What a great marketing stunt.
You can't blame Warner and Husney.
At a price tag of a 1.000.000 bucks, they had every right to inflate the Wünderkind effect.

In my youth, I believed for a while that the "Orr Bass" was actually a special kind of bass which had little to do with a normal one.

Funny how ignoramuses around the world still print this, serious as shit.
Musicians know better.

Still, very few musicians are on this level of mastery on different instruments.
Not to diminish Prince's talents, but Stevie Wonder was there already — and behold Ladies and Gentlemen, blindfold (ad perpetuam)!

[Edited 9/26/17 14:05pm]

Many of today's 'artists' can't even play one instrument. I've never seen Brittany Spears even look at an instrument let alone attempt to play one.

Prince is extremely talented

http://prince.org/msg/7/427778

http://prince.org/msg/7/22503

http://prince.org/msg/7/360905

http://prince.org/msg/7/118692

http://prince.org/msg/7/18758

Yeah it was a great pr move

I think he talked about it in a 1997/98 interview that he really couldn't play that many

he also mentioned that he knew a few notes/chords for the harp

kingricefan said:

Well I bought into it when I was 13.

Purplebflogirl said:

To reprise my lists from the last time we did this thread last year. Snooooorrreeeee!!!!

.

Back to 2016 - wooooooo......

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Seriously using the lists on the For You sleeve

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1. Vocals

2. Background vocals

3. Guitars

4. Orr Bass

5. Ms. Poly Moog (Is that a synthesiser or a female character from a Lithuanian kids show )

6. Syndrums

7. Arp Pro Soloist

8. Arp String Ensemble

9. Synthesizer bass

10. Singing bass (!!!!)

11. Drums

12. Clavinet

13. Oberheim 4 voice

14. Arp Soloist (Standard Arp?)

15. Handclapsandfingasnaps.

16. Slapsticks (?)

17. Fingacymbals

18. Wind chimes

19. Congas

20. Electric guitars (Not sure you can play more than one at a time )

21. Water drums

22. Bongos

23. Fender Rhodes Piano

24. Mini moog

25. Fuzz bazz

26. Acoustic Piano

27. Orchestra Bells

28. Wood blocks

29. Guitar solo

30. Brush trap

31. Tree bell

32. Acoustic guitar

33. Bass Solo

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Now breaking them down into groups we have

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1. Vocals (2)

2. Synthesisers and Keyboards (9)

3. Bass instruments (5)

4. Guitars (4)

5. Drums and Drum machines (3)

6. Percussional Instruments (10) includes 3 wtf instruments (Tree bells, wind chimes and Wood blocks and 1 I don't consider an instrument - hand claps and finga snaps.

.

I don't get put off though, an early marketing gimmick was how many instruments he could play. Prince wa smarketed as this Stevie Wonder typer wunderkind who could play all these instruments, the list on For You is a bit silly, but he was proving his worth. I think it was un necessary becuase I am sure WB, Prince and his first band along with many of the people who dug him at the start, knew he was a genius, as he writing all the songs and producing the album along with the instrumental barrage.

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Prince was a breath of fresh air at a time when meat and potatoes rock music and synthesised disco was dominating music (Disco was simple, but very funky music I loved - I guess Prince dug the dance sound but he listed those instruments as he was trying to let us know he was serious and more than another funky young Black artist riding the disco/funk bandwagon). With the list Prince proved he was a one man studio and there was more to him than some catchy dance music.

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There was a silly version I did too

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1. Guitar

2. Piano

3. Bass

4. Drums Acoustic

5. Congos

6. Bongos

I will try and fill in the gaps

7. Clavinova

8. MsPolymoog

9. Linn drum machine (The For You album sleeve lists some of these weird and obselete synths he was using)

10. Dance

11. Percussion

12. Vocals

13. Castanets

14. Murakkas (Those bom tiki bom mambo hand things)

15. Handclapz

16. Fingasnaps

17. Snare drums

18. Fairman drum machine

19. Lute

20. Darbuka

21. Oud

22. One eyed skinflute

23. One eyed piccolo

24. Tap dancing

25. Microphone ramming in the a**

26. Triangle

27. Can't think of it ahh

Astasheiks - 1 to 6, me 7 - 27.

