Did Prince ever do any fingerpicking? Don't think I've heard him do so but it's quite possible I've overlooked a session or live performance.

Also re: acoustic stuff wasn't there that album that he was working in the mid 90s on that was supposed to be solo guitar that never came out? Think it was called Heart or something, would check on Prince Vault but it seems to be down right now. Would be interesting to hear that stuff one day, although I guess it's possible he might have reused most of it for The Truth.

I loved Prince on the bass!!

XSX said:

CAL3 said:

.

But unfortunately those are largely unheard by general audiences. His musicianship was curiously downplayed throughout hsi recording career.

I get what you're saying but Prince didn't court a general audience despite the runaway success of Purple Rain and even then, I still don;t run into that many people even of my own age who saw it or bought the record. Some I know STILL haven't seen it!
I'm regularly disappointed when people who are pretty solid music fans who know a lot about who played what on 'classic albums', will say things like 'I heard he got a lot of other people to play his guitar parts'.

Which just goes to show that when people expected Prince to return to 'general audience' success, they miss that he never had it. Purple Rain was a runaway train, sure, but its sales figures can't be taken, as they have been, to indicate his acceptance by a large, general audience.
The success was in his courting of freaks, for whom he was, temporarily or permanently (mostly temporarily) a totem.
But Prince was difficult...too difficult for the general audience which expected 'brand consistency'.

His guitar playing was the kind of thing that could win their loyalty for longer but his apparent narcissism was always going to be iffy for all but those particularly involved with him.
I have the same resistance to several other artists who have tended to court their own 'brand' of fan. Lady Gaga renamed them 'little monsters' and no matter what she does, there's something about her that seems to me a closed cult I can't enter because I don't worship her.
I am sure that Prince pioneered a kind of fandom which looks to separate from 'the herd', from the general audience.

So if people don't know Prince is a great guitarist, that's because he's keeping that for the circle you must enter. It's a fascinating and slightly illogical way of working but allows people like Prince, Gaga and Madonna to cultivate more intensity in themselves and the responses to what they do.

If Prince was hiding his guitar skills, it was always at moments when he WAS interested in new recruiting of general audience (he did it from time to time, notably with D&P, Musicology and 3121) but it was always before he'd impose a test of loyalty...as if to say 'Are you gonna come in? Are you gonna stay in? Because only if you do will you find out more.'

Hear! Hear!

And Prince sold a 100 million records because of guys like me/you who bought every single album, side project, single, extended maxi-single.

On average, we could say a Prince fan bought records for 10 people.

Prince wouldn't be Prince without his Purple Army.
The rest, is the mainstream observing from a distance and finally nodding at us when he's dead, then not caring about him anymore.
Hey, I don't give a fuck.
Does the world deserves art?
True artists will always be mavericks.
Bukowski may ring a bell but chances are, you never read nothing about the guy.
A true art lover, when he's told about someone that kicks ass, whatever the domain,
he tries to know more about. He cultivates himself.

It's all about taking your time to know someone.
Getting to really know Prince takes years.

By the end of 2016, millenials have a maximum attention span of 2 minutes to offer.
They certainly aren't going take some time to see past the mascara ("look at that fag").
Or admit how their ears turn to prefabricated shit so easily.

[Edited 11/6/16 8:47am]

bonatoc said:

XSX said:

I get what you're saying but Prince didn't court a general audience despite the runaway success of Purple Rain and even then, I still don;t run into that many people even of my own age who saw it or bought the record. Some I know STILL haven't seen it!
I'm regularly disappointed when people who are pretty solid music fans who know a lot about who played what on 'classic albums', will say things like 'I heard he got a lot of other people to play his guitar parts'.

Which just goes to show that when people expected Prince to return to 'general audience' success, they miss that he never had it. Purple Rain was a runaway train, sure, but its sales figures can't be taken, as they have been, to indicate his acceptance by a large, general audience.
The success was in his courting of freaks, for whom he was, temporarily or permanently (mostly temporarily) a totem.
But Prince was difficult...too difficult for the general audience which expected 'brand consistency'.

His guitar playing was the kind of thing that could win their loyalty for longer but his apparent narcissism was always going to be iffy for all but those particularly involved with him.
I have the same resistance to several other artists who have tended to court their own 'brand' of fan. Lady Gaga renamed them 'little monsters' and no matter what she does, there's something about her that seems to me a closed cult I can't enter because I don't worship her.
I am sure that Prince pioneered a kind of fandom which looks to separate from 'the herd', from the general audience.

So if people don't know Prince is a great guitarist, that's because he's keeping that for the circle you must enter. It's a fascinating and slightly illogical way of working but allows people like Prince, Gaga and Madonna to cultivate more intensity in themselves and the responses to what they do.

