rogifan said:

precioux said:

Bullshit to you! I was going to look up the link, but why don't you amuze yourself and find it...I've seen it more than once, so it shouldn't be hard Lianachan said: precioux said: No joke, Eric Clapton was asked "So, what's it's like being the greatest guitar player?" His response..."You're talking to the wrong person, go ask Prince!*cough*bullshit*cough*

This has been debunked as urban legend many times over. That said, Clapton and others have expressed their appreciation for Prince's playing.

there are a zillion great instrumentalists, i always say this and people don't get it but the guys that make an impression are almost never those guys. Dylan and Elvis weren't great musicians, the beatles were very good but I don't think they are generally thought of as great musicians, MJ never played an instrument publicly. In pop music, it sadly doesn't mean much. I've seen thousands of musicians in my life lots of them were exceptional musicians, none of them will ever get anywhere probably. Other night i was in a club listening to a jazz pianist, just astonishes me how he could just play off the top of his head and throw in licks and solos, just amazing. He probably had a lot of tutoring to get their. Unfortunately, there are a million just like him, he probably will barely eke out a living doing that. Now, how good was prince as a guitarist? I don't know, he sounds pretty damned good to me but I'm no expert. as a pianist i can tell you he's pretty good on piano but he's not as good as the best I've heard, maybe not even close. His gift was his creativity, his writing, his drive, his vision.

I don't know if anyone can judge any one of Prince's talents without at least considering that he was also doing 10 other things well. Imagine if Prince focused primarily on just one of his talent.--how amazing he would be. And he already is amazing.

that's right and if he did focus on any one thing, that would exclude many of the others. I'm not guitar expert but lots of people who are have spoken highly of him. as for me, I play piano because even in 1985 when prince first turned me into a musician, i knew there were so many great guitarists even then that it didn't mean anything. Being a star or an artist has never correlated strictly to instrumental prowess, it's kind of a bonus actually.

purplerabbithole said:

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In regards to Prince's guitar playing, he was a guitar god. He proved that to the world on "Let's Go Crazy." That shit was bananas for a pop song. But the difference between Prince and someone like Steve Vai is that even though Vai could be showier and perhaps a more technical player than Prince, he couldn't write a song to save his life.

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Prince was expert level on so many instruments AND an elite songwriter. So, when people argue that Prince was not the most accomplished pianist or drummer or whatever... yeah, perhaps not, but he was great at those instruments AND could write hit songs. That's the difference. These elite players were only players. It's rare to be phenominal at both composition and playing.

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Prince was in a league of his own.

[Edited 11/5/16 9:50am]

[Edited 11/5/16 11:46am]

Let's not forget that the man could also SING (and had one of the widest recorded vocal ranges in popular music, after Axl Rose and Mariah Carey). Not only that, unlike many, many 'pop stars', he was able to perform his songs to a consistently high standard live.
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On top of the top-notch musicianship, Prince was also an impressive dancer, visual director, and showman. Many good live performers can sing - but not necessarily dance at the same time, or have the ability to create extraordinary stage sets / direct multi-layered shows as an integral component of the performance. Prince could - and did.
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I truly think he was one of a kind. Anyone who says otherwise is being deliberately obtuse - in my opinion.
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another interesting point, the guys who people do point to, clapton and page come to mind, it's not hard to find a critic or to read a review or something where they say neither guy could really play. Some people have called both Prince's and hendrixs playing as "sloppy" with jimmy i could hear it in his life performances, with Prince, he could play pretty tight live. As Ive said though, i'm no guitar expert. I can tell you that I'd heard Prince (and his other bandmates) play the solo to Little Red Corvette live in many, many different shows and in most of them, having listened to the song a billion times, have many many mistakes, even the guy who wrote the created the solo (dez) played it horribly live. Prince never played it perfect live and i'd have to say the person who did it the best was whoever did it in third eye girl. Anyway, point is, nothing is perfect in this world and alot of what people like/dislike is subjective, anything and anyone can be criticized. All in the eye of the beholder. Lots of people out there who love good music and just "could never get into Prince", makes you scratch your head but there it is.

There used to be a youtube video with Prince playing piano, taking over from Joshua Welton. As good as Prince played right there, Joshua was doing runs with his left hand whereas P was sticking to chords.

Militant said:

The Clapton quote has been debunked, but Steve Vai said this when playing in Vancouver on the same night as Prince...

