Dance said:

yep.

Dance said:

True.....and honestly, I don't get it.

I hear some influence, but I feel it's a general influence, not something he got from listening to them for hours & hours.

I think he heard them and knew that they were considered to be among the greatest of all time. As ambitious as he is I'm sure he wanted to match their achievements.

I think his approach to making an album be a complete work of art, not just a collection of songs owes a bit to them. Maybe he learned it from Jimi & George, but they were hugely influenced by the Beatles themselves, and I think he knew that.

I think it's maybe only since Las Vegas last year that he was actually moved by their music consciously, and Come Together & Long & Winding Road crept into his setlist.

But in the end, Prince is a musician and the Beatles were too big to have not crept into his mind at some level.
[Edited 4/3/08 12:52pm]

Graycap23 said:

Come on now, rick james did on one of his albums.

mozfonky said:

Rick James started out as a ROCKER. Of course he would.

People give the Beatles WAY too much credit.

Dance said:

Much like Wendy and Lisa.

Any time anyone is proclaimed as great as the Beatles,Elvis,Jimi etc.., there will always be people claiming they are overated and give you a laundry list of why. Those people however are not even worth my time to argue with. There are many great genius' in rock history exceptional in their own ways. Prince is a part of the whole tradition. His saying he's never heard certain songs is ludicrous because I grew up on black music too and I still couldn't help being familiar with a group as big as the beatles. Oddly enough, I only purposely listened to their stuff after all the fuss about their influence on P. But like blues, certain classical songs, Beatles music has been around us all our lives. You wanna tell me that Prince's opening to "I wanna Be Your Lover" didn't sound like the Beatles "Getting Better all the Time" or if the second verse of Little Red Corvette didn't sound like Hard Days Night to you I'm sorry but it does to me.

jasontate said:

I'll keep that in mind whenever I get a chance to hear the song "Strawberry Fields," thanks

The people here calling The Beatles some 60's version of Abba are plain mad and prejudiced, probably frustated black people who have never put energy into listening to the music of this great band for real: have you ever listened to the White Album or Revolver from The Beatles, for example?

And when it comes to the influence of the Beatles on his music, i think he has 'learned' quite a lot from them.
Alltough their influence might not reach as far as that from James Brown or Sly A Stone, i personally feel his music has benefitted from it.

While i agree that with the growing songwriting and composing input from Wendy and Lisa, the Beatles influence became more evident in his music, also before that he used 'elements' of their music in his own music.
The echoed vocals on DMSR owe a lot to John Lennons experiments with funk, and a song like Annie Christian (indirectly) shows influence by the more psychedelic material of the Beatles.

Hopping forward to Around the World in a day and Parade: in the 'spirit' of the title track of ATWIAD you can hear the influence of George Harrison. Mixing exotic, eastern influences with popmusic.
The song Paisley Park, the way that its sung, can only be explained by Prince listening to a psychedelic, Lennon-sung Beatles song.
The echo on Princes vocals on Pop Life is pure Lennonesque. And he has done songs in this vein later on in his career (Animal Kingdom for example).
Christopher Traceys Parade from Parade: almost a modern day version of Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles.

Personally i feel the Beatles influence on Princes music isnt not so much literally, note to note, but more obvious when it comes to the freedom that band took when it comes to redifining what 'pop music' should sound like, and the freedom you have as a musician to express yourself in any way you want.

To be more concrete, with the Beatles 'groundwork' there would probably have never been farrreaching musical 'suites' like Crystal Ball and In All my dreams.

Graycap23 said:

I dont know that I believe that Funk is Prince's main musical foundation or that he even has just one.

Sure Prince is FUNKY but I dont see him as a purist he certainly hasnt been
one of those FUNK artists that just play FUNK.

I believe Funk would have been amongst Prince's earl;y musical influences andI suspect that was mostly from James Brown whom I would say along with Jimi Hendrix was probably 2 of his main idols but as Prince has said he was into Joni Mitchel I suspect he was partially into the Stones an certainly from his Fathers indluence he heard lot of Jazz and bsoul and probably Blues.

Prince's broad catalogue to me shows me he isnt purely a Funk artist and even though I think that genre is big part of his music I dont think Prince would be happy just sticking to playing 1 style of music the guys a Gemini he needs variety.

Lol...

The ones 'believing' in Prince like some pure funk-creature, like Graycap23 tends to show, almost appear as some smallminded, dogmatic people.

Get a life, music is so much broader then your frustated prejudices.

syble said:

Well I wouldnt have expected Prince to be into Joni Mitchel so really I wouldnt guess for sure that Prince old man didnt have a few Beatles records playing occasionaly, sometimes people stereotype things too much another thing I wouldnt be suprised if back in the day Prince and his family didnt even use your black steretyped homeboy ..."yo" remember Prince was teenager in the 70's not late 80's or early 90's, or did you think he was a homeboy back then
[Edited 4/3/08 17:19pm]

Prince listened to the Beatles - from an interview over 10 years agon:

Q: What has fatherhood meant to you, creatively?
A. I don't know if I know yet. What I do know is that it makes me conscious of, more than anything, education. The first time I saw a person of color in a book, the person was hung from a tree. That was my introduction to African-American history in this country. And again, going back to doing the total recall that I did, I know that that experience set a fire in me to be free.

