Just saw a Rolling Stone piece that said that Prince's greatest talent may actually jave been as a guitarist. If you had to single out Prince's chief talent what would it be?

Singer?

Pianist?

Guitarist?

Song Writer?

Band Leader?

Dancer?

Producer?

I'd say songwriter. But as Jon bream said, he was the greatest all around pop star ever. there were people who could beat him on certain things but no one who could do as well at so many things. In that way, i've always thought of him as the Sugar Ray Robinson of music. Just like I thought of Michael as the Ali of music. Sugar Ray was the most complete fighter ever, he could do everything very well and many things exceptionally well. There may have been guys who hit harder or were faster but no one put them both together as well. Ali was more a commercial phenomenon with lots of technical shortcomings.

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His showmanship.

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Let's not get carried away. There are better guitarists, better songwriters, better dancers, better singers....but never ever been a performer who could put on a show like Prince. Best live performer ever. No one topped him. No one ever will top him.

I can't think of Prince as an honest pop star like Michael Jackson or Madonna. I think he is an artist who used the idea of a pop star without actually really being one. He seemed to alway allude to that in lyrics "unravel the mystery" "Life aint no fun without fantasy" "Pay no attenton to the man behind the curtain, you are all the man behind the curtain"

I mean he wins a webby and then the next day his site goes offline. It was like a game of on and off. Try to be popular, try to alienate.

Cloreen said:

Make perfect songs.

Playing many instruments

[Edited 5/18/16 17:03pm]

I think it's wrong to try and reduce Prince to one singular talent. Having said that, I've always admired Prince's phenomenal songwriting capabilities and versatility.

[Edited 5/18/16 17:05pm]

This might be slightly leftfield, but of all the panoply of talents he had - he was a peerless arranger of music. His ability to reinvent his or anyone elses music has always astonished me.

It's a given that he is the most gifted allround talent in the Rock/pop era. No one else is in the conversation, and he deserves his place at the top of the Mt Olympus of Rock Gods. He's up there with a select few, but he's definately Chief Entertainments Officer.

ufoclub said:

I can't think of Prince as an honest pop star like Michael Jackson or Madonna. I think he is an artist who used the idea of a pop star without actually really being one. He seemed to alway allude to that in lyrics "unravel the mystery" "Life aint no fun without fantasy" "Pay no attenton to the man behind the curtain, you are all the man behind the curtain"

I mean he wins a webby and then the next day his site goes offline. It was like a game of on and off. Try to be popular, try to alienate.

Madonna and MJ are pop stars - and thats all that are. Prince is that plus he is THE consumate musician, artist, and showman. THis is why he is greater than them.

RiotPaisley said:

Cloreen said:

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His showmanship.

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Let's not get carried away. There are better guitarists, better songwriters, better dancers, better singers....but never ever been a performer who could put on a show like Prince. Best live performer ever. No one topped him. No one ever will top him.

Lol you are crazy. Greatest musician to have ever lived. Even Eric Clapton says Prince is the greatest.

Easily the greatest showman of all time. And I think he was as good a songwriter as any in history - his compositions stand up against all the greatest composers. While Hendrix is still the greatest guitarist, Prince is better than players who were ranked right behind him (Clapton, Santana, Richards, Paige, Isley, Hampton).

I always thought there were undertones of a great classical composer to prince, sure he played it up in his prime with the 1800's suits and it's been said he was fascinated by the movie amadeus, but he really was that exceptional. You don't find people with that kind of aura in this kind of music, the idea is almost laughable. I mean, i saw a bust of Elvis in the vein of the busts of beethoven and mozart, it was a bold statement and Elvis was great but not in the same way. Prince however always had that genius, composer, madman aura. In another life he'd have been a peer to Mozart and Beethoven.

FUNKYNESS said:

RiotPaisley said:

Cloreen said: Lol you are crazy. Greatest musician to have ever lived. Even Eric Clapton says Prince is the greatest.

Easily the greatest showman of all time. And I think he was as good a songwriter as any in history - his compositions stand up against all the greatest composers. While Hendrix is still the greatest guitarist, Prince is better than players who were ranked right behind him (Clapton, Santana, Richards, Paige, Isley, Hampton).

James Brown would like to have a word with you.

Cloreen said:

his universal magnetism...

there's been many talented multi-instrumentalists, and songwriters, and singers, and dancers, over the years... but no one that talented, was ever as visually and emotionally compelling as this guy... he had more stage presence and and camera presence than anyone ever... Todd Rundgren had alot of the same creative ability as Prince did, but was never able to create the mass hysteria and fixation, that Prince could... because he just didnt have IT...Prince didnt only have IT, he was/is IT...

one of the things that doesn't seem to be mentioned enough is his talent with vocal arrangements. Some of them are just mind-blowing. The harmonies he creates, often just with his own voice overdubbed, were just astonishing.

NoVideo said:

one of the things that doesn't seem to be mentioned enough is his talent with vocal arrangements. Some of them are just mind-blowing. The harmonies he creates, often just with his own voice overdubbed, were just astonishing.

This!

[Edited 5/18/16 20:53pm]

gerardv said:

tollyc said:

gerardv said:

Just saw a Rolling Stone piece that said that Prince's greatest talent may actually jave been as a guitarist. If you had to single out Prince's chief talent what would it be?

Singer?

Pianist?

Guitarist?

Song Writer?

Band Leader?

Dancer?

Producer?

His greatest skill was getting a bunch of fanatics to agree that he "was the best" with major disagreements as to why.

I don't think it's possible to choose his greatest talent. They're all interwoven into the genius that was Prince. He's his own musical genre. People will be listening to his music decades after we are all gone.

NoVideo said:

avajane said:

NoVideo said:

I don't think it's possible to choose his greatest talent. They're all interwoven into the genius that was Prince. He's his own musical genre. People will be listening to his music decades after we are all gone.

What do you think is his musical genre? Perhaps that's what we should be asking as opposed to asking what was his greatest talent? [Edited 5/18/16 21:10pm]

I think he transcended genres. He touched on so many. R&B, funk, disco, pop, rock, even hip-hop and jazz and orchestral pieces. I just don't think he can fit within any defined genre. The only thing that can be said about him is he's Prince. He was a talent of extraordinary caliber. The music is so different now.

avajane said:

NoVideo said:

I don't think it's possible to choose his greatest talent. They're all interwoven into the genius that was Prince. He's his own musical genre. People will be listening to his music decades after we are all gone.

What do you think is his musical genre? Perhaps that's what we should be asking as opposed to asking what was his greatest talent? [Edited 5/18/16 21:10pm]

his genre? He could do so many different styles but I'd say the minneapolis sound defines him best, Funk bass, Rock guitar, kooky lyrical content centered around sex and religion, pioneering use of synths and drum machines. But really, he did so many things well, he could go pure rock, he could go pure funk, he could dabble in jazz (although many critics dogged him for that) and he even had classical arrangements which I loved from the brilliant Claire Fischer. Of course, some on here, Vainandy, most conspicuously, would have been perfectly content if he had just kept churning out sequals to purple rain. The guy was amazing, oh how I will miss him.

I consider Prince to be a modern day Renaissance man in the realm of music. Driven and passionate like a Leonardo DaVinci or Michelangelo. At times, an underappreciated genius like a Nikola Tesla. Such people are rare indeed. They can seemingly "harness the sun" and we have the privilege of catching but a glimpse of the brilliance they possess.

How thankful am I to have witnessed someone like that in my lifetime.