i found this to be a great response to a person who was dogging Prince on the alt.music.yes board


You've asked some questions that I will have no trouble answering, but first
> I want to know: What planet have you been stuck on? Back here on Earth, When
> Doves Cry, Purple Rain (Eric Clapton's favorite song, or so he has said),
> Little Red Corvette, and Nothing Compares 2 U will be remembered 100 years
> on. Your Move? 99.999% of humanity has already forgotton it. Even the
> heavily-biased towards 60s bands "500 Songs That Shaped Rock" list put out
> by the R'nR HoF in 1994 had twice as many Prince songs as Yes songs and as
> many as your Pink Floyd. Care to take a guess at what the ratio will be when
> the list is compiled by *my* generation?
>
> Not every Hall of Famer can have a Kind of Blue or Sgt. Pepper, though at
> least in Prince's case the music and lyrics are all written by himself and
> he usually plays all or most of the instruments (not a group effort like
> Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and George Martin). I'll ask you: Where is
> Lennon, McCartney, or Harrison's version of Sign of the Times or Dirty Mind
> (or Purple Rain for that matter, Rolling Stone's 2nd best album of the
> 1980s)? These guys had decent solo albums (well, one or two each - tops),
> but individually they never touched the highs that Prince alone did in the
> 1980s. Artistically he dominated the pop music scene that decade every bit
> as much as the four lads from Liverpool + George Martin did in the sixties.
> I know it, the critics know it, and now you do too.
>
> He received his lifetime achievement award at age 31 in February, 1990 - a
> month before Sir Paul McCartney received his. He's written works for artists
> as diverse as Miles Davis, Kenny Rogers and Joe Cocker. His songbook has
> been covered by the likes of Herbie Hancock, Joshua Redman, Rod Stewart,
> David Byrne, Sinead O'Connor, The Hollies, Kate Bush, Living Colour, Warren
> Zevon, Michael Hedges, Jonny Lang, and Marshall Crenshaw (and well over 100
> more - check AllMusic.com). And as the 4 star reviews from AllMusic.com and
> Billboard (to choose but two) from this past month show, he's still going
> strong.
>
> You ask where Prince's prog rock contributions are. But Prince doesn't do
> prog rock any more than Yes or Pink Floyd do jazz, country, funk, or R&B. So
> what if he has ignored that tired genre? Where's YOUR favorite band's
> contributions to these other genres? He's done three jazz albums (so far)
> and was nominated for a Grammy this past year for Best NEW AGE recording for
> the last of the three! I'd say he has it all over your favorite rocker(s)
> and obviously the critics agree.
>
> Frankly when you add in the ability to produce world-class albums almost
> entirely without anything but an engineer, the incredible live shows, the
> take-a-back-seat to no one dancing (can your guy jump up off a piano into
> the splits and pop right back up and spin to the mic to the beat inside of
> three seconds?) and inventive videos (all important - like it or not - in
> the age of MTV (Yes, by the way, was one of the early MTV acts - as I'm sure
> you hate to remember) that he performed in), no one in the known universe
> can touch him. He may be a complete fruitcake as a human being, but he's
> peerless in the rock era. No one else "did it all" the way Prince did. Not
> Elvis (what did he write?), not Whacko Jacko (what instrument does he play?
> the Skin Flute?), not Dylan (please!), not the Stones (latest "tour"
> sponsored by Geritol) and not any one of the Beatles. Those in the know,
> know.
>
> Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Steve Winwood were about to fall asleep during
> While My Guitar Gently Weeps until Harrison's son nodded to Prince to bring
> the house down. He gave that house of has-beens a lesson in live performance
> they won't soon forget. Keith Richards looked stunned (to be fair, he
> usually looks stunned) and all Springsteen could do was stand and applaud in
> admiration to the ultimate live performer.
>
> Did you see how Dhani Harrison's face lit up once Prince got started? He
> hadn't smiled at all until then. He sought out Prince afterwords (as caught
> by VH1) to thank him for making the peformance of his father's song so
> memorable (memorable enough to start a huge thread in a "Yes" newsgroup).
> Growing up around the kinds of musicians that he did, Dhani had never seen
> anything like it. It seems you too, Dave W, suffer from this kind of
> neglect. You desperately need a copy of this:
> http://tinyurl.com/289fn
> (Fast forward to his and Lenny Kravitz's take on America Woman. You'll find
> your jaw dragging on the floor for at least two hours.)
>
> Oh, and as far as the HOF being meaningless? That kind of smack always comes
> up when either your favorite group hasn't done anything worthy of induction
> (how many decades have they been eligible now?) or when a younger
> generation's heroes start getting inducted (though I must admit I do not
> look forward to the 2023 induction of Justin Timberlake). It means you're
> either jealous or over the hill or completely out of touch (or perhaps in
> your case all three). Head over to the binaries newsgroups and download
> something recorded after 1980 - especially if it was written, produced,
> composed or performed by Prince. Be prepared - you'll soon be selling all
> that vinyl and those 8-tracks on eBay - competing with other timeless
> classics like the 45rpm of My Ding-A-Ling by Chuck Berry, the CD version of
> Thrillington, a like new copy of 9012 Live (is there any other kind?), and
> the 12" disco remix of Miss You by the Rolling Stones.
>
> Sorry to Yes fans (other than the dubious Dave W.) but I can never knowingly
> let the ignorant spew like that without setting them straight.
>
> I eagerly await your transformation, Dave.

that's a pretty awesome comeback