prince had a lot of band members ,some stayed for a few months and some for more then a deade.
so my question is:
everyone influanced prince ,but what was the influance ?
john blackwell influanced prince's drumming style.
prince's drumming style was more simple in the pocket before john blackwell arrived.
but if you listen to songs like "glass cutter" u can notice that prince's drumming style is diffrent and very under the inlfuance of john blackwell.

i bet a lot of prince fans think its john on drums on
glass cutter,but its prince on all instruments.

rhonda influanced prince's bass playing,his style was more raw
,funky on bass but if u listen to song like
everywhere from rainbow children prince plays a bass solo that is pure rhonda.
he added rhondas suptility and sophisticated style of bass playing.

wendy and lisa opened prince mind to a more acoustic mellow side of him aND INTRODUCED HIM TO SOME CLASSICAL music.

I think P and his band members have both influenced each other (whether he admits it or not). Wendy stated when P started "A.T.W.I.A.D", he asked everyone in the band to bring him tapes of other artists he wasn't hip to. So they brought him tapes of The Beatles, Led Zep, Miles, and some classical and jazz artists.

And Sonny T has already said that he introduced P to Jimi, Tower Of Power, and Grand Funk in their earlier years. I'm sure P has snatched a little from his band members and kind of made it his own thing.

P's drumming was a little "out there" from 86 to 88 when he and Shelia were kickin' it. And I also noticed P really didn't start playing bass live until he started going to MeShell gigs in 93. I guess he saw her killin' it and he decided to follow.

are u sure prince didnt listen to led zeppelin when he was a kid?
he listened to white rock station,only 3 or 4% of people were black so he was exposed to grand funk railroad,led zeppelin,chicago,boston...

A lot of folks (myself included, to a certain degree) feel that Prince's piano solo on "The Dance" (3121 album version) was inspired by Renato Neto's playing. There's a good thread about it on HQ: http://www.housequake.com...did=108047

thebanishedone said:

He stated many times he listened to Hendrix.

I don't think you can overstate Andre Cymone's influence on P.

piano solo on the dance is prince
i thought it was renato

thebanishedone said:

Not everything is NPG- present influence
[Edited 1/2/09 19:50pm]

ThreadBare said:

very valid point Thready

toots what did ytou meant to say with this;
"Not everything is NPG- present influence"???

thebanishedone said:

http://www.housequake.com...did=108047 you make the call

ThreadBare said:

I think he and Dez played a huge part in Prince's sound early on.

It's funny how Underrated their influence was on Prince, and how overrated Lisa and Wendy's influence was.

Paris9748430 said:

I don't think it's really funny. Both Andre and Dez left before Prince hit the "big time". Certainly his music produced during the 84-87 period would get the most attention. It happens to coincide with, arguably, the era in which he appears to have grown the most as an artist as well.

On top of that, Prince made mention of W&L's contributions more openly (despite a lot of it going uncredited) than he has anyone else. He talked about it during the 1985 MTV interview on the set of UTCM and it was talked about a year later in a Rolling Stone cover story on W&L.

jtfolden said:

Good points. But I think, if you look at how the women's publicized influence coincided with P's very overt efforts to cross over ("look at these cufflinks -- they cost money"), it's a more nuanced comparison. Dre and Dez helped Prince with the sound and feel that got him established very early on with some very radio-friendly grooves and rockers.

toejam said:

I'm not sure why folks thought that at all.

That was such classic Prince piano. He's played like that 4 many years now.

Yet Prince's piano in "Get On The Boat" is straight musica latina, though Renato is Brasilian.

ANYHOW... Prince gets inspired by some of his band members approach and style.

An example that I've never mentioned is Lisa's chord voicings, and specifically the way she spread them out. Prince even publicly admitted his appreciation.

I always thought the most influential members were Sheila E and Eric Leeds. Yes, Sonny T would have 2 be included, because of their early history.
[Edited 1/3/09 6:35am]