This always made me scratch my head, here Prince is an amazing guitar and piano player but his drumming is shitty. Listen to those early albums, the drumming is so basic and boring. He hardly even uses any symbols or syncopation. you would think that the drums would be easier than the piano or guitar. At least it seems easier. Maybe Prince just aint big enuff. All these gifts the guy is blessed with and the motherfucker can't drum. What gives?

Just never really put in the time to learn the trade I suspect because I think musically Prince can do anything he puts his mind to.

muhuhuahahaha! this is of the most stupid things that i have seen on the org in a long time.
his sound+ideas+groove especially on his second album reminds me of steve gadd. see - i am not a huge fan
of steve gadd, but perfection-wise it`s nearly on the same level. i mean...come on, bro`. what kind of shit are you talking about syncopation or "symbols" (???). cymbals you mean, or what? does that matter or what? prince is the mastermaster of simple grooves. he makes `em funkier than ..than...many many many people.
listen to the drums on it`s gonna be lonely. man that`s just f###ing gorgeous.
what - the heck - is good drumming then?
now don`t you start comparing prince(the drummer) to ...i don`t know who you think is funky...
clyde stubblefield is funky. so is vernell fournier. so is bernard purdie. so is joseph modeliste.so is prince.

ah. enough. pearls before the swine.

2freaky4church1 said:

Are you smoking crack? No, honestly?

2Freaky you should no better then to criticize Prince on this site because some people believe he can do no wrong. IMO he is no better then an average drummer. He even looks funny when he tries to drum live as if he just hasn't practiced enough

. He is/was excellent at programming the Linn.

2freaky4church1 said:

Well, we can't all be good at everything

I expect that he knows his own abilities, and leaves the drumming to those that excel at it. No matter how many hours he could put in, obviously full time professionals like Sheila E and Michael B and Blackwell are gonna be a lot better.

He can drum well enough for assembling drum tracks in the studio, and that is enough for his needs. The rest of the time, he has great drumming talent on-tap whenever he wants it.

Ultimately, Prince is a guitarist first and foremost. Purely in terms of musicianship, he's "average" on most instruments and only really excels on guitar. In my opinion.

(He's a lot better on drums than I am though, so I still respect the guy!)

4 a minute i thought this wuz one of thechronic's threads...

okaypimpn said:

---
Word. Ever heard of a little album by Madhouse called '8'?

Who plays drums on I'm yours?

Who plays drums on alot of the songs on SOTT?
Alexa De Paris?

2freaky4church1 said:

YO! Prince played the drums on the FIRST MADHOUSE ALBUM...yesss, confirmed by Susan Rogers who engineered the album. Yess, dass right!

OngBotty said:

Err, I'm not saying Prince is a bad drummer, but most of the stuff on SOTT is done by drum machines, and Sheila E played on Alexa De Paris.

His best drumwork that I know of is on the Crystal Ball track (I'm assuming it IS him, cause it doesn't say it isn't in the CB booklet!)

Because, he is the greatest drum programmer of all time!!
If, someone tells me that there is an album that has better drum loops than 'Purple Rain', I will slap them in the face

Witness (In the film), the into of 'Sex Shooter'. the girl crying backwards and 'When Doves Cry'

I'm not afraid of saying Prince is the best one man band in the world. He is not Tony Williams of course on drums but his playing is far better than what you think. As an overall musician he is simply overgifted.

Now I'm really sorry to see that after Prince is :
- a bad composer
- a bad arranger
- a bad producer

...now we have Prince is a bad drummer. We had last week "Prince is an average guitarist at most". I mean it has become simply ridiculous now.

Who fucking plays drums on the song I'm yours from the FOR YOU album?
:p

lovemachine said:

To tell you the truth, I'm no fanatic or anything, but I do love and respect most of Prince's work. For anyone to say that his drumming is shitty has got to be under some type of pharmaceutical drug. The man practically taught David Z. how to play, not to mention his drum solos from "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" or "America." MILES DAVIS EVEN SAID "HE CAN PLAY THEM MUTHAFUCKIN' DRUMS." If you want to talk shitty, let's talk about Kirky J.'s drumming. Now THAT'S what I call shitty to the nth degree!!!

"Prince, plays the shit out of the drums"

Miles Davis


I think I will take Miles's opinion over this guy's opinion anyday...

Peace.

(edited for flames - ian)

2freaky4church1 said:

Yup, thats how its spelt lol

Seriously, the man can play & as a drum teacher myself, Im constantly having to remind my students that drumming isnt all about the fast flash licks, our job is to keep time. A drummer doesnt keep good time by playing a drum solo, the beat needs to be simple & feel good so the other musicians can rely on me to keep the speed, feel & pulse of the music steady enough for them to be able to concentrate on what they are doing & not worry about the time keeping.

Yeah true, its nice to be able to do the flash stuff but any instrumentalist must realise what their part is in the music or all the fast licks in the world will be of no use to them.

Prince knows what the drummers part is & is just sticking that.

How are his early albums anything to judge by anyway though? The guy was just starting out, the few times Ive heard him drum recently, his playing was fine

gman1966 said:

Well said!!!

gman1966 said:

Exactly.
Discussion Closed

has anybody used the Linn LM-1 drum machine and can u comment on its ease of use? this machine seems obsolete nowadays esp. with entire software libraries of drum samples. how different would prince's sound be if he used another machine like the Akai MPC?

I heard he played the drums on the madhouse albums... And this ain't shitty...

oh i feel so much better now. not that this is news -
but at least some people on the org seem to be educated in music. dear influence - you influenced me. peace, tony

gman1966 said:

Yeah, that was it! I knew it was either "muthafuckin'" or "shit"!!! I'll take Mile's opinion over anyone on this boards, too!!!

Helooo
can someone answer to me who plays drums on the track "I'm yours from the "Prince" Album?

Please! Somebody told me that was Prince, and that drum track is great. Is it Prince?

You said "Why cant Prince play drums well".

And I say "Because Black well does".

Geddit?

I assume Prince played drums on "I'm Yours." I am surprised that no one mentioned Prince's drum work on "Tambourine." In the DMSR book one of his engineers commented on the drum work and said he played so enthusiastically you can here his necklace jingling.
Please correct me if i'm wrong.

gainsbourg said:

Maxinquaye (Tricky) sounds a lot better in the drumming programming section. But then... I think Prince was original and true a great drum programmer. It's just... Tricky is better at it...

slap me

2freaky4church1 said:

Maybe Prince isn't as interested in playing Drums as he is with other instruments. Thats sort of like complaining why someone who paints in watercolor sucks with oil paint.
[This message was edited Wed Jun 11 9:12:58 PDT 2003 by Tom]