RIP Prince...

Facemelter said:
Classical/Romantic/Baroque music is the highest most intelligent most demanding music ever created.... anyone that isn't composing music in that style is BENEATH the players that are.
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John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Chet Atkins, Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Mark Knopfler, etc. would like to have a word with you....
 
Not had time to read the rest of the thread because it is late - and 'shoot from the hip' comments are not my style as I am sure many people here recognise. But here goes...and I hope the musician audience here can appreciate my outpouring of emotion.

Prince was my musical hero. I was lucky enough at 13 to hear 1999 and quickly discover the already released Purple Rain. While these remain his most successful mainstream releases, his previous and later albums represent his stronger work. From 'For You' in '78 up to '88s Lovesexy he remained unimpeachably strong. Beyond, as you move towards Diamonds and Pearls and his somewhat less successful move towards an 'urban' style, he did not reach quite the original heights, but if you look back at that first vibrant period we see 9 single and 2 double albums in the 9 years from '79. Now most would reflect on this as pretty amazing. Until you consider the tracks within - at which point it is even more remarkable. Kiss. Raspberry Beret. Dirty Mind. Controversy. When You Were Mine. I Feel For You. Bambi. Alphabet Street. Sign O The Times, Etc etc. And the individual 'non-single' tracks on each album. And the b-sides (Erotic City, She's Always In My Hair, 17 Days). And all those tracks for other bands (eg Manic Monday by the Bangles, Nothing Compares 2 U by The Family) And his other artists (Sheila E, The Time, Vanity then Appllonia 6, The Family etc).

Oh, we then mention the live performances. A singer, a guitarist, a keyboard player and a dancer of the highest order. And good at drums. And bass. And.... And....

He was committed to very high standards. Of production. Of songwriting. Of live performance. He was odd at times. He was often contrary - splitting up bands who were apparently set for further success (much to the artists within those bands frustration).

I genuinely feel like I have lost a hero and inspiration. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts. You are probably the group most likely to understand my sense of loss. Cheers Giles
 
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Facemelter said:
And Chris, you really should put out some new tutorial demo videos etc... you haven't been very productive lately, after all Cliff did GIVE you that Axe Fx FX8.... the least you could do is make more videos on it to help other people, if not the I think you should just send it to Danny Danzi since he's been making all the great video content lately and Cliff hasn't even given him anything, he deserves that Fractal unit more than you do.... but in all fairness THAT there, that, that's just my OPINION there Chrissy
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funny. and completely wrong. you have no idea what i do daily for the company. videos aren't the only measure of what i do. someone else doing videos has nothing to do with me either.
 
yek said:
Extremely sad..... He was my #1 musical hero. 100% real musician, a real genius as a composer and arranger, adventurous, and such a joy to watch on stage.
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Yek - the Dutch crowd were such big Prince fans especially around live shows. As per my earlier post I feel exactly the same way as you.
 
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Ben Randolph said:
John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Chet Atkins, Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Mark Knopfler, etc. would like to have a word with you....
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And I would say that John Coltrane and Miles Davis were far more advanced on their chosen instruments than Prince was on guitar.

I like some of Prince songs but not because I think he's a great guitarist. He's a good guitar player in the same way Rick Springfield and John Mayer are "good". Which is basically saying they make some good pop/rock music, it's catchy and nice, but they are not virtuosos on guitar, they are on the bottom rung of the ladder of guitar mastery and composing virtuoso level music.

As far as Jazz in general like Coltrane, Miles, Paker etc... I will say this.... Jazz is a step up from Blues in terms of sophistication, however it's also primitive and simplistic when compared to Baroque music.
 
Chris@AxeFxTutorials said:
funny. and completely wrong. you have no idea what i do daily for the company. videos aren't the only measure of what i do. someone else doing videos has nothing to do with me either.
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Chrissy.... it doesn't matter what you do for the company Ms Hawaii 5-0.... all I care about is CONTENT that helps me as a user.
You used to make some good videos and then you stopped.
Now others like Danny are making even better videos than you ever did.
That's all I'm saying man, you trying to preach to me on your mr know it all high horse like you think you are somebody, so I just wanted to let you know that your value to the Fractal community of users dropped significantly when you stopped making videos.
 
Facemelter said:
And I would say that John Coltrane and Miles Davis were far more advanced on their chosen instruments than Prince was on guitar.

I like some of Prince songs but not because I think he's a great guitarist. He's a good guitar player in the same way Rick Springfield and John Mayer are "good". Which is basically saying they make some good pop/rock music, it's catchy and nice, but they are not virtuosos on guitar, they are on the bottom rung of the ladder of guitar mastery and composing virtuoso level music.

As far as Jazz in general like Coltrane, Miles, Paker etc... I will say this.... Jazz is a step up from Blues in terms of sophistication, however it's also primitive and simplistic when compared to Baroque music.
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Face melter

In 4 years on this forum I have never engaged in bad mouthing anyone. I am hopefully above it. I am not about to start, but.....

....please can i request you button it as you are verging on being rude for the sake of it.

Someone who means a lot to a number of forum members has died. Please can you just respect how they are feeling and keep your comments to yourself.
 
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Gilesy said:
Face melter

In 4 years on this forum I have never engaged in bad mouthing anyone. I am hopefully above it. I am not about to start, but.....

....please can i request you button it as you are verging on being rude for sake of it.

Someone who means a lot to a number of forum members has died. Please can you just respect how they are feeling and keep your comments to yourself.
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I said I like Prince.

