I don’t know a great deal about the art of singing, but for me Prince’s strength as a singer was his subtlety and control rather than brute power, especially in the studio. Maybe it was just dedication and constant practice, I can’t imagine there being an extended period in which he didn’t use his voice. I imagine that most voices will begin to change eventually though. The character of Jimmy Scott’s voice changed as he entered his 70s and 80s, but he retained remarkable power and control right until the end (he's probably an acquired taste though).

discipline has a lot to do with it, that means discipline in terms of how you live and how you sing and how you rest your voice. Springsteen says his voice is better than ever, Billy Joel's voice got better with time and Elvis was much more versatile as an older singer. Lots of guys damage their voice with drugs, alcohol and overuse as well as not practicing anymore. Smoking of anything is bad for the vocal chords as is alcohol. And just as many singer probably ruined their voices touring relentlessly. They say Steve Perry blew out his voice, there were always rumours during the Bad tour that MJ shot his voice out and he never seemed to sing live after that.

I've always wondered this myself. It was probably a combination of luck and discipline, he can still hit C#6's in 2016.

He was singing "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore" better than ever on the Piano and a Microphone tour.

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.

67Cadillac said:

PeteSilas said:

I was saying the very same thing. Even on his last shows when he looked so thin and weak, his voice was still amazing and as strong as always. RIP

rogifan said:

PeteSilas said:

discipline has a lot to do with it, that means discipline in terms of how you live and how you sing and how you rest your voice. Springsteen says his voice is better than ever, Billy Joel's voice got better with time and Elvis was much more versatile as an older singer. Lots of guys damage their voice with drugs, alcohol and overuse as well as not practicing anymore. Smoking of anything is bad for the vocal chords as is alcohol. And just as many singer probably ruined their voices touring relentlessly. They say Steve Perry blew out his voice, there were always rumours during the Bad tour that MJ shot his voice out and he never seemed to sing live after that.

We know for a lot of hard rock singers their lifestyle did nothing positive for their voice. I'm sure the fact that Prince didn't drink much alcohol and didn't smoke cigarettes helped a lot.

Of course it helped. No way would have kept his voice, looks or energy level if he was doped out.

No one with a lick of commonsense would think otherwise.

I remember when Candy Dulfer was on Arsenio Hall once she mentioned that Prince had a little bottle of honey nearby, and she said that was 4 his voice. Found that quite interesting.

Clean living helped, but mainly edictation to the craft. Talent is nothing but hard work. He supposedly was a student of Seth Riggs Speech Level Singing. If true, that completely preserved his voice. Lots of great singers use the same method.

steakfinger said:

Clean living helped, but mainly edictation to the craft. Talent is nothing but hard work. He supposedly was a student of Seth Riggs Speech Level Singing. If true, that completely preserved his voice. Lots of great singers use the same method.

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!

I wonder that all the time . I mean it's only normal for a singer's voice to drop an octave or two later in their career. Maybe he worked a lot on his voice, that's the way to maintain a clean delivery. The falsettos though are A GIFT from above, I fail to understand how could a 55 year old man hit falsettos like those...

steakfinger said:

He was very good at pacing himself in live performances.

His live renditions of songs like "When You Were Mine" and "If I Was Your Girlfriend" are examples.

rogifan said:

PeteSilas said:

discipline has a lot to do with it, that means discipline in terms of how you live and how you sing and how you rest your voice. Springsteen says his voice is better than ever, Billy Joel's voice got better with time and Elvis was much more versatile as an older singer. Lots of guys damage their voice with drugs, alcohol and overuse as well as not practicing anymore. Smoking of anything is bad for the vocal chords as is alcohol. And just as many singer probably ruined their voices touring relentlessly. They say Steve Perry blew out his voice, there were always rumours during the Bad tour that MJ shot his voice out and he never seemed to sing live after that.

We know for a lot of hard rock singers their lifestyle did nothing positive for their voice. I'm sure the fact that Prince didn't drink much alcohol and didn't smoke cigarettes helped a lot.

I would hardly call Elvis, Springsteen and Billy Joel "hard rock"!

dave1dmarx said:

Stevie Wonder still has his voice. Amazing that both where able to maintain so late into their careers.

He actually sounded better in his P & M shows than he did in the past 10 ten years. His screams rivaled what he did in the Purple Rain tour. It's mind boggling and sad at the same time.

In the book Mr S - My Life with Frank Sinatra it says that:

"On the tour Mr. S took special care of his voice. He only drank tea with Honey the day before concerts, and the glass he carried onstage that everyone thought was Jack Daniels was actually Lipton's. He also swore off milk and cream. He believed that all dairy products caused phlegm, the bane of any singer."

I suspect prince did the same thing.

lrn36 said:

He actually sounded better in his P & M shows than he did in the past 10 ten years. His screams rivaled what he did in the Purple Rain tour. It's mind boggling and sad at the same time.

I'd guess that format conserved his energy. He seemed immortal onstage, but all of that physical energy he exerted live for so long probably took away from his voice in the decade prior to P/M.

[Edited 4/15/17 10:05am]

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.

really? He seemed to tour a lot to me. I counted 26 tours (some shorter than others) Welcome to America was a really long tour.

Welcome To America15 December 2010 to 29 May, 2011Welcome To America: Euro Tour30 June 2010 to 17 August, 2011Welcome To Canada25 November to 17 December, 2011Welcome To Australia11 to 30 May, 2012Welcome To Chicago24 to 26 September 2012

Plus, touring isn't the only live performances he did.

Most super famous artists don't tour half the year. When was Madonna's last tour?

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.

[Edited 4/15/17 18:48pm]

fielder said:

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.

When he wasn't on tour, he was still doing ALOT of live shows. And they would usually last for hours.

rogifan said:

Replica said: