The thing is, the Eagles were a supremely talented group of musicians. Prince was one guy....he did surround himself with a lot of hot chick musicians but still, he was just one dude. The Eagles were part of a genre....in some ways Prince was his own genre. I went to a ridiculous amount of concerts in the 80's. Prince's Purple Rain tour at the Long Beach Arena is in my top 5 all-time. Of course having Sheila E as the opening act helped but there was something about his "I don't give a fuck what you think of me" attitude that was really awesome. I can't think of another performer who managed so successfully to blend sexuality and spirituality. The Eagles gave good dope-smoking music.
Sure, but Prince and his insane talent stayed within his lines even if he was the only ones in them. The Eagles were all over the place, hell before they got rid of their 1st producer they were as much country as they were rock. They blended into so many different genres and they did it well. Not arguing the talent of the freak. He was amazingly talented.
Basically it's silly to compare the two, as you said both were incredibly talented. I would argue though that Prince was part funk, part jazz, part R&B, part rock. I saw the Eagles in concert at the Forum. The music was awesome, the performance was underwhelming.
I think the argument was David Bowie and the Eagles. Not sure many could relate to David Bowies oddness then. Maybe appreciated later.
I was sort of surprised at the almost cult-like following it seemed that Bowie had after he died. I had never given him or his music more than a passing thought. The Eagles were much more to my liking, so I was more saddened by Glenn Frey's death. Prince, on the other hand, was (I suppose) my generation's David Bowie. He was a force of nature, and many of my high school memories include a Prince soundtrack. I saw Prince in concert in '97 (it was okay.) The Hell Freezes Over tour of the Eagles in '94 was (for me) a better concert.
Maybe it's generational but prince's weirdness wasn't as distracting to his music as Bowies was. But for both that's what made them great artists because they were originals. Something we have almost none of today with the stupid autotune and sampling of everything. I think that's what helped me learn to appreciate Davis Bowie and even prince over time. I always liked his guitar playing however even if he was considered a chick band at the time.
There was a guy on tv the other night, some producer or something. He said the first time he met Prince he had a guitar in his lap and was tapping notes on the neck of the guitar with his left hand and playing keys with his right. That is insanely difficult to do
