steakfinger said:

rogifan said:

thebanishedone said:

steakfinger said:

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.

hmmm yes he was a bit sloppy during the Emancipation but not bad.i think he hit rock bottom during Rave days but he start to improve next year when he did hitnrun tour.During TrC era he played much better then he did for a long time.Where did u see detoriation during Trc? In my opinion he was gwtting better and better until 3rd eye days. Im not sure about drumming.judging by the way he played drums on Glass Cutter i think he improved on drums That hi hat work was crazy p.s. Santana dont play a lot of rhythm guitar now days but actually he is a very good rhythm player.Clapton is weak on rhythm guitar [Edited 9/9/20 12:29pm]

i always thought Eric Clapton was the most overrated guitarist ever...nice bluesey style, but not nearly as good as he is reported to be

thebanishedone said:

rogifan said:

The last time Prince played guitar at Paisley Park.

https://youtu.be/auhwiBo68_k

I know this.he played great that night.

Were you the one in the red dress giving inspiration?

RJOrion said:

I always thought Clapton was overrated too...but I enjoyed his all blues album "From The Cradle".

PRINCE?

NO

.

Eric Clapton?

YES

Se7en said:

SPYZFAN1 said:

Yeah, I think EC was using a Bob Bradshaw rack system back in the mid 80's. Lukather turned him on to Bob..I also liked EC's tone with those Soldano amps. P used them later on too.

Absolutely not. Of the 14 times I saw him, his best guitar performance was Shepherd's Bush Empire in early 2014 with 3EG. He was absolutely on FIRE that night on guitar specifically.

Militant said:

Absolutely not. Of the 14 times I saw him, his best guitar performance was Shepherd's Bush Empire in early 2014 with 3EG. He was absolutely on FIRE that night on guitar specifically.

2013/2014 IMO was such a great year for Prince musically. I agree his guitar playing in that time was amazing

Militant said:

Absolutely not. Of the 14 times I saw him, his best guitar performance was Shepherd's Bush Empire in early 2014 with 3EG. He was absolutely on FIRE that night on guitar specifically.

I agree with Militant.

I saw him with 3rd Eye Girl twice, once in Anaheim and once in Montreux.

He blew the cover off the house.

I think maybe what you might be having trouble with is the style of hard rock guitar.

I thought 3rd Eye Girl was badass! Not my favorite of his bands but still amazing.

I've seen him over 40 times.

He was still the man to me.

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.

I kinda lost Prince during that era.

-

Same for me. Now I regret because I lost my chance to see him live a last time. I waited for the next era..

FanAllMyLife said:

Militant said:

Absolutely not. Of the 14 times I saw him, his best guitar performance was Shepherd's Bush Empire in early 2014 with 3EG. He was absolutely on FIRE that night on guitar specifically.

I agree with Militant.

I saw him with 3rd Eye Girl twice, once in Anaheim and once in Montreux.

He blew the cover off the house.

I think maybe what you might be having trouble with is the style of hard rock guitar.

I thought 3rd Eye Girl was badass! Not my favorite of his bands but still amazing.

I've seen him over 40 times.

He was still the man to me.

i have trouble with hard rock guitar? Man first interest in Prince was hard rock

guitar in his music.i loved the fact that he loves distotion

that he have 2 metal zone boss

pedals on at the same time. at the early days of me being a fan i only liked guitar oriented songs,

funk was strange and weird for me.but he made me love it.

And let me tell u someting Prince rocked much harder with his strat and Josh and Cora

on indigo power trio aftershow than any show with 3rdeye

[Edited 9/14/20 14:27pm]

He just chose to play different stuff in that era, focusing more on vintage bluesrock kinda of riffing. I dig it, was a nice change. Also, Lotusflower was only a few years earlier and was really guitar-heavy as a record.

It wasn't the Vox, or the pickups, it wasn't his sore hands. He just chose to do something different musically and let Donna carry more of a lead parts to mix things up a bit and push the rock-band dynamic he was aiming for.

Militant said:

Absolutely not. Of the 14 times I saw him, his best guitar performance was Shepherd's Bush Empire in early 2014 with 3EG. He was absolutely on FIRE that night on guitar specifically.

