mozfonky said:

True. But once one person shouts out something, loads of people tend to follow. Prince has been compared to alot of people during his career. From Stevie Wonder to Jimi Hendrix, but this has often to do with marketing, or pinpointing a new act.
Black guys playing guitar all have been compared to Jimi at one point in their careers. Just like every two years a 'new' Prince rises, from Terence Trent D'Arby up to Van Hunt.

But the Sly comparison has always been an easy one; Prince's multi-cultural roots was, in retrospect, I think, more founded on Larry Graham's band than on Sly's.
Prince's music also more closey mirrored Larry Graham's music.

HamsterHuey said:

I don't know, Larry reinvented the bass and did most of that with Sly but i saw and heard plenty of sly in Prince. Jimi too. Haven't heard much of Larry's solo stuff, that I can remember. One In a Million and maybe a few others. Sly had hits for the ages. A genius in his own right. I do believe the comparisons were justified and also a compliment.

mozfonky said:

Many say that Princes band leadership is direct from James Brown. Whilst i agree somewhat with this statement, i believe he shares sly's leadership in equal measure. whenever i watch live clips of james brown and sly, i see more sly in his band control. im sure this will get argued out to death!!!!

IF you really want to break it down, I'ld say he borrowed from Larry Graham, Sly Stone and james Brown alike.

But the real FEEL of it all, including thanking God in his liner notes, he stole from Graham.
Also, what was the name of the forst band he was in? Right; he partly ripped off Graham Central Station's name.

Then again, he calls out Maceo in the same way JB did, in his Chocolate demo.

Let's just say he took the best from all and created his own thing.

I didn't think much of it, I was about 12..but was still excited when I heard Sign O The Times was coming out, so I knew Prince was going to continue making music.. funny part is I live in a generally small populated area, so at the local record store I basically had to special order alllll of my music. So when I placed my order for Sign O The Times.. the guy says dont you mean by Prince and the Revolution.... I'm like NOPE, they broke up this is a Prince release... Come to think of it, it probably sounded pretty cocky for a kid to say it matter-of-factly to a record store owner.. So when it did arrive at the store I picked it up and said, I told you so, no Revolution...lol