I disagree, Prince was never known for his guitar chops as he was and got respect for his rhythm playing not his lead playing. I strongly disagree. When he played this solo, while he was alive he got props, and he rarely played lead guitar solos as such, I remember him getting props for his SNL performance and his performance on Jimmy Fallon show.
Nope not at all. Prince was always known for his rhythm guitar playing.
Again Prince was not known for his lead guitar play, he was known more for his rhythm playing. Prince was not known for his lead playing, he was mostly known for his rhythm playing as he developed his lead playing later. Some of his bands he was not even the best guitar player, and he even stated that and it can be heard. When you think of Prince's playing his lead style is not what jumps out, it is his rhythm playing. He got better as a lead player as he stripped his bands down, and actually played the instrument more. I am not sure what you mean about Purple Rain though. Prince was never a rock guitarist, and not even close to one on his best day. He basically played a cleaner faster Hendrix on his best days, case in point the RRHOF solo. Not to diminish his playing, he struggled carrying an album exclusively with the guitar and it was his weakness thus trying to work with his last "guitar girl" band. To clarify what I said him barley playing lead in venues as such (RRHOF) with other notable guitar legends. As I stated when he did play he got the props he deserved, such as his performance on SNL the song FURY, he got props and his performance of Bambi on Fallon, he got props, but to sit here and act like he got his Pink Floyd on is comical.
Yeah, you can't read. Prince was known for his rhythm guitar playing. Prince is not a rock guitarist, just as much as John Mayer is not a jazz guitarist, just as much as Carlos Santana is not a folk guitarist. Not sure where I ever said below average, not sure where I said he couldn't play lead guitar? I clearly stated Prince got props for his rhythm playing first, and later got props on his lead playing as he got better because he focused on the instrument more. This is what Prince was known for early and got props for, but to say he is a rock guitarists and should be getting rock god props tells me you truly have not listened to Prince play guitar. It's ok, Prince is a music god in his own sense, but a rock guitarists god he is not. Sorry. Now I will say he does not get enough props for his acoustic guitar playing, but then again how is one supposed to judge that if they don't hear it often? I dunno to many rock gods who where not the best lead player in their band at any point, just saying. However, one thing was always clear in any of his bands he was the best rhythm guitar player.
A Number of Prince's hits were known because of the rhythm guitar riffs that were their centerpieces, no doubt. I think of "Kiss", "Controversy", "I Wanna Be Your Lover".
However, Prince was showing off his lead guitar chops going as far back as his second album on his hit, "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad". Interestingly, when they lip and instrument synched that song on American Bandstand, Dez Dickerson was pretending to play Prince's guitar solo. Some years later his most well known song, "Purple Rain" was as much known for the extended guitar solo at the end as it was for the arpeggiated notes in the intro. As well, "Let's Go Crazy" is known for that killer guitar solo at the very end. "When Doves Cry" was known for the lead guitar introductory riff. These three songs were huge crossover hits that came out at the apex of his popularity. So, it would be incorrect to say that he wasn't known for his lead playing.
As soul, passion, chops, creativity and blues sensibility goes, Prince was the closest to Hendrix of any other well-known guitar player who admired Hendrix and claimed him as a primary influence. Robin Trower and Stevie Ray Vaughn were great lead players, but when Prince performed the extended solo from Purple Rain on the live concert videotape from the Purple Rain tour - he was Hendrix reincarnated.
Guitarists have always known about Prince's beastly-ness on the instrument. There are only two logical reasons why in his lifetime he wasn't known in the mainstream as a guitar god in the realm of Clapton, Van Halen, Page and a handful of others. The first reason involves the fact that most guitar gods were primarily known as guitar players. Even Hendrix and Clapton were only passable as singers. Their main talent was playing guitar. Prince, on the other hand was excellent as a guitar player, a singer, a dancer, a piano player, a drummer and a personality- with amazing stage presence to boot. Then behind the scenes he was equally excellent as a writer, producer, arranger and bandleader.
I'd argue that it was neither his rhythm playing nor his lead playing that were the main things Prince was known for. It his singing and dancing to his own songs. It just so happened that amidst that dizzying collection of gifts was one of the greatest guitarists - both lead and rhythm - to ever pick up the instrument.
White supremacy/racism is the second reason Prince wasn't held up higher as a guitar idol during his lifetime. It was the same thing that declared Elvis to be the King of rock and roll. It was the same thing that DIDN'T declare Little Richard, Jackie Wilson or Chuck Berry as King. Most major music magazine writers and just about all mainstream and rock radio DJ's were white men. White supremacy cannot ever acknowledge the true greatness of Black artistry. To do so would be expose the sham of their perceived white superiority. This is why he was left off of Rolling Stone's top guitarist list - and even when he was added in 2015, he was only number 33. Jack Hamilton wrote this in Slate:
"...But in years since, Prince’s position in the rock pantheon has remained unstable. On Rolling Stone’s list, he ranked 33rd, five spots beneath Johnny Ramone, a guitarist widely beloved for not being very good. Any list like this is stupid, but this is really, really stupid. Prince may have been the greatest guitarist of the post-Hendrix era and often seemed to carry Hendrix’s aura more intrepidly than anyone, most notably in his incredible versatility..."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...he_greatest_guitarist_since_jimi_hendrix.html
