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Thread started 09/07/20 6:30am

thebanishedone

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Do You think Prince regressed as a guitar player during the 3rd Eye era?

I know this sounds off,on papper having Prince in a hard rock band

with ladies sounds great

but i cant help myself feeling that Prince either lost passion

for guitar or he didnt practice guitar anymore.During 3rd Eye era gone was all the

excitment from his guitar playing.

Prince played very basic very unlike Prince.

he sounded like Keith Richards version of Prince.its rocknroll,but very basic ,

eliminated from any extra details.

Nothing he played during this period comes even close to for example

Whole Lotta Love Indigo Nights

or Bambi Undertaker version.

Prince is my number 1 guitar player and he delivered during whole his career

except during Rave era and imo 3rdeye era.

During Rave era Prince played so bad compared to his previous standards.

But he start to recover with 2000 2001 Hit N Run period.

He added whammy bar to his playing and while at the early stages

of using it he wasnt sure what to do with it,he made it his own in the following

years ,using it not to replace his trademark vibrato like some orgers like to say,

but to add effects like dive bombs and some angry passages .

But in 2012 his playing changed.it wasnt uplifting anymore it become sluggish,droned,grungy.

Maybe after a decade exploration of guitar sonics he got bored

and he was already thing about piano porojects?

Am i the only one thinking like this?

[Edited 9/7/20 6:31am]

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Reply #1 posted 09/07/20 6:40am

antonb

Yea overnight he turned into a terrible musician
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Reply #2 posted 09/07/20 6:41am

thebanishedone

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He did shine on Dakota 2013 and few other gigs but it was more of a rarity than norm.
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Reply #3 posted 09/07/20 6:45am

SPYZFAN1

No. I enjoyed his guitar playing during the 3rd Eye Girl era. His SNL performance with them was great....almost bought a P-90'd Vox guitar just because of that.

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Reply #4 posted 09/07/20 6:46am

dayzofwyld

thebanishedone said:

I know this sounds off,on papper having Prince in a hard rock band

with ladies sounds great

but i cant help myself feeling that Prince either lost passion

for guitar or he didnt practice guitar anymore.During 3rd Eye era gone was all the

excitment from his guitar playing.

Prince played very basic very unlike Prince.

he sounded like Keith Richards version of Prince.its rocknroll,but very basic ,

eliminated from any extra details.

Nothing he played during this period comes even close to for example

Whole Lotta Love Indigo Nights

or Bambi Undertaker version.

Prince is my number 1 guitar player and he delivered during whole his career

except during Rave era and imo 3rdeye era.

During Rave era Prince played so bad compared to his previous standards.

But he start to recover with 2000 2001 Hit N Run period.

He added whammy bar to his playing and while at the early stages

of using it he wasnt sure what to do with it,he made it his own in the following

years ,using it not to replace his trademark vibrato like some orgers like to say,

but to add effects like dive bombs and some angry passages .

But in 2012 his playing changed.it wasnt uplifting anymore it become sluggish,droned,grungy.

Maybe after a decade exploration of guitar sonics he got bored

and he was already thing about piano porojects?

Am i the only one thinking like this?

[Edited 9/7/20 6:31am]

I lost interest in him as a guitar player from 3EG onwards. I just didn't like the sound of those Vox guitars, when you compare it to the beautiful tones of the Fender (and Madcat) it just didn't compare. I'm not saying he was a worse musician at all, just my opinion.

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Reply #5 posted 09/07/20 6:59am

Vannormal

-

That whole ThirdEyeGirl thing was... weird, forgettable even, at least to me.

OK, they jammed a lot, playing the internet with it instantly.

Not recording an album (I believe) for what, nearly 4/5 years ?

Than coming back with a statement that 'Albums Matter, Like Black Lives''.

He was right though. Although it went lost in between... these new albums.

Susan Rodgers sayd in an interview that Prince is a real Album kind of artist, and she's right.

-

But what happend in 2010 that made him stop making albums ?

You're right somehow, and from that point on I follow your comment on his guitar playing too.

Although I have to relisten to these 'trax' again.

To say that his playing kind of 'changed' to put it gently, might be true. There's nothing that I can remeber that is stunning or outstanding.

-

I listened to "The War" again esterday, my god ! That guitar !!!

-

Donna Grantis, tbh, is a very goodlooking and nice girl and an interesting guitarplayer.

But I can't seem to 'feel' what she brought or added of any value in his style or music.

