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: Come Together, 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,..

Very good question, Ufoclub

ufoclub said:

I am failing 2 equate that question with INFLUENCE.....Am I missing something?

Graycap23 said:

Because they need the money ....unlike any living Beatle

Some specific influences IMO (direct or indirect, brought in by Wenda and Lisa or by himself):

DMSR, Pop life: the 'John lennon'-echo on the vocals

Paisley Park, Animal Kingdom: the beatlesque melody-lines

Raspberry Beret: the string section (reminds me of Eleanor Rigby indirectly)

Christopher Traceys Parade: Magical Mystery Tour (Clare Fisher 'being' Princes' George Martin on this song)

Starfish and coffee: the use of wind-up tapes creating psychedelic sounds in the background

Seven: the sitar-accents

Gold: the na-na-na-na-na-naaah outtro

Dark: has a beatlesque bridge

Those are the ones that come to mind at first, but there are probably more examples.

Next to that i see more 'general' influences when it comes to the lyrical themes Prince has used and the freedom he takes in composing and arranging his material.

The ATWIAD-album: searching for the happy 'utopia'. Paisley Park is sort of Princes' Strawberry fields. Its there in the colourfull, cryptic artwork too.

In all my dreams, Crystal Ball: 'suite'-like songs consisting of several parts with different musical styles. The Beatles were groundbreaking in that field (A Day in the life, Strawberry fields).

And when it comes to "While my guitar gently weeps" it could sure be that he didnt know that song before he performed it at the RRHOF. Maybe he didnt own or listened to the White Album, where that song comes from. But i am sure he listened to other material by the Beatles.
I have also read reports that Prince was so enthousiastic about the "Love" show by Circque de Soleil (a performance based on remixes of Beatles material, done by George Martin) that he advised all his bandmembers at that time, to visit that show.

I would seriously doubt prince never heard the harrison song, either growing up or as an adult. Especially in white minneapolis. The beatles were always played on the radio there along with many other white groups, and this has been documented in prince bios since the mid 80's. Now you say, he never listened to white music, well until i was sixteen i rarely intentionally listened to a lot of things, and i can't tell you how,when or where i heard a zillion songs but i'm telling you that we as musicians and americans do hear all of it. it's in the air around us. Prince is doing his big headed thing that he always does, in the eighties he used to say he never listened to any other music than his own, that's impossible because it was obvious he was hip to so many things going on at the time.

I don't hear many examples where he specifically sounds like the Beatles, but there are a couple.

I Wonder U--Aside from the funky guitar, it could easily be on the White Album.

Purple Rain--Doesn't sound like the Beatles, but it could easily be on Plastic Ono Band or Imagine. The sparse instrumentation with the slow beat and oddly phrased & echoed vocal is totally Lennon.

That doesn't mean he copied them or even listened to them, but I think he couldn't help but be influenced by them, growing up when he did. He does play rock & roll after all!

NDRU said:

Dig NDRU, funny u mention Lennon and the song Purple Rain. U know P "borrowed" some of Lennon's lyric's from Lennon's "Woman".
Woman:
"I never meant to cause you sorrow or pain"
Sounds a bit familiar, yes?

mozfonky said:

I agree with You, Im not knocking Prince but I have felt for a long time its his style to remain mysterious to the public and media and not really give full account of things, people can say what they want but really I think and feel the cat is like that.

blackguitaristz said:

Yeah, I remember you mentioned that once before Something I'd never noticed.

I also forgot to mention the "horn" part in the middle of Diamonds & Pearls, very Sgt Pepper.

I have never thought Prince was really into the Beatles, but it's pretty unimaginable that he doesn't have some respect for them. Lennon comes up in Annie Christian, several Beatles tunes are mentioned in the liner notes of One Night Alone, and supposedly he's been covering Come Together & Long & Winding Road. Even Shiela's been playing w/Ringo.

Prince is just too diverse a musician to not focus on the supposed "greatest band of all time" for a minute or two--and then try to do something better!

NDRU said:

This sounds more like Jimi Hendrix imo.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...C3lKBlbL60

[Edited 4/5/08 13:46pm]

The Beatles?
coughcoughOVERRATEDcoughcough.

[Edited 4/5/08 18:42pm]

JazzMeUp said:

I'm thinking this

NDRU said:

Ah yes, I can see where you are coming from now (especially the beat), but I still think Purple Rain is closer to the style of Angel. The tone of voice is uplifting and the guitar present in both songs whereas John Lennon's tone drags you down a bit.

JazzMeUp said:

yeah that Lennon album (Plastic Ono Band) isn't the happiest album!

I definitely wouldn't argue against Jimi's prescence in Prince's music, it's more clearly there than is The Beatles'.

Prince raps....he MUST have been influenced by Eminem
Prince does Reggea....he MUST have been influenced by Matisyahu
Prince does jazz.....he MUST have been influenced by Benny Goodman
Prince does ballads...he MUST have been influeneced by Pat Boone
Prince Acts.....he Must have been influenced by Elvis
Prince wears shoes....he MUST have been influeneced by Moses
Prince drives a car....he MUST have be influened by Henry Ford.....



on....and on.....

Graycap23 said:

I ALWAYS get that one wrong,
here's another one

There are a total of 12 oranges 12 apples and 12 mangoes in 3 bags. What is the probability of obtaining an orange from one bag?

A_ : 4/12
B_ : 3/12
C_ : 12/64
D : cannot be determined
The Correct Answer is: D
[Edited 4/6/08 17:08pm]

Graycap23 said:

OMG I say this all the time and like VainAndy likes to say that W & L watered down P's sound and while I like some of that stuff. I am glad P could do Let's Work and DMSR and where is the Beatles influence in that. He could do that but could the Beatles do that.

One of the FUNKIEST songs ever is the Beatles "Tomorow Never Knows"
Is that one of the funkiest drumbeats ever or what!

From the beginning to the end of them they were biting other people HARD.

Graycap23 said:

None of knows anything about Prince, right? But it doesn't hurt to speculate. Would you be so bugged if we said he was influenced by James Brown?

NDRU said:

It's NOT about race. It is about FACTS though.....

Graycap23 said:

I didn't say anything about race. I'm talking about who you WANT Prince to be influenced by. You seem to think Prince is all about funk, but he plays rock, too.

I've always said I personally don't believe he was a big fan, but the FACTS are he's covered their songs and mentioned Lennon several times, and that he grew up when they were the biggest band around.

Why shouldn't they have influenced him, at least in a small way?
[Edited 4/7/08 10:50am]

NDRU said:

Why shouldn't some random "rock" bands have influenced him? Why shouldn't the local bands he was exposed to as a kid have infulenced him? Why shouldn't any of the craploads of artists he was familiar with coming up that the Beatles imitated have influenced him?

Dance said:

you're right, why shouldn't they?

NDRU said:

Want? Lol.....

Graycap23 said:

well, maybe who you don't want him to be influenced by would be a better choice of words. Hell, I didn't want him to like that Joan Osborne, but he did.

NDRU said:

Reality check. Most artist are only influenced by 2 or 3 people at most. The Beatles 4 Prince are NOT one of them. Just the FACTS.....why are u so mad about that? In the end, who really cares?
[Edited 4/7/08 12:09pm]

Graycap23 said:

okay neither of us is mad, but I don't agree that an artist is only influenced by 2 or 3 people.

However, I'd definitely agree that The Beatles are not in Prince's top 2 or 3 if that helps.