lastdecember said:

I dont think it is a big deal or surprise that PRINCE did not hear "Sgt Pepper" why is that a shock? he was 10 when it came out, it seems that all the influences that PRINCE ever mentions, they all have been 70's artists, Sly, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago etc.. However this thread saying they are overrated, oh god here we fucking go again. YES there have been better guitarists, singers, drummers but this unit just fucking worked together better than anything and it all worked. I looked at other bands that I love like QUEEN, together genius, on their own as solo artists, pretty bad or average, The Rolling Stones great for most of their time, solo, jesus those MICK albums suck ass. Paul George and John and even some RIngo solo stuff is fucking great and there is some bad shit in there too.

And the whole thing about PRINCE denying Hendrix I get that, because you see PRINCE play guitar and automatically everyone says OH Got to be Hendrix, so I dont blame him for distancing himself every chance he had, I mean its like when Julian Lennon does work and even now 35 years or so after his dads murder he is still got to be asked questions about JOHN who rarely saw Julian anyway. So the BEATLES were the first that had to deal with that mania, that time period which was changing so rapidly and the things they dealt with from the mania to backlash to burnings and riots, sorry but no one in music has had to deal with that and actually still make music too.

i got into the beatles because of Prince and ATWIAD and all the fuss. I got into led Zeppelin because of Prince's mention in the RS interview in fact, i learned to be wide open as a composer myself from Prince and not to be so judgmental on styles i wasn't acculturated to. I would think that most people would at least like some of the Beatles music because so much of it is brilliant, some of it's got to come through unless you just are a rock. Ive never gotten into bob dylan either but there are a couple songs of his that just knock my socks off and make me wonder why i don't listen to more of his stuff. Thing is, there is so much music out there, the average person really doesn't need or want to listen to much that they don't have to,

Oddly enough, some people have called my all time favorite pop song "little red corvette" lame and "not prince's best effort". Music is so subjective but after a certain point if a lot of people like something there has got to be a good reason for it. I can go with the mania and herd mentality as far as pop music goes, just look at all the britney's and n'syncs that we've had in music history, but that doesn't explain everything. Sometimes an Elvis or a Prince comes up with some great stuff that moves masses. I never ran into more musical prejudice than when i was a young musician, especially by the young folks i was around, i loved all the classic rock music and the grungers would never give any of them credit, I'd show them an obscure Elvis song like Milcow Boogie Blues and they'd say he ripped it off because that's what some other idiot said. The grungers would actually say "i liked Elvis' movies more than his music". Just ridiculous.

Moonbeam said:

fortuneandserendipity said:

Actually forget last sentiment... i take the 'good day' back. People are as thick as pig shit on here! Bye

Case in point of the sort of responses that can come from the more zealous Beatles fans.

i think any major star has those kinds of fans. Prince.org used to have a lot but the haters really overran them sometime around ten years ago and just took over.

feeluupp said:

datdude said:

I (with my non-musician self nothwithstanding), HAVE NEVER LISTENED TO A BEATLES ALBUM....and probably won't. There are lots more ppl like me. early 40s here btw. I've stated elsewhere on threads that to me they're highly overrated. And yes, I feel like i can base that on having never heard an album. Their ubiquity has exposed me enough to know I'm not pressed to hear a full album. I don't like their voices and no melody I've heard has compelled to explore more. So P having not heard them is not unbelievable at all. They're NOT universally loved as some might have u think.

I agree with you on that. I too have never listened to a whole Beatles album. Sure I have heard a handful of thier songs. I find I cant emtionally connect with thier songs, the melodies although unique dont really spark anything inside of me. Perhaps its probably I because I dont really like Paul McCartneys voice. Its almost as if they wrote thier music for another generation or class of people.
Compared to Prince he has managed to invoke a rainbow of emotions and mentally taken me places with his music, overall I get a much 'richer' experience.

[Edited 5/29/17 3:51am]

tollyc said:

rdhull said:

tollyc said:

prince has covered the following: Help with my friends The long and winding road Come together While my guitar gently weeps I would love to see a soulful version of the white album covered.

Does Joan Didion count?

What? Joan Didion?

It's so obvious Prince knew what was up with The Beatles and recognized and felt what was good about what they did. Just the sound effects break in Pop Life and the cast of characters in the lyrics of the calliop vibed Paisley Park or the 3 genre shift at the beginning of SOTT album point to this)

But lots of fans won't get it... but they are not going to ever make stuff comparable to what Prince did either!

sott the song was like the psychedlic/social commentary that the temps were doing around the late 60's, in that way, one article I read about Prince was right, that his psychedelia was from the black psychedelia of the era. But didn't the black groups like the temps get the idea of that kind of stuff like psychedelic shack and cloud nine follow the lead of the rock groups at the time? Like any work of art, Sgt. Peppers has even been called overrated by white rock writers who'll insist that Pink Floyd's or Jimi's work at the time was better. Point is, opinions are like assholes everyones got one and some opinions are tied to assholes. People really are free to think as they want.

