I say Jesse hands down>>>>>i think prince is scared of him too.....What do you think?

Maybe during the 1999 days. but Prince has progressed into maybe one of the best all time, while Jesse has REgressed to drugs and violence. So lift yo hands back up, its Prince easily bro.
"It aint me, its da tea"

Prince is a great guitarist. Not taking anything away from him.

But Jesse Johnson has always been a better guitarist, in rhythm and leads. His solo albums confirm this, the best of which is above, "Bare My Naked Soul." On that album in particular, Jesse proves just how exceptional he is. It's a guitar album, more so than his earlier solo releases.

If you can find it, buy it.

jesse was better guitar player before but im sure that now days he can't touch prince on guitar.prince is much more serios on his guitar playing that he was ever before

i seen a video of jesse peforming bare my naked soul songs
.he was great but he relied too much on pentatonic blues guitar.
prince plays many diffrent scales,when he plays pentatonic
he doesnt play it clean he always gets some modes like dorian,frigian,i even heard him using be bop scale.

thebanishedone said:

I can appreciate differing scales (and I think you're underestimating Jesse's technical skill). I just think, in terms of sheer playing ability, Jesse is heaps better.

many people on org doesnt realy know how good guitar player is prince ,

because they restrict their listening of prince's work only to recorded albums.

prince always hold back on albums,
i don't know why he does that but thats a fact.
but if you listen to his live recordings especialy those that were recorded after year 2000
you could see how good prince realy is.


i am sure that people who claim that prince isn't one of the best are those who never heard prince -bambi live from 2002 celebration
or
prince -live in los angeles one nite alone tour 2002or many of his later concerts.

prince isn't better in tehniq then yngwie malmstein,but prince realy is a guitaR virtuoso in his own right.
prince always adds something intersting to his playing,that what i love the most ,his brain is non stop working,he is almost never mehanical.
he sure isnt the best ever guitar player(because the best doesnt exist)_but he sure is one of the greatest ever.

We're all dealing in opinions here. And, as you say, there is no "best" guitarist. Honestly, there isn't even a "better" guitar player between Jesse and Prince. We're all speaking subjectively.

That said, I always find it interesting when folks start pulling out outtakes and bootlegs as references for proof about how superlative Prince is.

"Well, all you have to do is listen to Prince's 1975 tape from his gig in front of Manny's Hardware in Chanhassen, and that'll solve the debate."

Oh, that's all? That's easy enough. I'll run down to Sam Goody and pick it up.

But some of us who think Prince isn't necessarily better than Jesse, Jimi or whomever actually HAVE some live performances on tape or whatever. Yes, we've heard "Just My Imagination" from Small Club or the First Avenue rehearsals or the "Something in the Water" solo (OK, I haven't heard those last two), but we still come away with the opinion that there are other folks whose guitar playing takes our breath away with more consistent frequency than Prince's.

So, yes, there are trade-offs. My subjective list:

Jesse:

Speed, tone, dexterity, volume, "geographic" style, blues-legend references in his playing.

Prince:

Subtlety, ghost notes, use of effects and the "sneak" factor (his ability to recover from bad/missed/wrong notes and bend it into something that fits), and unpredictability.

.
[This message was edited Sun Apr 18 19:40:20 2004 by ThreadBare]

PRINCE
[This message was edited Sun Apr 18 19:44:48 2004 by Emancipation88]

why do people always trip on just my imagination?it have a very nice emotional solo but prince did much much better solos
after that one.
he is playing guitar 10 times better now than he was in 1988.

thebanishedone said:

Honestly, I was just referring to it, as it's a constant example here on the Org.

What, to you, is better about his playing now? I find his playing back then to be better (especially that Small Club era).

I think JJ would beat him in a Rhythm guitar contest hands down and JJ can tangle with Prince to a certain extent on guitar solos, but I believe that P has a much broader range than Jesse.

what is better in prince's guitar playing now then before?

first signs of prince improvement as a guitar player ,
i noticed was in the year 2000
he started to play cleaner notes,
much faster then before.
he started using much more exotic scales and variations -before that period he relayed
too much on pentatonic.
his guitar solo started to be much more fluid and organic than before.
he finaly found his style,
when i listen to his later date solos i can think only of him ,not hendrix not santana.
i think he listens to more modern guitar players these days.
also maybe addition to john blackwell as a drummer helped prince's guitar player,because john's runs on drums need good guitar playing.
i find prince guitar playing 1996-1999 period totaly wack and unispired,with awful use of bad syntetic soundind distortions.

Well if this isn't the biggest no-brainer on the org today.

Prince, hands down.

Jesse is too formulaic, relying a lot on blues licks which Prince discards by making his own little phrases. Prince is MUCH more inventive, technical and soulful.

see we're on opposite ends of the spectrum here: I think his scales & tone have fallen off. I hear much more hendrix in recent years, too.

tell me where do u hear hendrix in the new songs like the guitar solos on a milion days,cinnamon girl,if eye was the man in your life.
all these 3 songs have great viurtuoso guitar solos that doiesnt sound like anyone else beside prince.

thebanishedone said:

When I get Musicology on Tuesday, I'll let you know.