I'm not rude for the sake of being rude... I just don't sugar coat things, and I tell the truth how it is.

You wanna know what's really disgusting???? all these people crying over Prince dying... are you not aware that THOUSANDS of people all over the world die every day including today... Prince wasn't any more important than anyone else that died today.

As far as shutting my mouth, this is America, and you can give your opinions and have your say, and so can I.
 
Rhodes said:
The thing that always blew my mind was that, when Prince wrote a song, it sounded like a Prince song even when another band played it. When you hear the Bangles play Manic Monday, there is no doubt that it's a Prince song. Not many artists I can think of with that kind of depth.
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True, and I think that's the highest praise for an artist. At the same time, he would write something like Raspberry Beret, just to show he could write a conventional hooky pop song with the best of them.
 
I've not really followed Prince since the 80's and Purple Rain, and the movie. I recall vividly some of his performance of his father's piano scores. Amazing and beautiful music and composing.

RIP to that dude formerly known as "Prince"
 
here's what i said on my FB today. i usually don't post stuff like this, even here, and this is of course not as well-stated as others could say, but my current thoughts:

like many, i am shocked at saddened by the news of Prince's passing. 57, so young. who knows what musical genius was still waiting to be shared.

most people probably miss him as a performer. but we are in the time where many of music's pioneers are at an upper age, or we have lost them already. i am sad that we are losing our COMPOSERS and SONGWRITERS. i feel like performers are plentiful - anyone with a youtube account these days can be a performer, imitating, covering songs, all of that.

what we are missing today are CREATORS. people with original ideas who take a chance on forging new things. today it's the same 4 chords, lyrics about what happened 5 minutes ago. there are no themes (except sex, having sex, and finding sex). there is no melody. there are few actual singers anymore.

and of course i'm talking about pop music. we fortunately have access to so much content otherwise, but pop music is what drives society. songs are mantras, chants. they shape how we approach our day. it's no wonder we have rapists and murderers all over the place with the "chants" that are on the radio these days. sing about "work work work" (which really means sex sex sex btw) all day, and guess what - that's what's on your mind and gosh, for some reason, that's all i want!

pop music used to be uplifting. thought provoking. fantastical and mind-expanding. honestly. it still can be. tech is usually blamed for the low standards of today's pop music industry. but don't blame tech. blame these high level producers and record companies ALLOWING this crap to be broadcast around the world. it's all about the money... for them. the bar is so low these days. kick drum and snare sound, the "right" BPM, and disposable lyrics. done. song. press it. play it. new song tomorrow.

if we rewarded CREATORS and not the wranglers who hold the keys and choose who will be "it" this year, the music industry would thrive again. there would be higher quality music, actual NEW music, and a more positive mood everywhere.
 
Facemelter said:
Yngwie Malmsteen played circles around the dude. You gotta be on dope to think Prince was the best.
Steve Vai has more musical knowledge and virtuoso skill in his pinky than Prince had in his whole body.
Prince has only been dead about 8 hours and I'm already sick of hearing all these people coming out lamenting he was the BEST guitarist... yall must be deaf or never have heard Yngwie Malmsteen play. Yngwie, Rhoads, Vai, Satriani people like THAT, they set the bar for what the BEST is, there's only about a dozen people alive on this planet that are in the same league as those guitar gods.

Don't get me wrong, I "like" Prince...

but the death of Scot Weiland and Lemmy were way more of a bigger deal to me than todays death of Prince.

My OPINION is both Scott & Lemmy were more talented and more of a "artist" than Prince... of course that's opinion.

But the thing that infuriates me, is when people say Prince was a guitar virtuoso... you may like Prince guitar playing better than Yngwie. Vai. and Rhoads.... see that's your preference....

But FACT is Prince was not as technically skilled or as great as a composer on guitar as YJM, Randy Rhoads or Steve Vai.

Regardless of what you think of Vai, RR, and YJM. you have to admit they were true guitar virtuosos that were masters of their instrument to the highest caliber that one can hope to master the guitar and that they possessed supreme knowledge and understanding of the theory and compositional skills over said guitar.

I mean that is not something that's subjective to taste or opinion, it's tangible fact.

Prince was no Mozart.

Classical/Romantic/Baroque music is the highest most intelligent most demanding music ever created.... anyone that isn't composing music in that style is BENEATH the players that are. YJM is the greatest guitarist alive. Vai even though he don't play classical like Yngwie has even more musical knowledge than YJM. Those three, Vai, YJM, and Rhoads... well RR is dead, but yeah anyway, dude, those are the 3 best ever.

Don't disrespect Mozart and every other composer of that 200 year period.

The Baroque period lasted 150 years.... hundreds of famous Baroque composers... some that may have even surpassed Mozart such as Handel....

ALL of them were far more skilled and more of a virtusoso on their instruments than Prince.

This world is truly getting more and more dumbed down if people fail to realize that.

There is NO debating that classical composers such as Mozart would eat people like Prince & John Mayer for breakfast.

I hope Cliff comes out with new FW this weekend because I certainly don't care to read any further BS praise on here on how Prince was the "Mozart" of our time.

Please... GET REAL.
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Wonder who made the most $$$$??? GET REAL!!!!!
 
Prince was master at his craft as much so as any other that has been. Look at the big picture and not a small piece of the puzzle.

My Dad passed away less than three weeks ago and was the person closest to me on this planet, and like Prince the things he chose to focus on (not music related) - he had no equal! Very sad times lately :(
 
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