Vannormal said:

jaawwnn said:

Hey I enjoyed the show I saw.

He got better as a musician and outgrew them...really the only exceptional players in the band was Fink & Lisa...rest were average players at best.he had to get more quality...revolution was built on Race/looks.hE DIDNT NEED TO DO THAT ANYMORE.

mrjj71 said:

RJOrion said:

mrjj71 said:

Despite him saying in several interviews that Brown Mark was the best bass player he ever had?!

Brown Mark was the only exception...Prince definitely upgraded from Wendy, Lisa, Bobby Z and Fink

lol he was being kind.....hell at one point he saID KIRK WAS GOOD ON DRUMS,AND WENDY WAS A GREAT SOLOIST TOO :-D brown mark cant even be in same room with larry graham,Sonny Thompson, or Rhonda smith......He was so great he is the only band member in Purple Rain with no speaking line...not 1 word just 1 second deer in the headlights looks....but he was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo great!

funkman88 said:

RJOrion said:

mrjj71 said: Brown Mark was the only exception...Prince definitely upgraded from Wendy, Lisa, Bobby Z and Fink

lol he was being kind.....hell at one point he saID KIRK WAS GOOD ON DRUMS,AND WENDY WAS A GREAT SOLOIST TOO :-D brown mark cant even be in same room with larry graham,Sonny Thompson, or Rhonda smith......He was so great he is the only band member in Purple Rain with no speaking line...not 1 word just 1 second deer in the headlights looks....but he was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo great!

In my opinion Michael Bland is a great drummer, and he once called Kirk Johnson one of the best drummers in Minnesota.

I don´t have very fond memories of the years when Kirk was the drummer but what do I know?

Michael B. surely must know something I don´t .

Brownmark not having a line in PR does not mean much, he still had a very unique bass sound, and I am not exactly a big fan of his constant whining in interviews , but you gotta give props where props are due. He is an exceptional bass player who added a lot to the mid 80s sound of Prince.

KoolEaze said:

funkman88 said:

lol he was being kind.....hell at one point he saID KIRK WAS GOOD ON DRUMS,AND WENDY WAS A GREAT SOLOIST TOO :-D brown mark cant even be in same room with larry graham,Sonny Thompson, or Rhonda smith......He was so great he is the only band member in Purple Rain with no speaking line...not 1 word just 1 second deer in the headlights looks....but he was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo great!

In my opinion Michael Bland is a great drummer, and he once called Kirk Johnson one of the best drummers in Minnesota.

I don´t have very fond memories of the years when Kirk was the drummer but what do I know?

Michael B. surely must know something I don´t .

Brownmark not having a line in PR does not mean much, he still had a very unique bass sound, and I am not exactly a big fan of his constant whining in interviews , but you gotta give props where props are due. He is an exceptional bass player who added a lot to the mid 80s sound of Prince.

wow minnesota....the land of great drummers...it aint ohio deart smh...

Basically y'all just wanted Prince fronting Rush, admit it.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Prince def got better musicians as he went on Its just he didnt have as good songs or ideas anymore

And a lot of songs came from jamming. So in other words, when people say the best band was The Revolution, chops are only a fraction of the criteria for what they brought to the studio and stage, and deserve to be praised for being the catalyst or actual sources of composing better (his BEST) songs.

jaawwnn said:

Basically y'all just wanted Prince fronting Rush, admit it.

Exactly

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Prince def got better musicians as he went on Its just he didnt have as good songs or ideas anymore So it's a trade off Many creative ppl do the same thing - focus more on craft and technique as they get older

This point is bang on ! one thing that always gets me is that, would prince have done lovesexy with the revolution ? and would that resulting tour be anywhere near the level that the lovesexy tour was at? This tour was, in my opinion, his best ever. Like my friend said, a trade off, better musiscians and band but not as good ideas and musical nounce from the band members. Some great points from everyone on here, like it should be. Keep it up all

I think burning a bridge with Susannah, twin of Wendy, who comes part-and-parcel with Lisa, was the emotional reason. He invited their input before.

Cinny said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Prince def got better musicians as he went on Its just he didnt have as good songs or ideas anymore

And a lot of songs came from jamming. So in other words, when people say the best band was The Revolution, chops are only a fraction of the criteria for what they brought to the studio and stage, and deserve to be praised for being the catalyst or actual sources of composing better (his BEST) songs.

