lol..no not a spy...Grew up as a musician in Plainfield (home of P-Funk) and heard a lot of stories over the decades about the Mob. Even some stories from some of the members themselves...the "Maggot Brain" story was told to me by Byrd.

ashynevermind said:

[/quote few rockers claim Hendrix as influential because most hard rockers play from a European viewpoint, not blues rock, and you don't know music well if you think P is a great guitarist. Why are there no tutorials or docs or tributes to his playing on you tube or anywhere else like there are for the true greats? Face it, he has no style of his own, just this and that from other players. P hasn't developed, pushed forward or innovated anything on the guitar, get it through your ass licking heads, he's competent, nothing more, never won a single award by any guitar publication, being on the cover is not an award it's marketing.

Few rockers claim Hendrix as influential? He's been claimed to be one the main influences even by the likes of Kirk Hammett and Yngwie Malmsteen. Not that I think those guys really "get Jimi".

I just went to Youtube and typed "Prince guitar tutorial" and it resulted in quite a few videos that should qualifiy as "tutorials". In any case, he periodically takes down everything that directly copies his licks and there have been quite a few complaints about it here by the people that have uploaded their videos and been surprised by the take-down notices.

You should know perfectly well that Prince doesn't make the type of music that appeals to people that read guitar magazines, watch online guitar tutorials and so on. His music isn't dominated by guitar riffs and there are solos on the records only here and there. Why would you even expect people that vote for someone like Alexi Laiho from Children Of Bodom as "the best guitar player in the world" to be really into Prince? I don't consider Prince "to be the best guitarist in the world" either, but the stuff that's regularly featured in guitar magazines is very off-putting to me. I find it mostly tasteless.

You're right in that Prince doesn't have a very distinct style of his own as a soloist. It's not always so easy to differentiate between an Eddie Hazel and a Jimi Hendrix solo either, but that doesn't mean Eddie Hazel wasn't a great player. For that matter, it isn't always so easy to differentiate between the stuff Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton played in the 60s (just check out the live recordings of "The Sunshine Of Your Love"). Prince definitely has his own take on rhythm guitar playing and if you can't appreciate what he does on the guitar on albums like Controversy and 1999 it's simply your loss.

I won't call you a "troll", but your behaviour on this board is certainly trollish. Your claim that Prince wouldn't be able to play "Little Wing" has already been disproven by the fact that he's already performed it live. Maybe stuff like that is above your own skill level, but that doesn't mean you should assume others can't pull it off. What makes your behaviour resemble that of a troll's is how you simply ignore other people's counter-arguments that falsify your claims and then you just continue to fling more shit hoping that some of it will stick. Please, stop doing that.

[Edited 2/10/15 4:03am]

When P did guitar magazine interviews (Guitar World, Guitar Player) he did grace the cover a few times, gave detailed info about his gear and underhyped his own skills. He admitted he wanted to be a "Santana" type guitar hero but he started having hit singles..Many times the editorial notes would say;"After what seemed like years of asking, the reclusive Prince has FINALLY given us a interview"..So the guitar magazines get it and understand too...and there's not many guitarists that I've seen on the cover of Guitar Player, Bass Player, Keyboard Magazine, Modern Drummer and Musician Magazine. P is not for everyone but it makes no sense to hate on him.

Although I love his live covers, I think it was wise for him not to go overboard with them and cover everything obvious left and right. He does more than enough covers lately on record but I like how it's really to put his own spin, rather than attempt to compete (The Best of You was both).

I don't want to see him cover Hendrix, Clinton, Mitchell, Brown, Stone....too often. When he does, I generally enjoy it, bit I don't want to hear too many in a row and there's no point in competing with the original. He could really go for it in some cases if it was in the spirit of showing the world he has the chops to handle this song or that song, but that would tacky and besides the point for a man of his talent. He's already Prince, he's doesn't need to compete with The Greats, he is one of them right and proper -- unlike many "guitar genius" types, quite a few will be footnotes in musical history as if there's one thing that's been constant is that sheer virtuosity doesn't equate : the greatest music ever.

There's a reason why Beethoven wrote better violin music than Paganini.

Aerogram said:

He's already Prince, he's doesn't need to compete with The Greats, he is one of them right and proper -- unlike many "guitar genius" types, quite a few will be footnotes in musical history as if there's one thing that's been constant is that sheer virtuosity doesn't equate : the greatest music ever.

There's a reason why Beethoven wrote better violin music than Paganini.

That just doesn't make any sense at all.

Who was talking about a "need to compete"?

Gosh, it may not be your intention, but you sound just like supersoulfighter like that.

The point of it is that songs like Little Wing and Maggot Brain belong to the greatest guitar songs ever.

Why shouldn't a great player like Prince perform it too?

Making it sound as if Prince is above covering the greatest songs just comes off to me as making excuses for why couldn't do it.

Yeah, because he doesn't "need to".

I didn't "need" to make this thread either and you didn't "need" to respond. Yet you and I did.

Likewise, Santana and so many others didn't need to cover Maggot Brain either. Yet he covered it. Out of joy of playing it, respect and admiration maybe?

.

[Edited 2/10/15 17:37pm]

Embrace said:

Aerogram said:

He's already Prince, he's doesn't need to compete with The Greats, he is one of them right and proper -- unlike many "guitar genius" types, quite a few will be footnotes in musical history as if there's one thing that's been constant is that sheer virtuosity doesn't equate : the greatest music ever.

There's a reason why Beethoven wrote better violin music than Paganini.

That just doesn't make any sense at all.

Who was talking about a "need to compete"?

Gosh, it may not be your intention, but you sound just like supersoulfighter like that.

The point of it is that songs like Little Wing and Maggot Brain belong to the greatest guitar songs ever.

Why shouldn't a great player like Prince perform it too?

Making it sound as if Prince is above covering the greatest songs just comes off to me as making excuses for why couldn't do it.

Yeah, because he doesn't "need to".

I didn't "need" to make this thread either and you didn't "need" to respond. Yet you and I did.

Likewise, Santana and so many others didn't need to cover Maggot Brain either. Yet he covered it. Out of joy of playing it, respect and admiration maybe?

.

[Edited 2/10/15 17:37pm]

What are you talking about? I enjoy his covers, I just don't think it's interesting for him to cover many guitar standards. Like it's great to have Whole Lotta Love, but does he have to also play a bunch of other LZ songs, half of JH's catalog, ??? It would be interesting to some fans, but I'm glad he hasn't been aggressive about covering guitar classics like he's trying to prove something. For the record, I'm not really interested in much anyone covering a lot of Hendrix or LZ. A bit is fine, shouldn't be overdone.

^
I am simply talking about wishing to hear him play those great guitar songs.

Not about any "need", but a "wish".

It's just someting I would really like to hear and see him play.

And he is not obliged by any of it, I am just expressing my feelings here.

You say you don't feel like that and are happy with only "a bit".

That's cool, but what has Prince done live when it concerns Jimi Hendrix or Funkadelic?
I vaguely remember him playing Red House a few times during the aftershows of the late 80's.

With not a lot of guitar on it.

And apparantly he later did Little Wing twice, but nobody knows of a recording.

Maggot Brain or other Funkadelic classics? Never it seems, even tho spyfanz says he was invited to do it plenty of times.
Perhabs I am forgetting about some stuff, but it can't be much.


Yet I clearly remember him playing Everyday people and Thank you for letting me be myself again, like a thousand times on several tours.
Which is fine, but kind of boring, one-sided, and sort of a shame too, when you consider Prince's guitar playing talents. Which are definetely awesome.

....

[Edited 2/11/15 8:34am]