Prince achieves rock immortality at the George Harrison induction into the Hall of Fame during 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'
I recall watching the posthumous George Harrison induction ceremony on VH1 in 2004. Price was inducted into the RHOF as well this night. At first, I thought it was such an odd pairing of artist on the stage. I mean, Prince up there with guitar legends Tom Petty, Jeff lynne, Steve Winwood & Eric Clapton....how was he going to do? Everyone was up there for the final song of the night. Was Prince going to "represent"? I always considered Prince to be a musical genius and an expert at so many different instruments, but I didn't expect this.
About half was through the performance you can see George's son Dhani look to Price and smile as he took center stage. Price continues to shred out one of the best solo's that I've ever seen....for the entire 2nd half of the song. He was making his guitar "weep" for real. The poetic ironies of the event are uncanny.
But, I have just one question. After the song ends, Price throws his guitar up into the air. It doesn't come down. What the?? AND, at about 4:50 in, he actually has someone's hands catch him as he falls backwards while he's playing.
Tim,
Prince has always been a guitarist. True, he plays many other instruments well, but guitar is his specialty. You can lose track of it in his slinky, synth-driven material, but his catalog is rife with fabulous guitar solos and songs built around powerful and impressive riffs. "Let's Go Crazy" has that fabulous ending solo, for one instance. I would go so far as to say that he is a superior guitarist to Petty and Windwood, and can hold his own with legends like Clapton. His performance in this video does not surprise me in the least.
But his guitar doesn't vanish or get tossed at the end. ....But, dang...he's good.
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