 3 of 10 songs. Another mega hit, Man in The Mirror was written by "others".

My point is, MJ can not be [overall] better than Prince because there are too many skills Prince brings to the table that MJ does not. Again, I am a huge MJ fan, but I can't make the argument on his behalf. It's not even close. Prince has produced just about everything he has offered. Prince has written just about everything he has offered. Even MJs dancing was choreographed by others; when you think MJ you think dancing, and that was provided to him by someone else. (He certainly made it his own and made it look like he created it, but he didn't.)

I can go on and on...

skywalker said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

See? Age divide on the org. Jordan, not Lebron?

[Edited 11/14/14 15:14pm]

It's more of a quality divide, I believe. Some of us actually know what quality is.

FunkyD said:

nigel1013 said:

I am sure that MJ had great appeal with children.............I drop the mike and walk slowly away.

Same old tired jokes but you can't deny the truth..

MJ's ability to make universal songs was out of this world. Ask younger folk today what they think about Prince and they will barely care about anything he does / did. And MJ had better jugdgement on music he put out. Instead of dropping 3 CD albums full of duds he had way better quality control over his work as well as Stevie. And they never constantly had to remind everyone that their music is great and real to get people's attention. They let their music speak and hit instead of coming up with excuses. they put out great music without all the bullshit that comes with Prince territory

[Edited 11/14/14 15:27pm]

This is a Prince fan website. Why are you here?

Graycap23 said:

FunkyD said:

To name a few..

Stevie Wonder.

Amazing run in the 70s

and I'd rather listen to 80s stevie than the crap Prince put out in the 90s. Stevie's last album is better to me than anything Prince put out since forever

MJ
bigger than life act, more consistent, better singer and entertainer.. He appeals to ALL age groups unlike Prince.

[Edited 11/14/14 12:53pm]

nigel1013 said:

FunkyD said:

Same old tired jokes but you can't deny the truth..

MJ's ability to make universal songs was out of this world. Ask younger folk today what they think about Prince and they will barely care about anything he does / did. And MJ had better jugdgement on music he put out. Instead of dropping 3 CD albums full of duds he had way better quality control over his work as well as Stevie. And they never constantly had to remind everyone that their music is great and real to get people's attention. They let their music speak and hit instead of coming up with excuses. they put out great music without all the bullshit that comes with Prince territory

[Edited 11/14/14 15:27pm]

This is a Prince fan website. Why are you here?

¨

Prince has his moments where he's great but i wouldn't call him the greatest of all time.

.

[Edited 11/14/14 15:48pm]

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

skywalker said:

See? Age divide on the org. Jordan, not Lebron?

[Edited 11/14/14 15:14pm]

It's more of a quality divide, I believe. Some of us actually know what quality is.

Yes we do. What year were you born?

[Edited 11/14/14 17:14pm]

just sayin' everyone has an opinion. This came out today:

-

http://blogs.citypages.co...php?page=3

[Edited 11/14/14 16:04pm]

skywalker said:

leonche64 said:

I think we are confusing terms here. Prince gets mad props from the rock community as a guitar player. No one says he plays rock music. Prince plays Prince music. The fact that he was playing lead guitar in an era of synthesizers confused many people. Rock star is a generic term regardless of genre. Change the lyrics to "Darling Nicky" and it does not make it out of the 80's. The main line is a keyboard riff. "Jump" by Van Halen was released the same year. Also has a keyboard line as the main hook. Do you think those two songs belong in the same genre? Earlier post, it was put forth that Plectrum Electrum was a rock album. It ain't. It is a Prince album. World on Fire, by Slash is a rock album.

Are we not just talking semantics? Sure, Let's Go Crazy is most definitely a Prince song. It also fits the definition of a rock song.

Exactly - it is bullshit semantics along with some racism. If PRince was white, there would be not question. THis dynamic was actualy crystallized in the 80s when there was still such a thing as "black charts" in the music business. Artists were categorized by race. On MTV, CUlture CLub, George Michael, Madonna, ABC, and most every whitew new wave dance band would have been called R&B/Soul IF they were black. Conversely, you woud be hard pressed to come up with more than 2 black artists that were considered new wave - though they were doing it (it was called funk). IN the mid 80s, Cameo would have been a huge new wave band if they were white but the R&B/funk undertone and their black skin got them narrowed to one category: R&B (which to this day is code for black). Prince was handled the same way - though he defies categorization like no one in history because he has produced, arranged, composed, and per4med in almost every genre with an unequalled brilliance.

Fact of the matter is the Prince rocks and has always rocked as much as any white boy - from Bambi to PlectrumElectrum. Price is funky first and foremost. He is actually a rock star and a pop star and a R&B star if you take those terms in a litreal context.

skywalker said:

just sayin' everyone has an opinion. This came out today:

-

http://blogs.citypages.co...php?page=3

[Edited 11/14/14 16:04pm]

A Minneapolis blogger declares Prince the #1 Most Underated Guitarists in the History of Rock. Well, color me shocked.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

JoshuaWho said:

skywalker said:

leonche64 said: Are we not just talking semantics? Sure, Let's Go Crazy is most definitely a Prince song. It also fits the definition of a rock song.

