Prince was a smarty pants. He announced himself as a raffish prodigy of soul and funk who could write, produce, and play all the instruments on his seriously groovy and often lascivious tracks. Prince’s 1982 album 1999 (led by the singles 1999, Little Red Corvette, and Delirious) hinted at the breadth of Prince’s musical range and lyrical interests. Reviewing the album for Rolling Stone, Michael Hill praised the “inventive series of shocks and surprises” in Prince’s kinetic songs.
The film Purple Rain, an expanded music video in which Prince plays the role of a guitar hero, broke Prince into the mainstream. For all his guitar heroics on the soundtrack, few critics stopped to think about how Prince rated as a guitarist – his skill on the guitar was but one aspect of the phenomenon that was Prince. If ranking Prince as a guitarist is now an issue, it is partly due to Prince’s explosive guitar playing on two covers that are now viral videos. Music Man readers, check this out.
Isn’t that a great cover of Wild Cherry’s 1976 hit Play That Funky Music? It’s the third encore, the house lights are on, yet Prince segues into Kool & The Gang’s Hollywood Swinging before ending with Lakeside’s Fantastic Voyage (1980). On Prince’s own songs, even Purple Rain with its showy solos, the guitar playing tends to be an integral part of the song. There’s great playing all over Prince records, but somewhat paradoxically, it’s on covers that Prince’s guitar skills cry out to be noticed.
As JP Trotter comments, “When Prince says ‘Can I play my guitar?’ during Play That Funky Music, prepare to be blown away”. Music Man readers are likely familiar with the viral video of Prince’s jaw-dropping appearance with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, and Dhani Harrison at George Harrison’s 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction. Writing in Slate, Jack Hamilton describes Prince’s playing on this track as “murderous” while Jody Rosen of NYT Magazine calls it “pure blood sport.”
In his Slate article, American Media Professor Jack Hamilton argues that Prince might be the greatest post-Hendrix guitarist. As with Hendrix, he says, this is evident in Prince’s stylish, innovative rhythm playing as much as in his periodic guitar heroics. And for all these heroics, Hamilton suggests, Prince had exquisite taste and could wield his “instrument with the care of a paintbrush.” He cites the “snarling fills” and the oh-so gradual “seep” into Prince’s masterpiece, the iconic Sign O’ The Times single, as an example.
I’ve proposed that Prince’s status as a music polymath and iconoclast, as well as his cohesive song structures, detracted from specifically focusing on Prince’s guitar playing. Hamilton gives another reason for this neglect. He proposes that Prince was overlooked as a guitarist due to the guitar’s association with rock music whereas Prince had roots in funk and other non-rock dance forms. Hamilton concludes that the historic underrating of Prince on music magazine lists of guitar greats is “really, really stupid.”
Prince was famously controlling of his legacy. This included policing YouTube videos of his performances. Prince’s estate has been more accommodating. Great Prince performances are now readily available. Music fans can marvel at Prince’s guitar skills on videos such as those featured in this article or, say, Prince’s Super Bowl halftime show. Walter Bernard has no doubts. Commenting on Prince’s playing in our opening video of Play That Funky Music live at The Forum, LA, in 2011, Bernard writes: “Prince should always be mentioned whenever the subject of the greatest guitar players comes up.” Referring to the same video, Justice Forcier says, “No stage lights, no fancy stage gimmicks, just a man and his band absolutely killing it.” RIP, master musician Prince Rogers Nelson.
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