Okay orgers, let's see how good your knowledge of classic rock truly is because that's the genre Prince borrows lots of song titles from. Many of you might be surprised to know that he didn't come up with some of hismore pictyuresque titles but the truth is out there and music lover likeme has enough records from a wide variety of artists to suss him out. I'm excluding titles such as 'Round And Round' or 'Love' which are far too generic, instead I shoot for so-called unique titles.

Shall we begin???

Let's make it fun. I know the names of the songs, artists and the albums Prince took these titles from, so I'll list the song and let's see how many of you really know Prince, and who equally know artists from other backgrounds. Hint, he usually takes the titles from folks you should already know are his main inspirations. Also, if you know of some I'm unaware of, please list them and educate me further...

1. Cinnamon Girl

2. Sugar Walls

3. Beautiful Strange

4. Ice Cream Castles

5. Splash

6. Shockadelica

7. Sign 'O' The Times

8. Loving Cup (94 East)

9. A Million Days

10. Shhh

11. Clouds

12. Purple And Gold

13. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

14. Electric Intercourse (not entirely, but the lyric from the artist goes "electric love penetrates", imagery close enough)

Power Of Soul - honorable mention - sound familiar?

We'll start with these 14 off the top of my head. Also, you could literally connect all of Prince's most common imagery and motifs: Moonbeams, rainbows, purple, velvet, rain, gardens, paradise, dreams, heaven water, waterfalls, castles, sea, daydreams, starfish, flowers, gold and roses, just to name a few, can be found exclusively on ONE Jimi Hendrix album alone. So, don't let our boy fool ya when he claims to not be influenced much by the Late Master, because the psychadelic evidence is there and when I claim to know an artists catalogue, I mean it.

Have at it PurplePeople, (I made that one up)...

There is a 1972 soft rock song called "Ventura Highway" by the band America...it includes this lyric in the second verse....

Wishin' on a falling star
Watchin' for the early train
Sorry boy, but I've been hit by
Purple rain
Aw, come on Joe, you can always
Change your name
Thanks a lot son, just the same

Aren't you coping the Sex Pistols for most of your handle? OMG!

SoulAlive said:

There is a 1972 soft rock song called "Ventura Highway" by the band America...it includes this lyric in the second verse....

Wishin' on a falling star
Watchin' for the early train
Sorry boy, but I've been hit by
Purple rain
Aw, come on Joe, you can always
Change your name
Thanks a lot son, just the same

Never knew that one... and Hendrix sings of the "crying blue rain" from In From The Storm.

SoulAlive said:

Stevie Wonder has a song called "Purple Raindrops".

SanMartin said:

"She walked in through the out door, out door..." from Raspberry Beret cops the title of Led Zeppelin's 1979 album.

Titled such because, as Robert Plant explained, after 3 years absence and a changing musical climate, it's the hardest way to get in.

ashynevermind said:

So, don't let our boy fool ya when he claims to not be influenced much by the Late Master, because the psychadelic evidence is there and when I claim to know an artists catalogue, I mean it.

When did Prince claim he wasn't influenced by Hendrix?

Noodled24 said:

ashynevermind said:

So, don't let our boy fool ya when he claims to not be influenced much by the Late Master, because the psychadelic evidence is there and when I claim to know an artists catalogue, I mean it.

When did Prince claim he wasn't influenced by Hendrix?

in a 1985 RollingStone interview he said the only similarity between us is that we're both black... and clothes and song titles and faces I make when I play guitar.

C'mon, Noodle, play the game, give it a try if you're a real Princite!

ashynevermind said:

Noodled24 said:

When did Prince claim he wasn't influenced by Hendrix?

in a 1985 RollingStone interview he said the only similarity between us is that we're both black... and clothes and song titles and faces I make when I play guitar.

C'mon, Noodle, play the game, give it a try if you're a real Princite!

Well, again you've made most of that up. IIRC He kind of side steps the question and claims he's more influenced by Santana - Which makes sense. His solos often resemble Santana more than Hendrix.

Musically his studio work rarely resembles Hendrix, especially not in style. His on stage persona however when holding a guitar is obviously all from Jimmy.

The fact Jimmy Hendix used the word "flowers" or "clouds" and Prince has also used these words is a complete non-fact. Things get more interesting when it's phrases or a lyric as it shows a likely influence.

I guess when you write more than 1,000 songs it's entirely possible there will be some title duplication with other artists.

When my daughter was about 6, she started saying 'Goodnight" to me with the following phrase: "A thousand hugs and kisses!" At the time, neither of us knew Prince had a song by the same title.

It just happens sometimes. Ask Sam Smith, LOL.

ashynevermind said:

Noodled24 said:

When did Prince claim he wasn't influenced by Hendrix?

in a 1985 RollingStone interview he said the only similarity between us is that we're both black... and clothes and song titles and faces I make when I play guitar.

C'mon, Noodle, play the game, give it a try if you're a real Princite!

Prince also wrote a song called Silly Games.

