Do U Think Prince Would've Said No Or Yes?

My guess is,he would have said No.But if he had said yes,that would have been an amazing collaboration: Prince and Michael in their prime!


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[Edited 8/7/09 3:47am]

I think he would have said "hey MJ.....beat it!" LoL !

I think the closest example of what a Prince And Michael Jackson Collaboration would have sounded like is 'whatever happens' from the invincible album.

that was back when prince wasn't really known as a guitarist so much as that purple freak, and Eddie Van Halen was supposed to be like the greatest guitarist to have walked the planet. It was the age of "it has lots of notes, it must be good" and EVH can deliver on that where prince probably couldn't.

for what it's worth I think eddie tried a little too hard on that solo

If Mike would have told him he was influenced by one of his songs to write it, he may have done it (ala Stevie Nicks).

Prince would have most likely declined and give him the same "the song would still be a hit" speech like he did when asked to duet for "Bad". Don't think it would have been as funky and raw as Van Halen tho.

i don't think P would decline, i think Prince would
add some noisy guitar solo simular to the guitar solos from
1999 cd like automatic
or all the critics love you
and it would be great but Eddie really nailed it.

ViintageJunkiie said:

Disagree totally. Think of the time line. Thriller was recorded from April to November in 1982. Prince was a rising star and starting to really hit his stride. He certainly had made a name for himself. But for MJ or Prince, they hadn't hit that peak we all know, yet. Back then, it might have been a bigger collaboration hype. Prince was still rivals with Rick James, and MJ has his own rivals in music. Music was changing drastically in 1981-1983. The 80's new wave etc was hitting hard, as was a whole new genre of pop music.

I think it was the perfect time for either of them to work together. There was no pressure that "My Thriller was bigger than your Purple Rain" kinda thing going on. They were still pushing for THAT peak, but wasn't there yet. They were still raw, yet polished. New, yet old school. Once Thriller and Purple Rain hit over the next two years, any real chance of a duet was over. If Prince had shown up for We Are The World, and sang a duet on the bridge, fans would have been happy with that, and called it a day.

However, their great missed opportunity wasn't for "Bad" in 1987, it was on "Just Good Friends" from the same album. It was a Stevie Wonder duet, and Prince could have been perfect on that funk pop song from MJ. THAT is what rubs me wrong. It would have been a perfect song for the two of them. No "butt is mine" references, just two guys fighting over a girl. (Just like "The Girl Is Mine".)

I don't think MJ would have asked Prince to do the guitar solo to beat it for the same reason that I think it would have been a bad idea. One of the reasons the Thriller album was so huge was that it appealed to people across music genre lines. Van Halen was huge in the early 80's and it brought MJ's music to an audience that might have been inclined to ignore a soul/r&b album. That Van Halen did the solo gave the album credibility that another soul/r&b artust would not have.

But Prince would have torn that solo to pieces!

ernestsewell said:

I'm no Prince expert, so I don't know much of his musical history, however I do have a lot of his early albums. Having a song with both Michael and Prince on it wouldnt work for the simple fact that both guys want to be the leader. Even if Prince DID do a solo on Beat It, there was a chance that MJ and/or Quincy might not have liked it and if they would have asked Prince to tone it down, I can see him [Prince] giving a "fuck you! take it or leave it" attitude towards the project.

Prince jokingly said he declined the duet on Bad because he didn't want to sing "your butt is mine". He asked MJ to change the lyrics and MJ said no. Although that's not the reason he declined, that reference alone proves my point about both guys wanting to be the leader. MJ isn't changing his lyrics for nobody and Prince ain't doing nothing if it ain't his [Prince] way. At the end of the day, we can speculate all we want, but we'll never know.

ViintageJunkiie said:

That's a bullshiz reason. Every singer wants to be the leader. You think Paul McCartney wasn't fully in charge of Wings or his own music, or even had a heavy hand in the Beatles? Why didn't he and MJ clash then? Two songs together, and MJ covered a Wings song before that.

You think Stevie Wonder isn't a leader? Stevie even tells audiences to shut up because he's talking! Yet he did a duet w/ MJ. So that "leader" mentality doesn't quite cut the argument for me.


