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Roxie

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On 4/22/2016 at 4:59 PM, Walter said:

 

 

I remember the broadcast of this Syracuse concert. And if you are over 40 you probably remember this, too...that is Wendy's dad (and NARAS president and Wrecking Crew member) Mike Melvoin introducing Prince.

 

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I have seen Prince 3 times. The first time was in the summer of 1984. He was sitting in the sound booth at the Jacksons show at Texas Stadium. I think it was the 2nd night.

Then, on Dec. 30th and Dec. 31st of 1984 I saw Prince perform at Reunion Arena in Dallas.
I remember the cannon that shot water into the audience. I managed to drink some of the water as it came falling down.

Seeing Purple Rain at the Inwood Theater in 1984 was something special. It had a very good sound system for 1984.

Prince's performances on the Music Awards shows for Purple Rain were amazing.

And Prince, imo, has performed the best Super Bowl Halftime show bar none.

I used to listen to the Purple Rain soundtrack on my fancy Sony Walkman Cassette player.

Who do you compare Prince to ???

He's in a category by himself.

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Defying description': ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons on Prince the ‘sensational’ guitarist


Prince’s guitar-slinging skills were no secret. Whether at the Super Bowl, stealing a Rock Hall all-star jam or on his records, he could play it all. But to hear ZZ Top’s legendary frontman Billy Gibbons tell it, Prince wasn’t just a great guitar player. He was downright otherworldly. Gibbons spoke to The Post Friday about the guitar player who could stump even him.


So much has been said about Prince but I do think it’s important to remember that his guitar playing was, I don’t know, just sensational. Tell me how you’d describe it.

Well, to borrow your word, sensational is about as close a description of Prince’s guitar playing as words might allow. I believe that the feeling one was left with, if afforded the luxury of actually seeing Prince perform … we’d be looking for other superlatives. Because it’s almost got to the point of defying description.


You had an interesting encounter with Prince.

It was following the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary celebration [in 2009]. They had a two night grand hurrah at Madison Square Garden and I was invited to perform with Jeff Beck. And following that appearance, I found myself back at the hotel and I wandered off in search of some late-night grub and my favorite 24-hour joint was shut down for unknown reasons. I tiptoed across the street to the Tiger Bar. I was just standing at the front and I was approached by a rather large gentleman and he said, ‘You’re wanted at the corner table.’ And there was Prince sitting all by his lonesome. And I gave him a brief tip of the hat and sat down and said, ‘Hey man, it’s so good to see you.’ He said, ‘It’s so good to see you. Let’s talk about guitar playing.’ I said, ‘Why not?’ And in the next two hours we really dove into the depth of his intent, interest and focus toward technique and tone. I left that evening even more mesmerized than I’d previously been, just knowing the sincerity that Prince kept toward his playing, his performing and his all-around showmanship.


You’re a little bit older, you come from Texas and I’d imagine you first learned about Prince in the early ’80s, when you were both MTV stars.

As you may remember, he began bubbling up without a lot of advance fanfare. There was just this vague knowledge of this new guy on the scene called Prince. And then, of course, we all got our world rocked when “Purple Rain” showed up at the theaters. Even today, I’m struggling to try and emulate that guitar introduction to “When Doves Cry.” It’s just a testament to his extraordinary technique.

Wait. When you say emulate — you mean you try to play it and you can’t?

I continually come back to attempting to piece together each and every one of those segments. And it’s very short. It’s not an extended solo by any means. But the way it is delivered. There’s certainly no way to write it. You’ve just got to dive in and feel it to see if you could come close. This might be a little off the subject, but just this morning, Andy Langer sent me a link to Prince on YouTube performing “Honky Tonk Woman.” I had never seen it. I don’t know if there’s a fixed date that could be attached to it. I would encourage you to check it out. Here, within the four minute time span, you really get a sense of urgency that was behind his dedication to playing.


Technique. You’ve said that a few times.

Three times.


Yes, three. That’s a very particular word. Prince is somebody we always thought of as flash, beautiful, almost touched by something otherworldly. But when I hear the word technique, I think of practice, intellect, study.


 Yes, and we can only surmise that there were a great number of hours in private where he was developing ways to approach the guitar that ultimately led to his prowess over the instrument. I bring this up over the years. My friendship with Prince was made known. There was hardly a day that went by if Prince’s name came up in the conversation, little did they give credit to his guitar playing. It was more about the flash. The showiness. There are a few repeatable examples that were fortunately caught on film or record that will settle the score once and for all. When I sat down with Prince that fateful evening in Manhattan, he was really touched by the fact that I knew quite a bit of his guitar playing … It was so funny because there was a legion of Brazilian carnival dancers that had invaded the club and they had taken over the bar. They were dancing on the bar … this was all going on in the background. Prince was unfettered. He just wanted to talk about playing.


