D'Angelo - Black Messiah (2014)

Josh wants to hear him cover "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson before we hand down a decision.

thought i heard Tony Macapline and Gary Moore play some guitar on the record, p cool

Josh wants to hear him cover "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson before we hand down a decision.

― you say tomato/i say imago (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, December 19, 2014 10:55 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

goldberg variations

Be hilarious if in 14 years, when he releases his next album, he chalks the delay up to immersing himself in the music of Eric Johnson.

Clearly the dude does not need to be a virtuoso, and it doesn't matter if he is or isn't. He is exactly as good a D'Angelo as I or anyone needs. I'm just trying to figure out something that's always nagged me, with D'Angelo and plenty of other acts, too, where people make a big deal of ZOMG, they play everything on the record, or OMG he's a musical genius, but I can't quite put my finger on exactly what would make someone say that. Like, D'Angelo is great, no need for people to get defensive on his part. I'd still like to know what the guy can or can't do, since I find that interesting. It's always been a person fascination how certain acts who clearly can play everything (like Prince, or McCartney, or whomever) nonetheless usually delegate and why.

even Stevie...sure, he could play drums (and everything else) on every tune if we wanted to, but sometimes you just want another person's sound or ideas (or maybe efficiency, but that's probably not the case here, ha).

yeah, i don't know if the polymath thinks another musician is "better" or "worse" but maybe just different - something the polymath could possibly play but wouldn't come up with on their own.

you also can't play live in the studio with yourself, outside of a michael keaton multiplicity type scenario

prince has always seemed like a dude who was equally happy just layering every single part himself in his home studio or bringing in guests when he felt they could add something he couldn't.

xpost

that wasn't in response to imago specifically! although if prince cloned himself it'd be kind of neat. he could put out ten albums a year instead of just two or three.

xxxp unless you string up and control the motions of some michael jordan cutout and mannequin bandmates

actually prince cloning himself would be a good explanation for how prolific he was in the 1980s.

^^^the sooner dangelo stops wanting to be like prince, the better. much as i love this album, and i adore it, i feel like the problems for him have come from the gap between what hes great at, and what he isnt great at (at least, not yet), but really wants to be great at. like, i dont really think he has a feel for pop/rock like prince does, and im cool with dangelo doing a token song or too like that, but i hope he doesnt feel he NEEDS to be some sort of funk rock guitar god. which seems to have been part of the buzz the last five years, how hes coming back and playing like zappa (per questlove).

Still on this eh, I'll check back tomorrow

what "problems" does d'angelo have? ... as a musician i mean, obviously he has or had some personal demons. i think we'd be wise to separate the "buzz" (very little of which actually originated from d'angelo himself) from the record and how it sounds, which is pretty fucking assured/confident IMO.

in my imagination i feel like D learning guitar was a way for him to keep being a dynamic frontman (not sitting behind a keyboard) while having something musical to do, ie without having to dance or ooze sex appeal 100% of the time onstage.

good point. never felt he was really comfortable as a song and dance man, so anything that keeps him more in the musician role is probably for the better. re: problems, yeah, i meant personal demons.

the main problem is really why we NEED him to be a virtuoso. cant he just be good?

― StillAdvance

Are you disturbed? Someone ban this freak from the thread. You're a piece of work. It was YOU who started this stupid ass discussion. Now you're saying this shit? Slimy m.f.

Goggles on I'm going ALL CAPS. IM PISSED. talk of 'technical virtuoso' is just so DAMN STUPID. With RACIST OVERTONES. Since when does it have any factor on whether you can CREATE GREAT MUSIC.

Were any of the BEATLES virtuoso on their instruments? Obviously NOT. DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE? OBVIOUSLY NOT.

Was BLUES MUSIC created using 3 simple chords? YES.

IS QUESTLOVE THE MOST TALENTED DRUMMER IN THE WORLD? IS HE IN THE TOP 500? NOPE. DOES HE UNDERSTAND MUSIC? YES. DOES HE MAKE GREAT MUSIC? YES. IS A VIRTUOSO? NO.

JIMI HAD THE SAME SHIT THROWN AT HIM BY PEOPLE LIKE YOU. WAS JIMI A GUITAR VIRTUOSO? NOPE. IS HE RIGHTLY CONSIDERED ONE OF THE GREATEST GUITAR PLAYERS EVER? YUP.

