"for decades you had to make a case in the public consciousness for his guitar chops"
he just made the song the most important thing above all else at that point. so even though he had a great ego, he never got indulgent. not until much later anyway. its prob why he seemed to make a point in the recent hit n run shows to just let rip at every given opportunity, in case anyone didnt realise.
― StillAdvance, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:25 (eight years ago) link
actually, now i remember why in the 80s, thats why his shows were so lauded. cos on record youd get a great pop production, but live, it was a totally different animal.
― StillAdvance, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:26 (eight years ago) link
friend said there's a rumor that the SOTT movie is going to get a limited theatrical re-release, really hope that's true my VHS copy is long dead
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:27 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BuCppIjBKg
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:29 (eight years ago) link
Shit, my bad. This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjG6eIsfowo
the lovesexy piano medley is all time classic. not just for the playing - strange relationship esp, but for his facial expressions. greatest piano *performer* since little richard.
― StillAdvance, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:32 (eight years ago) link
On musical ability, I think it would be safe to say that Prince's ideas were never limited by his ability to express them.
― Popture, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:37 (eight years ago) link
D'Angelo wrecked me, full tears at my desk.
universal hug to D for nailing it, goddamn
― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:38 (eight years ago) link
Oh man I will see the shit outta theatrical SOTT rerelease. I saw it on its first release (har mar mall y'all) and it still gives me the memory illusion of having seen Prince
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:40 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPwm6YHmlFU This is how I remember him live. Endlessly playful. Check the Sweet Thing cover.
― Popture, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:47 (eight years ago) link
I think his skills on everything but drums were ace. Drums, he was good but nothing special (apparently Morris Day is/was a killer drummer).
I disagree man, I like his drumming a lot and he definitely has a style. Especially when he's playing over drum machines, but you can hear the same style on 'Dirty Mind' too. Simple grooves, but with these left-hand, offbeat-heavy fills on the hi-hat and snare that have a lot of personality. 'Lady Cab Driver' is a great example of this, there's a breakdown that's almost a drum solo over the Linn beat.
Questlove had some story about sitting in with Prince, and he said that the way to make Prince happy as a drummer is to sound like him.
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:51 (eight years ago) link
yeah I totally rate his synth and programming skills, especially on 1999. Anyone found good live synth clips?
Love this bit from Matt Fink re: "The Beautiful Ones" --
When I first heard "The Beautiful Ones" my first thought was, "How the hell am I going to pull that off?" Because back then Prince was running those Oberheim synthesizers in the studio. He was timing all these crazy portamento slides that are happening throughout that song, especially towards the end. On the old Oberheim keyboards there were eight voices to them. You could only play eight notes at once. And then you could have the portamento set-up and play one note and it would slide and then you could time the next one and it would do a slide as you are holding another note down. You could have different notes playing different portamento rates. So when you hear "The Beautiful Ones" you are listening to all these notes sliding up to each other at different timings.In order to accomplish this Prince had to turn the volume down; touch those notes; and get them into place. And then within those chords you had to time them to do the slides individually. Remember, this wasn't sequenced. This was all done live, and I used to pull that off every night on stage. But it was a very tricky, technical process. "The Beautiful Ones" is my favorite song on Purple Rain because it's orchestrated in such a unique way. Prince created this other world using synthesizers, guitars, pianos, lots of digital delay, and reverb. And the vocals are just ridiculous.
In order to accomplish this Prince had to turn the volume down; touch those notes; and get them into place. And then within those chords you had to time them to do the slides individually. Remember, this wasn't sequenced. This was all done live, and I used to pull that off every night on stage. But it was a very tricky, technical process. "The Beautiful Ones" is my favorite song on Purple Rain because it's orchestrated in such a unique way. Prince created this other world using synthesizers, guitars, pianos, lots of digital delay, and reverb. And the vocals are just ridiculous.
― a 47-year-old chainsaw artist from South Carolina (Phil D.), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 16:56 (eight years ago) link
love that. Which oberheim would that be?
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:00 (eight years ago) link
but you can hear the same style on 'Dirty Mind' too. Simple grooves, but with these left-hand, offbeat-heavy fills on the hi-hat and snare that have a lot of personality.
OTM. His drumming on Dirty Mind is so utterly killer; more amazingly, as Al pointed out, he was so brilliant as a Linn programmer that you didn't miss his acoustic drumming.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:01 (eight years ago) link
xp given the time, I'd have to guess the OB-8?
― a 47-year-old chainsaw artist from South Carolina (Phil D.), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:04 (eight years ago) link
I also remember a quote from him, maybe in an old Modern Drummer, where he talks about programming drums and then layering enough live drums and percussion on top until it sounded like a human groove.
