Prince RIP

I would tend to agree, although I couldn't give any other examples at this point. I will say that I am reminded of his question for Billy Gibbons "Does your beard get in the way like some of my costumes?" and would argue that, at last some of time, his guitar showboating was part of his costume.

But, yeah to me he is like the Beatles. There is so much personality in his recordings that you wpuldnt want to "improve" them, like those haterz who think the Beatles would have been better with a different drummer.

don't have a lot of time to reflect on it now, but while watching this video (smooth jazz 'Summertime') the other day, i was thinking that there was no way i would have made it to the end if it was anyone else. not that i'm judging him on a soundcheck that he didn't expect anyone to see, but there's this sense that he's never displaying the full extent of his abilities, so even his fake jazz moments are interesting for the clues they provide.

he was best as a solo-ist within pop song limits IMO. prince was a great musician, it goes without saying, but with some exceptions, his jamming could often be a bit dull. i mean, thats just jamming in general, but some musicians can make it more interesting. he recorded some wonderful solos of course, and i enjoy hearing stuff like the undertaker, but while his solos on purple rain, lets go crazy, the cross (live), etc are some of my favourites, i think he was a songwriter first, musician/improv-soloist, second. its the reason a lot of his aftershow stuff is a bit dull at times. its great, cos you can say, hey, hes not just a pop artist, he can really play too, but prince as guitar god is prob best placed in constraints. often i think he gets a pass cos its prince. like, hey, look what ELSE he can do. never mind that there are other pianists, or guitarists every bit as good.

i think 'good' also needs some unpacking. prince is/was a technical virtuoso, but i think where he had a distinct sound/tone/style at one point (his tone playing the cross in 88 for instance, or purple rain in 84, etc), towards the end, it just blurred into some sort of post-hendrix general virtuoso-dom. i might have to go back to the 90s stuff, to see how that compares, but it seemed he was sort of trying to reinvent his sound as a guitarplayer, but it ended up evolving into the extra-virtuoso stuff he was doing in the last decade.

Teh fake jazz I can take or leave, but yeah, exactly Jordan.

Great posts, StillAdvance.

yes good posts!

Holy crap

I never heard love thy will be done until this moment

Holy crap

that's a cool thing about "love thy will be done" is that your life changes immediately

So good

that moment when Martika gets doubletracked and sings ahead of the beat while Prince harmonizes...

prince as guitar god is prob best placed in constraints

Definitely, and true of guitar gods in general.

"place in constraints" sounds pretty kinky, prince probably would have been ok w/ it.

if it was 3 chains of gold, sure.

man I totally forgot about this, can't remember if I ever actually sat through the whole thing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Chains_o'_Gold

The film was the 69th best-selling video of 1994.

I can almost see the man himself buying up copies to ensure that chart placement.

re: 15 minute "computer blue" which many of you may know cuz of the Perfect unreleased thing Oumc (or however its sposed to be styled) mentioned above but is on the WFMU show I linked above…always thought it was weird that the PR version went straight from the 1st and only chorus to the breakdown then the "bad salad" piano middle eight… incredibly exciting to hear it the way he evidently wanted, with another verse & chorus long solo, plus another spooky female voiceover, but WB said "nuh-uh…"

also 1.) please let internet word drones opt for another nickname other than "the Purple one" 2.) I don't have the heart or stomach to watch videos of Richard Hell singing "purple rain," which joins "Life on mars" as the unimaginative musician's choice of tribute in 2016, at the Ivan Julian benefit last night…

Have you seen the Bobby Gillespie "Purple Rain" tribute version yet?

"place in constraints" sounds pretty kinky, prince probably would have been ok w/ it.

― wizzz! (amateurist),

"Joy in Repetition"

Have you seen the Bobby Gillespie "Purple Rain" tribute version yet?

omg plz tell me this really happened

hey guys, smashmouth did a cover of "purple rain" in tribute to prince and jason mraz came up on stage to sing harmony. it's amazing! just google it.

women are not butterlflies
we are computers too

In the future, everyone will cover "Purple Rain" for 15 minutes.
-Bob Vonnegut

Only 1/4 of the earth's population heard "Purple Rain," but every one of them did a karaoke version of it.
-Butch "Two Trucks" Firbanks

there's this sense that he's never displaying the full extent of his abilities
totally. this is what i always thought of as effortless cool, like he was born to be a dancer/singer/guitar player/drummer/everything he tried.

over the weekend i saw purple rain with two people my own age who had never seen it
so fun! the crowd was lame but i enjoyed seeing the movie again + hearing what they thought of it

when people do 'purple rain' as karaoke, what do they do during the long guitar solo?
― wizzz! (amateurist)

in the past, i've just looked for the approving nods

Run don't walk to the oral history of Prince in the 90s which rolling stone put up today. It's awesome.

