Guitar Gear

Back in 1980, a girl living on my dorm floor introduced me to Prince. Admittedly, I was a bit taken aback by his androgyny, but his music spoke to me. And as a musician, I respected that the dude could play practically any instrument, but I was most attracted to his guitar work. To this day, I just can’t get over just how damn good he plays.

What prompted me to write this was the movie “Purple Rain,” which happened to play the other night. Weird movie, but who cares. Prince, even back then, could just rip it up on the guitar.

So it got me curious… I thought he was awesome back then, but what about 35 years later? He ROCKS! Don’t believe me? Check out this video: http://www.wat.tv/video/prince-3rd-eye-girl-plectrum-5vnv3_2hztv_.html.

What amazes me is that Prince is rarely mentioned in the guitar press or forums, yet without a doubt not only can he hold his own with established rockers, but he can absolutely steal the show. Check this out (skip to about 3:25 for the start of his solo):

I had never seen this video before, and I was completely blown away. Though he’s the ultimate showman, his technique and especially the feeling he puts into his playing leave me practically speechless. Say what you want about how totally out there he is (the dude’s absolutely weird), there’s no denying how he can make a freakin’ guitar sing!

Update 4/25/2016

I just watched the video again last night, and started laughing out loud! There’s a segment where you can see Tom Petty in the background, and he looks absolutely pissed that he’s getting upstaged by Prince. I can imagine that none of the rockers enjoyed that. In any case, it’s hilarious!