yeah do you think hendrix has over 40 odd albums under his name? official he only has about 5 surely? and from what i can tell arent bootleg just him jamming. its abit unfair to count that as an album and more than prince who plays all the instruments and finishes the songs. know what i mean?

lol. well actually i aint heard these records! haha. but theyre still records, and if prince played all instruments and developed the melody, i think this is more time consuming or at least prolific, than hendrix or a jazz musician improvising for an hour

I think the point was that Hendrix managed to write and record alot of music in a relatively short amount of time.About 8 albums worth of material in about three years , all while touring constantly.

so when prince did 4 albums or whatever in the early 90s, while doing the videos and his biggest world tour to date, that wasnt much? i see your point, but as i say, consider the complexity of what prince was doing compared to hendrix, and the variety. it doesnt impress me that much what hendix did compared to prince. thats personal opinion though i admit!

bananacologne said:

yeah but has bowie put out more than prince? prince has done around 26 albums at least? i dont think bowie has done that?

people just seem to be listing artists with alot of albums. plus we're talking about how prolific, has bowie put out on average more than one album a year, several of which multi discs?

plus how many albums has dylan done?! cos i have this rock n roll encyclopaedia which names all releases and etc and dylan has less than 30 im sure? plus james brown did not have 90 albums, remember for the first years he released a single every 3 months, (just looking it up now) his first single was 56, and his first album, live at the apollo, 62. between that time he released around 25 singles in 8 years, but really quite a few of these seem to be covers anyway. ive just counted about 45 albums, and after 85/86 there were many compilations i didnt count, and even this 45 contains MANY compliations and live albums.
plus i dont know how long these albums were, it would be more realistic to look at run time of songs, i say this because from late 80s onwards (where james brown released one album of original material of 10 songs so probs no more than 40 mins anyway) albums significantly increased in length due to cds. in this time, prince did d and p (an hour?) symbol (75 mins, you could cut that into 2 60s albums) come is around 60.70mins? gold experience is long too. obvioulsy emancipation is 3 hours. plus prince was bound in the 80s to an album a year really whereas obviously in the 60s james brown seemed to release 2 albums in a month at one point

however, how many albums would prince have if in the early 90s warner had let him release 4 albums a year like he wanted? tonnes more! it only seems like now prince isthinking free, releasing a 7 cd box set, NEWS, xpectation and hopefully a musicology album all in ONE YEAR. incredibly for todays standards.

lets not also forget all the albums prince wrote but released for someone else or under a pseudonym. madhouse has what 2 albums and recorded a 3rd. how many time albums did prince write? at least 2, plus vanity 6 and apollonia 6. sheila e. sheena easton. so on so forth. so i reckon prince surely has coming on 40 albums...in 25 years? dont even pretend bowie has done that!!!

lol, sorry for coming across as defensive i totally didnt mean it, but it seemed like people were naming people who werent necessarily more prolific than prince! besides, 33 albums in what, 36 years? is not more prolific than 26 in 25. plus thats not including wha prince did elsewhere so on. and i do believe prince has a wealth of unreleased music too! thank you very much! lol but sorry again if i seemed aggresive, i just get confused when people say "hey this guy has released 1000 albums!" which i think someone said of johnny cash!

Of artists living today:

Smokey Robinson (he wrote most of the classic Temptation, Supremes, and Jackson Five songs, along with other great hits from Motown), James Brown, Quincy Jones, George Clinton, maybe even Stevie Wonder (I don't know how many songs he wrote for other Motown artists).

Most of these sucked the hairs out a pig's ass!

Only a Prince fam would think VANIYT6, APOLLONIA and Sheena Easton records were noteworthy.

lol. well actually i aint heard these records! haha. but theyre still records, and if prince played all instruments and developed the melody, i think this is more time consuming or at least prolific, than hendrix or a jazz musician improvising for an hour

love2thenines2003 said:

Thats bull. James Brown for example. He has released about 90 albums and 300 singles and there still is much stuff that didnt come out yet. Many session players like the Funk Brothers and Bernhard Purdie have outdone Prince before he was even born.

Many other people who have passed away have recorded MUCH more than Prince.. Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington (10thousands), Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, even John Coltrane who died at age 39, etc etc etc.

Its not about quantity in my opinion. Shuggie Otis has recorded much less than Prince, but his work seems a lot more sophistcated and mature than most Prince stuff. Mandrill have recorded 10 albums and are tighter and even more diverse than Prince...

Stevie Wonder told David Letterman in 1995 that he had over 2,000 songs stored away. He has taken an opposite position from Prince in terms of releasing material. He doesn't feel the need or the pressure to release a prolific amount of material into today's marketplace.

how can you get credit for having "a wealth of unreleased material"?
that's like having money you can't spend.


As you're counting totally worthless projects like VANITY & SHEEN EASTON to make up the sheer volume I guess the hidden crap in his vault can count as well.

Shuggie Otis is not more sophisticated musically than Prince I'm affraid. He is still VERY good though, don't get me wrong. Mandrill on the other hand are nowhere near Prince musically. Its just not right to even mention them in a thread.

And about the Jazz greats...Alot of the great jazz albums were live improvisations. In other words, you could put out an album a night if you wanted. Sometimes you gotta wade through a ton of crap to find really good jazz.

to say nothing of the crap I wade thru in my Prince collection!

lol. well actually i aint heard these records! haha. but theyre still records, and if prince played all instruments and developed the melody, i think this is more time consuming or at least prolific, than hendrix or a jazz musician improvising for an hour

Bowie came to mind, but Prince's side projects are absolutely infinite..I doubt anyone surpasses him!! And besides, Prince is quality as well as quantity (MOST of the time )

thats a fair point really. but if its that hard to find 5 master musicians...how come theres so much of it?

Never heard of Mandrill, but I'm eager to discover them! Could you please tell us more??? Thanks!

softandwet said:

33 and counting + numerous collaborations, guest vocals, production credits, (on renowned CLASSIC albums), and a wealth of unreleased material thanku very much.

I think however that whoever posted ZappA on here made a good call - that guys pisses over everybody - he probably recorded himself taking a bath and logged it.

PS: Very defensive aren't we!