I’m pretty shocked by the posts in this thread, but now that I think of it, this is a haven or for '70’s White Boy Rock and Roll.
Prince was a musical genius who wrote his own music (and other’s), played all the instruments, recorded, produced and even marketed his work. Just look at the outporing of grief from other musicians. Sprinsteen, Gene Simmons of Kiss is on CNN right now. They know.
Half the people on TV are wearing purple.
Dude, I know, right? I’m freakin’ breaking down LinnDrum sequencing here! The OP asked for technical examples and I’m posting like an idiot to speak to that, and someone drives by simply to say “meh, I don’t hear it.”
Sigh.
.
You know, as somebody who’s on the fence as to whether the word “genius” should apply, I’m having trouble coming up with names of recent musical artists who should be called a genius if Prince isn’t one. Shawn Lane? Not many.
Actually, WordMan, you might want to check your sources on this.
The Linn Drum had a reputation for being easy to useand get great, human-soundingdrum tracks out of, and I wish I’d never sold mine.
Pretty sure you’re capable of a much more persuasive argument; how about his use of the synth? 
I don’t get that at all.
I am not the biggest Prince fan - he would not rank in my all time top 40 favourite bands to listen to - but I can recognize artistry and genius in his music. There’s a difference between caring for something and knowing it’s the work of a master.
That Prince was a virtuoso of both voice and guitar is a matter no reasonable adult can question. That he was a brilliant songwriter seems very obvious to me; “When Doves Cry” isn’t my favourite song, but it is truly a brilliant, innovative work that transcends its era.
So the man was a master instrumentalist, a master singer, a remarkably original and prolific songwriter. Oh, and he was a brilliant stage performer. I’m running out of ways to argue that he WASN’T a genius.
Horseshit. Total nonsense.
Of Rolling Stone’s top ten albums of all time, precisely one is by a black artist, and THREE are by Bob Dylan. Claiming they overrate blacks because they name them among the best singers of all time is like saying sportswriters overrate black athletes for calling them “Naturally gifted.”
Ignorance fought!!! You had one?! Can you tell us about it? I will see if I can find any of the articles I read about them to see if I can figure out what led me to think they were tough.
As for a more persuasive argument: as I have stated on this board, the drummer in my mid-life crisis band was a record producer. He had done many pop releases - he co-wrote and produced Buffalo Stance by Neneh Cherry, as well as other great music, but had focused to commercials for a more steady income when he had kids.
He’s a Brit. He told a story of working at 2am at Olympic Studios (after Abbey Road, one of the most used, most famous studios in London) - I think he might’ve been working on Maxinquaye with Tricky. Anyway, Prince walks in after a concert, sits down at the mixing board in the next room, loads some tracks he has been working on, and goes to work. My friend - who has deep technical skills working as sound engineer before being a producer (I would try to tell you about how he got some tracks from Robert Smith of the Cure to convert from Stereo to 5.1 Surround Sound, but I barely understand) anyway, my friend was blown away by how fast and brilliantly Prince worked. Working a mixing board he had limited familiarity with like it was his home studio, walking out to the recording room and laying something down then adding to his mix. He was in awe. Oh, I forgot, my friend was also the engineer on Bowie’s and Jagger’s version of Dancing in the Streets (not his favorite, but he got to see how the Big Boys work). The point is that my friend is deep into the weeds of this stuff and is happy to say that he doesn’t know anyone who can work a studio like Prince.
He also said you have not experienced boredom until it is 4am, and Tricky, stoned out of his mind, has spent the past 8 hours perfecting the sound of 1 kick drum, only to end up with the sound my friend started with. From your post, Enter the Flagon, it sounds like they should’ve used a LinnDrum!!! 
That must have been both a joy and a trial. 
Oh man, the stories. He cowrote and produced the album, so they were side by side for months. He does this imitation of Tricky squinting, head cocked to one side, HUGE spliff in hand, talking about what he’s looking for in that kick drum sound. Kills us with laughter every time.
Haha. It doesn’t surprise me to hear any of this. Actually, this thread, and YouTube, have helped me get a heightened respect for The Purplest One. I’d never seen the Famous Half Time ExtravaPurpleGanza, and that performance by itself makes a strong case in his favor. Awesome, actually.
The LinnDrum I got mid 80’s from a local musician who desperately needed drug money, and within a half hour I was a better drummer than our drummer, “Jeff” (sorry, “Jeff”). It was very intuitive, sounded awesome, and had a wonderful ability to adjust your timing: you could arrive ahead of the beat like Jeff on crystal meth, straight on the beat like a robot, or drag the beat like Bonham on Seagram’s.
I sold it to the guys at Atomic Music when nobody wanted a LinnDrum, and only got $200 for it. Nowadays, if you want one, you just buy an emulator.
