my 40 year old uncle visited me while i was playing trc ,he is an old school rocker ;led zepplin , the who,, , anyways he started jamming to it and stated that it sounded like frank zappa and that he may have even copied him a little.
please tell me he was wrong .
what yall think?

frank recorded a lot of fusion albums, and he also recorded several concept albums that sometimes played out a bit like a stage play/review. i can see how someone would make the connection, but i don't think prince had zappa in mind when he made TRC.

thanks anxiety, i doubt he had frank on his mind. but it is cool that one of his underrated albums make a guy who thought purple rain era was gay, into a prince fan and you know what i see why he wanted that album to be listened in its entirety becouse there are some very good moments of jamming on that album
some of the songs dont get good till the middle or end this album is great
i want another trc not musicology

what he may have been thinking of, was that back in 1979, fz put out joe's garage volumes 1-3. they are concept albums, and fz does a narration between songs in an electronically altered voice that is sort of similar to the the electronic narration prince does for the rainbow children. it was one of the first things i thought of when i heard the rainbow children album, sitting on the floor in one of the upstairs rooms at paisley park during the celebration 2001. also, some of the instrumental segments ands tracks sound a little fzish.

medoc2003 you hit that write on the button that his exactly what he mentioned was the narration bit and some of the music

The connection and similarity between Prince and Frank Zappa is huge in all kinds of artistic terms.

I agree that Prince probably didn't have FZ on his mind when he made TRC, but there are striking similarities. It is also interesting that Joe's Garage has been mentioned. It is so similar in its outlook and berating of the music industry that it could have been written by Prince - its just FZ did it some 20 years earlier!

Their musical wizardry on a variety of instruments, them both being guitar "virtuosos", their incredibly prolific output and their complete control over their output and image are almost unbelievably alike.

I think in Prince's work, there's something for just about everyone.

christtracy said:

It always reminds me a little more of the great work of one Mr. Dweezil Zappa.