There's zero chance an artist of Prince's massive output won't end up using a few words or even whole musical parts that someone came up with before him, especially with his habit of recording whole songs in a few hours. Now we have Google to search for lyrics, wasn't always this easy to make sure your words are original enough. As well, a lot of this is an intentional reference, a wink or a nod -- for instance Pink Floyd and the Stones in FixUr Life up.l

You should come out with your answers so we finally get to roasting 'smores round the campfire.

Aerogram said:

ashynevermind said:

in a 1985 RollingStone interview he said the only similarity between us is that we're both black... and clothes and song titles and faces I make when I play guitar.

C'mon, Noodle, play the game, give it a try if you're a real Princite!

Prince also wrote a song called Silly Games.

There's zero chance an artist of Prince's massive output won't end up using a few words or even whole musical parts that someone came up with before him, especially with his habit of recording whole songs in a few hours. Now we have Google to search for lyrics, wasn't always this easy to make sure your words are original enough. As well, a lot of this is an intentional reference, a wink or a nod -- for instance Pink Floyd and the Stones in FixUr Life up.l

You should come out with your answers so we finally get to roasting 'smores round the campfire.

ok, if you noticed I didn;t include common titles like Silly Games, but Ice Cream castles is a bit uncommon unless you know where he got the title. I thought there'd be more pple trying to figure these out but I guess it takes a erson of acertain age group. Google won't help really if you don't the artist he took it from.

Noodled24 said:

ashynevermind said:

in a 1985 RollingStone interview he said the only similarity between us is that we're both black... and clothes and song titles and faces I make when I play guitar.

C'mon, Noodle, play the game, give it a try if you're a real Princite!

Well, again you've made most of that up. IIRC He kind of side steps the question and claims he's more influenced by Santana - Which makes sense. His solos often resemble Santana more than Hendrix.

Musically his studio work rarely resembles Hendrix, especially not in style. His on stage persona however when holding a guitar is obviously all from Jimmy.

The fact Jimmy Hendix used the word "flowers" or "clouds" and Prince has also used these words is a complete non-fact. Things get more interesting when it's phrases or a lyric as it shows a likely influence.

OK Mister Noodles, the part I made up fromthe interview I made clear, but not the part about them both being black, second, you pick two words, count how many motifs I pointed out, go ahead, P's all over the Electric Ladyland album, Sugar walls is from a hendrix song and u think Prince didn't know this plus Beautiful strange? Boy, prince had got his own set of disciples to help him thru the apocalypse.

ashynevermind said:

Noodled24 said:

Well, again you've made most of that up. IIRC He kind of side steps the question and claims he's more influenced by Santana - Which makes sense. His solos often resemble Santana more than Hendrix.

Musically his studio work rarely resembles Hendrix, especially not in style. His on stage persona however when holding a guitar is obviously all from Jimmy.

The fact Jimmy Hendix used the word "flowers" or "clouds" and Prince has also used these words is a complete non-fact. Things get more interesting when it's phrases or a lyric as it shows a likely influence.

OK Mister Noodles, the part I made up fromthe interview I made clear, but not the part about them both being black,

Yes. Which is why I pointed it out. and said what I said.

second, you pick two words, count how many motifs I pointed out, go ahead, P's all over the Electric Ladyland album, Sugar walls is from a hendrix song and u think Prince didn't know this plus Beautiful strange? Boy, prince had got his own set of disciples to help him thru the apocalypse.

At no point have I claimed Prince wasn't influenced by Jimmy Hendrix. The faces, thats all Hendrix. Of all the songs you named which were inspired by Hendrix lyrics, how many sound like Jimmy musically? Beautiful Strange is everything I'd expect from Prince "doing" Hendix. Ice Cream Castles? seems to share only the name.

Noodled24 said:

ashynevermind said:

Yes. Which is why I pointed it out. and said what I said.

second, you pick two words, count how many motifs I pointed out, go ahead, P's all over the Electric Ladyland album, Sugar walls is from a hendrix song and u think Prince didn't know this plus Beautiful strange? Boy, prince had got his own set of disciples to help him thru the apocalypse.

At no point have I claimed Prince wasn't influenced by Jimmy Hendrix. The faces, thats all Hendrix. Of all the songs you named which were inspired by Hendrix lyrics, how many sound like Jimmy musically? Beautiful Strange is everything I'd expect from Prince "doing" Hendix. Ice Cream Castles? seems to share only the name.

Again, you don't get it, this isn't a musical comparison, it's song titles from obscure sources, Ice Cream Castles is from a JOni Mitchell tune, you mean you don't even know about Shockadelica?

Prince stole "Dead on it" from James Brown.

And "Big Fun" from Miles Davis and Kool and the Gang.

There is a Miles Davis song called VENUS DE MILO on his BIRTH OF THE COOL album

madhouseman said:

There is a Miles Davis song called VENUS DE MILO on his BIRTH OF THE COOL album

Forgot about that one. 'Splash' and 'Shhh' from In A Silent Way box set.