I wouldn't say I'm a huge Prince fan, but I have to give credit where it is due. He is pretty talented and "Kiss" is one of the more interesting treatments of the I-IV-V chords. There are a couple things I particularly like about this song:
1. The Bass
I know I always turn to the bass, but in this case it is the lack thereof that interests me. I can't think of many other (any?) pop/rock songs that have drums, but no bass. As always I am a fan of "Less is More" production, and I give extra points for subtractive decisions that are particularly counterintuitive. Somehow this one works. There is a very heavy synth bass drum and some lowish synth parts, but other than that there is very little low end in this song.
2. The Chord...
...the opening chord, that is. There are a lot of notes in that chord, so I couldn't resist figuring it out. As it turns out it is more or less impossible on the guitar. This is what I hear:
There may be some very creative ways to achieve this chord on the guitar for those with especially dexterous hands, but I doubt they would sound right and would be difficult to land in the middle of the a performance. On a second pass it is obvious that there are (at least) two guitars here. This is how I would break them down:
The first guitar is a lot cleaner, almost a completely dry sound. There are some major wah/phase effects on the second part. I did a quick and dirty recording of both parts:
Guitar 1:
Guitar 2:
Both Parts:
If you don't have a couple guitarists in your band, I would just go with the voicing that seems to be most popular on the internet:
You're only missing the C#, which is barely audible to begin with. That's good enough for live shows, but it is fun to go back and dig into the original recording to see what makes it so unique. Hats off to you Prince, you ridiculous, talented weirdo.
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