At George Harrison's posthumous HoF introduction in 2004 Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Dhani Harrison and Prince together with some amazing side musicians played "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Petty literally channelled George Harrison on this one (it gives me goosebumps whenever I listen to it), and all the others gave stellar performances as well. But just when you think "it does not get any better than this", PRINCE steps up (around the 3:40 mark) for the home run, and that is when it becomes a transcedental musical and visual experience...

[www.youtube.com]

I am probably in the minority here but I have never liked the Prince solo on this. Ego tripping guitar hero stuff which detracts from the feel of the original. Each to their own.

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Captain Teague
I am probably in the minority here but I have never liked the Prince solo on this. Ego tripping guitar hero stuff which detracts from the feel of the original. Each to their own.

Personally, I like it. However, we've discussed this here, before, and a few will definitely agree with you!

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Captain Teague
I am probably in the minority here but I have never liked the Prince solo on this. Ego tripping guitar hero stuff which detracts from the feel of the original. Each to their own.

Fully agree!

Mathijs

Okay, Prince's showboating is a bit much. I've often felt that you can see this vey though on Tom Petty's face.

It's certainly not like every note matters, and that he really captured the feel of the song.

However, one man's treasure is another man's garbage. Personally, I find Prince's solo a little too much on the showboating-side. I suspect many guitarists with the influences we have here on IORR might agree with that, to a degree, at least.

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Mathijs

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Captain Teague
I am probably in the minority here but I have never liked the Prince solo on this. Ego tripping guitar hero stuff which detracts from the feel of the original. Each to their own.

Fully agree!

+1

And I’m a big fan of Prince.

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DandelionPowderman

"However, one man's treasure is another man's garbage".

That's an interesting quote. Brian May once said: "There are a 1000.000 guitarists out there that can play better like me". A modest person he is.

Going off track here, but there's a video of Prince performing Radiohead's 'Creep', complete with a similarly overblown guitar.

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Big Al
Okay, Prince's showboating is a bit much. I've often felt that you can see this vey though on Tom Petty's face.

Tom Petty is quoted as follows:
“You see me nodding at him, to say, ‘Go on, go on,’” Petty said. “I remember I leaned out at him at one point and gave him a ‘This is going great!’ kind of look.

“He just burned it up. You could feel the electricity of ‘something really big’s going down here.’”
[www.guitarplayer.com]

Whether you like or detest the showmanship displayed by Prince, is of course all subjective (for me, personally, it is the icing on the cake; that man just had an abundance of swagger, charm and charisma :-)). Another matter is whether his playing adds to the performance or detracts from it - and I would not say that Prince did not pay due attention to what his collaborators were doing there...

I love it.Just amazing performance by Prince. The whole band was blown away by what he did as we can see on the musicians faces. I understand that some don't care about the video and that is fine.
Passion was in the air that night and Prince took that performance to the top!
One of my favorite rock video on Youtube.

I also don't like Prince's solo at all. over the top flashy. Don't get why people freaked out over this, the kind of guitar playing I don't like.

I did not like it the first time.

But the second time I changed my mind about it.

It is a great rendition.

What rollmops said. <3 it.

~"Love is Strong"~

I always found this video annoying, courtesy of Prince.

I've seen this video multiple times. For some reason I chose to watch it again.

I had to stop at 2:54 from laughing at the over the top tambourine player.


Having read comments about Prince's flashiness I watched it with a different eye this time. There's absolutely some out of orbit slinging that's beyond the song yet the not flashy playing is stellar - and on a Telecaster.

That might be what got me the first few times I watched it - he's playing a Tele.


He was a performer, a master musician and probably usually a little over the top all the time. Perhaps watching his acoustic version of Cream at Webster Hall is the opposite of flashy.

[www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026-01-15 22:59 by GasLightStreet.

its one of the greatest leadguitar-performances in rock history. technicaly its not even that hard to play. but man, just listen to that first note he plays. one single note that screams "I MEAN IT". it just has so much attitude its crazy!! and what is not easy, is to keep the energy level, the tension for so long, especialy when you start with a firework like he did. and a solo is always in a way a show off. at least if its that long. and the way he plays, moves, laughs, all so easy, performed without any effort. magical!

the story behind this perfomance!

[www.youtube.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2026-01-16 00:05 by guitarbastard.

Amazing vibrato!

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Tantekäthe
At George Harrison's posthumous HoF introduction in 2004 Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Dhani Harrison and Prince together with some amazing side musicians played "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Petty literally channelled George Harrison on this one (it gives me goosebumps whenever I listen to it), and all the others gave stellar performances as well. But just when you think "it does not get any better than this", PRINCE steps up (around the 3:40 mark) for the home run, and that is when it becomes a transcedental musical and visual experience...

[www.youtube.com]

IMHO doesn't come near the performance at "The Concert For George". CFG

Interesting that the guy in the flat cap (likely Mark Mann) does the same heavy lifting in the background at the CFG, but steps back when the "famous" player wants to lead. He did if for Clapton at CFG and for Prince and others here.

Captain Corella



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026-01-16 06:15 by CaptainCorella.

I agree that when Prince steps up for the solo he takes it to another level. It's refreshing to hear a new angle to the song. On top of that Prince delivers with an attitude and showmanship which is reflected spontaneously at least in Dhani's excited expression looking like a deadringer for his late father. Amazing. Beautiful.