I typed prince and kiss in youtube and came across this video, which was titled wrong because was expecting to hear "kiss" but instead heard a very funky song.When I read the comments, they were all saying how prince stole from this song to mae kiss.I listened to the song about 3 times and dont really hear a similarity except for the "you dont have to be rich" part and maybe a similar chord progression.What do you think, did he steal?

I hear the similarities, but they are different.

Naw. Remember, Prince only "wrote" the acoustic demo part which just has a very typical chord progression. What David Z and Mazerati built is what you hear on the record (minus some overdubbing).

That song is Dope!!!

Who knows, it could have been an influence... No "stealing" going on though.

The chords are a basic blues progression... It's the repetition of "You don't have to..." that I find striking....

yes

TrevorAyer said:

yes

And that song is a rip off of "Papa Got A brand New Bag". There was no escaping James Brown's influence.

for those of you saying yes, in what way are they similar except for the "you dont have to be rich" part?

Been posted before. Has similar lyric progression, but Kiss is definitely a Prince original.

You hear Prince "stealing" from Frank Williams but ignore Frank Williams "stealing" from James Brown? Hmmm.

It's typical blues...Prince added a bit of purple edge to it--- vocals and the turnaround. Just the right amount to turn it into a classic--- it was what was missing from Mazerati's version.

dekabes said:

You hear Prince "stealing" from Frank Williams but ignore Frank Williams "stealing" from James Brown? Hmmm.

It's typical blues...Prince added a bit of purple edge to it--- vocals and the turnaround. Just the right amount to turn it into a classic--- it was what was missing from Mazerati's version.

I never said prince stole from him, I said i noticed the comments on youtube of some people saying he stole alot from this song for "kiss" and am now asking if you all agree if he stole.

[Edited 5/6/11 13:03pm]

Why not? Prince straight ripped off "Bang A Gong" from T. Rex for "Cream". Marc Bolan sings "you're dirty sweet..." and Prince sings, "u'r filthy cute..." and the music is nearly identical.

dekabes said:

You hear Prince "stealing" from Frank Williams but ignore Frank Williams "stealing" from James Brown? Hmmm.

It's typical blues...Prince added a bit of purple edge to it--- vocals and the turnaround. Just the right amount to turn it into a classic--- it was what was missing from Mazerati's version.

Actually, Mazarati added the "purple" edge to it. Prince didn't do anything but sing, add a little guitar and turn off the delay effect on the hi hat. Mazarati and David Z. came up with the other tracks you hear.

steakfinger said:

Why not? Prince straight ripped off "Bang A Gong" from T. Rex for "Cream". Marc Bolan sings "you're dirty sweet..." and Prince sings, "u'r filthy cute..." and the music is nearly identical.

Oh for goodness sake! The songs have a similar groove and "swagger", particularly in the verse (even though the chords and progression are different) and the choruses are entirely different.

It might have been an influence, but a rip-off it is not. Do you realise that ALL musicians are not only influenced by all the music they hear, but they will also re-work grooves, chord progressions, WHATEVER because it caught their ear and they want to see what they can do with it. This happens constantly. As it does with all other art-forms.

He actually took Kiss from Mazarati, he just added the vocals which may have been influenced by this Frank Williams song - well spotted.

As to Bang a gong - I can't really hear the resemblence between that and Cream, a very tenuous link.

of course he did, the hook of the entire song is ny on identical.

I know lots of folks are looking for the differences, but in my book, this is more or less exactly the same song as KISS. Same progressions and harmonies, same structure, same lyrics even. If you can't see that, you studied TOO MUCH of music theory, not too less.

James did it first. All just following the Master

FunkyDissCo said:

I know lots of folks are looking for the differences, but in my book, this is more or less exactly the same song as KISS. Same progressions and harmonies, same structure, same lyrics even. If you can't see that, you studied TOO MUCH of music theory, not too less.

Track down Prince's very un-funky demo for "Kiss" and then tell me these songs sound the same. The two songs only sound similar because they are both funk. And funk IS James Brown. Both artists are swinging from JB's nuts.

[Edited 5/6/11 19:45pm]

FunkyDissCo said:

I know lots of folks are looking for the differences, but in my book, this is more or less exactly the same song as KISS. Same progressions and harmonies, same structure, same lyrics even. If you can't see that, you studied TOO MUCH of music theory, not too less.

Did you study ANY music theory?

Regardless, this isn't about "music theory" - as I said before, all art-forms borrow from what has been before. Lucas's "Star Wars" is effectively a re-telling of Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" - have you seen the latter? They're incredibly similar in plot and structure (so much so, Lucas considered buying the rights to the film!) but, of course, stylised and presented in an entirely different manner to each other.

Which, is basically what we have here with these songs and with literally tens of thousands of others! These tracks use such a common and standard blues progression, that has been repeated by other artists ad infinitum, that its simply ludicrous to accuse anyone of stealing.

carlcranshaw said:

That's nice.

Its interesting as often things I think were Prince's original touch (like the ah-aaah=ah) on Kiss, but you later hear it was in older songs too (you can hear it on this sample).

Still I guess making music is a bit like a recipe, you use existing ingredients in the process to create something new.

If you look at a lot of art in all forms in general its not as original as you may think.

[Edited 5/8/11 0:24am]

I agree there are a lot of similarities. Some of the lyrics ('you don't have to be rich..., etc.) are exact lifts and it is obvious that Williams took this jam from Papa's Got a Brand New Bag. I have to admit, I've never heard of Frank Williams & The Rocketeers before but someone has been listening to James Brown A LOT.

Good song, and yes, it is pretty obvious that this song and the final product of KISS are similar. Great find!

Good artists borrow, great artists steal.

Remember that.

Some of the live versions of "Kiss" are closer to this song than the recorded version of it. It's quite likely that he had heard the original song though.

That's not to say I'd have too much against "stealing" of this kind. It's not really that "easier" or "harder" to take someone else's idea and try to incorporate it into your own stuff in manner that works. That's how music worked for centuries until somebody came up with the copyright laws and figured out you could get money for suing other people. Classical, blues, folk etc. worked like this for ages.

"Kiss" is supposed to be "modernized" take on blues and early funk stuff in any case.

Of course, a part of the charm of using other people's ideas, as well sampling, is that there are risks involved in such things these days. There's really no need to do that for most artists that can play instruments and write their own music. So it's usually done for other reasons: artistry, protest... or just because it's fun.

[Edited 5/8/11 12:59pm]