If Prince was hiding his guitar skills, it was always at moments when he WAS interested in new recruiting of general audience (he did it from time to time, notably with D&P, Musicology and 3121) but it was always before he'd impose a test of loyalty...as if to say 'Are you gonna come in? Are you gonna stay in? Because only if you do will you find out more.'

Hear! Hear!

And Prince sold a 100 million records because of guys like me/you who bought every single album, side project, single, extended maxi-single.

On average, we could say a Prince fan bought records for 10 people.

Prince wouldn't be Prince without his Purple Army.
The rest, is the mainstream observing from a distance and finally nodding at us when he's dead, then not caring about him anymore.
Hey, I don't give a fuck.
Does the world deserves art?
True artists will always be mavericks.
Bukowski may ring a bell but chances are, you never read nothing about the guy.
A true art lover, when he's told about someone that kicks ass, whatever the domain,
he tries to know more about. He cultivates himself.

It's all about taking your time to know someone.
Getting to really know Prince takes years.

By the end of 2016, millenials have a maximum attention span of 2 minutes to offer.
They certainly aren't going take some time to see past the mascara ("look at that fag").
Or admit how their ears turn to prefabricated shit so easily.

[Edited 11/6/16 8:47am]

Hey no, i'm a young man and here i am...

bonatoc said:

XSX said:

I get what you're saying but Prince didn't court a general audience despite the runaway success of Purple Rain and even then, I still don;t run into that many people even of my own age who saw it or bought the record. Some I know STILL haven't seen it!
I'm regularly disappointed when people who are pretty solid music fans who know a lot about who played what on 'classic albums', will say things like 'I heard he got a lot of other people to play his guitar parts'.

Which just goes to show that when people expected Prince to return to 'general audience' success, they miss that he never had it. Purple Rain was a runaway train, sure, but its sales figures can't be taken, as they have been, to indicate his acceptance by a large, general audience.
The success was in his courting of freaks, for whom he was, temporarily or permanently (mostly temporarily) a totem.
But Prince was difficult...too difficult for the general audience which expected 'brand consistency'.

His guitar playing was the kind of thing that could win their loyalty for longer but his apparent narcissism was always going to be iffy for all but those particularly involved with him.
I have the same resistance to several other artists who have tended to court their own 'brand' of fan. Lady Gaga renamed them 'little monsters' and no matter what she does, there's something about her that seems to me a closed cult I can't enter because I don't worship her.
I am sure that Prince pioneered a kind of fandom which looks to separate from 'the herd', from the general audience.

So if people don't know Prince is a great guitarist, that's because he's keeping that for the circle you must enter. It's a fascinating and slightly illogical way of working but allows people like Prince, Gaga and Madonna to cultivate more intensity in themselves and the responses to what they do.

If Prince was hiding his guitar skills, it was always at moments when he WAS interested in new recruiting of general audience (he did it from time to time, notably with D&P, Musicology and 3121) but it was always before he'd impose a test of loyalty...as if to say 'Are you gonna come in? Are you gonna stay in? Because only if you do will you find out more.'

Hear! Hear!

And Prince sold a 100 million records because of guys like me/you who bought every single album, side project, single, extended maxi-single.

On average, we could say a Prince fan bought records for 10 people.

Prince wouldn't be Prince without his Purple Army.
The rest, is the mainstream observing from a distance and finally nodding at us when he's dead, then not caring about him anymore.
Hey, I don't give a fuck.
Does the world deserves art?
True artists will always be mavericks.
Bukowski may ring a bell but chances are, you never read nothing about the guy.
A true art lover, when he's told about someone that kicks ass, whatever the domain,
he tries to know more about. He cultivates himself.

It's all about taking your time to know someone.
Getting to really know Prince takes years.

By the end of 2016, millenials have a maximum attention span of 2 minutes to offer.
They certainly aren't going take some time to see past the mascara ("look at that fag").
Or admit how their ears turn to prefabricated shit so easily.

[Edited 11/6/16 8:47am]

Eh, idk I would imagine that older generations would be far more likely to express open homophobia and berate people for not conforming to rigid gender rules that today's youth would be.

XSX said:

CAL3 said:

.

But unfortunately those are largely unheard by general audiences. His musicianship was curiously downplayed throughout hsi recording career.

I get what you're saying but Prince didn't court a general audience despite the runaway success of Purple Rain and even then, I still don;t run into that many people even of my own age who saw it or bought the record. Some I know STILL haven't seen it!
I'm regularly disappointed when people who are pretty solid music fans who know a lot about who played what on 'classic albums', will say things like 'I heard he got a lot of other people to play his guitar parts'.

Which just goes to show that when people expected Prince to return to 'general audience' success, they miss that he never had it. Purple Rain was a runaway train, sure, but its sales figures can't be taken, as they have been, to indicate his acceptance by a large, general audience.
The success was in his courting of freaks, for whom he was, temporarily or permanently (mostly temporarily) a totem.
But Prince was difficult...too difficult for the general audience which expected 'brand consistency'.

