SONG TITLE: BAMBI

PERFORMER: PRINCE

SONGWRITER: PRINCE

YEAR OF RELEASE: 1979

COMMENTS: From the beginning, Prince wanted it all. He wanted to be the funkiest and the ballad creamiest. He wanted to be the most macho and the most sensitive. He wanted to be the most religious and the most profane. Also, in his spare time he wanted to be the world's greatest guitarist.

 

This little album cut surely shows him to be at least one of the best guitar players going. He goes through his paces with some righteous guitar riffage, stopping and starting, grinding it up and down through the gears. He dives down to the bottom of the instrumetal range for a measure or two of heavy rhythmic lust, then leaps to the top to squeal out his painful frustration. Moreover, he does all this in perfectly disciplined pop formulation, building up instantly indelible hooks and a groove upon which the whole melody is built.

 

Note that there is a melody, a fine memorable hard hitting pop tune on which the guitar is based. Most guitar showcases have all the creative energy in the the fancy solos, neglecting any significant vocal melody. This one is catchy enough to be unmistakably pop, definitely punchy and hard hitting enough to be rock, and swinging enough to still have a strong funk element.

 

Some would argue that this three minute song is a slim centerpiece for a claim to rock guitar godhood. He doesn't engage in nearly the supersonic mechanics of Eddie Van Halen, or the extended jamming of the greats. I'll grant that he's probably not as great as Van Halen just purely as a guitar player. However, I'll take three minutes of precision-tooled Prince such as this to even a righteous half-hour Allman Brothers jam, let alone something like the Grateful Dead.

 

Did I mention that this song has lesbians?

Prince Rogers Nelson playing guitar onstage


   


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Prince

Music Sustains the Soul

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