So, I had to sit back and think on this question for a little while. Actually, I think there is such a fine line between sanity and insanity, and it is so subjective, I hardly think most are not qualified to address it.

However, the Beatles & Jimi are OK, but they are icons from my older sister's generation, not mine.

I am a music appreciator, but cannot play a single instrument well, and I know my singing voice in general sucks big time. So, why am I his fan?

*Prince was a true rebel...not someone faking it like he was.

*He was part of my generation growing up.

* In his early career, the adults hated him, so we just loved him more.

*He was kinda mysterious; even though some of that may have been a production number.

*He was short. (I like it when one of us short people excell)

* I love his fusion of many different kinds of musical styles. "Ear Candy".

* He was quite a performer, and I loved to watch. (Hey, keep it clean......LOL)

* He was not from CA or NY, which is a plus with me, being from the Midwest.

* I felt sometimes listening to lyrics in his music helped me in my own life. He didn't pretty things up, but talked about feelings he had that were at times pretty bare & revealing.

* I thought in many ways, he promoted women musicians. (Yeah, I know, he was with a lot of them too.)

* I have empathy for some of the events he managed to share about his life- some of them that were similar to mine.

* Almost no one else would admit they liked him, so that attracted me more.

* This one a given- he changed the music industry forever for the artists that came after.

* I absolutely love to hear him play jazz instrumentals on the guitar.

* He was more of a private person...didn't hang every single thing out there for everyone to vote on. Yes, later in life this may have led to other problems for him, but you know what I mean.

* He & I shared the little feet thing. I can just see him pouting early in his career..."Whacha mean, they don't come in a 5 1/2??? He had the solution- get famous so they make them just 4 U.

What about U?

MIInsane said:

I wanna preface this by saying that I have been a Prince fan since the release of the "1999" album. I have spent thousands of dollars on his music and I will continue to buy everything that is released.

That being said, I am a member of a certain Prince group on Facebook. There are people in that group that say that Prince was a better guitar player than Hendrix, or that he is the greatest guitar player that ever lived. They also said that Prince was more influential than The Beatles.

Can they possibly believe that crap?

The GREATEST ARTIST OF ALL TIME!!

i always thought of him like sugar ray robinson, the greatest boxer of all time, the closest to perfection but there were fighters faster, fighters who hit harder and fighters who were better defensively but no one put all the attributes, physical and mental together better than Ray, that's what I think of Prince.

YES!

You only have to spend some time on here to see this proved!

Also the fans I've met in real life tend to be a bit weird too!

I guess he attracted those with an 'alternative' mindset for better or worse lol. The fact i'm here too must mean i'm one of them lol.

[Edited 8/15/19 1:16am]

should prince have been more responsible with a bunch of confused misfits he cultivated throughout the years?

jfenster said:

should prince have been more responsible with a bunch of confused misfits he cultivated throughout the years?

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

jfenster said:

should prince have been more responsible with a bunch of confused misfits he cultivated throughout the years?

i don't know, i've done some bad things but i can only say P's influence was a part of that, i probably woulda went buckwild anyway. However, he was publicly antidrug when i was the most impressionable god bless him.

Yeah, a bunch of starved Prince misfits waiting for previously unHEARD music to come out!

PeteSilas said:

I see like this. I do not believe him to be the best at anything. But he is one of a very few that could and did put it all together. So let's say he is ranked and the 100th best guitarist. okay! of the 99 others, how many could play bass as well as he? and Piano? and other keyboards? Drums? Or produce? or compose or write lyrics like that? I would say his ranking can not be denoted by just one element... and really not at all. He was one of a kind.

PeteSilas said:

jfenster said:

should prince have been more responsible with a bunch of confused misfits he cultivated throughout the years?

i don't know, i've done some bad things but i can only say P's influence was a part of that, i probably woulda went buckwild anyway. However, he was publicly antidrug when i was the most impressionable god bless him.

We kind of got ourselves into a pickle by seeking out the unreleased songs. Now just about any release is bound to have something we've heard.

But one of the big issues with his vault was it was a mess. I have read that they are tying to be systematic with it. That is start with the early studio recordings (I think many of them have been cleaned and archived) and them move to the other media. And then to try to get it all cataloged in terms of when it was made and who was involved.

They say there are 1000s of tapes (Many are low-fi video and cassette tapes) much of which may be of little if any real commercial value--30 hours of Prince perfecting knocking over a mic stand is not something I would want to watch.

I confess to be truly insane.

yes, some surely are. When you spend all day trying to figure out why someone died who died however many years ago, that's the definition of either insanity or profound boredom. If he's NOT dead, he doesn't want to be found either, so there's that....and then there's the "insanity" of believing conspiracy theories. I don't know about anyone's sanity, and I think some prince fans feel like they didn't get to see him around long enough.

this is an interesting topic. Hendrix experimented with new sounds with his guitar, that made him different than everybody else. Was he a great singer? No. Was he a great songwriter? Eh, not really. People were and are fixated with Hendrix's style and truth be told wasn't guitar playing wasn't all that clean at all. They look at Woodstock and say whoa! He's the greatest! His career was about 3 to 4 years long, it would of been interesting to see what he would of done or been had he lived.