"Screwdriver" ? The slowed down "Let's Go Crazy" idea? It was fun, but that was about it.

I barely listen to those jams they did between 2010 and 2015.

-

Clearly Prince wanted a pause from albums. But whay ?

I dare to say that not only his guitar playing, but also his inventiveness on 'sound' was somewhat gone too.

-

His mobbing with religion was over it's peak it seemed.

It did not make him more susccesful or accepted for sure, spreading the word of Larry & bunch.

Joshua and Mrs Welton, did not get him on a higher, new, interesting level either.

What made him decide to not make albums anymore ?

Did he got tired of it all ? The addiction maybe ?

I jsut wonder... sure someone here will know. wink

I kinda lost Prince during that era.

-

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. And wiser people so full of doubts" (Bertrand Russell 1872-1972)
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Reply #6 posted 09/07/20 7:14am

OnlyNDaUsa

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He was aging and hands are fragile things. I do think he knew he could not play like he used to... I made that quip on April 16th (or so) about it being a shame he can not play guitar anymore...(which many took as meaning because he was focused on the Piano).

But there is more: he said something before that about the book about him coming to terms with his own mortality.

I think maybe his age and the miles (years of playing) were wearing on him and making it harder to play. Which is to be expected.

"Keep on shilling for Big Pharm!"
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Reply #7 posted 09/07/20 7:21am

jaawwnn

They weren't the most subtle of bands, doing dumb iron-man rip-offs and hamfisted punk and alt-rock attempts. I mean, I enjoyed it for what it was but I don't think it lent itself to his best playing. You can't discount his age holding him back either, hard to gauge how much it was or was not affecting him at that point. The one show I managed to see was fantastic though so if they were compensating for him at points, they did the job.

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Reply #8 posted 09/07/20 8:07am

laytonian

OnlyNDaUsa said:

He was aging and hands are fragile things. I do think he knew he could not play like he used to... I made that quip on April 16th (or so) about it being a shame he can not play guitar anymore...(which many took as meaning because he was focused on the Piano).

But there is more: he said something before that about the book about him coming to terms with his own mortality.

I think maybe his age and the miles (years of playing) were wearing on him and making it harder to play. Which is to be expected.


^^^^^ THIS

"Take this bass, I can't play it
It only makes me wish for the way it used to be"

Welcome to "the org", laytonian… come bathe with me.
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Reply #9 posted 09/07/20 8:10am

lustmealways

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idk i haven't heard anything that i wouldn't describe as "pretty banging"

maybe i just have low standards

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Reply #10 posted 09/07/20 9:46am

RJOrion

of course he "regressed"... the man was almost 60 years old... playing guitar is rough on the hands, wrists and fingers of a young healthy man much less a man approaching 60, with alleged physical ailments...every human being alive "regresses" physically.
[Edited 9/7/20 9:46am]
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Reply #11 posted 09/07/20 9:53am

Genesia

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antonb said:

Yea overnight he turned into a terrible musician


lol
We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves.
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Reply #12 posted 09/07/20 11:54am

rogifan

No.

Paisley Park is in your heart
#PrinceForever 💜
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Reply #13 posted 09/07/20 1:21pm

PurpleColossus

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Maybe I've not listened to enough 3rd Eye Era shows, but I think he was still pretty great nod

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Reply #14 posted 09/07/20 1:32pm

thebanishedone

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RJOrion said:

of course he "regressed"... the man was almost 60 years old... playing guitar is rough on the hands, wrists and fingers of a young healthy man much less a man approaching 60, with alleged physical ailments...every human being alive "regresses" physically. [Edited 9/7/20 9:46am]

You know 60 is not that old for a guitar player.i would like to think that neck on vox didnt suit him but he kept playing it because it fit the image of late 60s hard rock band.

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Reply #15 posted 09/07/20 3:02pm

lavendardrumma
chine

About 8 years earlier he was crowned the greatest guitar player alive.

Being 60 doesn't make you pick boring guitar parts. Even if the agility was gone, how does that explain the lack of creativity?

I think he was just dumbing it down for the level of the band, and the concept, but mostly the band.

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Reply #16 posted 09/07/20 4:18pm

thebanishedone

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lavendardrummachine said:

About 8 years earlier he was crowned the greatest guitar player alive.

Being 60 doesn't make you pick boring guitar parts. Even if the agility was gone, how does that explain the lack of creativity?