I'm gonna be going by my storage place incidentally and I think i'll pull out some of the p bios I've read in the past to refresh my memories today.

[Edited 5/29/17 10:05am]

hey you wanna know one other song i also thought was SGT pepper influenced? Diamonds and Pearls, the break is obviously inspired by Penny Lane, oh yeah, that wasn't even on the album, strawberry fields/penny lane wasn't on that album, a move which George Martin called "one of the biggest mistakes I ever made".

tollyc said:

prince has covered the following: Help with my friends The long and winding road Come together While my guitar gently weeps I would love to see a soulful version of the white album covered.

"The Long & Winding Road" is one of my favorite songs! When did Prince cover it?

SoulAlive said:

have you guys seen this 50th anniversary set? Freakin' amazing!

The most ambitious reissue yet of an individual album from the Beatles’ catalog has just been released.It is an expanded and newly remixed edition of the Fab Four’s 1967 pop masterpiece, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

Consistently ranked by critics and fans among the most influential rock albums of all time, “Sgt. Pepper” is being reissued in multiple formats and editions, including new stereo and surround-sound audio mixes along with nearly three dozen previously unreleased recordings from the same sessions.

Mine arrived yesterday. It's amazing

SoulAlive said:

tollyc said:

prince has covered the following: Help with my friends The long and winding road Come together While my guitar gently weeps I would love to see a soulful version of the white album covered.

"The Long & Winding Road" is one of my favorite songs! When did Prince cover it?

Live on the 21 Nights London gig

ufoclub said:

SoulAlive said:

"The Long & Winding Road" is one of my favorite songs! When did Prince cover it?

Live on the 21 Nights London gig

i never heard about that somehow. Probably a concession to the site of the concerts. Was also surprised when he did Jimi's red/purple house, he didn't do that many covers until third eye era, maybe a few before that.

ufoclub said:

rdhull said:

He also did a cover of the long and winding road with Elton John at the Rio casino dates

Oh damn, I thought that was during the London 21 nights stint. Maybe I'm remembering video and not placing it in the correct venue in my mind.

Yes I was wrong, it wasn't in London it was http://www.princevault.co...nding_Road

purplethunder3121 said:

rdhull said:

Badassery and soulful as fuck

Don't forget Billy Preston...

Preston WAS Sgt Pepper (in that awful movie that had EWF in it too). So as it stands, there is no way that he was NOT aware of The Beatles music until later introduced to them in the 80's.

Which is the point.

And yes many artists were culture vultures but the stones always wore their influences on their sleeves and in interviews etc etc. Stevie Wonder wouldnt have opened for them in 72 if not etc. The Beatles as well always gave their props to Little Riuchard and stated he tried to sing like him ..or scream like him rather. Thats the difference in culture vulturing vs being influenced and inspired.

laurarichardson said:

Still the average African American is not checking for the Beatles. [Edited 5/30/17 10:40am]

telling

It seems like Prince quickly abandoned ATWIAD for Parade because the music, the album cover, and the Raspberry Beret music video were a little too on the nose with its 60s psychedelic influences. RB video had this whole neo-hippie vibe with the Yellow Submarine animation and Prince in a Beatlesesque hairdo and cloud outfit. I don't I've seen Prince so heavily influenced by one particular era or group. By the time his next video came out for America it was completely gone. He cut his hair short and was wearing those button pants, crop top, and trench coat.

ATWIAD felt like an inbetween stage for Parade and SOTT. The video for Mountains almost seemd like a reset for RB. Mountains has almost the same staging with the background graphics but all the Beatles and 60s psychedelic influences are removed. Don't get me wrong the music was great, but I do wonder if ATWIAD was an experimentation that should have never been released.

[Edited 5/30/17 13:04pm]

rdhull said:

Preston WAS Sgt Pepper (in that awful movie that had EWF in it too). So as it stands, there is no way that he was NOT aware of The Beatles music until later introduced to them in the 80's.

speaking of that movie....it has its share of problems (lol) but EW&F's cover version of "Got To Get You Into My Life" is amazing I love what they did with that tune

laurarichardson said:

Still the average African American is not checking for the Beatles. [Edited 5/30/17 10:40am]

tried to tell 'em

RJOrion said:

paulludvig said:

I don't believe he had never heard The Beatles. But perhaps he wasn't very into them at first.

alot of black people didnt listen to The Beatles... in spite of their popularity and overexposure, black folks (generally speaking) didnt buy Beatles records, and Black radio didnt play their music, so for Prince to have never been exposed to their albums, is completely normal in the Black experience ...