The Beatles are an example of the right place at the right time, the whole British invasion hype and they were 4 good looking boys (as what I am told) singing about love and the girls ate it up! I found their music from 1962-64 to be very "campy" to the point of cheesy. Interesting though, Lennon and McCartney were pretty good songwriters and the band collectively played well together. So they start experimented with drugs and the whole thing changed Rubber Soul and Revolver are outstanding pop records. The came Pepper and that blew everyone away, the were evolving with the times, their musical style changed and before we knew it, we had the White Album and Abbey Road. Honestly, I have seen their concerts on You Tube, they weren't really good live performers. That brought the whole thing full circle. The next best thing that could happen to the Beatles happened.....they broke up! With less than 5 years in a commercial sense as a band, look what they did. The people, band, artists and performers today they've influenced. NO umpteenth farewell tours, no shitty albums after their prime that the general public ignored. All done with before the power of internet and MTV (back when they played videos).

That takes us to Prince...he is/was a better live performer than Hendrix and the Beatles. Can't argue that. An accomplished songwriter, wrote some great songs for other artists, can't say the same for Hendrix and the Beatles. A much more versatile artist musically than Hendrix and the Beatles, i mean he played drums, bass, guitar, keyboards...fair to say the others weren't doing that. Prince was an innovator by the way he marketed his music...through the internet, newspaper, and concerts tickets. Can't say that for the others. Prince wrote, arranged, composed and produced ALL his albums. Can't say that about the others.

I think people live in the past when it comes to Prince, they can't live past 1984-85. It's the same his music isn't as good as Purple Rain, I am sure he could of played it safe like MJ and stick to formula that worked...that's why MJ music never evolved and sounded exactly the same album after album.

Prince was different than all the other artists, he knew it...sadly, it took years for people to catch up...his RRHOF and Super Bowl performance, and everyone ws like "wow" he is so talented! No shit Sherlock, congratulations of finally coming out from under your rock!

jfenster said:

should prince have been more responsible with a bunch of confused misfits he cultivated throughout the years?

such as???

Farfunknugin said:

As a composer no one touches Mccartney, his post Beatles output just underscores this. listen to "I Don't Know" from Egypt Station. The man is in his seventies & still able to write a song like this, insane.

Eh....what are you talking about?

TrevorAyer said:

There is simply no way to overrate the beatles hendrix or prince ... they are all top notch ... as a guitar player i feel hendrix mops the floor with most players .. including prince

explain how Hendrix mops the floor with Prince? This should be good!

I think there are a number of dogmatic Prince fans who feel very threatened by thoughtful conversation about Prince. It is why I can only take being on Prince.org for 2-3 months at a time.

The Beatles had an incredible producer/arranger, George Martin,who was known as The Fifth Beatle.

His importance cannot be underestimated.

PeggyO said:

I think there are a number of dogmatic Prince fans who feel very threatened by thoughtful conversation about Prince. It is why I can only take being on Prince.org for 2-3 months at a time.

The Beatles had an incredible producer/arranger, George Martin,who was known as The Fifth Beatle.

His importance cannot be underestimated.

No question, George Martin was extremely important to the Beatles.

macaylasdad said:

I've never been clinically diagnosed, or am I qualified to diagnose anyone. But I'd still have to say YES!

ABSOLUTELY !

TrevorAyer said:

macaylasdad said:

explain how Hendrix mops the floor with Prince? This should be good!

Sure ... listen to dreamer (a hendrix style prince song) and compare it to voodoo chile by hendrix ... if it isn’t obvious to you from there I don’t think it ever will be

Ok. I won't deny a Hendrix influence there. Hendrix wasn't as versatile as Prince, he couldn't half of what Prince did.Prince is a much cleaner guitar player and has many more styles of playing then Hendrix, can't deny that. I would put up any guitar solo of Prince against Hendrix any day of the week. Proof is in the pudding.

hendrix wasn't a great songwriter? Now that's an interesting take, hendrix's strengths were as a producer, writer, showman, composer and guitarist. In fact, his plan was to put the guitar down completely so he could become a "serious" composer, even planning to attend school for music. In a list of top artists, he's close with just about anyone in the rock era, including prince.

macaylasdad said:

this is an interesting topic. Hendrix experimented with new sounds with his guitar, that made him different than everybody else. Was he a great singer? No. Was he a great songwriter? Eh, not really. People were and are fixated with Hendrix's style and truth be told wasn't guitar playing wasn't all that clean at all. They look at Woodstock and say whoa! He's the greatest! His career was about 3 to 4 years long, it would of been interesting to see what he would of done or been had he lived.