Can PRINCE play bass like BOOTSY? NO. Can he make BASSLINES funky? OBVIOUSLY YES. DOES IT MATTER? NO.

LIKE SOMEONE SAID UP THREAD, JAMES GADSON FUCKING PLAYED THE SUGAH DADDY BEAT ON HIS THIGH. THOSE ARE HIM SLAPPING HIS THIGH. RECORDED. OH BUT MAYBE HE'S NOT THE BEST THIGH SLAPPER IN THE WORLD, LET'S JUST POINT THAT OUT.

IS HE A VIRTUOSO THIGH PLAYER? NOPE. I'M SURE THERE ARE 100 OR SO VIRTUOSO THIGH SLAPPERS OUT THERE WHO CAN SLAP A THIGH BETTER THAN HE CAN. THEY'VE PROBABLY HAD THAT GIFT SINCE BIRTH. THEY PROBABLY SPENT 30 YEARS SLAPPING THIGHS.

JAMES GADSON ISNT A VIRTUOSO THIGH SLAPPER.

BUT STILLADVANCE IS A VIRTUOSO FOOL.

Holy crap.

That was a virtuoso post, in the Steve Vai sense.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/312601938/twittervai.jpg

He's pulling purple music OUT OF THIN AIR!!!!

just to say, i dont know who would say hendrix wasnt a virtuoso. do people say that?

StillAdvance, it's called rhythm, feeling, soul. Get it.

ty based raccoon

I don't even like Hendrix but lol @ saying he wasn't a virtuoso

Bob Marley. StillAdvance, was Bob Marley a guitar virtuoso? Can we get into that discussion now too? That would be fun. Even better, shall we start to doubt whether Bob Marley even played his own guitar on his songs? And why did he play with so many other musicians? What's with that? Musicians that enjoy playing with other musicians? Who does that?

lol. just to clarify, i dont think i brought up the v word first. not that it matters!

"I don't even like Hendrix but lol @ saying he wasn't a virtuoso

― Οὖτις,"

"I never practice cos it's hard for me. I just jam. It's hard for me to rememeber stuff. That's why I make a lot of mistakes [when i play]"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gwLQAuHJv8

I like how you think words mean different things than everybody else does, it's cuet

^^official follow-up post

lol

"StillAdvance, it's called rhythm, feeling, soul. Get it."

teach me racoon!

Oh, don't get me wrong! D'Angelo is a very talented musician. I'd just never heard any key playing that particularly blew me away, not that there was anything wrong with it. But D'Angelo's not, like, some Stevie Wonder virtuoso, regardless. But he's super tasteful, so it's hard to tell. I did always think the "he can play anything!" thing was a little overblown. Most of "Brown Sugar" is pretty simple (to its credit). D'Angelo is not Prince in that regard, and does not need to be.

But yeah, some of the more technical jazzy guitar licks on this album, no, 10 years of adult time will not get you there.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, December 19, 2014 4:51 AM Bookmark

Based on what I've seen, D is probably a better keyboardist than Prince. Remember a lot of the flash wow keyboard moments on Prince's records were Fink.

Wow, this is getting kinda ridiculous

it's amusing at least.

talk about virtuoso u gotta mention my dude mozart

Based on what I've seen, D is probably a better keyboardist than Prince. Remember a lot of the flash wow keyboard moments on Prince's records were Fink.

not that it matters, but on a couple of my Prince bootleg dvds he does a little medley on solo piano, and it is murderous.

Can we get back to the Is Bob Marley a guitar virtuoso discussion please?

goddamn it jordan beat me to the virtuoso thigh slapper DN

talk about virtuoso u gotta mention my dude mozart

― $80 is absurd and very ridiculous! (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, December 19, 2014 11:56 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah he was like the stevie wonder of his day, produced such great tracks imo

YAHWEH, YEHUSHUA

guys I think we broke the raccoon

oh good we can return to discussion how well Macca can play lead guitar.

haha that RT post was amazing

macca shreds bro

i wish we could send d'angelo in a time machine to see how he'd do in the yardbirds

can d'angelo lute like sting can lute?

how much wood could a virtuoso woodchuck chuck

can D'angelo play the timbales like Tito Puente?

everything d'angelo does is funky like lee dorsey iirc