Its curious that most critics acknowledge that Prince's greatest offerings have been work sloey created on his own, e.g sign of the times. So was does Prince persit with the NPG?

I think Prince's next offering should be something created on his own. I still can not understand the use of Maceo, Larry, etc to assist with his musical creation.

To enhance this point, Prince ended his recent concert in Sydney with Larry, covered a couple of songs, What utter crap,

Bring back the true Prince sound, no extras, no empahsises on other musicians, just Prince.

PBS said:

I know I would love to see a solo show, no other musicians, once or twice, but for the most part I would prefer the full sound.

Usually Prince picks awesome musicians that are worth listening to. Where he falls apart is the extent to which he lets some of these musicians influence him. And with a guy like Larry Graham who he adores, and probably creamed his pants over the first time he met him, its no surprise to me that he is always wanting to feature Graham, and listens to anything he says.

Perhaps in a utopia, we could put gags on his backup musicians, so they just play what he wants them to play... but then that would also be bad. Wendy and Lisa sure did contribute a lot to Prince's sound. So, I guess the conclusion to come out of all this is that we can't group all his backup musicians into one category. Some are good for him, some are bad. That's life, I guess.
[This message was edited Mon Dec 29 23:54:32 PST 2003 by savoirfaire]

PBS said:

They may feature a lot in his live performances, but less so in the studio. In fact, has Maceo ever been featured in one of Prince's studio recordings? Even Larry hasn't featured much on CD.

As far as the quality of the NPG goes, Prince is currently playing with world class musicians, and IMO I consider that a great thing. With Maceo, John B. and Rhonda on stage who's complaining?

sabaisabai said:

Maceo's on 'Prettyman'

PBS said:

If I was in Prince's position, I know I'd want to work with those artists who I looked upto as a kid.

Imagine Prince as a teenager laid on his bed at home listening to GCS albums on the headphones.

Then 25/30 years down the line, you get a chance to perform, record and become friends with these people.

That's a trip - and I can totally understand why Prince wants to have these people around, and give them a few solo slots and presence in live shows.

I'm not saying I like it old Capt. Larry everywhere (he has one of the worst singing voices I ever heard), but I can see where Prince is coming from.

I am not so sure about Larry but I would keep Maceo he is a great performer.But I would like 2 hear a solo album again. I do think Sign o the times was influenced greatly by the revolution.So maybe it wasnt as solo as people think.I just want something new and from the heart.