"Hey everyone, thanks for coming out. It's pretty amazing you all are here. Although, if were you I'd be next door seeing the greatest guitarist of all time, Prince"

Yah, but Vai also said that his favourite zappa album was jazz from hell, which is probably one of his worst.

fortuneandserendipity said:

Militant said:

The Clapton quote has been debunked, but Steve Vai said this when playing in Vancouver on the same night as Prince...

Yah, but Vai also said that his favourite zappa album was jazz from hell, which is probably one of his worst.

did vai really say that? if he did that's just great. who cares if it's true or not.

Dibblekins said:

Let's not forget that the man could also SING (and had one of the widest recorded vocal ranges in popular music, after Axl Rose and Mariah Carey). Not only that, unlike many, many 'pop stars', he was able to perform his songs to a consistently high standard live.
.

On top of the top-notch musicianship, Prince was also an impressive dancer, visual director, and showman. Many good live performers can sing - but not necessarily dance at the same time, or have the ability to create extraordinary stage sets / direct multi-layered shows as an integral component of the performance. Prince could - and did.
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I truly think he was one of a kind. Anyone who says otherwise is being deliberately obtuse - in my opinion.
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If I recall correctly they were going off the highest and lowest notes sung across one song. Not an entire repertoire. I don't know P's lowest note, but I think his highest note ever may be off Betcha By Golly Wow. Which could be higher than anyone's?

PeteSilas said:

fortuneandserendipity said:

Yah, but Vai also said that his favourite zappa album was jazz from hell, which is probably one of his worst.

did vai really say that? if he did that's just great. who cares if it's true or not.

Vai was kind of in awe of zappa really, even tho employed by him as 'stunt guitarist'.

fortuneandserendipity said:

There used to be a youtube video with Prince playing piano, taking over from Joshua Welton. As good as Prince played right there, Joshua was doing runs with his left hand whereas P was sticking to chords.

ya, i saw that, to me at least, it was obvious that Josh had a richer pallete at least in what they were playing. People seem to want to believe that Prince was a better dancer than Michael and James, a better guitarist than Page and Hendrix and whoever else and a better drummer than jon bonham. I think it's more than enough to say he was excellent on several instruments and many other areas. The greatest all around Popular star ever, and the most prolific. Since his death, i've said many times that Prince and the greatest fighter ever, Sugar Ray Robinson, are very good analogies in their fields. Robinson was the most perfect fighter ever, the most complete but he didn't do any one thing better or as good as the best. He didn't punch harder than the hardest punchers, he wasn't as fast as the fastest fighters, it's possible he had the greatest chin of all time because his defense was definitely not in the league of the best defensive fighters ever however, you add it all up and no one tops him and in boxing we have a thing that we call intangibles, which just means desire and passion, and he had that as much or more than anyone ever. I think he and Prince are perfect comparisons. Prince lived and paid for his art and had such an intense heart and passion for it that we forgive a lot of his transgressions because he gave back so much.

fortuneandserendipity said:

PeteSilas said:

did vai really say that? if he did that's just great. who cares if it's true or not.

Vai was kind of in awe of zappa really, even tho employed by him as 'stunt guitarist'.

I meant the prince quote. As far as Zappa, zappa could play a pretty mean guitar himself, i'd say he's one of the cleanest guitarists I ever heard and he rarely gets mentioned in these discussions. I was never a huge fan though of Zappa, even after people told me my music was like his, to which, at that time, i'd never even heard. I don't hear a lot of great tunes when I listen to him.

Militant said:

fortuneandserendipity said:

Dibblekins said:

Let's not forget that the man could also SING (and had one of the widest recorded vocal ranges in popular music, after Axl Rose and Mariah Carey). Not only that, unlike many, many 'pop stars', he was able to perform his songs to a consistently high standard live.
.

On top of the top-notch musicianship, Prince was also an impressive dancer, visual director, and showman. Many good live performers can sing - but not necessarily dance at the same time, or have the ability to create extraordinary stage sets / direct multi-layered shows as an integral component of the performance. Prince could - and did.
.

I truly think he was one of a kind. Anyone who says otherwise is being deliberately obtuse - in my opinion.
.

If I recall correctly they were going off the highest and lowest notes sung across one song. Not an entire repertoire. I don't know P's lowest note, but I think his highest note ever may be off Betcha By Golly Wow. Which could be higher than anyone's?

i saw that ranking, they didn't even have jackie wilson on it, i don't think they had little richard either. "range" depending on who is counting has really gotten ridiculously out of hand. If we go to the strictest way to look at range, which is in classical music, we wouldn't be counting dog whistles, words spoken way to deep to sing them, or even the falsetto range. And even if we did, it really doesn't mean all that much, most songs are written in less than an octave and whoever is impressed by vocal acrobatics probably doesn't really even care about good music.

