Ok so maybe this has been talked about before but I guess when you hear something for the first time, maybe you can bring attention to the fact that he was a band leader in his own lane.

I only noticed this week that when the Lovesexy band is transitioning from I'll Take You There to RAVE on the Secret Gig boot, Prince kisses four times into the mic giving Sheila E. instructions where she picks up the tempo and mimics it with the beat that starts RAVE. It's pretty extraordinary.

Milty2 said:

Milty2 said:

Ok so maybe this has been talked about before but I guess when you hear something for the first time, maybe you can bring attention to the fact that he was a band leader in his own lane.

I only noticed this week that when the Lovesexy band is transitioning from I'll Take You There to RAVE on the Secret Gig boot, Prince kisses four times into the mic giving Sheila E. instructions where she picks up the tempo and mimics it with the beat that starts RAVE. It's pretty extraordinary.

Didnt know this one. I will try to find.

But, judging from some band members interviews, it seems that Prince used to rehearse so hard not only to make they play the songs perfect, but the band members should be able to follow him if he changed his mind and decided to include a new song on the setlist, for example.

GustavoRibas said:

Milty2 said:

Ok so maybe this has been talked about before but I guess when you hear something for the first time, maybe you can bring attention to the fact that he was a band leader in his own lane.

I only noticed this week that when the Lovesexy band is transitioning from I'll Take You There to RAVE on the Secret Gig boot, Prince kisses four times into the mic giving Sheila E. instructions where she picks up the tempo and mimics it with the beat that starts RAVE. It's pretty extraordinary.

Didnt know this one. I will try to find.

But, judging from some band members interviews, it seems that Prince used to rehearse so hard not only to make they play the songs perfect, but the band members should be able to follow him if he changed his mind and decided to include a new song on the setlist, for example.

I've seen interviews with band members who said that during live performances they needed to pay close attentionn to Prince, looking for cues about where he wanted to go. The cue could be super obvious (such as a throat slash to wind things down or a verbal signal like "on the one"). Others could be far more subtle and easy to miss if you didn't know what to look for. One of the band members (maybe Matt Fink) said he once missed a cue for a turn around, so Prince fined him.

Prince mastered many instruments, "the whole band" is also on that list!

[Edited 4/23/22 9:51am]

Credit to Sheila on that too. She was a seasoned player, it was in her blood, and that's basic jamming 101 to hear a shift and take the band with you.

Shiela and Prince knew each other intmately, spent time together when not jamming. That helps. I think he had special relationships with all his bands that way. He had strong musical opinions, and tricks he'd picked up, and he taught them that or shared those opinions strongly so they knew what they liked. You can hear stories (or the actual outtakes on the SOTT Deluxe) of how he communicated, and he was special like that.

As for "band leader" a lot of that James Brown stuff he tried was sloppy, and you can hear in practice tapes his bands didn't always know where he was going and the communication was off. A lot of the E. Street Band stuff was showmanship for the stage, the rest was repetition.

lavendardrummachine said:

Credit to Sheila on that too. She was a seasoned player, it was in her blood, and that's basic jamming 101 to hear a shift and take the band with you.

Shiela and Prince knew each other intmately, spent time together when not jamming. That helps. I think he had special relationships with all his bands that way. He had strong musical opinions, and tricks he'd picked up, and he taught them that or shared those opinions strongly so they knew what they liked. You can hear stories (or the actual outtakes on the SOTT Deluxe) of how he communicated, and he was special like that.

As for "band leader" a lot of that James Brown stuff he tried was sloppy, and you can hear in practice tapes his bands didn't always know where he was going and the communication was off. A lot of the E. Street Band stuff was showmanship for the stage, the rest was repetition.

I agree and that's part of what made Prince so special (amongst so many others things). Even though he was this super-superstar and whatever, he had this normal quality to him where he was able to have these intimate relationships with his musicians.