Pretty sure it won’t make me sound like Prince, though.
Heh, I can imagine. That Bristol lot were never the most focused musicians, but they managed Maxinquaye, Protection and Dummy all in the same year, so hats off to the enormously patient engineers and producers. 
Well, that could be the root of the question, what do you consider genius?
The dictionary considers it to be exceptional ability. If you look at it from a traditional IQ sort of definition - more than 3 sigma from the mean - its about 3 in 1000.
Is Prince a better vocalist than 3 in a 1000 people? Is he a better guitarist than 3 in a 1000 people who play the guitar? A better songwriter? I’d give him all three of those (I wouldn’t give him dance, I would give him performing), and then how many people are 3 in a 1000 on all three of those. Not many.
Just have to give a shout out to WordMan:
I wonder sometimes, WordMan, if you realize what a positive addition you are to this board. Any time a music thread I’m interested in comes up I always look to see what you have to say. And I appreciate the intelligent and diplomatic way you deal with threadshitters and with those of us who sometimes post about music you don’t care for cough smooth jazz cough. I’ve always thought it’s a shame that for whatever reason you’ve had to make your living outside of music, because your love and encyclopedic knowledge of it is remarkable and it’s clearly a major passion in your life. All in all, you’re just a really cool guy and I just wanted to let you know you’re appreciated. 
I endorse every word of this. I haven’t intentionally listened to Prince in years—his songs weren’t necessarily the ones that I needed at any particular moment to move me. But his death hit me hard, because he was so obviously a rare, gifted talent for all aspects of musicianship and performance. He was a crazy fucker with some weird problems—but, hell, he’s not unique in that. But in the things he was good at, he was a master, and if that’s not genius, what is?
The New Yorker’s David Remnick notes some of his great performances —Prince Live | The New Yorker
Yes.
Yes, he is.
Yes.
Yes, he is.
Yes.
Yes, he is.
Yes.
Yes, he is.
I’m coming down on the side of “genius”.
Oh, and Prince is pretty good, too.
I’ll admit, I’ve barely heard Prince, and wasn’t into his stuff when I did. It’s been so long I don’t know what Purple Rain sounds like.
But there’s enough info in this thread for me to call him a genius. I don’t need to have a current opinion on his music to make that determination. Whether I like it or not is immaterial.
Excellent breakdown.
As far as his dancing goes, no, he is an above-average dancer. MJ wins the title for genius dancer, and Prince doesn’t come close.
Prince makes you think he has serious moves, though. He can definitely carry out choreography and move his body in an aesthetically pleasing way. I love watching Mick Jagger move on stage, but it registers more as, “Mick sure is crazy!” rather than “Mick has some bad-ass moves!” Prince has some bad-ass moves, but they are within 2 standard deviations of the mean. Within the African American population, he’s completely normal (especially if you subtract me from the distribution.)
You misspelled “Jeff Linsky.”
You cannot judge Prince’s genius by listening to his hits now. First listening of his hits hits NOW is “eh, heard that before. What’s the big deal?”
The big deal is that, at the time he created them, nobody else did what he did. Almost everything you hear now that Prince sounds like is because Prince did it first and got copied.
Prince isn’t in my top 10 list of favorite artists. He, however, innovated stuff that many emulated.
It’s like looking at an Edison bulb, a quartz halogen, and an LED without realizing if it wasn’t for A; B and C might not exist.
Prince’s style of dance, with his splits, spins, and slides, aren’t really comparable to MJ’s very choreographed, very scripted and very rehearsed moves. I almost feel like saying they are apples and oranges. MJ’s performances were centered around dance; he couldn’t get away with not doing it in concert. With Prince, dance was merely a garnish, albeit an yummy one.
Few cats can play an instrument, sing, and pop a split all at the same time (wearing high heels!), so while I wouldn’t call Prince a genius dancer, I wouldn’t call him above-average either.
Whatever I do I am going to be hearing a lot of Prince now for a while.
His sound fits in a playlist with Kool and the Gang, Any of the Jacksons, Debarge, Pointer sisters, george clinton, etc. It can’t be an insult to be a black pop musician. Smokey, marvin and stevie are black pop musicians. You must be into him a lot if you find that a silly category for him.
Axl Rose, surprisingly enough.
I go out of my way to avoid listening to country music, and have for all of my life - I can’t even imagine going into a thread about country music and offering my opinion. The only opinion I have is that I don’t like it, and I don’t know anything about it, and country music fans (understandably) don’t want to hear either of those things.
I can’t think of a single artist from the last, say, 15 years who comes close to genius level at anything.
It’s like criticizing “Casablanca” because every other line in the movie has been quoted non-stop since 1941 and they all seem so familiar.