Personally I haven't seen Prince as many times as I would have liked, nor have I seen a lot of the artists mentioned on this page, but of the many concerts I have been to, most of them have well and truly floated my boat - each in their own way.

Queen were awesome, Guns'N'Roses in their hayday, Pink Floyd to name but a few, are all up there as the best ever, along with Prince. Even All About Eve at the Royal Albert Hall were awesome.

But the live act I'm really excited about at the moment are The Darkness. I saw them support Robbie Williams at Knebworth, and they were awesome. They know what it means to put on a show, rather than just reproduce a CD on stage!

I hope they do one or more of the UK festivals this year.

getwild007 said:

- John Coltrane wit his Quartet
- Miles Davis
- The Ohio Players 1968 - 1975
- Mandrill
- Sun Ra
- Duke Ellington

the list could continue...

TonyC said:

That`s rubbish. You can always claim who is your favorite. But there can be an objective choice of who ranks among the best. But that`s simply much more than one person.

frankly, it´s questions like these that sometimes
make me embarrased to be a Prince fan

After listening to the Led Zeppelin live album, I have my doubts. Prince is good, but there is a lot of competition out there.

[i] Sorry, I have to say no, for the simple reason I have not seen other great artists perform. "Ever" is a long time. I would think that cats like Satchmo, Coltrane and Jimi, among countless others across the centuries, could change one's opinion on that.

I will say this: of any artist in his generation, Prince has no equal.

Ubiquity said:

Nice call. I have said on the non-Prince forum a few times that The JCQ was the greatest rock band of all time.

namepeace said:

They were. I am still upset at the mighty Father that he didn`t put me on earth at a time when I could have experienced to see Trane live. It must have been like a spiritual awakening to hear that man blow his horn.

garganta said:

Well yes, if I was you, I'd be embarrased!

NWF said:

Well, then....you must put that in the top ten list of must-dos. The man never disappoints - I know - I've seen him live five times!

rena

no 1 has mentioned Elton john, i really do think he is an amazing live performer, he sounds soo much beter live than he does in a studio

1)prince
2)elvis
3)elton john
4)U2
5)Bruce Springsteen

yeah I would ay you are right, I saw MJ at Wembly Stadium in the arly 90s and it was so boring, just him standing and posing for ages so yes a very dull perfomance and my uncle saw the beatles live and said their jokes were better than their performance, again I think this can be seen in just about any of their filmed performances. as for Prince, yes the best I have seen, although Wendy and Lisa in 1990 were real good

His shows used to be fantastic, but those days are long gone. Korn is one of the best live bands out there. I would put them over the Prince of the past bunch of years.

raspberryberetgurl05 said:

I'm a Prince fanatic but that does not stop me from being objective. Putting him in the top ten where everyone else would only be marginally better/worse than him is no insult.

We can only speak from personal experiences, few is any here ever saw the likes of Hendrix so how can anyone truly answer. But he broke the mould in performance but does that make him the best? Robbie Williams can fill a 120,000 stadium, could Prince now? But could Robbie in 20 years time? No.

Prince's legacy is and will be his greatest achievement all I can say I am so proud I have seen him on all the occaisions that come my way because when he has gone in the years to come only then would the industry what an amazing master of his craft he was. He is 1 in 6 billion.

GoldiesParade said:

You are correct in that if you haven't experienced a performer oneself your judgment is limited. However you can get a feel just from video and written anectdote just how much a person can affect an audience. I do not believe Prince's charisma matches some of the others, charisma is a mystical thing, Presley probably had more than anyone ever. The stories of how people would just flock to him based on nothing but his incredible presence set the precedence for everyone else. I believe no one has come close in terms of presence. Even black crowds would go crazy over him in memphis when no one knew who he was, black crowds were known to be reserved but Elvis would have the black girls as crazy as the white girls, not any old white boy can do that you know.

I certainly know that you have to include Prince in the top 5 of all time at the very least. The fact that he has consistently amazed us onstage throughout his entire career. If you saw the Purple Rain tour, you still remember it and it is one of the best concerts you ever saw. Has their ever been an extravaganza like the Lovesexy tour? Who else is dancing, singing, and playing that much on one stage in one show? No one. That is why he is Prince.