You know that song, "Let It Be"? There's a lot of heaviness in that song. We should pay attention to that. If I was in charge of the government, I would make it mandatory that, at least once a year, we have a Chill Day—where everybody just kicked back and watched. Everybody's so caught up in (the rat race), that we never really sit back and watch.
-----
link:
http://www.petergillis.ne...61117a.htm
[Edited 4/3/08 19:18pm]

You dont seem to get it, graycap and other smallminded creatures....

You try to push the musician Prince into some narrow area, ruled by your silly, smallminded ideas about race and skin colour.

Prince might have made some severe mistakes about dealing with subjects like slavery and race issues (Exodus, the rainbow children), but in a musical sense, i really think he understands the Beatles are way superior compared to slick disco-funk bands like Earth, wind and fire, Rick James and Cameo.

Graycap, p-funk is a thing of the seventies....get a life

Graycap23 said:

lol
Graycap23 , Wendy & Lisa sitting on a tree, K I S S-INGeeeee

graycap loooves wendy and lisa

SquirrelMeat said:

It AMAZES me how much undue credit some of you continue to lavish upon Wendy & Lisa in terms of their influence on Prince. It is blown so far out of proportion that it is laughable. W&L did NOT expose Prince to Joni Mitchell. That is as ludicrous as a post I saw on here a few weeks ago that claimed Eric Leeds "hipped Prince to jazz."

Joni Mitchell said herself that Prince was at one of her concerts when he was a young teenager and wrote her fanmail. PLEASE check your facts.

"Of all the musicians and rappers who have cited you as an influence, whose work do you appreciate most?

Prince. Prince attended one of my concerts in Minnesota. I remember seeing him sitting in the front row when he was very young. He must have been about 15. He was in an aisle seat and he had unusually big eyes. He watched the whole show with his collar up, looking side to side. You couldn’t miss him—he was a little Prince-ling. [Laughs.] Prince used to write me fan mail with all of the U’s and hearts that way that he writes. And the office took it as mail from the lunatic fringe and just tossed it! [Laughs.]"

http://nymag.com/nymetro/...pop/11888/

Riverpoet31 said:

This is hilarious coming from you. Of course you are not prejudiced, especially not when you make statments like:

Riverpoet31 said:

What was his mistake? Addressing race with audiences who are afraid to face facts and history (past and modern)? Your comments are very suspect. However, they affirm a lot. Keep 'em coming.

So are these songs more like Beatles or P-Funk?:

Purple Rain, Paisley Park, The Ladder, Around The World in a Day, Tambourine, Starfish and Coffee, Sign O' The Times, The Cross, Pop Life,Planet Earth, 3121, Little Red Corvette, Bob George... Crystal Ball...

Listen to Revolution 9, Why don't We do It in The Road, Day in the Life, Magical Mystery tour, Eleanor Rigby, Savoy Truffle, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts club Band, Helter Skelter, Baby You're a rich Man, Let it Be,

Riverpoet31 said:

Oh larwd.....

blackguitaristz said:

WOW! Sorry to have gotten you all bent outta shape over a simple comment I made. I think its plain to read that my response 'George Clinton was' is just a straight forward answer to this earlier post. 'No funk artists were influenced by the beatles' they claimed and I responded that George Clinton was, due to an interview he gave in a magazine that I read maybe 5 or 6 years ago. They gave a comment over their lack of influence on any funk arists and I said that this was not so. Now whether my comment was not up to your own standards, well then, what can I really do about that? Pretty funny line though about 'the toast to go with his jelly!' I have to admit.

[Edited 4/3/08 21:58pm]
[Edited 4/4/08 23:57pm]

blackguitaristz said:

okay no problem

Some very good points have been raised.


some of you here obviously have a very good musical history knowledge but still that doesnt mean Prince was actually influenced by The Beatles whether you like them or not.

This brings us back to the question of 'influence'.

Are some of you suggesting that the similarities you offer up are attempts to emulate those records?

Or do you think Prince has unwittingly created similarities through having heard them in his youth?



I apologise if I made any stereotypical comments earlier - that was not my intention as we all know what you type sometimes sounds good in your head but can be read very differently by someone else as we are after all different nationalities.

sometimes you have to just chill and not start a fight in a thread cos it dont really matter in the big picture

Graycap23 said:

Yeah, how dare anyone think of those white women be anything but objects of lust for his beautiful black manliness?

viewaskew said:

ooooohhhh

now now

I believe Prince has heard the Beatles Im not saying he is major fan or has spent regular hours listening but I imagine he would be familiar with their music and has stylistically taken some influence from them as can be seen and heard in ATWIAD and Parade.





good point.

[/quote]

true dat.
[Edited 4/4/08 4:01am]

viewaskew said:

How do u really feel?

Riverpoet31 said:

As opposed 2 the Beatles who were a thing of the 60's?

Last I checked, P-Funk is still releasing records and touring.
[Edited 4/4/08 6:21am]