I think he was just dumbing it down for the level of the band, and the concept, but mostly the band.

maybe you are right. Donna was supposed to have jazz training but all i ever heard from her was boring pentatonic same old same old solo.Prince maybe didnt want to outclass her

so he played ppretty basic.

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Reply #17 posted 09/07/20 4:56pm

leecaldon

Vannormal said:

-

That whole ThirdEyeGirl thing was... weird, forgettable even, at least to me.

OK, they jammed a lot, playing the internet with it instantly.

Not recording an album (I believe) for what, nearly 4/5 years ?

Than coming back with a statement that 'Albums Matter, Like Black Lives''.

He was right though. Although it went lost in between... these new albums.

Susan Rodgers sayd in an interview that Prince is a real Album kind of artist, and she's right.

-

But what happend in 2010 that made him stop making albums ?

You're right somehow, and from that point on I follow your comment on his guitar playing too.

Although I have to relisten to these 'trax' again.

To say that his playing kind of 'changed' to put it gently, might be true. There's nothing that I can remeber that is stunning or outstanding.

-

I listened to "The War" again esterday, my god ! That guitar !!!

-

Donna Grantis, tbh, is a very goodlooking and nice girl and an interesting guitarplayer.

But I can't seem to 'feel' what she brought or added of any value in his style or music.

"Screwdriver" ? The slowed down "Let's Go Crazy" idea? It was fun, but that was about it.

I barely listen to those jams they did between 2010 and 2015.

-

Clearly Prince wanted a pause from albums. But whay ?

I dare to say that not only his guitar playing, but also his inventiveness on 'sound' was somewhat gone too.

-

His mobbing with religion was over it's peak it seemed.

It did not make him more susccesful or accepted for sure, spreading the word of Larry & bunch.

Joshua and Mrs Welton, did not get him on a higher, new, interesting level either.

What made him decide to not make albums anymore ?

Did he got tired of it all ? The addiction maybe ?

I jsut wonder... sure someone here will know. wink

I kinda lost Prince during that era.

-

He didn't stop making albums - he stopped releasing them. Welcome 2 America was made in 2011. Plectrumelectrum started recording in 2012 and probably could have been released in 2013 (although the final version likely contained some early 2014 recordings).

At some point in this period there was the acoustic album, The L/C, with Andy Allo.

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Reply #18 posted 09/07/20 4:59pm

masaba

In 2015 I watched him just shred on The One. Amazing. Best part was I wasn't even familiar with the song at the time.
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Reply #19 posted 09/07/20 6:48pm

jjam

Can't say that I saw evidence of this "regression" when I saw him at the Electric Ballroom show in London.

[Edited 9/7/20 18:48pm]

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Reply #20 posted 09/07/20 7:47pm

ForceofNature

He did not regress. As a guitar player myself, I noticed his chops ever present but his playing was just stylistically dedicated to more straight ahead hard rock guitar vocabulary. He went through phases. For example in the late 90s/early 2000's he used the whammy a ton and a lot of guitar effects, and in his later years you saw another phase with even the guitars he elected to use. But he could shred in his later years just as well - I don't think age slowed him down. If you practice, any guitarist can retain their chops well into their sixties (Alex Lifeson for example)
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Reply #21 posted 09/07/20 10:01pm

Farfunknugin

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Have you heard the DNA lounge sets with 3rd eye? Yes the tones were different but the technique was as sharp as ever.
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Reply #22 posted 09/08/20 4:17am

dodger

I'm no musician but I couldn't see any regression when I saw him up close at Manchester Academy in 2014. He put the lauded clip of Something In The Water on Youtube from this show.

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Reply #23 posted 09/08/20 5:36am

Se7en

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I don't think he regressed in his playing ability. I think the music itself that he was performing wiht 3EG became a little more . . . generic? I do feel that he was re-energized with them but I don't think the material reflected that.

As for Donna . . . beautiful girl and has great skills on the guitar BUT one very annoying trait is that when she plays guitar she is looking at her hand placement almost all the time.

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Reply #24 posted 09/08/20 5:37am

thebanishedone

avatar

Farfunknugin said:

Have you heard the DNA lounge sets with 3rd eye? Yes the tones were different but the technique was as sharp as ever.

yes i have.

it was his On night.it was a norm for 3rd eye gig.

You know when Prince starts guitar solo and all the focus shift to his solos that were full of energy bursts,passion,fire,uplifting

well only on a rare ocassions did he play like that with 3rd Eye.