THIS. As a Black person who DID listen to the Beatles and other white artists, let me tell you that HOO, BOY does that shit get people hopping mad, like HOW DARE YOU listen to 'WHITE PEOPLE MUSIC'.

That was not allowed, and still isn't in a lot of circles. It's basically being a race traitor to some to listen to an artist who isn't Black. It's also silly as hell, but okay, whatever, tho.

SpookyNopetopus said:

RJOrion said:

alot of black people didnt listen to The Beatles... in spite of their popularity and overexposure, black folks (generally speaking) didnt buy Beatles records, and Black radio didnt play their music, so for Prince to have never been exposed to their albums, is completely normal in the Black experience ...

THIS. As a Black person who DID listen to the Beatles and other white artists, let me tell you that HOO, BOY does that shit get people hopping mad, like HOW DARE YOU listen to 'WHITE PEOPLE MUSIC'.

That was not allowed, and still isn't in a lot of circles. It's basically being a race traitor to some to listen to an artist who isn't Black. It's also silly as hell, but okay, whatever, tho.

YEP...in the 80s When my friends would come over i would hide my Police, Depeche Mode, Yes, and Elton John records in the back of the crates, so i wouldnt get clowned...i even remeber asking my father when i was a young teen, to buy me the single "Philadelphia Freedom" by Elton John, and he damn near lost his mind, while explaining that he would never spend money on a white artist while black artists wre being robbed and exploited by white record labels...as a child i didnt care about any of that shit, but since ive become a man, i overstand...its more than just music, for a lot of people... for different reasons

RJOrion said:

SpookyNopetopus said:

THIS. As a Black person who DID listen to the Beatles and other white artists, let me tell you that HOO, BOY does that shit get people hopping mad, like HOW DARE YOU listen to 'WHITE PEOPLE MUSIC'.

That was not allowed, and still isn't in a lot of circles. It's basically being a race traitor to some to listen to an artist who isn't Black. It's also silly as hell, but okay, whatever, tho.

YEP...in the 80s When my friends would come over i would hide my Police, Depeche Mode, Yes, and Elton John records in the back of the crates, so i wouldnt get clowned...i even remeber asking my father when i was a young teen, to buy me the single "Philadelphia Freedom" by Elton John, and he damn near lost his mind, while explaining that he would never spend money on a white artist while black artists wre being robbed and exploited by white record labels...as a child i didnt care about any of that shit, but since ive become a man, i overstand...its more than just music, for a lot of people... for different reasons

I was lucky in that my mother would indulge my weird-ass musical tastes anyway (and also, she had fair warning -- I wouldn't sleep as a baby unless she put on classic rock, according to family stories. lol apparently I'd scream my head off for anything else.). But then, my whole family was a little weird that way -- everyone listened to a wide variety of musical types, and racism of any kind was never tolerated. Yes, we all understood that there was a lot of racism and craziness happening, but we were also taught that you can't change anything by refusing to participate.

SpookyNopetopus said:

laurarichardson said:

SpookyNopetopus said:

THIS. As a Black person who DID listen to the Beatles and other white artists, let me tell you that HOO, BOY does that shit get people hopping mad, like HOW DARE YOU listen to 'WHITE PEOPLE MUSIC'.

That was not allowed, and still isn't in a lot of circles. It's basically being a race traitor to some to listen to an artist who isn't Black. It's also silly as hell, but okay, whatever, tho.

-/I am black and I listen to all sorts of music and I could rang off a dozen or so white artist that most black know and actually like their music because they were exposed to it. The Beatles would not be one of them. I only knew about the Beatles because my parents had the 45 for "Get Back " whic they believed was a Jimmy Reed rip off and they liked Billy Preston. This was the only reason not because they were checking for the Beatles. I also think Lef Zepplin has the Beatles best by a mile.

Zep..now there's some culture vultures lol (they good to me though)

laurarichardson said:

SpookyNopetopus said:

THIS. As a Black person who DID listen to the Beatles and other white artists, let me tell you that HOO, BOY does that shit get people hopping mad, like HOW DARE YOU listen to 'WHITE PEOPLE MUSIC'.

That was not allowed, and still isn't in a lot of circles. It's basically being a race traitor to some to listen to an artist who isn't Black. It's also silly as hell, but okay, whatever, tho.

-/I am black and I listen to all sorts of music and I could rang off a dozen or so white artist that most black know and actually like their music because they were exposed to it. The Beatles would not be one of them. I only knew about the Beatles because my parents had the 45 for "Get Back " whic they believed was a Jimmy Reed rip off and they liked Billy Preston. This was the only reason not because they were checking for the Beatles. I also think Lef Zepplin has the Beatles best by a mile.

What's your point, here? Are you arguing with the point of my post, or what. Because if you are, you totally proved the point that Black people can be music snobs just like everyone else on the planet.