BlaqueKnight said:

Dude, that song is dripping with Prince influence.. like a bad "Batman" outtake with bits of Thunder, Gett Off, and countless other Prince songs. In fact, most of the kids in my 6th grade class thought it was Prince.

BlaqueKnight said:

Uh, yes. It does sound like Prince. Very much so.. Ever listen to the "vocal" on that track?

Rzeplica said:

Yep. Sounds like a white dude. Nothing like Prince to me; more like New Kids On The Block than Prince. Did you hear their second release called "Hey Donna"? They weren't going for a MN sound. They (like pretty much everybody else during that time) had a reasonable enough exposure to Prince to be influenced, but by no means were they clones.
[This message was edited Tue Oct 14 13:17:52 PDT 2003 by BlaqueKnight]

BlaqueKnight said:

"P.A.S.S.I.O.N." sounds EXACTLY like a bad Prince out-take that would have easily fit nicely onto "Batman," "Graffiti Bridge," or "Diamonds And Pearls".. face it, the guy sounds like he's trying to sound JUST LIKE PRINCE.. even the 'Hartford Courant' newspaper agreed back in 1992, along with thousands of other people including people on this board, and anyone I know offline who's ever heard the song;

--
THE HARTFORD COURANT
September 4, 1992, A Edition


And almost from the beginning, Rythm Syndicate was a hit, with its first single, the Prince-sounding "P.A.S.S.I.O.N." reaching No. 2 for two weeks last year, and a follow-up, "Hey Donna" rising to No. 13, before eight months of touring with C + C Music Factory and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.
--

I would pull more, but since no one cares about "Rythm Syndicate" aside from you, that was the only one I could find that someone actually bothered to post online.

BlaqueKnight said:

Yep. Bought the full album. Even grabbed their awful 1993 follow-up. Money wasted. IQ points lost.

BlaqueKnight said:

Yeah, If "NKOYB" decided to write a Prince-esuqe track, sang it with a bad Princey voice (which comes off more like 'Sir Jac' than Prince) and made a bad video featuring a dorky white guy trying to pull off Prince-like dance moves, gestures taken straight from Prince.. yes, I think that song belongs on a "Prince clone" list.. moreso than TTD or.. hell, even D'Angelo has some sort of originality to him. face it dude, Rythm Syndicate sucks.

And nobody mentioned ZAPP ???

"Thank you Prince".

AsylumUtopia said:

That's RREEAALLLYY reaching, don't you think? Prince allowed them to open up for him way back in the day along with the Time. Zapp has been out almost as long as Prince has and NOBODY else sounds like them, though many have tried. Roger Troutman is no clone.

BlaqueKnight said:

I disagree that nobody else sounds like Zapp - Prince does (or should that be that Zapp sound like Prince...)

To be honest, I haven't listened to them in years. But I do remember the first time I heard them I thought Wow - what is that, sounds funky, really like Prince. So, it qualifies as a Prince clone in my book anyway as it was the Prince-like sound that drew me to it and the reason why I bought IV (the only album of theirs I actually bought). I must dig it out, give it a good old soaping (the joys of vinyl) and listen to it again. I always assumed the 'Thank you Prince' bit was thanking Prince just for being around so they could 'borrow' his funky sound.

AsylumUtopia said:

No,Zapp can not be considered a Prince clone.They had their own unique sound and they didn't copy what Prince was doing.The "Thank you Prince" reference is from their 1985 song "Doesn't Really Matter",a song which is a tribute to music in general.The complete lyric goes...


"Thank you Prince cause you sound so good to me"

It's just their way of saluting the music they admire,and they also mention Motown and others.But it is NOT an admission that they're copying what Prince is doing!

DavidEye said:

Hmmm. I'm still not entirely convinced.

Dammit, I may have to concede that Zapp are not a Prince clone after all, and I guess it's unlikely anyone would put "Thank You Prince" into a song whose sound was 'borrowed' from him.

But, as I said I bought that Zapp album because it sounded like Prince - I guess he could've borrowed the sound from them!

The sound - as I remember it - was not particularly unique. If Zapp have a unique sound then they don't display it on IV. That sound is just funk. Unless you consider all the vocoder bits to be the unique sound, in which case yes I'd grudgingly agree (with reservations - using a vocoder is not much of a unique hook to have) - until Cher decided to steal it and fuck it up as only she could.

Having said all that I think I need to listen to it again, just thinking about it, it must be at least 10 years since I last listened to it. So I'll do that.

BlaqueKnight said:

I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject. Still haven't dug the album out, but I will. I wasn't saying that Cher popularised the vocoder, she's just the only person in recent years that I remember having a big hit using one.
Anyway, not being a musician I have no idea what the difference between a vocoder and a talkbox is. Can you tell me please? Also, while you're at it can you tell me what a tonebox is as well (which Prince does use - or at least says he does in one of those segues on the symbol album). Just in case there's any doubt - I'm not trying to be a smart arse - I genuinely would like to know.

I'm going to dig that album out now, I'm quite looking forward to listening to it after so long.
[This message was edited Tue Oct 21 11:51:23 PDT 2003 by AsylumUtopia]

Speaking of Peter Frampton,check out his 1976 'Frampton Comes Alive' CD.He uses the talkbox to great effect.

Thanks BlaqueKnight for the info.

I had a listen to IV last night and wouldn't you know it - there's a dirty great scratch right in the middle of 'Doesn't Really Matter'. Bloody typical.

Having listened to the album once again I can now comment on it with more confidence. In order not to upset anyones sensibilities I won't say that Zapp are a Prince clone, or that Prince is a Zapp clone, but I will say that there are many, many similarities. Too many, in my opinion, to be entirely coincidental. Take the very beginning of 'Doesn't Really Matter' for instance, that little 'wow' scream is the exact same sound Prince has used on countless occasions.

And have a listen to 'Itchin' for your Twitchin'. It sounds like someone trying very, very hard to sound like Prince. That may be coincidental but nonetheless the similarity cannot be ignored. To prove the point I stuck the song on and asked my partner to tell me who it was, the response was "Somebody trying to sound like Prince, but that's a Prince song, right?".

You wouldn't have much problem persuading anyone that this is a cover of a Prince song.

I'm not trying to detract from Zapp by saying this, but the similarity is not just there, it's blatantly obvious. Every single part of the song seems to be a nod in the direction of Prince, whether intentional or not, it's there.

And finally, as to whether Zapp had their own unique sound. Well, IV is the only Zapp album I know, and if they do have a unique sound, then I don't know where it is because the sound on IV is not unique. I can hear Prince, James Brown and Stevie Wonder in there, lots of good (but standard) jazz, r&b, disco and funk, but nothing unique. OK, the talkbox is different, but hardly unique.

Anyway, enough of that, it doesn't really matter to me whether or not the similarities are coincidental or intentional, it's a damn fine album and I'll be listening to it again very soon.

AU.
Peas & B Mild.

thank you !

about time we had a decent thread on this little website

ya only know what your exposed to

laurarichardson said:

That is what Jam and Lewis said and that is simply the truth regardless of what haters say.

undulatingacrobat said:

Prince fathered the sound but he was not the only contributor to it. Others helped...A LOT. WB made sure that the act they had signed (Prince) got ALL the credit via publicity and the public ate it up like a last meal. (suckers)
Jesse as well as Jam & Lewis added to what became known as the MN sound as well as Andre, Wendy & Lisa, etc. Prince gets all the glory, but he had help.