To a certain extent all musicians are musical theifs but I have heard that prince is supposed to be one of the greatest. The thing is when I hear a prince song apart from recent ones I dont think oh well hes nicked this bands melody there or hes stole this riff from that song or thats such and such chord progression, you know like you can do with alot of other bands songs. The only one I thought hey hang on was his song guitar which I thought the riff sounded alot like a u2 song. My question is have you heard any prince songs where you thought well I think thats based on someone elses song?
[Edited 5/13/08 13:08pm]

Some people think "3 Chains O Gold" is a ripoff of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".... whatever....

I hate it when this happens...

it's THIEF!

paisley2002 said:

Ive never heard that before Ill have to check that out. cool.

RenHoek said:

What are you talking about renhoek dont you remember the old rhyme i before e except after h.

RenHoek said:

Bet you weren't too happy with "theifs" either.

a copy of someone's style is not a copy of someone's song as such

although i'm sure he's picked up bits and pieces here n there and
thought "i could use this"

The Prince Thief theory -
Prince is Jamie Starr. Prince said "Jamie Starr is a thief" {refer to DMSR}
thus it is a fact Prince is a thief.

paisley2002 said:

its not at all. people just say that he was trying to write a song similar to bohemian rhapsody in its epic and operatic qualities. they share very few similarities musically

greyhoodiegirl said:

exactly, in that respect you could also say that "strays of the world" is a copy of bohemian rhapsody -which it isn't

rolling said:

OK. Every musician has musical influences. U can hear mine when U hear my music 2. The thing about Prince is that he has his own "voice" on every instrument, including voice, and in every musical piece. He is entirely unique, whether we can identify his influences or not. Prince absorbs intensely and quickly.

In terms of the song "Guitar", that riff should NOT be attributed 2 U2 at all. They got it from old Rock & Roll... Just think of Chuck Berry's riffs. Also, those riffs come very easily on the guitar, and have been done in many ways over time.

God just has this pool of idea'z and they rain into the instruments of God's children.
It's a strung out kind of thing. Even if a song is similar to another...It's still a song...a song is still a song...
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how many songs there are total? In all of recorded history?
If we find out, then we can figure out how many totally different songs there can be before they have an inkling of similarity. That should solve the music crime.

Twiki said:

Actually the word he is looking for is THEFT

IstenSzek said:

3 Chains O' Gold is done in a style similar to Bohemian Rhapsody but sounds nothing like it. It is not a rip off of Bohemian Rhapsody.

RenHoek said:

Start a thread with misspelled words in the heading what's up with that?

Let me clarify what Im talking about here if you look at a song like oasis cigarettes and alcohol the main guitar riff is a direct rip off of marc bolans telegram sam. The thing is you can take a number of songs, take the chorus melody from one song, the verse melody from another, a bridge from another song and hey presto youve got a new song and no one would ever know unless they know the songs youve ripped off. There must have been times where you listened to a song and thought you had heard it before that because you probably have. My point is prince is always being called a great musical theif but I cant see any songs he has directly lifted parts of melody from can you???

Tame said:

20,733,168.
A big number, sure, but still....
I woulda thought it would've been bigger.

pennylover said:

Dont you mean a thread with misspelt words.

Hey paisley2002 where did you get that prince avatar from that must be what he looks like at night when he takes his wig off.

TheMightyCelestial said:

I wonder if that number includes Psalms

Giovanni777 said:

especially to the bold.

Twiki said:

AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH...

*frantically searching for the tearing-hair-out emoticon*



and who could forget...

TheMightyCelestial said:

What do ya know...Prince is probably makin that 8 a 9 eh?

Tame said:

Oh, R U kidding me?
Since I first posted that reply,
Prince has already made that number rise up to 20,814,256.
His impishly funky ass is just so prolific.

Truth Comes like a Thief in the Night.....

Unless I hear something fron the source i don't believe it!

i don't think you can call it a "direct rip-off" if you're talking about a riff or a similar grouping of notes (a phrase, motif, or whatever) -- i mean, there are only so many notes you can play -- similar groupings are bound to show up in many songs -- now if Prince heard Dez playing a riff one night and Prince went home to write a whole song around that riff but never gave Dez credit, then yeah, that's Prince being a thief -- stories abound of this happening more than once from riffs to complete songs. also, if someone plays the same riff in the same key with the same progression with the same instrument and the same sound, then that's gotta make ya wonder too. mathematically, the more things that are the same, the less likely it's just a coincidence. thinks to thing about alright

how much was he paid to humiliate that woman on Jay Leno? and 4 million to humiliate her after Coachella...??

rolling said:

Speaking of Marc Bolan, I always thought the rhythm guitar on "Cream" sounds a little like "Bang A Gong".

I dont undestand. i am not a brain surgeon on the guitar but have been playing for 25 year and I learned srandard blues riffs the first year, tweak one ,add some spice and you have the background for many lead guitarists and many songs. I dont consider that theft.