What a show!

What is it with these negative threads? Paisley Park being his house is a bad thing. Religion ruined him. Wendy & Lisa are biggest grifters. Now, his guitar proficiency possibly regressed.

Great thread btw..

I just asked my son a 15 yr old accomplished guitarist this question & his reply was "he didn't play bad he just kinds seemed to hold back" & I couldn't have agreed more!!

One thing I will say is there always moments in every era of his career where he WOW'D YOU on guitar. And mine from the 3EG era are:

PlectrumElectrum Rehearsal from Paisley Park

ICNTTPOYM Sydney Aftershow

Screwdriver/Bambi from Kimmel Show

Dreamer 5/2/15 @ Paisely Park

Something In the Water Does Not Compute 2/22/14 Manchester

Watch Something In The Water Machester performance 2014. End of thread.

I remember watching Prince on Arsenio shredding it up on SAIMH and thinking to myself "he has still got it all... and thensome"

As a guitarist, I hear no regression in the technical application of the instrument. He was clearly in "rock mode" which means less implementation of the jazzier, minor/dorian/chromatic stuff he was doing in the Rainbow Children era and more straight up diatonic and minor pentatonic blues stuff.

I know there were issues with his hands that after his death have come to light, shared by people close to him. However whatever issues he may or may not have had, I don't hear said issues affecting his technical abilities on guitar based on all that I have heard

Prince could do so many things that I think you have to consider where he is at various points in his career. He concentrated on guitar more in some times than others - I dont expect him to play like Bambi from Undertaker or While My Guitar Gently Weeps from Rock n Roll HOF ALL of the time. I think it makes a difference if he has another guitarist that can solo in the band as well. GO back to Dez Dickerson's tenure for example - many of the major solos were delegate to him (ie. Little Red Corvette). While I was not especially fond of 3rdEyeGirl, there was a real rock guitarist behind him.

He seems his guitar work is more frequent and broader when he was the only guitarist in the band

AMERICA1ST said:

Prince could do so many things that I think you have to consider where he is at various points in his career. He concentrated on guitar more in some times than others - I dont expect him to play like Bambi from Undertaker or While My Guitar Gently Weeps from Rock n Roll HOF ALL of the time. I think it makes a difference if he has another guitarist that can solo in the band as well. GO back to Dez Dickerson's tenure for example - many of the major solos were delegate to him (ie. Little Red Corvette). While I was not especially fond of 3rdEyeGirl, there was a real rock guitarist behind him.

He seems his guitar work is more frequent and broader when he was the only guitarist in the band

a very good observation,especially the last line.i dont think Dez played more solos than Prince.only on 1999 tour but that tour was a rhytm guitar extravaganza

Milty2 said:

What is it with these negative threads? Paisley Park being his house is a bad thing. Religion ruined him. Wendy & Lisa are biggest grifters. Now, his guitar proficiency possibly regressed.

i dont know whats up with negative threads but actually if you visit any

oter band fan forum other artists are discussed in positive and negative aspects.its

not about positive

or negative its about being objective or at least trying to be objective

My problem with Donna is while her rhythm

guitar playing was great

for rock and ok for funk but

her guitar solos were a totall snooze fest.

She always played the same solo over and over again.every song.

And what is strange is that she studied jazz but judging

by her playing she didnt follow te changes,

she played cliche pentatonic solos.

After Wendy she was the weakest guitar soloist.

Maybe Prince wasnt inspired by their playing.Ida is amazing but the other too not so sure.

Prince played the best solos when he had amazing drummers .

If Cora played in 3rd Eye girl tat would be a much tighter unit.

feeluupp said:

Watch Something In The Water Machester performance 2014. End of thread.

Yeah that WAS JAW DROPPING!

BalladofPeterParker said:

feeluupp said:

Watch Something In The Water Machester performance 2014. End of thread.

Yeah that WAS JAW DROPPING!

ive seen it.its good but he have better versions of that song .

Birthday concert 1984 smash Manchester 2014 and that fast run on Manchester was very sloppy.Prince could do it better.

feeluupp said:

Watch Something In The Water Machester performance 2014. End of thread.

nothing special..a GIT grad can play that easy...