The Beatles are an example of the right place at the right time, the whole British invasion hype and they were 4 good looking boys (as what I am told) singing about love and the girls ate it up! I found their music from 1962-64 to be very "campy" to the point of cheesy. Interesting though, Lennon and McCartney were pretty good songwriters and the band collectively played well together. So they start experimented with drugs and the whole thing changed Rubber Soul and Revolver are outstanding pop records. The came Pepper and that blew everyone away, the were evolving with the times, their musical style changed and before we knew it, we had the White Album and Abbey Road. Honestly, I have seen their concerts on You Tube, they weren't really good live performers. That brought the whole thing full circle. The next best thing that could happen to the Beatles happened.....they broke up! With less than 5 years in a commercial sense as a band, look what they did. The people, band, artists and performers today they've influenced. NO umpteenth farewell tours, no shitty albums after their prime that the general public ignored. All done with before the power of internet and MTV (back when they played videos).

That takes us to Prince...he is/was a better live performer than Hendrix and the Beatles. Can't argue that. An accomplished songwriter, wrote some great songs for other artists, can't say the same for Hendrix and the Beatles. A much more versatile artist musically than Hendrix and the Beatles, i mean he played drums, bass, guitar, keyboards...fair to say the others weren't doing that. Prince was an innovator by the way he marketed his music...through the internet, newspaper, and concerts tickets. Can't say that for the others. Prince wrote, arranged, composed and produced ALL his albums. Can't say that about the others.

I think people live in the past when it comes to Prince, they can't live past 1984-85. It's the same his music isn't as good as Purple Rain, I am sure he could of played it safe like MJ and stick to formula that worked...that's why MJ music never evolved and sounded exactly the same album after album.

Prince was different than all the other artists, he knew it...sadly, it took years for people to catch up...his RRHOF and Super Bowl performance, and everyone ws like "wow" he is so talented! No shit Sherlock, congratulations of finally coming out from under your rock!

Not all Prince fans are insane.

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

I've never been clinically diagnosed, or am I qualified to diagnose anyone. But I'd still have to say YES!

ABSOLUTELY !

PeteSilas said:

hendrix wasn't a great songwriter? Now that's an interesting take, hendrix's strengths were as a producer, writer, showman, composer and guitarist. In fact, his plan was to put the guitar down completely so he could become a "serious" composer, even planning to attend school for music. In a list of top artists, he's close with just about anyone in the rock era, including prince.

macaylasdad said:

this is an interesting topic. Hendrix experimented with new sounds with his guitar, that made him different than everybody else. Was he a great singer? No. Was he a great songwriter? Eh, not really. People were and are fixated with Hendrix's style and truth be told wasn't guitar playing wasn't all that clean at all. They look at Woodstock and say whoa! He's the greatest! His career was about 3 to 4 years long, it would of been interesting to see what he would of done or been had he lived.

The Beatles are an example of the right place at the right time, the whole British invasion hype and they were 4 good looking boys (as what I am told) singing about love and the girls ate it up! I found their music from 1962-64 to be very "campy" to the point of cheesy. Interesting though, Lennon and McCartney were pretty good songwriters and the band collectively played well together. So they start experimented with drugs and the whole thing changed Rubber Soul and Revolver are outstanding pop records. The came Pepper and that blew everyone away, the were evolving with the times, their musical style changed and before we knew it, we had the White Album and Abbey Road. Honestly, I have seen their concerts on You Tube, they weren't really good live performers. That brought the whole thing full circle. The next best thing that could happen to the Beatles happened.....they broke up! With less than 5 years in a commercial sense as a band, look what they did. The people, band, artists and performers today they've influenced. NO umpteenth farewell tours, no shitty albums after their prime that the general public ignored. All done with before the power of internet and MTV (back when they played videos).

That takes us to Prince...he is/was a better live performer than Hendrix and the Beatles. Can't argue that. An accomplished songwriter, wrote some great songs for other artists, can't say the same for Hendrix and the Beatles. A much more versatile artist musically than Hendrix and the Beatles, i mean he played drums, bass, guitar, keyboards...fair to say the others weren't doing that. Prince was an innovator by the way he marketed his music...through the internet, newspaper, and concerts tickets. Can't say that for the others. Prince wrote, arranged, composed and produced ALL his albums. Can't say that about the others.

I think people live in the past when it comes to Prince, they can't live past 1984-85. It's the same his music isn't as good as Purple Rain, I am sure he could of played it safe like MJ and stick to formula that worked...that's why MJ music never evolved and sounded exactly the same album after album.

Prince was different than all the other artists, he knew it...sadly, it took years for people to catch up...his RRHOF and Super Bowl performance, and everyone ws like "wow" he is so talented! No shit Sherlock, congratulations of finally coming out from under your rock!

Is there really a Hendrix song written that everyone is like "whoa, that's amazing!" Ehhh, he wrote songs that complimented his style...for me that's about it. Again, I am not denying his talent, but he didn't do what Prince did...for me I like for the total package in an artist... Hendrix was good, but Prince was better.... IMO.

Went through all this when Bowie died... Much of this happened on his fansite... Now, it's happening to this one. When the "music idol" passes away...it happens. People leave. New members show up. Or hardcore members struggle to keep up the interest. It really is up to the hardcore fans to keep interest going... Or an estate as dedicated as the Bowie estate. But, enough. Already been said. Still waiting to see what the estate will do...in time.