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Back in 2017, my guess is all the ,major families except woodwind and brass, hence why he had Clalre Fischer and the Hornheadz working with him.

lust said:

Purplebflogirl said:

+1 and can barely sing " live" either..Even if Prince only played 1 instrument,sang and danced he would still be more talented than 90% of the crap music/ artists out there now.

No shit. I don't know who Brittany Spears is but not sure how her lack of talent is a relative benchmark worth discussing. Prince was clearly the most talented all round musician/artist of our generation. The discussion is more to do with the oft reperated claim that he played 23 instruments.

Who the hell is Brittany Spears, her name is Britney Spears. Brittany is a part of France.

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Does Prince using the guitar as a masturbatory aid or ramming his ass with the fret stock count as a separate "Instrument".

My comment had to do with showing that Prince was capable of playing a variety of instruments and another 'artist' can't. To highlight the point that Prince was way more talented than other 'artist'.

lust said:

Purplebflogirl said:

+1 and can barely sing " live" either..Even if Prince only played 1 instrument,sang and danced he would still be more talented than 90% of the crap music/ artists out there now.

No shit. I don't know who Brittany Spears is but not sure how her lack of talent is a relative benchmark worth discussing. Prince was clearly the most talented all round musician/artist of our generation. The discussion is more to do with the oft reperated claim that he played 23 instruments.

Thanks for correcting my spelling. I am not a follower of Ms. Spears so couldn't care less how to spell her name.

Adorecream said:

lust said:

Purplebflogirl said: No shit. I don't know who Brittany Spears is but not sure how her lack of talent is a relative benchmark worth discussing. Prince was clearly the most talented all round musician/artist of our generation. The discussion is more to do with the oft reperated claim that he played 23 instruments.

Who the hell is Brittany Spears, her name is Britney Spears. Brittany is a part of France.

.

Does Prince using the guitar as a masturbatory aid or ramming his ass with the fret stock count as a separate "Instrument".

lust said:

Ok so we all know the claim that Prince could play 23 instruments which was great PR for the budding young star but whether or not that figure was accurate, padding the number out with such instruments as the triangle, finger cymbals and wood block is hilarious. Can we put together a full list that qualified in that claim and beyond the piano, guitar, bass and drums was he proficient in any major and hard to master instruments?

Do not discriminate against triangles

FullLipsDotNose said:

He played harmonica on one song (saw the video recently but can't remember which one). And don't forget tamborine.

benni said:

lust said:

benni said:

He played harmonica on one song (saw the video recently but can't remember which one). And don't forget tamborine.

Maybe "Thieves in the Temple"? It's a video so its mimed. That was sampled on the album track.

No, not "Thieves in the Temple". I was watching concert footage of Prince at the time, not produced videos.

benni said:

He also played the trumpet and sax according to those in his camp, although not well enough in his opinion to do it in public or on record.

[Edited 9/29/17 17:40pm]

but theres also 23 positions in a one night stand

lust said:

Talking of miming instruments. The bit in the Face Down video with the violin is hilarious.

http://www.500princesongs...face-down/

« Face Down – a joker card that pricks the Emancipation bubble of pomposity – is possibly the funniest song to come out of Paisley Park. An aborted plan to release it as a single caused an equally-funny music video to be made and if a gif doesn’t exist of the shot where a bandy legged Prince plays the violin then the Internet has failed. »

OK, who's up to the task?

bonatoc said:

benni said:

He played harmonica on one song (saw the video recently but can't remember which one). And don't forget tamborine.

This wasn't in the video but there is harmonica in the long version of "Raspberry Beret" on the 12-inch. I assumed he was playing it.

Adorecream said:

Like somebody posted, most are variations of bass, piano, guitar and drums.

I am really curious if he used to play a horn instrument for fun, but if he did, he probably didnt think it was good enough to put in a recording

didnt he do horns in "The Word "??

lust said:

FullLipsDotNose said:

Do not discriminate against triangles

I don't trust them!

No one can be that happy all the time.

Genesia said: