I wonder what age he was when he discovered he could sing ? Did he train or was trained professionally by an instructor to develop his vocal range the way it is today? He could have

gotten a lot of practice in Church, since I think I read somewhere he attended church service

a lot growing up. I just really noticed recently that no matter what Prince sings about be it Sex,

Religion, Politics, Inequality, The end of the World, Lol!!! He always sounds like a Gospel Singer!

Nothing wrong with that of course, I like it! When I'm listening to a song and he start to making

that sound he makes like he caught the "Holy Ghost" I say "Take it to Church, Mr. Nelson"!

DarlingNikki1025 said:

I wonder what age he was when he discovered he could sing ? Did he train or was trained professionally by an instructor to develop his vocal range the way it is today? He could have

gotten a lot of practice in Church, since I think I read somewhere he attended church service

a lot growing up. I just really noticed recently that no matter what Prince sings about be it Sex,

Religion, Politics, Inequality, The end of the World, Lol!!! He always sounds like a Gospel Singer!

Nothing wrong with that of course, I like it! When I'm listening to a song and he start to making

that sound he makes like he caught the "Holy Ghost" I say "Take it to Church, Mr. Nelson"!

That's an interesting observation. I think the gospel influence is sometimes underestimated. I think it's all over his musical phrasing. Something to do with going against the beat and starting a musical phrase at any point in a rhythmic bar, if that makes any sense at all. But it almost never sounds contrived. I think this approach has a lot to do with his musical originality.

Yeah he's definitely got that gospel thing going on.

There's also the story told by Chris Moon - a former MPLS producer from back in the day who used to let Prince use his studio after school (and is perhaps most famously known for being the co-writer of "Soft & Wet"). The story goes that Prince was initially reluctant to sing in the studio, so Moon turned out all the lights and got him to lie on his back on some pillows all alone in the recording booth and, according to Moon, he 'discovered' his voice. But I don't know though - I'm always a bit skeptical of that story. I'm sure P knew he could sing before that. Maybe on a confidence level it helped, though.

[Edited 10/7/10 2:51am]

DarlingNikki1025 said:

When I'm listening to a song and he start to making

that sound he makes like he caught the "Holy Ghost" I say "Take it to Church, Mr. Nelson"!

AMEN!