But, in more recent solos, there's the Santana-esque solo in "When I Lay My Hands on You," the "Little Wing" solo in "Cybersingle," the Hendrix style to the "TGRES" remix and the NUMEROUS Santana & Jimi references to Prince's playing throughout TRC. (I mean, he really ought to send Carlos a check).

Prince any day of the week and 2wice on sunday.

back in the eighties I probably would have said Jesse, but seein the RRHOF, P is as good if not better than ayone, Jesse and P both look cooler doin it than ayone, no question there.

this proves that there are certain music fans who know their stuff, thanx guys this was musicology for me

this proves that there are certain music fans who know their stuff, thanx guys this was musicology for me

Really? Which version of it? (I believe there's 3?)

thebanishedone said:

Jesse Johnson playes by the "virtuoso guitarist rulebook", P's playing is very idiosyncratic. And yes, these days P is technically more adept than Jesse's ever been.

ThreadBare said:

In the Rolling Stone issue from 1986 or 87 w/Raspberry Beret on the cover and full interview (I still got it somewhere), he stated that Santana was a bigger influence on him than Hendrix. And the one song that TOTALLY convinced me of that was Anna Stesia. It's unfortunate, but people see tiny black men playing rock and...oh well, here come the comparisons. Prince had to actually name Santana in a song for people to go, "Oh! Santana..."

I know Prince (like all great guitar players) pick up stuff from wherever they find it that turns them on. I thank God that I saw Prince playing acoustic Robert Johnson-blues...he ain't done that before.

Actually Carlos Santana came out and played on When I Layed ... at one of P's b-day parties at Paisley. I was communicating w/the folks who have my college loan and my rep said she was thinking of me because of the Celebration.

But Jimi is very blues...I heard blues filtered thru Jimi in The Question of U. And I've heard Little Wing by P...and boy...wish Stevie was here still cuz that would be some shat!

thechronic2 said:

Prince was scared of him...he was scared of everybody, hence the reason he played all the instruments on "everybody's" albums (The Time and Vanity 6 and Appolonia 6). Think that's been documented elsewhwere (see, I been a fanatic from way back). That's the reason Jimmy Jam & Terry left. Too controlling...but they knew.

And it turns out, that was the best thing they could do for HIS legacy. And that was one of the most "moving" things for me in Purple Rain, when they highlighted his selfishness and him not wanting to do anybody's music. I mean, just hearing that the new album and movie was going to feature Prince & the Revolution...whoa!

But I think that the problem with Jesse and Prince is the Napolean/Ceasar complex...plus Jesse's embrace of fuschia (which I loved and adopted) didn't help. Or the Shaq & Kobe complex...except they play the same. Prince has given up instruments, if ya notice. But he ain't givin' up 'dat guitar.

Hey, that thread re: it's the 80s again...didn't I have this conversation in the 80s when I bought Free World!?

ThreadBare said:

Um, not a bad thing, because he ran from it because he was being pigeon-holed. Look, yall, how much music has Prince put out or had bootlegged? And like I said, he was compared to Jimi. (Now, don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to hear Prince on "Who's That Lady" by the Isley Brothers, yeah, that's Jimi, but I see why he wanted to get away...and the notes ARE different.)

Jesse played the Get It Up solo perfectly and went beyond...this was when Prince didn't share (according to some unauthorized biographies). Wasn't Jesse trained scholarly, meaning he could read notes?)

I hear Hendrix cuz I hear more blues. I thought I'd never hear Robert Johnson-washboard-blues...and yet I did....never thought I'd hear Prince doin' Al Green either...but I did.

We are so lucky and blessed to be able to look forward.

And Hendrix has been copied 2 the 9s, as has Clapton, Page, Waters, King, ... it's all pretty much a melange now. And be glad for that

Who the heck is Jesse Johnson? Not known in Europe, not good!

ThreadBare said:

I've got it, and I love it, but as cool as JESSE is, he's a 1 trick pony, PRINCE has way more range, but I support em both, just wish JESSE would release something! It's been 8 years since "BARE"!!!

"R"...

TheBoostress said:

Check the record - Jam and Lewis were fired. They did not leave.

Jesse played the Get It Up solo perfectly and went beyond...this was when Prince didn't share (according to some unauthorized biographies). Wasn't Jesse trained scholarly, meaning he could read notes-DO YOUR HOMEWORK BRUTHA,JESSE JOHNSON WASNT PLAYING ON "GET IT UP" IT WAS PRINCE.
prince played almost every instrument on first time album(except keyboard solo by dr fink on get it up)

jesse played on 777-9311 on second time album,all other instruments and guitars are by prince.

he let time playing more on ice cream castles and pandemonium.