Take a listen to Bambi from the Undertaker and compare it to Bambi live Montreux 2013

and you will hear what i mean...maybe biggrin

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Reply #25 posted 09/08/20 6:06am

TheKid94

Not at all. I didn't love the 3rd Eye era but what I did like was his focus on guitar playing. I heard more passion and emotion in his solos. The clip posted from Something In the Water from Mohegan Sun is one of my favorite guitar solos from him.

prince
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Reply #26 posted 09/08/20 1:06pm

tab32792

idk what you guys are talking about lol plus it's veering off into a dislike about his later music and band more so than the original question.

I saw him at the mohegan sun in 2013 and it was a great show and he played great guitar. I have plenty of shows from 2010-2015. stand outs include: something in the water manchester 2014, the dakota shows in 2013 and stratus live in 2015 at paisley. he played awesome guitar in those moments.

I guess if anything it would come down to preference in the music he was playing and the band that he had. i personally prefer the tone he had from 85-89 with those mesa boogie amps and the pedal setup he preferred at the time. but no i do not think he regressed at all

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Reply #27 posted 09/09/20 1:57am

Vannormal

leecaldon said:

Vannormal said:

-

That whole ThirdEyeGirl thing was... weird, forgettable even, at least to me.

OK, they jammed a lot, playing the internet with it instantly.

Not recording an album (I believe) for what, nearly 4/5 years ?

Than coming back with a statement that 'Albums Matter, Like Black Lives''.

He was right though. Although it went lost in between... these new albums.

Susan Rodgers sayd in an interview that Prince is a real Album kind of artist, and she's right.

-

But what happend in 2010 that made him stop making albums ?

You're right somehow, and from that point on I follow your comment on his guitar playing too.

Although I have to relisten to these 'trax' again.

To say that his playing kind of 'changed' to put it gently, might be true. There's nothing that I can remeber that is stunning or outstanding.

-

I listened to "The War" again esterday, my god ! That guitar !!!

-

Donna Grantis, tbh, is a very goodlooking and nice girl and an interesting guitarplayer.

But I can't seem to 'feel' what she brought or added of any value in his style or music.

"Screwdriver" ? The slowed down "Let's Go Crazy" idea? It was fun, but that was about it.

I barely listen to those jams they did between 2010 and 2015.

-

Clearly Prince wanted a pause from albums. But whay ?

I dare to say that not only his guitar playing, but also his inventiveness on 'sound' was somewhat gone too.

-

His mobbing with religion was over it's peak it seemed.

It did not make him more susccesful or accepted for sure, spreading the word of Larry & bunch.

Joshua and Mrs Welton, did not get him on a higher, new, interesting level either.

What made him decide to not make albums anymore ?

Did he got tired of it all ? The addiction maybe ?

I jsut wonder... sure someone here will know. wink

I kinda lost Prince during that era.

-

He didn't stop making albums - he stopped releasing them. Welcome 2 America was made in 2011. Plectrumelectrum started recording in 2012 and probably could have been released in 2013 (although the final version likely contained some early 2014 recordings).

At some point in this period there was the acoustic album, The L/C, with Andy Allo.

-

I also think that he recorded (several) albums in that period we.

"Welcome 2 America"... gonna look for more info about that on Princevault

-

Wasn't there talk about a new album called;

"Black is the new Black" ?

Wonder what that was about ... black lives matter maybe ?

The Estate should release that album in springtime next year, why not.

-

And the "Piano & A Microphone" available as a download, all shows. smile

Again, I can dream...

-

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. And wiser people so full of doubts" (Bertrand Russell 1872-1972)
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Reply #28 posted 09/09/20 7:46am

rogifan

The last time Prince played guitar at Paisley Park. cool

https://youtu.be/auhwiBo68_k

Paisley Park is in your heart
#PrinceForever 💜
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Reply #29 posted 09/09/20 11:22am

steakfinger

Yes, Prince was struggling with lead guitar. As a guitarist myself, I began to notice the decline On the Emancipation. I would say he hit rock bottom on TRC. Oddly, his rhythm guitar remained tight and even improved a bit, but his lead playing was gone. Buried under obscuring effects and recycling the same few bendy blues rock licks. He seems to have gone the way of Santana in terms of fading lead abilities, but Santana is far worse due to having NO rhythm guitar abilities. This didn’t diminish Prince’s musical gifts, just his performing skills. His drums skills went through a similar change but much earlier.
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Forums > Prince: Music and More > Do You think Prince regressed as a guitar player during the 3rd Eye era?