So true, when he split it up, I could hear the loss of their input straight away.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Prince didnt like his band challenging him So he opted for musicians that would just say yes, not push him Thats why he didnt want wendy and lisa around too long after 86 He needed to remind himself he could do it alone without other band members To admit they were a good influence was too threatening He wanted a band that didnt threaten him [Edited 8/4/21 15:51pm]

Yep !

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

He needed to remind himself he could do it alone without other band members

Except every slot of the lineup needed replacing anyway, at least for the stage.

RJOrion said:

mrjj71 said:

Despite him saying in several interviews that Brown Mark was the best bass player he ever had?!

Brown Mark was the only exception...Prince definitely upgraded from Wendy, Lisa, Bobby Z and Fink

Tommy Barbarella was an upgrade over Matt Fink?

KoolEaze said:

funkman88 said:

lol he was being kind.....hell at one point he saID KIRK WAS GOOD ON DRUMS,AND WENDY WAS A GREAT SOLOIST TOO :-D brown mark cant even be in same room with larry graham,Sonny Thompson, or Rhonda smith......He was so great he is the only band member in Purple Rain with no speaking line...not 1 word just 1 second deer in the headlights looks....but he was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo great!

In my opinion Michael Bland is a great drummer, and he once called Kirk Johnson one of the best drummers in Minnesota.

Michael Bland and Kirk were, at the very least, co-workers, if not friends. It's possible Michael was simply being kind when he offered that compliment. Or perhaps he was thinking of one specific element of Kirk's skill, such as the abiliy to keep time.

mmart2008 said:

KoolEaze said:

mmart2008 said:

I think anyone wrapped up in the "best" argument is straying from the real reason - Prince was always into playing with different, new musicians every few years and "reforming" would be not doing such and therefore he never did it beyond things like guest appearances from past people

ForceofNature said:

I think anyone wrapped up in the "best" argument is straying from the real reason - Prince was always into playing with different, new musicians every few years and "reforming" would be not doing such and therefore he never did it beyond things like guest appearances from past people

this is true.

he wasnt really into looking back.

always about moving on to the next thing.

funkman88 said:

He got better as a musician and outgrew them...really the only exceptional players in the band was Fink & Lisa...rest were average players at best.

He had to get more quality...The Revolution was built on Race/looks.

HE DIDNT NEED TO DO THAT ANYMORE.

-

The first decade of his life, Prince was in a super fast growing phase.

He was at a constant innovative peak repeatedly making new music.

And that with an effortless result in whatever he did or touched.

That is a serious reason why the public and fandom grew, adored, respected and kept on following him.

Once he achieved stardom, and was at the peak/top, his output became somehow repetitive and less interesting to the general public (and in sales numbers).

Not to mention he became sort of a mainstream artist.

-

Yes he became a ''better skilled musician'', but kinda switched players and band mates rather to be amused and be surprised with whatever they could bring along.

But that rarely happened though. (Sure there were some excellent results here and there).

It was as if he lost some kind of street-credibility and equal friendships along the way, being alone at the top.

-

No he did not got more quality out all of that in the last two decades.

He just got more 'quantity' like disposable musicians with fantastic skills, band changes, and his so called freedom.

That gained freedom kinda had him struggling with a lot of things i believe.

He wasn't the guy to run a label, or to make business decisions.

Yes he tried a lot of new things, internet wise, label changes, etc.

Sometimes even mistakenly called a pioneer imho.

It more than often made him deviate of his core business, being a openminded impressible musician.

But the quality was far from the inventory first era he grew up in as a hungry musician, composer, etc.

That's how I feel it. (My humble opinion though.)

-

What surprises me how people here are split against The Revolution.

For me at least,no-one matches their creativity,influence,genre hopping,writing and just downright energy.

Sure,youth has a part to play in that but you only have to watch the official live video of Baby i'm a star to see that that energy was unmatched by later bands.

No-one played better funky solos with character like Matt Fink,no-one matched Brown Mark for groove (the closest player to Prince's actual style) and Wendy and Lisa came up with beautiful chord inversions and brought so many different influences with them.

Eric Leeds will always be THE sax player too.

In fact if I had to pick my top 3 backing bands it would go like this...

1.The Revolution.

2.The 87-89 band with Sheila,Levi,Boni etc.

3.The New Power Generation.

mrjj71 said:

3.The New Power Generation.

Wasn't "The NPG" actually, like, a dozen different bands over the years?