His guitar playing was the kind of thing that could win their loyalty for longer but his apparent narcissism was always going to be iffy for all but those particularly involved with him.
I have the same resistance to several other artists who have tended to court their own 'brand' of fan. Lady Gaga renamed them 'little monsters' and no matter what she does, there's something about her that seems to me a closed cult I can't enter because I don't worship her.
I am sure that Prince pioneered a kind of fandom which looks to separate from 'the herd', from the general audience.

So if people don't know Prince is a great guitarist, that's because he's keeping that for the circle you must enter. It's a fascinating and slightly illogical way of working but allows people like Prince, Gaga and Madonna to cultivate more intensity in themselves and the responses to what they do.

If Prince was hiding his guitar skills, it was always at moments when he WAS interested in new recruiting of general audience (he did it from time to time, notably with D&P, Musicology and 3121) but it was always before he'd impose a test of loyalty...as if to say 'Are you gonna come in? Are you gonna stay in? Because only if you do will you find out more.'

.

We're talking about two very different things here. I wasn't commenting at all on "general audiences" or anything like that.

.

Showcasing instrumental prowess has nothing to do with "courting general audiences."

.

Look at the jazz world - which is definiably all about showcasing instrumental skills. Jazz artists are largely ignored by general audiences, but if they didn't openly feature their instrumental talents they wouldn't have a career.

.

Prince, being a pop artist, showcased overall production skills over his instrumental abilities (as a general rule). My point was that it is too bad he reserved expressing himself instrumental for live performance (typically).

I agree completely, would have liked to hear more acoustic. The acoustic parts in Pink Cashmere are just beautiful. He goes electric toward the end but the song is beautiful.

My belief is that someday, maybe after we're all gone, there will be fully orchestral Prince concerts a la Beethoven or Mozart, with his albums played beginning to end. Obviously others will need to do those arrangements. But it will happen.

26ten said:

Friend Lover Sister Mother

.

From 4min to 4:33 roughly.

.

Just unexpected instrumental brilliance on that acoustic.

.

Sometimes I think he was just so at home with his voice and writing that the other things were all just frosting on an already masterful cake.

that's one of my favorite moments from any prince song ever....

Prince on acoustic is heaven on earth. Pity he loved electric guitar so much. Naughty Prince.

bonatoc said:

It's all about taking your time to know someone.
Getting to really know Prince takes years.

By the end of 2016, millenials have a maximum attention span of 2 minutes to offer.
They certainly aren't going take some time to see past the mascara ("look at that fag").
Or admit how their ears turn to prefabricated shit so easily.

[Edited 11/6/16 8:47am]

Oh no, not the millenials bashing yet again.

sunset3121 said:

bonatoc said:

It's all about taking your time to know someone.
Getting to really know Prince takes years.

By the end of 2016, millenials have a maximum attention span of 2 minutes to offer.
They certainly aren't going take some time to see past the mascara ("look at that fag").
Or admit how their ears turn to prefabricated shit so easily.

[Edited 11/6/16 8:47am]

Oh no, not the millenials bashing yet again.

Still, I have high hopes.
Even if the urns seem to suggest otherwise.

"Among voters 18 to 29, Clinton defeated Trump 55%-37%. The split represented a tighter margin than in the 2012 election, when Obama defeated Romney 60%-37%."

http://www.usatoday.com/s.../93535292/


But we digress... Back to the acoustic.

Here's a neat song attributed to P. and Andy Allo

https://www.youtube.com/w...NncLBfxMZY

I'm really hoping that album (Prince and Andy Allo's "Oui Can Luv") will be released soon!!

[Edited 11/13/16 15:30pm]

What's all this about buried guitar parts? Nothing is hidden, it's all there to be heard.

I think the problem is that you've looked at Prince too much and your wet panties have distracted you from what is obviously there. If you stop gushing and apply your ears, you'll hear it...

I mean, come on, how many posts do you see on this forum about Prince's musicianship compared to posts about 'How he looks in this or that era'.

I'm beginning to realise that this is more of a clit-rubbing over Prince forum than one that appreciates him for his musical genius.

[Edited 11/14/16 17:29pm]

SENNISS said:

What's all this about buried guitar parts? Nothing is hidden, it's all there to be heard.

.

'Buried' as in, mixed so low they are not prominently featured.

.

The point being for a musician as skilled as Prince was, it's very curious that he didn't showcase those skills on record (repeat: on record, meaning not 'in concert') as often as he could've.

CAL3 said:

He kinda hid his musicianship in general throughout his recordidng career, unfortunately.

.

When people talk about him being an underrated guitar player in general, the main reason for that is how relatively little he featured himself playing it on his own records. Think about how many guitar parts (solos, even) are buried in dense mixes.

Agree completely.