Prince's 1999 expanded set... looks like a good collection.. however, if they took everything from these sessions and era it'd prob be more like an 8 cd set
Never really understood why Prince is considered legendary. He's a good but not great guitarists, and an average singer at best. Wrote some good pop songs but not great. Purple Rain is the kind of self indulgent wankery that if it was done by Poison, Bon Jovi or Ratt would be recognised as such.
I'm not a Prince-fan at all, but the man absolutely WAS a great guitarist. You should hear him on While My Guitar Gently Weeps at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction of George Harrison.
thomasquinn 32989 wrote:
I'm not a Prince-fan at all, but the man absolutely WAS a great guitarist. You should hear him on While My Guitar Gently Weeps at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction of George Harrison.
Yep I have heard that one. It's all over social media as an example of his greatness. It's okay. Nothing that any competent pub band guitarist couldn't do. I suppose it does depend how you define 'great' -- he certainly plays it with passion, which is a major plus. But he's not playing anything complicated or particularly difficult.
I think you take a very sour view of him, and would argue that you are *probably* not viewing this neutrally. I don't think "complicated" and "particularly difficult" are critical elements in making a great guitarist - I think the 19th century 'virtuoso' obsession is a little worn - and I think that if we were to be consistent in applying those criteria as the standards for a great instrumentalist, we'd end up with a list of greatest players that no one would be happy with. To illustrate - would you say Pat Metheny is a vastly better guitarist than any and all of the following: Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and B.B. King? I would not - but going by the criteria of playing "complicated" and "particularly difficult" pieces, Metheny is WAAAAY beyond any of them.
I would point out the following arguments for Prince being a great guitarist:
- Versatility: Prince was proficient in playing a wide variety of styles - blues, classic rock, funk, soul, jazz. As in: he couldn't just play a single song in each category, he was *comfortable* playing in any of these (and other) styles, when playing with musicians solidly versed in those styles.
- Originality: As much as I dislike his music, Prince came up with novel things to play and ways to play them. I don't like most of them, but they certainly were not derivative, while even the best Clapton-solo's essentially are.
- Expert opinion: incontrovertably ace guitarists including George Harrison and Eric Clapton as well as 'lesser gods' like Eddie Vedder say that Prince's playing provided inspiration for them and that they vastly respect his playing. Just like I would defer to ace mathematicians to assess another mathematician, I think ace guitarists' views on a guitarist count for a lot.
- Creativity: I like Brian May. But he really only plays one guitar solo, and some variations on it. I like David Gilmore, but pretty much all his solos follow a fixed kind of pattern. Not so with Prince. I generally prefer David Gilmore's playing, but it's not going to surprise me as much as Prince's.
Quite happy to accept you're hearing something in his music that I'm not. I have been thinking about your 'neutral' comment and reluctantly agree you are right. I don't always warm to that funk/soul/pop style of music, so possibly I have an unconscious bias against his music and am more inclined to think of guitar legends as people from outside those genres. But just to be clear, I don't think "complicated" and "difficult" on their own necessarily make for a legendary guitarist. I did say also that passion is also a major factor for me. It might also be said that what you're describing above are the attributes of a good session guitarist, i.e. someone who is competent and comfortable in a variety of styles, but that doesn't necessarily make for a legendary guitarist. I suppose really that term 'legend' is too nebulous to reach any agreement. For example, neither Chuck Berry nor BB King were technically that good, and they had a limited menu of styles, but they are major figures in rock and blues guitar history.
Prince: about 45 released albums (counting THE TIME, ICE CREAM CASTLE, SHEILA E'S DEBUT, NPG, MADHOUSE, THE FAMILY etc etc etc. ..
And that's only the commercially released stuff in his lifetime. The dude was as eclectic as they come and more electric than damn near anybody else onstage.
I'm not going to fight to "convince" anybody of his significance or artistic merit.
If you weren't a fan and hadn't been to catch him on a stage....and the depth of analysis is like the most mediocre of his contemporary critics (*who never really bothered to cover his activity post WB)
then it's just like being a fan from the 90's onward.
I get it. I got it, and the dude was fantastic.
It's still beyond my understanding why the dude is gone (*and someone will say "drug overdose")....(and they wouldn't get it)
But it is what it is.
Back to point. Not sure if or when I'll pick up the album. I haven't picked up the 3 releases so far because aside from the purple rain extras, fans had that piano demo from 81-82 and well, maybe I'm traumatised and haven't picked up "originals" for that reason.
Maybe I'll gift them to myself.
I'm glad they've done what they have done so far, yet i don't know what's holding up a legit piano and microphone release from the final Tour.
The guy recorded damn near everything. He and Zappa
I'll read that at work. My mobile phone is a dinosaur. I find it weird that his family would have approved a "hologram" performance to Tour recently.
I think he'd have been wholly against it unless he'd planned his stage banter before dying.
Prince"s eclectic is far different from Zappa's eclectic.
I think the closest Prince came to Zappa in a song (sequence/variety meter changes within same song, narrative rather than rhythmic) were DIAMONDS AND PEARLS, 3 CHAINS O GOLD, SARAH, THE WEDDING FEAST.
And the closest Zappa came to Prince would've been: CATHOLIC GIRLS. ..
Myself, i find it hard to imagine someone wholly disliking Prince, as his catalogue spanned many decades and had it's appeal to top 40, rock fans, r &b, soul, gospel, dance, funk, blues, chamber music, singer/songwriter etc.
To me it's right up there with folks who detract the Beatles. But then again, I'm of a minority that finds Prince's POST -WB music fascinating and artistically better than (most) of his earlier stuff. Kinda the same for me about Zappa (different reasons though - NOT a fan of most early Zappa
But, hell - it is what it is.
On the subject of special editions (and not wanting to make a new thread) I got the Doors Soft Parade and REM Monster. Really great sets. Not my favourite albums be either but fantastic that they dig out these unreleased things.
The Doors one has tracks with the (much maligned) orchestra removed and the guitarist adding new parts. I'm not anti that kind of thing although I'm technically a purist - perhaps that's what brian was doing in that clip?