I wonder if because he had so much style, whether he ever felt that his playing was overshadowed.

Oh yeah. In fact, that entered the conversation. He asked me, ‘Does your beard get in the way like some of my costumes?’ And I was stunned momentarily and I thought about it and said, ‘You know, perhaps so.’ But then he grabbed my arm and said, ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m okay with it.’


Last thing. That night, two hours of guitar talk. Is there anything specifically you remember telling him or him telling you about basically how to play?

I don’t know about anything that specific. I was quite flattered that he knew specific song titles that had a specific guitar sound. He said, I’ve really enjoyed some of the work that showed up on that monster hit of yours, “Eliminator,” the sound of “Gimme All Your Lovin’” He went on to cite a number of titles. I said, ‘Okay, I could give you some amplifier settings, I could give you some guitar strings.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you tell me about ‘When Doves Cry’? He just smiled. ‘That one gets me too.’

I didn’t know how to take that. Was he was suggesting he stumbled upon it by accident or he didn’t have words to describe it? I’m just happy to know that he took it as a compliment.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/04/22/defying-description-zz-tops-billy-gibbons-on-prince-the-sensational-guitarist/

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Insanely rare video of the now iconic ballad "Purple Rain" live in 1983 at First Avenue in Minneapolis. This is the first time the song Purple Rain was ever performed live and this performance was the bare bones used on the album and in the movie.

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Good Morning/Bonjour:

As many I have been in shock since hearing of Prince's passing. I have a cassette of, SIGN O' THE TIMES, that I have been playing frequently...BTW the "O" has a peace sign in it.

The SNL tribute was excellent. MUCH formerly MUCH MUSIC had a 24 hr tribute starting Sun am @ 6 ending today. I love the tune/video DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. The tribute included the most popular videos ( U GOT THE LOOK, CREAM, ALPHABET STREET, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL INTHE WORLD to name a few) as well as GOLD...I had never seen that video.

Today there was a news report in CHCH (Hamilton) that Prince's Toronto estate is up for sale..

Juliet

Edited by Juliet
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Ironically came back to see if there was a Prince thread and it was one I had posted 5 years ago!

Just unbelievable.... I saw him a MONTH ago in Toronto. He played 2 shows in one night. He had the energy of a 20 year old. It was just him and a piano and it was beautiful.

His voice, his playing and he even danced a bit. EASILY one of my all time fave shows, as was his one I saw in 2011.

On a positive note, it's been amazing to see all the great tributes to him from Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, David Gilmour and the list goes on. He was respected by every musical genre.

Edited by Roxie
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Brilliant postings The Rover and Ross62. That Billy Gibbons interview was fascinating.

You see, I really don't care if you like Prince or not. The proof in the pudding is in how many other great musicians absolutely revere Prince...starting with Miles Davis, Eric Clapton, SRV, Robert Plant, Billy Gibbons. If Jimi Hendrix had been alive to see Prince, you bet those two would have been simpatico.

Prince could play just about every instrument...and play it well. But unlike Jeff Beck and some other hot shots, he always took care to have a good band around him. One of my favourite Prince bands was the "Sign O' the Times-Lovesexy"-era band.

Unfortunately Prince only toured Europe for the "Sign O' the Times" album. Which was a shame as you could see from the concert film and bootlegs it was a great tour and great band. 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, 2bitnogoodjive said:

Was never a big Prince fan or Springsteen either for that matter but the Purple Rain tribute Bruce did was flat-out phenomenal:

 

 

Fantastic! Thanks for finding this 2bit!

Bruce is another musician who has been a longtime fan of Prince. On the Purple Rain tour Prince did 6 consecutive nights at the Forum in February 1985...just before the Grammys. I saw two of the nights and at one of the shows, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna joined Prince for the encore! 

Now, this was 1985 when each were mega pop-culture stars. The Forum went nuts! It was akin to if Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, and Elton John had appeared on stage together in 1975.

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9 hours ago, Ross62 said:

:goodpost:

 

8 hours ago, Walter said:

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Such a wonderfully funky artist with tons of energy, spunk and creativity, who had the ability to play the guitar with sublime perfection, practically effortlessly, thereby making it look so easy! :D 

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