PRINCE - What are some tasty Prince guitar solos?

The "GOLD EXPERIENCE" album has a lot of good guitar stuff on it.

 

My favorites are on Dolphin, Fury, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, and Alexa de Paris.

 

I've posted this question twice before. Seeing this thread come up made me decide to give it one more shot ...

I recently got around to hearing The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale. Admittedly, it's not his usual fare, and it has been largely ignored by all except Prince fans.

Anyway, I was playing it for friend the other night, and he was skeptical about whether Prince had actually performed all of the guitar solos himself. We agreed that some of the guitar was not exactly typical of his work. On a couple of tracks (She Spoke 2 Me and 5 Women) the lead guitar sounds accomplished in a conventional way. Not that I don't think he's capable, but conventional is not what I've come to expect from Prince.

I searched and found that other musicians are credited on this album. I just couldn't find anything with credits for individual tracks. Can anyone confirm this one way or another?

 

I think Levi Seacer, Jr. also did some guitar work on some of the tracks done with early versions of the NPG. Could have been him?

 

I'll repeat what I wrote the last time I encountered this question from you: I think these are Prince guitar solos through and through. They don't sound that conventional to me. There's a conventional sort of jazz guitar sound to them courtesy of the Epiphone hollow-body he was using (I believe, he's shown using it on video versions) but there are typical Prince touches to the solos. It sounds like him, has his sort of lyrical phrasing.

 

I love the guitar work on The Rainbow Children. Some great solos in the Santana vein and some great Hendrix sounding fusion playing.

To me Prince is one of the few guitarists who really has the whole tradition of twentieth century electric guitar playing in his arsenal, really knows how to work a guitar and an amp to create sound and texture and tone, and can make guitar lines sing in the way that only a few other guitar/vocalists have mastered, with Hendrix being at the forefront of this type of phrasing and singing/vocal quality. There's a lot of his personality and voice in the playing.

 

I love the point in the video (6:10?), when the solo is over, and Prince just takes the guitar off and throws it straight up in the air . . and you don't see it come down. It's like it just keeps going higher, much like the solo. Great moment.

 

'Little Red Corvette' is my next choice.

 

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Temptation has some of my favorite guitar moments. I also like his work in I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man and The Cross.
The final solo on Let´s Go Crazy still makes wanna blow the house. Some of his 90 output (a period I think is being now reconsidered) has some great guitar on it. Examples are many: Rainbow Children, Gold Experience, Chaos and Disorder.

 

Oh, yeah, two from this show in particular stick out for me in terms of his guitar work:

The 13 plus-minute live rendition of "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" and "Just My Imagination" (the latter showcases both his sweetness and light tone and a more raunchy tone in the jam toward the end of the song).

Also, the extended mix of "Paisley Park" has some really crunchy guitar during the intro that I just love.

 

Just picking nits, but The Rainbow Children is not from the nineties but from 2001. It's possibly my favorite Prince record, believe it or not.

 

Sorry I didn't catch your response the first time around. I even checked my original thread again just before I posted. Must have been in the other one.

Maybe "conventional" is not the best description. I do think the solos in those songs have phrasing that is more typical of Jazz and Blues. Both of those stand out as different from the many Prince solos I've heard. You're probably right. I wouldn't question it at all if it wasn't for the fact that I've read that he's sometimes reluctant to credit his collaborators.

 

There's an instrumental on the Cream 12" with a more jazz influenced guitar solo, not the shredding rock solos mentioned in this thread. Or it could be Levi Seacer as mentioned by Rosskolnikov. Love how at the end someone says "the hell that got to do with Cream?"

 

In the pouring rain, the guitar sound mix cranked up to eleven, broadcast live across the United States on a Sunday afternoon; who could forget Prince's Super Bowl Halftime show! Twelve minutes of one "Holy Sh#T" moment after another, blazing guitar soloing throughout. All Along the Watchtower morphing into the Foo Fighters' Best Of Me. Did I say it was raining?

http://www.wat.tv/video/prince-superbowl-half-time-4uv1f_2hztv_.html

 

"I Like It There" on "Chaos & Disorder"

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjE4MjU3MDA0.html

 

It's not Prince on guitar, instead on keyboards, but still good nonetheless, if you haven't heard it. Check out the all instrumental Loring Park Sessions. Never officially released, but easily found through Google.

 

Another vote for 'Pink Cashmere', 'Peach' and 'Purple Rain'.

I also really like the guitar work on 'Kiss' and 'A Love Bizarre'.

 

I keep hoping that little pipsqueak will stop pussyfooting around and make his Electric Ladyland. Ditch all the synths, electronic drums etc. Get himself a true power trio - maybe Rhonda Smith and Cindy Blackman? In fact, he could cover Led Zep's Houses of the Holy or Jimi's Electric Ladyland and I'd die a happy pampered camper.

Love,
Billy

 

I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man and The Cross are hard to beat, but the 12" of Bambi is some badass undisputed gem.
He did come back with some fresh guitar work during his mid 90´s phase. Gold Experience and Chaos & Disorder are full with examples of his, then, new guitar sound that even reached some of the rockers included on Emancipation (Holy River, etc)
Although earlier, I have a soft spot for Peach too. I love playing my 7" at high volume.

 

Yeah, Kiss is one of the most innovative singles ever.

 

One solo to rule them all...scroll to 3:15 and enjoy.

 

Bumping thread because the board is revising Prince's catalogue now, after his passing. And we now have a video for Prince's cover of Radiohead's "Creep" at Coachella 2008 that won't disappear soon. One of my favorite Prince performances, and it includes two cool guitar solos.

"Creep" - Prince at Coachella 2008
(Uploaded via Permission from Radiohead & NPG Music Publishing)

 

Just came on this thread to mention the solo at the end of "Hate"!

"Gold" really was his last great album. I only genuinely love half of it, but it includes no real duds, and it has some of his best guitar work.

That "Hate" solo is a blast out of the blue. The guitar work on "Hate" and "Gold" keeps the songs from being sappy and mawkish...

 

I know "Purple Rain" was mentioned - and it's inevitable.

Nothing Prince ever did tops the live version from the 1984-85 tour, IMO.

You want guitar? You GOT guitar!