EvilWhiteMale said:

Korn suck...sorry, but you're out of the Prince loop, dude...I saw Prince in October last year and it was the best concert I've EVER seen and one of the top 3 moments of my life ever. Go see him live right now, he's on the top of his game.

Korn suck...sorry, but you're out of the Prince loop, dude...I saw Prince in October last year and it was the best concert I've EVER seen and one of the top 3 moments of my life ever. Go see him live right now, he's on the top of his game.[/quote]

You make a good point, the athleticism might be tamed but his presence, humor and most importantly his mastery of his craft, vocally and intrumentally is at an all time high in my opinion. I've never, ever heard him sing like he did on the ONA DVD. After seeing it, I place him vocally in the class of the greats, whereas before, he was just very competent, now he is truly a great great singer.

Huh? Korn actually sucks live, Jon Davis can barely even hit his notes properly when singing live.

As for who the best live performer/musician ever is, I'd have to say Franz Liszt.

He'd break pianos, make women of a high class faint, and he invented the piano recital.

He was the classical equivalent of what'd become a rock star.

Really though, the greatest live act is whoever you enjoy most. It's that simple.

Someone like Prince or James Brown will always undoubtedly be one of the greatest live acts you can experience, but it's impossible to say who is definitively the best.

mrdespues said:

PurpleKnight said:

You must have seen them on a bad night or something. I last saw them at the Electric Factory in Philly, and they blew that place right the fuck up. The energy was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

he's the best I've ever seen - and I've seen legends, including Elvis and the Bee Gees.

alandail said:

Screw the Bee Gees, but you actually saw Elvis? When and where, what was it like, was it a vital Elvis or the stupified version?

mozfonky said:

I saw Elvis multiple times - my father was a big Elvis fan, so took me every time he was in town (in southeast virginia), which was probably 3 or 4 times. There's probably some way to look it up to find out exactly how many times we went.

It's partly a myth about the stupified version - Elvis took a quick downhill spiral his last year. There's no doubt Elvis put on a show.

As for the Bee Gees - they are great live performers. I didn't realize it at the time, but I saw their very last concert as a group - the Live By Request show in New York.

alandail said:

Cool, you are a lucky man, I was a kid and I didn't know who Elvis was until after he died. Wish my dad woulda taken me to his concert, he was a fan I later learned. I've read so many accounts of Elvis' bad moments that it's hard to believe it's a myth. I do think much of it is exaggerrated however. People talk about how fat he was etc.. but he wasn't that damn fat, no fatter than alot of men in their forties. He did alot of stupid crap on the drugs but he couldn't have been on them every time he stepped on stage because he played more shows than just about any human ever. At any rate, he has had more cultural influence than anyone else on our list.

mozfonky said:

Exaggerated is probably a better description. He bloated up and fell apart the last few months of his life, and people get the impression he was fat for the last several years - he really was in great shape not too long before that. Partly due to idiot doctors, partly because of his manager, and partly because of his wife leaving him. What's tragic about Elvis is what his manager did to his career and his life.

Exaggerated is probably a better description. He bloated up and fell apart the last few months of his life, and people get the impression he was fat for the last several years - he really was in great shape not too long before that. Partly due to idiot doctors, partly because of his manager, and partly because of his wife leaving him. What's tragic about Elvis is what his manager did to his career and his life.[/quote]

Certainly, he had no one around him with his best interests. I'm no fan of the colonels. He must have been screwed up a lot of the time. From what I've read and some of the clips i've seen and heard he definitely had problems. The Alohos special was in 73(?) and he looked stoned to me, in pre concert interviews and on stage. Also, heard he actually collapsed on stage at one point. Not that these demonizes him, I love him a lot more than I love Prince. Prince has also stolen a lot of his moves from Elvis going back a long time. Nobody ever notices this but me.
Visually, I think Prince's stature limits his presence a little bit, it's not that he's short it's also that he is not long or appears big at all. Elvis looked like a giant on stage. Prince looks like a midget. I think this is due to his body proportions.