Fallible wrote:US informs me that Prince was a big Springsteen fan.

Not surprising. You can hear the DNA of something like "Backstreets" in "Purple Rain."

Shrunk wrote:It's quite striking, the breadth of artists paying tribute. People you wouldn't ordinarily associate with Prince:

Fab.

This is a quite interesting article, showing how focused Prince was even at the beginning of his career at age 19, in terms of knowing what his musical goals were. (It also shows why no one was particularly torn up when Rick James died).

http://pitchfork.com/features/from-the- ... nouncement

Shrunk wrote:

Fallible wrote:US informs me that Prince was a big Springsteen fan.

Not surprising. You can hear the DNA of something like "Backstreets" in "Purple Rain."

yup, i'd agree

they go a long way back, to the 80s...there's a recording somewhere of a conversation the two of them had backstage after a bita concert, iirc, and prince has been seen at many shows, bruce performed with him on the purple rain tour too

during a concert, prince showed his fans the way springsteen fans moved their hands and then showed how he wanted them to do it - but saying he didn;t want them to do it to take the piss out of springsteen...

huge mutual respect - when doves cry kept dancing in the dark off the no.1 spot in the usa and bruce had an affectionate dig in the liner notes of 'greatest hits' about it...'damn the artist formerly known as prince' or something...

edit - if anyone's interested, he's put purple rain up as a free download on brucespringsteen.net

http://live.brucespringsteen.net/live-m ... yn-NY.html

another tribute by a musical favourite....

People tend to overlook his guitar playing and he certainly was a proficient guitarist, but speaking as a guitarist nothing that he did was all that amazing technically. Like every other area of his music he was unmistakably himself, had a great feel and was an amazingly tight player.

What really stands him out as a musician was that he played a whole range of instruments and what came out was pretty much precisely what he heard in his head unhindered by technique. Prince could lay down a whole composition in all its parts, precisely, in one take without having to think about it. He had a Mozart level ability for composition. The equivalent would be an author writing a whole novel without editing it, in consecutive sittings, without ever using the backspace key.

electricwhiteboy wrote:People tend to overlook his guitar playing and he certainly was an proficient guitarist, but speaking as a guitarist nothing that he did was all that amazing technically.

Can you play that little intro to "As The Doves Cry"? I sure can't, not that means much. But neither can Billy Gibbons.

I'll take Prince over Clapton any day.

felltoearth wrote:I'll take Prince over Clapton any day.

I'd give my left hand to be able to play like either, if that wasn't so absolutely pointless.

Not that it means much, but yeah I can play it. Took me about half an hour to get it down. It has the feel of an off the cuff doodle, something he captured elsewhere and stuck it on the front. The most difficult thing is getting the tone. There's a tonne of studio compression and eq going on. I get the feeling it was difficult to recreate. He never really played it live, there's a really muddy early version, and the rest of the time it's omitted or a sample.

I really don't mean to diss his Royal Badness guitar chops. I have huge respect for his timing and feel and musicality.

Computer Blue is nice.

Working on his jazz chops at a soundcheck in Japan:

Coastal wrote:

Shrunk wrote:

THWOTH wrote:The purple prankster tearing it up!


What a natural.

Yeah. If he did nothing but play guitar, he'd still have been one of the great ones. And his prowess on the keys on his last tour was supposed to be amazing, too.

Absolutely. I never even knew about all his musical talents, growing up. I saw him as a pop star. He is so much more than that and I only discovered that a few years ago.

Hate to rain on the parade but Prince wasn't there at the tribute concert for George, it's the magic of special effects putting him on that stage.

Anyway yes, he was an extremely talented musician. My introduction to Prince was in college around '79, I think. I remember being amazed to find out that he wrote all the songs, played all the instruments, and did all the vocals, plus produced and engineered it himself. It sounded like like a full on funk band with a gospel choir, and the little fucker was only twenty, a year younger than me and my bad was lucky to get a gig in a local bar.

Sign O' the Times was a masterpiece of blending influences like George Clinton, James Brown,Sly Stone, the Beatles, and even Buffalo Springfield while putting his personal stamp on it, and it's my favorite.

Oldskeptic wrote:Hate to rain on the parade but Prince wasn't there at the tribute concert for George, it's the magic of special effects putting him on that stage.

Citation, please.

never heard that suggested before...

Fallible wrote::what:

never heard that suggested before...

she probably hasn't...but i certainly haven't....

Shrunk wrote:

Oldskeptic wrote:Hate to rain on the parade but Prince wasn't there at the tribute concert for George, it's the magic of special effects putting him on that stage.

Citation, please.

Here's the whole Concert for George. It's great! Forty minutes of the Ravi Shankar Orchestra with his daughter conducting, six minutes of Monty Python followed by George's music with:

Eric Clapton – electric and acoustic guitars, musical director
Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Joe Brown, Albert Lee, Marc Mann, Andy Fairweather-Low, Dhani Harrison, Paul McCartney – electric and acoustic guitars
Gary Brooker, Jools Holland, Chris Stainton, Sam Brown, Billy Preston, Paul McCartney – keyboards
Dave Bronze, Klaus Voormann – bass
Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Jim Capaldi, Henry Spinetti – drums
Ray Cooper, Emil Richards, Jim Capaldi – percussion
Jim Horn – tenor saxophone
Tom Scott – alto saxophone
Katie Kissoon, Tessa Niles, Sam Brown – backing vocals
Anoushka Shankar – sitar

But no Prince.

Ooops! Just noticed that Harrison's son is wearing different t-shirts and the background is different in the videos. Never mind. Sorry.

nah, easy mistake to make - your vid is from the albert hall concert for george, i think - the prince one is from the rnr hall of fame induction....