Today i realized that Prince, with his music, not only is very broad when it comes to playing different 'styles' of music, but also covers all decades of what is called 'modern' music. Putting it into decades / periodes:

ca late 19th century - 1940
- the orchestral arrangements created by Clare Fisher for Parade, The Family record, and Jill Jones debut, bare the influences of composers like Gustav Mahler and Igor Stravinsky
- songs like 'Under the Cherry Moon' and 'Do u lie' reflect respectively the german cabaretmusic of Brecht and Weil and french music during the interbellum.

1940 - 1960
- Tracks like: 'Thats the girl of my dreams', 'Jack U off' and the original version of 'I cant stop this feeling i got' are in the vein of fifties rockabilly and rock and roll
- Tracks like 'Adore' and 'Damn U' reflect the (traditional R&B) balladry around that time.
- 'Courtin Time' and 'Right the Wrong' obviously are influenced by the Big Band-music created by the likes of Duke Ellington

1960 - 1970
- The Beatles seem to be a big influence on records like Around in the World in a day ('Paisley Park' and 'Pop Life' deliberately 'echo' John Lennons melodies and vocal style), Parade ('christopher traceys parade' is Princes 'magical mystery tour' and 'I wonder U' is aking to 'I am the Wallrus' in chords and atmosphere) and Sign of the Times (Starfish and coffee). But you can hear it on other records also: the chorus of 'Dance On' is quite Lennon-like and the bridges of both 'Dark' and 'Dolphin' bring the Beatles to mind.
- James Brown and Sly Stone have been a main influence on his music, but that is discussed enough allready i think.
- A sole example maybe, but its often said 'The Cross' resembles 'Heroin' by the Velvet Underground, from their classic first album.

1970 - 1980
- George Clinton and his P-funk movement have had a severe influence on Princes music, that is allready often discussed.
- A bit overlooked is the influence of singers-songwriters from the seventies on his music, first off all: Joni Mitchell, but you can also hear the influence of Janis Ian and James Taylor on some of his tracks. 'Crazy you' an 'so blue' on his debut record For you are in that vein, the same can be said for 'When were dancing close and slow','Sometimes it snows in april', a few tracks on 'The Truth' and finally, 'Reflection' on musicology.
- Seventies rock also seems to be imprinted in Princes head: he covered Led Zeppelin a few times, his guitarwork is influenced by Jimi Hendrix, and on some of his records from the nineties you can hear a Queen-influence ('Thunder', 'Live for love', 'three chains of gold'). But in general Prince often grabs back to the AOR-sound (adult orientated rock) made popular by bands as Toto and Foreigner. The result is that some of his newer tracks using that style of rock ('Gold','A million days', 'Cinnamon girl', 'Fury') sound quite dated

1980 - 1990
- On his first two records Prince obviously seems influenced by the disco-sound of the late seventies / beginning of the eighties: Earth, Wind and Fire and Michael Jackson come to mind.
- Dirty Mind and Controversy seem to take influences from 'New Wave'-music, especially on Dirty Mind Princes guitar work echoes that of New Wavers as Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
- On 1999 Prince goes 'electronic', reflecting experiments in that direction by Grandmaster Flesh, Devo and the Talking Heads.
- During the late eighties / the early nineties house- and technomusic are becoming very popular in Europe. You can hear its influence popping up on Lovesexy and Batman, but especially on later records of Prince in the nineties ('I wanna melt with You', 'Space', 'Loose' and quite a lot of cuts on the third cd of the Emancipation set)

1990 - 2000
- Prince is 'flirting' a bit with New Jack Swing on several tracks on Graffiti Bridge.
- Prince is trying to incorperate rap and hip-hop on albums like Diamonds and Pearls and the Symbol Album, but he chooses the wrong rappers for it, and its obviously its not his affinity.
- As said before there are echoes of techno and house to be found on some of his songs from this period.
- Prince has showed no real interest in Grunge music, apart from wearing a 'hip' move like wearing a woodcutters-shirt in the video of 'the morning papers'.

2000 - 2006
- Some tracks on Musicology and 3121 are soundwise resembling the 'neo-soul' by artists like Erykah Badou and D'angelo.
- The same goes for the influence of 'producer-artists' like the Neptunes and Outkast, on some songs on his last records he seems influenced by them. Strange enough these are artists obviously influenced by Prince himselve, especially by his 'trademark sound' created on the records 1999 and his efforts for protegees as Vanity and the Time.

When i read this back, i see i dont have noticed Miles Davis, an artist recording and playing during most of the mentioned period, maybe this is the musician Prince is most resembling, taking tradiotional elements, mixing them with new elements, a very openminded musician who doesnt care about 'borders' but who follows his musical muse

Very good observations. Nice to know others are playing close attention.

Doo Wops Best on PBS aired on Public Broadcasting Station last nite. It occurred 2 me more than once that these artists from the 50's rooted their sound in Funk Fundamentals. Before even the Motown Sound made all of those hits the Doo Wop Sound was priming the field for Prince. This was real music by real musicians and Prince could cover any of these.

think 'm going outta my head think 'm going out of my head over U
want U 2 want me can't think of any1 but U

OUTTA MY HEAD OVER YOU DAY AND NIGHT NIGHT/DAY