This week there is a thread on Princes site 3121.com that in a quasi-cryptic way 'accuses' Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis from stealing from Princes music.

A very hypocritical action IMO, because Prince himself has 'stolen' a lot from musicians that came before him. Not that i am structurally against using influences from other artists, but i consider it hyprocritical accusing Jam and Lewis of doing the same thing, when Prince himself troughout his whole career has used elements of other artists to 'create' his music.

For example:

There would be no Kiss, Musicology, The Work or Prettyman without James Brown.

Prince owes a lot to George Clinton for songs like The Grind, Eye Know and Erotic City.

Without The Beatles Prince wouldn't have made colourfull pop-songs like Raspberry Beret, Christopher Tracey's Parade and Starfish Coffee.

Songs like Sometimes it snows in april and Comeback owe a lot of their folksy intimacy to Joni Mitchell.

In one sentence: Prince, dont blame others for things you are doing yourself too.

link?

Riverpoet31 said:

He would probably be the first to agree with you too.

As he said nothing when some of these people called out their influence on him...(.not that I know of..)

He signed P-Funk.

Your agrument holds more weight if he responded to JB, George, etc. like some of that acts that channel his sounds today respond.

BTW: "Mountains" and "Large Roon w/no Light" is very Earth Wind & Fire produced by him.


http://www.youtube.com/wa...JuG4fJ26WU
[Edited 12/11/07 13:58pm]

I just got the reference to "Pull up to my Bumper" by Grace Jones..

No, he won't be making any music like this again..

Good for him.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...JuG4fJ26WU
[Edited 12/11/07 13:58pm]

Honestly, with his "Blue Limousine" thread, he gives me the impression of some sour, bitter man acting rather childish when it comes to musicians who have used his influence.

It appears to me like he is bragging about his influence, like: See, Jam and Lewis, stole my music! But the fact that he comes up with this 20 years later, makes me think he is an immature fellow, overrating himself in a cheap way.

Like someones cares about the prefabricated lingerie-trio Appolonia 6 nowadays.

You know what? All that really matters to me any more is how the music sounds. I don't really have the patience for all incessant chatter such as this. I rejoined the org cuz of the .org Artist community forum, nothing more.

Riverpoet31 said:

What the heck are you talking about? When did Prince accuse anyone of stealing something? You folks take most things and totally blow them out of proportion.
[Edited 12/10/07 14:17pm]

WisdomNLove said:

You sound relaxed.

TANKAEFC said:

I hear you. I think some people read waaay too much into what's posted there. I say just enjoy the free music. If he didn't put any on there, then people would complain.

I can never express enough, how music on occasion is bound to have some similarities...It's easier to love it all than it iz to tear anything apart looking for a thread of duplication.

Riverpoet31 said:

Its a completely different view from where Prince stands in this debate and I also think you are taking far too seriously a fairly light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek statement.

See, when you go to write aboue Prince's influences (and they are "influences", there's an important distinction here) just look at all the great names (and, as a consequence, their differing styles) that you have to mention. Just to say an artist sounds like James Brown, if a genuine and supportable view, is a HUGE complement - to then say in the same paragraph that the same artist also sounds like George Clinton, the Beatles and Joni Mitchell is extremely flattering and rare.

Now, here are the differences when it comes to Jam and Lewis. Both men I respect - they are great producers, certainly have talent, have gone on to produce some of the biggest singles and albums....BUT, they haven't innovated like Prince and, in fact, really are just a re-hash of what Prince does. You can't say Jam & Lewis sound like all the artists you quoted for Prince, because they don't. In fact, when you consider their work, most of the time you would say, "Hmm, that sounds like Prince". They were around the whole time that Prince was pretty much single-handedly (and unwittingly) creating the Minneapolis sound that defined a generation of music, learned from him and went off and did it themselves.

Prince took many influences, and created something new and bold. J&L took their one influence, copied it and milked it for all it was worth. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing wrong with Prince jibing about it either.

Neither has he waited 20 years to do it - he's said many things like this in the past, including specific comments about J&L. Most musician do it at some stage or another, much like boxers like to rile their competitors before a fight, but there's always the respect following the bout.

.
[Edited 12/10/07 20:36pm]

Mindflux said:

wow what great feed-back Mindflux. I totally enjoyed what u just wrote and its so true

lol he needs to stop
I just now heard this SOS song playing i guess off the blue limosine song

*link to music video*
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kT0p_3MCPZI

and I was a HUGE fan of blue limosine but this song "Borrowed Love" is just FUNKY AS HELL , one member of the SOS band can outfunk and outsing all 3 members of vanity 6 and hell, thankyou Prince for letting me discover a great song maybe he's just mad did not put more time in finding members with talent instead of ones with great titties...but anyways this ish happened like 2 DECADES AGO! I was only like a baby when it happened.....leave the past be, noone cares anymore, and just post up some good vanity 6 media clips Prince for us YOUNGER FANS who didnt experience the true greatness of 80s music first hand!
[Edited 12/10/07 22:12pm]
[Edited 12/10/07 22:13pm]

mehogeni said:

look up all SOS Band on youtube.. listen to all of it.. funky
this is my jam

http://www.youtube.com/wa...DM_VRElgDQ

Anji said:

Mindflux said:

yeah but when we find out that some of prince's original sounds were "borrowed" from his childhood friends like morris and andre who is to say that prince didn't borrow something created by jam and lewis too? could it be that the tongue in cheek similarities that prince poked fun at actually were jam and lewis' to begin with?
[Edited 12/10/07 22:56pm]

i challenge anyone of you to leave an unfinished HOT composition within princes grasp and walk away from it. You'll see it a year later with credits that read Written, produced, composed, and performed by .... U fill in the blanks i aint gettin sued.

or...listen to robert palmer's "dr., dr.....gimme the news, i got a bad case of lovin' you..." (i don't know the title of the song or what album it's on); then put your copy of new power soul in and skip to "come on".....notice any similarities? i did.....

There's something strange going on over there, but I just can't figure it out, who else is running that site cause it stinks more than NPGMC.

sosgemini said:

he got me there

sosgemini said:

Good Point!

peedub said:

You know that a Robert Palmer is listed in the credits for "Come 2 My House"?

Maybe, they met, or he knew Chaka from her stays in London.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...JuG4fJ26WU

dreamshaman32 said:

Alot of "blanks there buddy".

No body ever said that Prince stole anything.

It s seems that when a performer collaborates with someone, several songs can be pulled-out of one jam session.

That's true with anyone. We all have ideas. It's a shame that all these ideas cannot be shared until its all protected and sealed in DC, or copryrighted and patented internationally.

Still, Prince is the best of the lot, and gave those under his wing opportunities (and they will always have opportunities from being associated with him).

So, these people that some bitter-orgers in this thread are "carrying a torch for" probably won't ever feel as angry about this page.

sosgemini said:

Yeah, but you'll probably find that Jam and Lewis don't care, and would probably agree with him (since we're dealing in "Maybe's" and "probabilities").

The connection between them is deeper than any of us know.

Riverpoet31 said:

There seems to be alot of "bitter and old" here also...
[Edited 12/15/07 14:42pm]