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Prince as a guitar player

BamaSC

BamaSC

All-American
Oct 17, 1999
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Chapin, SC
For the last 20 years or so I have always admired Prince's guitar playing (when he chooses to play). Tonight's Super Bowl half-time show reminded me again of how good he can be (loved his little bit on "All Along the Watchtower"). In a way, I feel he kind of wasted his career by trying to be cute and not playing more guitar. Not to compare him too much to Hendrix, but I think he could have possibly been the Hendrix of our time. It's kind of hard to tell since I haven't really heard a lot of his playing, but when I do, I'm always impressed.
 
As a guitar player myself, I believe Prince to be a decent picker. I've always said that if Hendrix would have lived on with his life, that Buddy Guy would have giving him a run for his money. Guy has always been an underrated player in my opinion.
 
I like Guy, as well. He's one of the old school blues guys that knows how to get that something extra out of a plugged-in guitar. I've never read that from Prince about Guy, but I have honestly always thought Guy was the closest in concept to what Hendrix was trying to do blues-wise. Clapton has not even been in the hemisphere for me. . .

Re Prince, I think it's a mistake to judge him on his guitar playing (other than just to soak it in and have fun with it). You just have to take him for what he's done on the whole. Most of which is insanely awesome IMO. Except for being a wormy little dude who wears women's clothing and gets naked, publicly, too much ;).

Chicks love Prince, in the end. Apparently he knows what he's doing.

:D

PS If you want to pick an instrument to think about from Prince, it's gotta be the drums. Prince's groves and such take a lot from Rick James and Parliament, but his drum sound was uniquely awesome. 1999, Little Red Corvette, When Doves Cry. . . really good stuff percusively in retrospect.
 
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I don't think that Prince every cared to be the next Hendrix. On his first albums he played all of his instruments and I think to him that was enough. You remember his eccentric 80's where he never gave an interview as was consumed with protecting his privacy. I think he wanted to create his own sound the "Minneapolis sound".
 
I've always loved Prince. I think he's one of the greatest all around performers of my generation.

He restored my faith in Super Bowl halftime shows last night. Simple, good music. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I could've done without the dew rag, but he eventually got rid of it, so it was all good.
 
I loved the halftime show last night!! Although, I must admit I could have done w/o all the guitar shreks and shrills (but that's just me). Otherwise, it was great.

De
 
Jack Bourbon said:
I like Guy, as well. He's one of the old school blues guys that knows how to get that something extra out of a plugged-in guitar. I've never read that from Prince about Guy, but I have honestly always thought Guy was the closest in concept to what Hendrix was trying to do blues-wise. Clapton has not even been in the hemisphere for me. . .

Re Prince, I think it's a mistake to judge him on his guitar playing (other than just to soak it in and have fun with it). You just have to take him for what he's done on the whole. Most of which is insanely awesome IMO. Except for being a wormy little dude who wears women's clothing and gets naked, publicly, too much ;).

Chicks love Prince, in the end. Apparently he knows what he's doing.

:D

PS If you want to pick an instrument to think about from Prince, it's gotta be the drums. Prince's groves and such take a lot from Rick James and Parliament, but his drum sound was uniquely awesome. 1999, Little Red Corvette, When Doves Cry. . . really good stuff percusively in retrospect.
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Agreed 100%.

Reminds me of a joke Chris Rock once said:

"Remember when you were a kid, and you had those discussions about who was better, Michael Jackson or Prince... well... Prince won."

Easily the best half-time show since the move to the big half-time shows in the early 90's (Done after "In Living Color" stole a huge chunk of the audience for the half-time show during the Bills/Redskins game. The next year they had Michael Jackson perform.).
 
Ldlane said:
I don't think that Prince every cared to be the next Hendrix. On his first albums he played all of his instruments and I think to him that was enough. You remember his eccentric 80's where he never gave an interview as was consumed with protecting his privacy. I think he wanted to create his own sound the "Minneapolis sound".
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I think you're right that he didn't want to be a Hendrix knock-off (can't blame him for that), and his music is quite different. I just kinda wish he featured the guitar more than he does. I tend to like his more guitar-oriented songs more than the other.

As for Buddy Guy, I probably haven't listened to him a whole lot, just in passing really. From what I've heard from him, he seemed just about totally blues-oriented (which I really dig), while Hendrix seemed to mix heavy doses of jazz and psychadelic in more so than Guy. Maybe I just need to listen to more Guy though.
 