Exactly - it is bullshit semantics along with some racism.

U bring up a very valid point that I didn't even think about. If Prince were a white artist......he would be considered the greatset artist of all time BAR NONE.

Graycap23 said:

JoshuaWho said:

Exactly - it is bullshit semantics along with some racism.

U bring up a very valid point that I didn't even think about. If Prince were a white artist......he would be considered the greatset artist of all time BAR NONE.

If Prince were a white artist he'd have never made it from '78 to 84.

JoshuaWho said:

skywalker said:

leonche64 said: Are we not just talking semantics? Sure, Let's Go Crazy is most definitely a Prince song. It also fits the definition of a rock song.

Exactly - it is bullshit semantics along with some racism. If PRince was white, there would be not question. THis dynamic was actualy crystallized in the 80s when there was still such a thing as "black charts" in the music business. Artists were categorized by race. On MTV, CUlture CLub, George Michael, Madonna, ABC, and most every whitew new wave dance band would have been called R&B/Soul IF they were black. Conversely, you woud be hard pressed to come up with more than 2 black artists that were considered new wave - though they were doing it (it was called funk). IN the mid 80s, Cameo would have been a huge new wave band if they were white but the R&B/funk undertone and their black skin got them narrowed to one category: R&B (which to this day is code for black). Prince was handled the same way - though he defies categorization like no one in history because he has produced, arranged, composed, and per4med in almost every genre with an unequalled brilliance.

Fact of the matter is the Prince rocks and has always rocked as much as any white boy - from Bambi to PlectrumElectrum. Price is funky first and foremost. He is actually a rock star and a pop star and a R&B star if you take those terms in a litreal context.

How in the world did we get to this? Prince had the most color blind industrial push since day one. In a two year span he toured with Rick James and the Rolling Stones. Opposite ends of the popular musical spectrum. If you think "I'll Tumble for You" "Wake me up before you Go Go"and "Material Girl" are in the same styling of "Ghetto Life", "Stomp", and "Fantastic Voyage" then you have a point. If not, they are clearly different genres. If you are a Prince fan, almost by definition, you enjoy different styles of music. New Wave music grew out of the punk scene, primarily British 70's. Funk came from 60's R&B, primarily American. Different influences. Cameo started out as a horn band like the Ohio Players, Confunkshun, and Brick. The fact that there were separate categories that allowed space for a band to work and thrive was a good thing. Today those areas are gone and all music is pushed into the middle, top 40. There will never come a time when we have mature bands like The Whispers, The O'Jays, The Bar Kay's again. It is all for the kids now. The fact that Prince always found room in those various spaces speaks to his mass appeal, not to racism or industry bias. The fact that Miles Kennedy and Slash know and respect Prince, and Larry Blackmond and D'Angelo do the same, is heighten by the reality that they most likely have nothing musically in common with each other. Prince is that musical connection. As I said in a previous post, Prince is regarded as one of the best guitar players alive. Not the best, one of the best. He is regarded as one of the best song writers alive. Not the best, one of the best. He is at the top of the list as one of the best live performers alive. In terms of MONEY GENERATED, not manipulated BS like chart position, record sales, records shipped, but actual cash, he is one of the top earners of all time. Not the top, one of the top. As to longevity, he is in his 4th decade, and he has charted in each one of them. I don't even know how to research that accomplishment. Absolutely none of that is diminished by the fact that Prince is definitely a Rock star, but not a rock act. If you are saying he fits into every category, and I say he fits into none, then maybe we are saying the same thing by saying the opposite. So looking at where Prince averages in all of the major categories, If he is not the best, please tell me who is. It is a person I have not heard of before and I am very interested.

leonche64 said:

prince will never be a respected rapper like say BIG .. just because prince tries to rap does not mean he can rap .. just because prince tries to play rock does not mean he is good at it .. dreamer will never touch voodoo chile or even p's own good songs .. yes hendrix will never to a housequake but prince will never record something as good as voodoo chile .. prince cant play jazz .. his rnb is repetative and boring .. his "jamming" is often awful (just listen to the undertaker) .. saying prince is better because he is more well rounded than other musicians is a garbage comparison ... prince fails at most genres he attempts .. he cant even record his own hits properly .. eg ... NC2U ... he is a good songwriter at times and when surrounded by the right musicians makes great music .. he is not better than tons and tons of other musicians .. and he certainly cant write the style they are all great at .. he tries but its just not very good or worthy of note .. as confirmed by the rest of the world

SoulAlive said:

For me,there is no "best" artist in music.I have a ton of favorites.Different artists move me in different ways.That's what so fun about music....you can listen to many different people,and enjoy all of them.

Me too. I agree