It's all good.......fake it!
Yes, whenever you hint at comparing guitarists, who's the best, who copied who, who is who's "daddy", who is just image and no real talent....?...you're bound to get a lot of opinions. I have my own, and opinions are like, well, you know, we all have them. Being a scrappy keyboardist, myself, I've always had respect for great guitarists, old and new. I'm not a big Prince fan. I don't even own any CD's from him, or TAFKAP, or whatever symbol he goes by now, and I will probably never get the urge to catch up with all of his back-catalog.......BUT, a number of years back, I was lucky enough to still be awake during an painfully bad episode of SNL, and I caught Prince and his band doing a song called "Black Sweat"....? I thought the stage was going to catch fire! He sizzled, the band sizzled....very tight....total pros. He added tasty stinging leads during brief breaks in the vocals, performed a razor sharp solo in that "flashy as hell" style of his, and then completed the song with another solo that about brought the roof down. He left his last wailing note sustain as he set down his gutiar and strutted off the stage like it was nuthin......jeeez. All flash and image aside, and I wince at a lot of that kinda stuff, too, it was one of the best performances I've ever seen on that show, I had to give it to him, no denying it. He's got chops, he doesn't always show it, but like Zappa, he can drop your jaw when he wants to. That "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" video is proof of that. Yes the great E.C. did the original with the Beatles, and it's a classic, for sure. I think Prince was tasteful in his version, putting his mark on it without ripping it up. I doubt that he had a "I'll do it better than E.C." approach. He was sharing the stage with some pretty stout talent, and George's son, he knew to "dial it back" a notch or 2, and it worked out quite well....that's my take on it, your opinion may differ. Does he deserve to be up there with the greats? Gawd, that is a tough call......He IS good when he wants to be, much better than average IMHO, but one of the greats? I think he deserves a mention, esp. since many other inspired players are often overlooked on most "Who's The Best?" lists. When ever I see Edward Van Halen in the Top 10 of somebodys list, and no mention at all of Eric Johnson, for example, I can never take it too seriously, anyway. Sure, it's all opinions, and I LOVE Eddie, but put him on stage with a real player, and well, he shows his limitations very quickly, and he rarely puts himself in that position....he's smart. I didn't mean to step on any toes, and I'm sure there are real guitarists here who will disagree with me, but I was really trying to be objective here....really! :thmbsp:
