PeteSilas said:

last week i watched some sly stones recent interviews, he sounds nothing like the young sly, then you have smokey robinson who doesn't sound much different than he ever did. It's not just discipline and care of the voice it's also in, I think, how much time a person has had to develop before they have to use their voice on a long tour or something like that. Lots of younger singers haven't really had time to develop their vocal strength to the point where it has the resilience to be used every night. That's one thing that ruins singers for sure.

Prince was smart too, he sang only falsetto for several years before he started developing everything else and I think that really worked for him. He developed his voice just like he did his dancing, with a lot of hard work and time.

Personally, I never thought of him as a great singer as we think of great singers until I saw his 2002 performance in the ONA dvd of Gotta broken heart again, that sealed it for me. Truly great.
Before that, well, too many guys like Marvin Gaye and Terence Trent Darby etc.., etc.., who were just on another level as vocalists for me to really put Prince in that class. Truth is, pop singing, generally speaing has never required great vocals, in fact, a good percentage of the greats were not great singers.

1. I thought the same for years. Now we know from the early years demos (76 to 78) that this ain't true. The falsetto was mainly a stylistical choice, maybe he didn't like it, but he had already mastered his lower register.

2. Man! Just "For You" sends a great deal of singers right back to school. "The Beautiful Ones", "Temptation", "Adore" (and counting) and you had an epiphany in... 2002? I can't begin to understand it.

[Edited 4/16/17 19:42pm]

fielder said:

He frankly didn't perform that much. His tours were for the most part short. Musiciology was his last long tour. Most artists hit the road 6 months a year every year but Prince didn't.

"Most artists" ? Provide a list. 6 months a year every year, but they put out an album every 2 (max.). "Frankly", what are you blabbering about.

As for his tours being short, just look at the below list closely, especially the days of rest between concerts.
On top of that, your "most artists" are probably "singers" who can do 2 octaves maximum, and just one color of voice, whereas Prince could croon, yelp, scream his lungs out, go nasal or being operatic.

Whereas Billy Joel always sounds like Billy Joel, and it ain't that much.

https://sites.google.com/site/princetourhistory/

[Edited 4/16/17 19:45pm]

NorthC said:

RodeoSchro said:

2020 said:

RodeoSchro said:

Apparently he definitely was a student. Here is Seth Riggs' student/client list and Prince is on it:

http://www.speechlevelsin..._list.html

This is very interesting information. Thank you for posting it!

Cool always learning something new on the org!

Am I blind. Can't find him on that list

Kat65 said: