Such as listening to the Delfonics or the Stylistics?

Or any of the number of artists he covered in recorded music or live? For example, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Joni, etc. ?

[Edited 8/10/19 17:57pm]

Only Gustav Mahler.

never.

I feel like I heard and appreciated most of the originals by the time I heard him cover them (Stylistics, Radiohead, Mahler if we're counting references, etc).

I think it's worth noting both the Delfonics and Stylistics songs he covered on the same record were written by the same talent: Thom Bell, another musical genius.

[Edited 8/10/19 21:48pm]

Thanks to Prince I started digging deeper into artists such as Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, Sly and the Family Stone, the Ohio Players, the Stylistics and the Delfonics, Parliament/Funkadelic/George Clinton, Kate Bush and even Gustav Mahler.

.

I knew them all before and listened to them occasionally (for example Santana and Funkadelic/George Clinton, Kate Bush) but as far as Joni and the Ohio Players are concerned, it was mostly Prince´s covers of their songs that opened my mind to their music.

.

But, as much as he got me interested in so many other artists´ music, he also made me stop listening to some.....such as Sly and the Family Stone. All those Sly Stone and Larry Graham covers from the mid 90s all the way to the mid 00s were a tad too much for me and that´s the only downside I could think of. Other than that, I´m pretty thankful that he made me aware of all those great artists.

sro100 said:

Aethelherring said:

Only Gustav Mahler.

^^^That....Gustav with me as well.

No - because I knew the artists he covered/mentioned, including Mahler. I knew about Mahler the way everyone in the 80s knew about Mahler (including Prince, I suspect) - from the 1983 movie Educating Rita.

Nope, I was listening to those artists growing up...just like he did.

Def likely woulnt have listen to Joni if not for Prince. Knew of Sly and Jimi growing up but liikely woulnt have deep dived into the catalog as much.

Always was a Fleetwood Mac fan and had a huge crush on Stieve (as likely Prince did too) before I discovered Prince.

Kate Bush is a goddess and discovered her indepentently of Prince.

I only discovered a couple of songs that I hadn't heard before: When Will We B Paid by the Staple Singers and Miriam Makeba's Quit It (after someone on the org mentioned it was the inspiration behind Colonised Mind) but I already knew of these artists and others he has covered.

The very first piece of music I ever saw Prince perform on stage was one of my all time favourite Billy Cobham, Stratus, which I thought was really cool of him to do. He also played a lot Sly and the Family Stone covers during the 21 Nights in London, and some Bootsy Collins tracks for the waiting audience before the shows, so I started listening to these artists more often from then on.

littlerockjams said:

Let’s just say that as a kid digging Prince in the 80’s, when I heard my first James Brown record I thought “James Brown is gonna sue Prince” 😂

Brown estate could win a gimmick infrigement case based on all the jacked James Brown catch-phrases in "Holly Rock" alone. It's like JB madlibs.

Genesia said:

No - because I knew the artists he covered/mentioned, including Mahler. I knew about Mahler the way everyone in the 80s knew about Mahler (including Prince, I suspect) - from the 1983 movie Educating Rita.

I saw him make Woody Allen references a couple times, he wasn't just a big fan of 1979's Manhattan?

I got into Joni because of Ballad of Dorothy Parker. I knew Help Me and Big Yellow Taxi on their own but purchased the Court & Spark album after hearing the line in BODP. Then I got Blue and I was hooked forever.

Getting into Joni then got me into many artists from the 60s/70s (Neil Young, The Band, Bob Dylan, CS&N, Van Morrison).

George Harrison for me.

Yes. I got into Tower of Power because of Prince.

Seems to me that a lot of the songs that Prince covered were from already famous or notable acts, enough that I'd at least already heard the original song. It was usually pretty cool to hear his take on another artist's song, but no, he never got me to listen any more to them than I already had!

WhisperingDandelions said:

Genesia said:

No - because I knew the artists he covered/mentioned, including Mahler. I knew about Mahler the way everyone in the 80s knew about Mahler (including Prince, I suspect) - from the 1983 movie Educating Rita.

I saw him make Woody Allen references a couple times, he wasn't just a big fan of 1979's Manhattan?

Uhhhh...Educating Rita is not a Woody Allen film.

Genesia said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

I saw him make Woody Allen references a couple times, he wasn't just a big fan of 1979's Manhattan?

Uhhhh...Educating Rita is not a Woody Allen film.

"Uhhhhhh.." Where exactly did I state, intimate or imply that it was?

My sentence, mere inches of space after mentioning "Woody Allen", directly references Manhattan, which is a Woody Allen film, which also permeates with Gustav Mahler references, and which again, in the compressed span of a mere apostrophe and an "s" between, I noted was released in 1979, four years prior to Educating Rita.

[Edited 8/20/19 8:13am]