This may have been discussed before:

Is Prince the music industry's very own Orson Welles? Magnificent beyond his years, a brilliant blinding light for a short space of time and then an intriguing curiosity that shone bright every now and again making everyone wonder why they had forgotten/dismissed him. Then an institution that industry insiders and media commentators began to eulogise about and yearn for a return to greatness on behalf of...

Just a thought.

BoySimon said:

This may have been discussed before:

Is Prince the music industry's very own Orson Welles? Magnificent beyond his years, a brilliant blinding light for a short space of time and then an intriguing curiosity that shone bright every now and again making everyone wonder why they had forgotten/dismissed him. Then an institution that industry insiders and media commentators began to eulogise about and yearn for a return to greatness on behalf of...

Just a thought.

I don't think there is much for comparison...except idiosycracies and sometime strokes of brilliance. But there is a movie about Orson you should see if you haven't--called "Me and Orson Welles." Very well done and the actor who plays Orson really captures the essence of him and, at times, has an uncanny resemblance to him in appearance, mannerisms, and speech.

War of the Wolds vs Planet Earth??????

mzsadii said:

War of the Wolds vs Planet Earth??????

The Martians shoulda stomped all over that thing.

more of a Charlie Chaplin. Look into it.

Genesia said:

mzsadii said:

War of the Wolds vs Planet Earth??????

The Martians shoulda stomped all over that thing.

well he isn't doing commercials for peas yet, so no.

If "For You" had been his "Sgt Pepper", maybe.

Welles and Cassavetes took acting work to fund their directing projects. They never would have signed the type of contract P signed with Warners. They prob. would've told him to use the tour money to pay for studio time.

Howard Hughes = Prince

herb4 said:

Howard Hughes = Prince

Not in a million years.

I was thinking that "Dirty Mind" would have been "War of the Worlds" and "Purple Rain", "Citizen Kane" (although, if I'm being honest I would have said that "Sign O The Times" was "Citizen Kane", but PR does appear to have been quite popular and appreciated by critics and audience alike...) I would then make "Lovesexy" the "Magnificent Ambersons".

The comparison came to mind just because of the manner in which Welles went about his business with Hollywood and then with the whole of global entertainment. He was so self assured he failed to see the inadequacies of the products he was producing. To muddy the issue, he would then produce something that was near genius - "Othello" or "The Third Man" - or would come up with something that was interesting enough to pique the interest of the masses, the industry and assuage his fans - "Macbeth" - or would unveil tosh like "Mr Arkadian" and rile at the reaction it received.

You can chart Prince's career against this.

Further, Welles was a raconteur and a charming guest. He kept audiences spellbound on chatshows and the like. Prince does this through his live tours. People hang on to his career and hope a new product will occur that reaffirms this belief.

That's why I was doing the comparing. It seemed more apt, to me, than the Howard Hughes thang.