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:06 (eight years ago) link
did prince play drums on the recording of "another lonely christmas"? those drums are incredible
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:10 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, it's like, in the Syracuse '85 video the drummer (arg, can't remember his name) is often playing around the programming, filling in here and there, maybe adding a hi-hat where no programmed hi-hat exists...and it all sounds completely of a piece. It does not sound like two separate entities.
xp
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:11 (eight years ago) link
anyway i finally found a compilation of all his 12" extended mixes from 1980-1990 basically and imo this is the richest music
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:12 (eight years ago) link
Yup the 12" are just a treasure world made for all day shuffling
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:17 (eight years ago) link
Re Prince as guitarist, I'd love a full album of stuff like "Alexa De Paris"
― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:18 (eight years ago) link
Prince's guitar: I'm not sure how virtuosic his guitar playing was in terms of solo technique, I'm sure it was excellent, but what made Prince an amazing guitar player was his ability to coax that pure emotion out of the instrument, and knowing exactly what notes to play, etc.
Prince as a bass player: his strength to me wasn't those amazing melodic fluid basslines that James Jamerson laid down on the regular, but some incredible bass riffs like on Lady Cab Driver and Sign O' The Times. His bass playing and interplay with Sheila E's drums is one of the best things about Lovesexy for me.
As a piano player: I'm a keyboard player and from what I've seen and heard he's a very expressive player with very good technique. He probably did a good amount of his writing on the keys. When he lets loose like on "Strange Relationship" from the Lovesexy tour piano medley he can rock the shit out of the instrument. He's also obviously very capable of playing pretty too, like he did on his version of Joni's "A Case of You"
― thom yorke state of mind (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:19 (eight years ago) link
xps I own a dozen of the 12" singles, and I could use a dozen more tbh
― the 'major tom guy' (sleeve), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:20 (eight years ago) link
wheeeerre is this 12" extended mixes comp ... i had something a while ago, can't seem to find it now.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:21 (eight years ago) link
^
― how's life, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:21 (eight years ago) link
yeah I would listen to that
I have several 12"s (Let's Go Crazy/Erotic City, I Wish You Heaven, Scandalous suite, etc.) but I know I'm missing a bunch
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:24 (eight years ago) link
That D'angelo performance was making me cry and then I realized he looked like a silly creampuff and couldn't stop laughing.
― kurt schwitterz, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:25 (eight years ago) link
lemme know if y'all got my emails
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:25 (eight years ago) link
I know you can get all the 12"s from a few hq sources on P1rat3 B4y.
― a 47-year-old chainsaw artist from South Carolina (Phil D.), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:26 (eight years ago) link
my webmail thang is on an ages-old email account ... could you send one to tywilc @ gmail.com, brad? THANK YOU.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:27 (eight years ago) link
i wouldn't mind one myself.forksclovetofu at gmail if ya don't mind
― ulysses, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:29 (eight years ago) link
I would also like to check that out - burningambulance at gmail. Thanks.
― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:31 (eight years ago) link
ditto
tarfumes at gmail
thx!
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:31 (eight years ago) link
whoah thx v much Brad!!!
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:31 (eight years ago) link
Brad I have the so called "Quintessential Extended 12" Mix Compilation" (good sounding needle drops) can u email me too if you got something better
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:32 (eight years ago) link
Thanks Brad!
― how's life, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:32 (eight years ago) link
that's the one jon
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:33 (eight years ago) link
i had a bunch of scattered vinyl rips before that so imo the "quintessential" comp is saving my life
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:34 (eight years ago) link
you've got mine, Brad
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:34 (eight years ago) link
mr. me too
donaldparsley at gmail
thanks!
― mandatory sex webinar (contenderizer), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:34 (eight years ago) link
Thanks so much, Brad!
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:39 (eight years ago) link
man...d'angelo ;_;
― rockpalast '82 (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 17:52 (eight years ago) link
hey brad ilu
sharon dot penny at gmail
― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 18:02 (eight years ago) link
sleeve at kittymail dot com please ;)
so I can figure out what I still need to look for on vinyl
― the 'major tom guy' (sleeve), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 18:02 (eight years ago) link
yo brad, hook a brad up?
brad dot cahoon at gmail
― Brad C., Wednesday, 27 April 2016 18:10 (eight years ago) link
lol ok y'all
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 18:13 (eight years ago) link
um, i hate to be the dork who says "what about me" but i think you may have missed me on that email hookup given the others calling hosannas.for those working at home it's forksclovetofu at gmail, gnarly spelling likely the culpritand thanks!
― ulysses, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 18:14 (eight years ago) link
That did it!
― ulysses, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 18:19 (eight years ago) link
<3
― the 'major tom guy' (sleeve), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 18:21 (eight years ago) link
thank yooooo
― mandatory sex webinar (contenderizer), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 18:28 (eight years ago) link