Bland: He was really into the Pretenders at some point. He talked about how much he liked Chrissie Hynde and the songwriting. He played me some of the first Sly Stone records I ever heard. That was an education I couldn't have received anywhere else. We held meetings, and we would watch random videos people would send. Michael Jackson loved sending Prince old footage of Sly. Prince would just stop everything and bring everybody to his office. One time we watched the Jackson 5 Goin' Back to Indiana special.

He talked about how much he liked Chrissie Hynde and the songwriting. He played me some of the first Sly Stone records I ever heard. That was an education I couldn't have received anywhere else.

yes no one else had ever heard of obscure artists Chrissie Hynde or Sly Stone before, their records were definitely hard to find and not rhapsodized about by anybody

dude it's not a stretch that before the internet people would not have heard music

it's the "couldn't have received anywhere else" bit I was referring to

Allow him to mourn. Besides, I would assume it would mean something to hear Prince pontificate about the Pretenders.

Yeah, we listened to Sly Stone, but did we have Prince sitting next to us to explain the nuances to us?

Does "Starfish and Coffee" have a line about " Cynthia Rose" and if so, is it a Family Stone reference?

Run don't walk to the oral history of Prince in the 90s which rolling stone put up today. It's awesome.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/prince-in-the-nineties-an-oral-history-20160505?page=6

As I read that I kept thinking, man, someone should talk to Prince about how he's spending money, or, at this rate he won't have enough to retire on, and all sorts of stuff, even as I kept reminding myself that he's not around anymore ...

Okay, that was indeed awesome, thanks.

It didn't make sense to have all those studios and that soundstage. It was never profitable. He'd meet a girl and take her back to Paisley and record a double album with her overnight.

omg

Surely this is a (perhaps slight) exaggeration for rhetorical effect, although not altogether out of the question.

it's the "couldn't have received anywhere else" bit I was referring to

― Οὖτις, Thursday, May 5, 2016 6:14 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't think he meant, "nobody but prince could have possibly given me sly stone records" but rather "the sum total of the musical education i got from prince --of which exposing me to sly stone records is but one facet -- was one of a kind"

which, you know, is probably true.

xpost

"record a double album" means "two orgasms," right?

but WB said "nuh-uh…"

the official story iirc was that prince cut it up himself to fit "take me with u" on the record which I kinda find more believable

past two weeks has been lacking in the kind of testimony found in the RS piece. I am a musician and have worked for near sociopaths in publishing, so it's useful to read the RS piece and to remember that the pleasure, invention and galactic inspiration of his work come courtesy of someone who at least in the early '90s and many other times had to be an incredibly difficult person to work with and for. The NPG didn't have the benefit of being the Rev.: they had to be the ones who were never in the trenches and had to do everything he asked on command, no questions asked…

Ya think?

"It didn't make sense to have all those studios and that soundstage. It was never profitable. He'd meet a girl and take her back to Paisley and record a double album with her overnight."

this explains the mayte, carmen electra, and ingrid chavz albums.

that RS 90s piece is good, but too general. it doesnt really tell you in much depth about the different phases and developments in that decade, or explore them with much specificity. its more just a general overview of working with prince at the time. surprised if bland hadnt heard sly pre-prince, very surprised, but its not impossible.

Re: point three posts up. The Revolution and the Before-The-Revolution surely had to put up with plenty of control freak behavior, especially as far as being forced to dress the part at all times, Gayle tells a story of a young lady coming into her hotel room and throwing some clothes at her and saying "Prince says wear this or your fired" (although maybe this is just showbiz). But on the other hand there is a still a sense that they were still all "Just Kids" together and that they were in some sense really the Band of Brothers and Sisters that he needed to portray them as. Musically there are stories of him asking them for recommendations of what records they listened to. On the personal front, there was no army of flunkies separating them, and when he went to LA he would still sleep on Wendy and Lisa's sofa. As the time marched on, it seems they developed a nickname for the every more rarely seen human side of the guy. I believe they referred to that side as "Steve."