He worked at such a breath-taking speed.
Someone should set a big-data sucker and parse princevault.com,

to generate timeline and pie-charts of the 1985/1986 production.
That alone would be mind-blowing.

soladeo1 said:

I don't think Prince used drum machines until Private Joy on Controversy. Everything else before that was live drums (and over-dubbed percussion, when needed).

A programmed beat was used for "In Love" from the first album. Some of his unreleased tracks from the 1st-3rd albums had drum machine beats and/or triggered percussion.

bonatoc said:

He worked at such a breath-taking speed.
Someone should set a big-data sucker and parse princevault.com,

to generate timeline and pie-charts of the 1985/1986 production.
That alone would be mind-blowing.

I really hope Duane Tudahl is already working on a 1985-1986 book.

scorp84 said:

soladeo1 said:

I don't think Prince used drum machines until Private Joy on Controversy. Everything else before that was live drums (and over-dubbed percussion, when needed).

A programmed beat was used for "In Love" from the first album.

It's not a programmed beat. He played syndrums on that track.

bonatoc said:

Musician9 said:

Wrong, Sexuality is clearly a drum machine, and Dirty Mind sounds like one, there were drum machines around since the mid 70's. But frankly, many of those songs would've been better with a competent drummer, his drumming was boring and rudimentary.

I think "minimalist" is the word you're looking for.

On a sidenote...

If you listen to the way Prince played the drums, I think the story told by Jimmy Jam on Questlove's podcasts sums it up quite well (quote from memory, not word for word): "Prince didn't play any given instruments, he would attack the instrument. He'd take Terry's bass to show him how to do something and Terry, despite being a remarkable bass player, would take the bass back and look at it as if he'd never seen the instrument before"

It's particularly obvious with the drums, Prince is always a little ahead of the beat.

databank said:

bonatoc said:

I think "minimalist" is the word you're looking for.

On a sidenote...

If you listen to the way Prince played the drums, I think the story told by Jimmy Jam on Questlove's podcasts sums it up quite well (quote from memory, not word for word): "Prince didn't play any given instruments, he would attack the instrument. He'd take Terry's bass to show him how to do something and Terry, despite being a remarkable bass player, would take the bass back and look at it as if he'd never seen the instrument before"

It's particularly obvious with the drums, Prince is always a little ahead of the beat.

When I watch the drum solo of "America", and IGTBABN from the SOTT movie,
he never occurs to me that he's missing a beat, as I have read here and there.

I think Prince holds his arm because the notes NOT played are as important (especially in 1986).
His wrist sometimes moves as a reflex, but it doesn't hit the drums.
Like Miles and good musicians in general, he knows a lot comes from the silence you leave in your musical phrases, what you choose not to play.
How much can you strip things out of an arrangement, and still preserve its inital intent?
How much concise can you get? Prince's eighties were a true workshop for this. OK, I did it without a bass. What next?
Expressing much by "saying" very little is (almost) everything a musician aspires too. It's the greatest ability of them all.
This is why you usually stick to a single instrument ; it usually takes years before you stop being talkative.
"Y'all Playin' loud and sayin' nothin'", dig it?

Once you've mastered that, when you fill the whole canvas, you're not blabbering like your average soloist.
Small Club's "Just My Imagination" requires all of your attention because every phrase has a meaning, an intent, even it flows like a "conversation" with the audience, and it is one. But you can't get there if you haven't learned sparseness first, like the one already present in "Crazy You".

Fans like me would like to use "communion" when you reach such eights on both sides of the axe, but then you sound like from some sect. Oh well, I was already a True Funk Soldier, a Purple Hippie, a Doggie, a member of The New Power Generation, a man in a uniform and God knows what else, Lawd, for someone who doesn't like labels applied, Prince sticked a bunch on me jacket. Can I help it if I know how to dress?

bonatoc said:

databank said:

On a sidenote...

If you listen to the way Prince played the drums, I think the story told by Jimmy Jam on Questlove's podcasts sums it up quite well (quote from memory, not word for word): "Prince didn't play any given instruments, he would attack the instrument. He'd take Terry's bass to show him how to do something and Terry, despite being a remarkable bass player, would take the bass back and look at it as if he'd never seen the instrument before"

It's particularly obvious with the drums, Prince is always a little ahead of the beat.

When I watch the drum solo of "America", and IGTBABN from the SOTT movie,
he never occurs to me that he's missing a beat, as I have read here and there.

Honestly, I think those people making such claims are just bitter "fans" making up shit while they can't play the instrument (or play it poorly) themselves. Once one of them went as far as to say that Prince needed drumming lessons. And look at the nonsense that's been written over such or such bandmember "not being able to play". Those comments do not deserve consideration. Prince was a professional drum player, who knew what he was doing (as you suggest) and probably didn't even miss those beats at all. Most of the drumming on his own records is him, recorded first take, and I don't think beats are being missed on the albums. In terms of sheer technical skills, Prince could have been a successful session musician with any of the instrumlents he played if he'd wanted to.

.

Prince and anyone who's ever been in his bands were/are professional musicians, most of them "top of the game" professional musicians at that. Everyone in the music industry, be it acclaimed composers/songwriters or respected session musicians, acknowledges this and has been acknowledging it for 40 years. So IDK who those people are who come here and make up such crap, but they shouldn't be bothered with. They are just trying to manipulate others into swallowing their crap, and that probably makes them feel important, but at the end of the day anyone in their right mind knows better than to start questioning Prince and his bandmembers' technical skills.

ufoclub said:

jjam said:

There are many non-acoustic drum elements on Sexuality but the main basis of the beat is from a drum kit as far as I'm concerned. And I have to disagree bigtime with your take on his drumming.

hmm... just listened to it. The drum track sounds acoustic (mic'd and tuned disco style), the handclap/air shot sounds synth.

Agreed: Sexuality is definitely based on live drums. Not sure how the synthetic percussive sounds were obtained, but the main thing is live drums.

Cinny said:

bonatoc said:

He worked at such a breath-taking speed.
Someone should set a big-data sucker and parse princevault.com,

to generate timeline and pie-charts of the 1985/1986 production.
That alone would be mind-blowing.

I really hope Duane Tudahl is already working on a 1985-1986 book.

Hell yes, so he can get on with 1987 - 1988. No pressure

bonatoc said:

He worked at such a breath-taking speed.
Someone should set a big-data sucker and parse princevault.com,

to generate timeline and pie-charts of the 1985/1986 production.
That alone would be mind-blowing.

Scififilmnerd did just that about a decade ago. New info has surfaced since, though.

MacDaddy said:

Cinny said:

I really hope Duane Tudahl is already working on a 1985-1986 book.

Hell yes, so he can get on with 1987 - 1988. No pressure

HI DADDY

Cinny said:

MacDaddy said:

Hell yes, so he can get on with 1987 - 1988. No pressure

HI DADDY