PeteSilas said:

fortuneandserendipity said:

There used to be a youtube video with Prince playing piano, taking over from Joshua Welton. As good as Prince played right there, Joshua was doing runs with his left hand whereas P was sticking to chords.

ya, i saw that, to me at least, it was obvious that Josh had a richer pallete at least in what they were playing. People seem to want to believe that Prince was a better dancer than Michael and James, a better guitarist than Page and Hendrix and whoever else and a better drummer than jon bonham. I think it's more than enough to say he was excellent on several instruments and many other areas. The greatest all around Popular star ever, and the most prolific. Since his death, i've said many times that Prince and the greatest fighter ever, Sugar Ray Robinson, are very good analogies in their fields. Robinson was the most perfect fighter ever, the most complete but he didn't do any one thing better or as good as the best. He didn't punch harder than the hardest punchers, he wasn't as fast as the fastest fighters, it's possible he had the greatest chin of all time because his defense was definitely not in the league of the best defensive fighters ever however, you add it all up and no one tops him and in boxing we have a thing that we call intangibles, which just means desire and passion, and he had that as much or more than anyone ever. I think he and Prince are perfect comparisons. Prince lived and paid for his art and had such an intense heart and passion for it that we forgive a lot of his transgressions because he gave back so much.

Exactly, and I think if Prince had been as good on piano as he was on guitar, we would all know about it. I often wondered if P could perform guitar live in the manner of Van Halen or Zappa, like deliberately just to show off and make his more cognizant fans giggle. And I loved the idea of him playing the piano in older years to the music of Beethoven- as if to say 'you thought you had heard everything I could do, think again?'

It's annoying that Prince/Joshua Welton video has been uploaded again but without the welton playing. Like duh! It was meant to be them playing off each other in the first place, why change it?

fortuneandserendipity said:

Dibblekins said:

Let's not forget that the man could also SING (and had one of the widest recorded vocal ranges in popular music, after Axl Rose and Mariah Carey). Not only that, unlike many, many 'pop stars', he was able to perform his songs to a consistently high standard live.
.

On top of the top-notch musicianship, Prince was also an impressive dancer, visual director, and showman. Many good live performers can sing - but not necessarily dance at the same time, or have the ability to create extraordinary stage sets / direct multi-layered shows as an integral component of the performance. Prince could - and did.
.

I truly think he was one of a kind. Anyone who says otherwise is being deliberately obtuse - in my opinion.
.

If I recall correctly they were going off the highest and lowest notes sung across one song. Not an entire repertoire. I don't know P's lowest note, but I think his highest note ever may be off Betcha By Golly Wow. Which could be higher than anyone's?

No - I don't think it was across one song...I can't remember the highest, but his lowest was in 'Daddy Pop', apparently.

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Edit: Just checked: his highest was in 'God' (according to the same chart which cites Daddy Pop as his lowest, that is).

[Edited 11/5/16 17:42pm]

fortuneandserendipity said:

PeteSilas said:

PeteSilas said:

Prince was Master and Commander of any instrument he touched.

rogifan said:

PeteSilas said:

People seem to want to believe that Prince was a better dancer than Michael and James, a better guitarist than Page and Hendrix and whoever else and a better drummer than jon bonham.

I don't know who these people are outside of maybe die hard fans. My point with starting this topic is I think it's ridiculous to compare Prince to the absolute greatest on a particular instrument as a way to diminish his talent. When people talk about Elton John as a great pianist do they compare him to some phenomenal jazz pianist and say well he's not as good as so and so? I would never argue that Prince was the greatest guitar player ever but sticking him in the 30's behind Johnny Ramone on a greatest list is ridiculous IMO.

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I don't understand all the comparisons. There is nothing or no one to compare Prince to! Prince was one of a kind, multi-talented genius!!

cloveringold85 said:

not true.

precioux said:

No joke, Eric Clapton was asked "So, what's it's like being the greatest guitar player?"

His response..."You're talking to the wrong person, go ask Prince!"

loveandkindness said:

It's all relative..like comparing Monet to Picasso Warhol to Degol ....all unique in there own way...ya got to break it down ....Prince was the best at playing Prince ...period.....

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MD431Madcat said:

not true.

precioux said:

No joke, Eric Clapton was asked "So, what's it's like being the greatest guitar player?"

His response..."You're talking to the wrong person, go ask Prince!"

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Yes, it is indeed very true. Clapton said that:

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http://www.snopes.com/eric-clapton-quote-about-prince/