Eric Clapton phoned Pete Townsend of "The Who" one day and asked him to go to a club with him. Pete knew Eric but they had never hung out together so he went a little out of courtesy and a little out of curiosity. Eric took him to a club where Jimmi Hendrix was playing and after a song Eric told Pete, meet the man that is going to put us out of business.

Jimmi was managed by Chas Chandler at first in fact it was Chas that suggested Jimmy change his name to jimmi. Chas stayed his manager till he told Jimmi he could do no more for him and handed him over to someone else (can't remember who). Chas was no stranger to the music business himself. Chas played Bass guitar for Eric Burdon and the Animals. He became an agent when the band broke up.

What did all of this have to do with Prince? Absolutely nothing. But Prince was head and shoulders above raising the Rolling Stones from the dead. Best halftime show in years.
 
Bayoutider, have you ever played a Fender TC90, if so how did you like it? I am a late in life wannabe picker, well, I always wanted to but didn't start until I was 58 and I don' t call myself a picker yet, but I am getting there.
 
Brtraker said:
I would like to know who underrated Buddy Guy? It certainly wasn't someone that loves the blues.:cool2:
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You got that right. Believe me though, there's a few folks that I run into here in downtown Mobile when talking and discussing the blues, the only pickers they relate with the blues is Clapton or B.B. Every so often you'll get one that knows John Lee, or Elmore, but for some reason or other, they always seem to overlook Mr. Guy. Just my personal experiences though. Albert King, Albert Collins, and Howlin' Wolf are just a few I get crazy looks at as well. Crazy Mobilans, got to love them...;)
 
There are a lot of "underrated" guitar players out there for sure. What separates Hendrix and Prince as artists is there showmanship and marketing. Prince not only was a great musician, but he knew how to market himself. I personally think that Robin Trower gets the shaft and is a really great picker!
 
Ldlane said:
I personally think that Robin Trower gets the shaft and is a really great picker!
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Now there you go. I love some RT. Note: I also love some of the old-school blues types mentioned previously...Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, etc. Back in the day, mrs. exiled & I saw Johnny Shines in TTown...awesome stuff. His playing days were pretty much over due to a stroke, but man oh man...he could still sing! A friend gave me some JS stuff back when he still played, and he was great. A not-widely-known master of blues. Of a more modern variety, I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan in New Orleans shortly before he was killed...an all-time concert for me.

As to the halftime show...I have a minority opinion. I did not really care for Prince's set, though he had some nice guitar moments. I particularly did not like his "All Along the Watchtower" rendition. Until his version, I had touted that as one of the very rare songs that's awesome by anyone that covers it. But the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince broke that string for me. I had to go play Dave Matthews', Dave Mason's, Jimi's, & Bob's versions for therapy! ;)

Ah well...different strokes, as they say.

exiled
 
I've always liked Prince, but never felt like he was at all a Hendrix wannabee. I always felt like Jon Butcher was trying to fill that image. I've always felt that Prince was a cross between James Brown and Little Richard and he happens to be an accomplished musician. I had the pleasure of seeing Prince on tour with Rick James (Montgomery) for Prince's first album. Great show!

As far as the Super Bowl I feel like he was trying to reach out to a new audience by playing those songs. I honestly don't think that he needed to cover Dylan, the Foo Fighters or CCR.
 
Ldlane said:
I've always liked Prince, but never felt like he was at all a Hendrix wannabee. I always felt like Jon Butcher was trying to fill that image. I've always felt that Prince was a cross between James Brown and Little Richard and he happens to be an accomplished musician. I had the pleasure of seeing Prince on tour with Rick James (Montgomery) for Prince's first album. Great show!
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I agree. I think he's Little Richard + Rick James + british crap (the good british crap, maybe Bowie british crap). So, + David Bowie

But yeah Prince was one of those guys from the 80's who got a lot of hype but in the end was probably pretty underappreciated.
 
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I think Prince is a really, really good player, but I don't think he's in the realm of EC, Guy, SRV, Jimmi, etc. Compare Prince covering Jimmi to SRV covering Jimmi, for instance.

Kudos to the electricians at the Super Bowl for a good wiring job. With it raining like it was, every time Prince grabbed the floor mike I cringed.
 
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