There's a chance they might not have liked Eddie's solo either. Eddie only did one or two takes, and even changed what Q and MJ wanted. If you notice, there's a bit of nothing going on after MJ is done singing and before Eddie's guitar fires up into the solo. Eddie said the solo would be too long and said it should be shorter (as we know it now). Did Q and MJ bend to a leader like Eddie, or did they all realize music is alive and can be changed for the better, and also that they're professionals and to give a "fuck you" attitude would not have been professional, or good press either. In 1982, Prince didn't have quite the clout he had just 2 years later, where he could stand up MJ and Q for a recording session, and STILL get a song on the album (We Are The World).



See above.

ernestsewell said:

I never said anyone WASNT a leader. Both Paul and Stevie understood that collaborating on Off The Wall/Thriller/Bad wasn't about them, it was about Michael. All I'm saying is Prince [In My Opinion] would have tried to make "Beat It" all about him.

It would have been more melodic for starters.

I enjoy playing the "what if" game re: Prince/MJ but in all honestly, I kinda dig that Prince never worked with him. I have not liked too many of MJ's collaborations, I've noticed. Hated both sets of songs he did with Paul and Stevie, for example (Say, Say Say, The Girl Is Mine, Just Good Friends, Get It. For the life of me, I could not understand how it was that these legends couldn't come up with more imaginative material).

As someone else already said, Prince really didn't seem to emerge as "the rocker" until "Purple Rain." Prior to that, it seemed the media thought him as more funk/R&B. If Prince were to have worked with MJ, I think doing a guitar solo would have been the way to do it, though.
[Edited 8/8/09 4:06am]

"Bad" really needs a guitar solo, instead of that corny organ solo.

I think Prince would have been more receptive to that than doing it as a duet.

errant said:

I agree. The video was supposed to be all bad ass, yet there's an organ solo in it? Whimpy whimpy whimpy. It'd be like putting a synth solo in "Dirty Diana".

Do you guys even know who played that great organ solo
legendary Jimmy Smith

kalelvisj said:

Instead of credibility I would have said accessibility.

Jimmy Smith played the solo on "Bad"? Never knew that.


I agree with what bettybop said. P didn't emerge as the "rocker" until "Purple Rain". And back then the top 2 rock/metal guitar players were EVH and Randy Rhoads. I think Randy was already gone by the time "Thriller" started.


Eddie was the guitar king by that time. He was in all the guitar mags and a lot of guitarists were trying to play like him. And VH were really starting to blow up by that time. So Micheal and Quincy knew what they were doing. That was a smart move. They probably thought "We have this rockin' guitar jam, why not have the world's most famous rock guitarist play on it"?

And everyone knows the song crossed over and became huge. Even the metalheads I went to school with (that dissed MJ) said the song was great...(and these were the same cats that called P names until "Purple Rain" came out).


I think it would have been great down the road if P played a solo on one of MJ's rock-style tracks.

yes Legendary Jimmy Smith played hammond b3 solo on the song Bad.
And that solo is great and tasty
so Errants and ERnestsewells comments just make me laugh but ignorance is a bliss

i mean can you say something more stupid in this thread then :
(ernestsewell said:)
"I agree. The video was supposed to be all bad ass, yet there's an organ solo in it? Whimpy whimpy whimpy. It'd be like putting a synth solo in "Dirty Diana"."



Errant and Ernestewells learn a thing or too about Jimmy Smith before you talk nonsence: http://en.wikipedia.org/w...(musician)

thebanishedone said:

I know who Jimmy Smith is. There still should have been a guitar solo on "Bad", not an organ.

By the way, it's "more stupid in this thread thAn", not thEn, if you wanna start correcting people and shit.
[Edited 8/9/09 9:01am]

ernastaswell are you a grammer teacher?
english is my second language so sometimes
i fuck up some words when i write faST
and you often tend to correct me in my posts.
do you even know any other language beside english since you are such an expert in english?

thebanishedone said:

Well then you just learned something today, didn't you? See, the day wasn't a total loss.

maybe you should learn a thing or two about music

ernestsewell said:

You're such a dick!

violet me or ernest?

thebanishedone said:

Not you, you're cool.

Mr. Ernest is an ass a dick and a twat
[Edited 8/9/09 14:34pm]

violetblues said:

You are such a flirt.

i dig some of ernestwell post
he sometime really say good and nice things but he likes to put people down.
point is -never judge any work done by Jimmy Smith ,everything he played is perfect.

thanks violet