Just listening to the sheer breadth diversity of styles, subject matter, characters, sounds, it often makes me wonder “How could one dude do it in one lifetime virtually by himself even collaborating with others?”

I bet there are 100 great producers, with abundant talent to recruite from, who’d give their left ear or pinky to have 5 of Prince’s hits — not to mention the super cool songs that were never pushed enough to be charted.

He worked harder than anyone else.

Maybe if he wrote his entire catalogue four days instead of forty years. Then, yeah.

PliablyPurple said:

Maybe if he wrote his entire catalogue four days instead of forty years. Then, yeah.

The majority of people have average talent - that includes musicians. Hard work and focus are necessary to operate on Prince's level, but one needs to be talented to begin with. Think of it as being more "global" in a way - the more the sense is stimulated, the more susceptible or prone his brain is to react in an extreme manner to anything that triggers it, thus the more possibilities of expansion in ways of learning there are in this person.

christobole said:

PliablyPurple said:

Maybe if he wrote his entire catalogue four days instead of forty years. Then, yeah.

The majority of people have average talent - that includes musicians. Hard work and focus are necessary to operate on Prince's level, but one needs to be talented to begin with. Think of it as being more "global" in a way - the more the sense is stimulated, the more susceptible or prone his brain is to react in an extreme manner to anything that triggers it, thus the more possibilities of expansion in ways of learning there are in this person.

Are you suggesting that he could write forty years worth of material in four days? Otherwise, I don't know what you are going on about as it pertains to my post.

[Edited 12/17/19 7:14am]

Of course not. There are plenty of witnesses - all on record (no pun intended) - to what he did.

PliablyPurple said:

christobole said:

The majority of people have average talent - that includes musicians. Hard work and focus are necessary to operate on Prince's level, but one needs to be talented to begin with. Think of it as being more "global" in a way - the more the sense is stimulated, the more susceptible or prone his brain is to react in an extreme manner to anything that triggers it, thus the more possibilities of expansion in ways of learning there are in this person.

Are you suggesting that he could write forty years worth of material in four days? Otherwise, I don't know what you are going on about as it pertains to my post.

[Edited 12/17/19 7:14am]

Pardon, that was intended as a reply to RodeoSchro's post, which preceded yours.

Let's look at it this way, say Prince recorded 2 songs a day 2x365=730 songs in a year and that's just 2 songs a day. Prince sometimes recorded more.

So on the low end of 730 songs over a 40 year career 730x40=29,200 songs over 40 years. Minus what was released, it could be said Prince could have 26,000 to 27,000 songs left behind. Some could be masterpieces while others could be mediocre, still while some could be just ideas made of a snippet. However, if there is that many songs in the vault and even if half (15,000) are completed we will have Prince songs beyond our lifetimes

joyinrepetition said:

Let's look at it this way, say Prince recorded 2 songs a day 2x365=730 songs in a year and that's just 2 songs a day. Prince sometimes recorded more.

So on the low end of 730 songs over a 40 year career 730x40=29,200 songs over 40 years. Minus what was released, it could be said Prince could have 26,000 to 27,000 songs left behind. Some could be masterpieces while others could be mediocre, still while some could be just ideas made of a snippet. However, if there is that many songs in the vault and even if half (15,000) are completed we will have Prince songs beyond our lifetimes

Well, worry not. He doesn't have anywhere near that much in the vault. By his own count, he hd somewhere around 600-700 by 1986.

joyinrepetition said:

Let's look at it this way, say Prince recorded 2 songs a day 2x365=730 songs in a year and that's just 2 songs a day. Prince sometimes recorded more.

.

Oh for crying out loud, READ A BOOK. Duane Tudahl wrote a detailed account of Prince's studio activities in 1983-84 and recording multiple songs in a day is an exception.

.

There are tracks on PR that Prince worked on for days and days. Go count the songs mentioned in that book.

.

Or go look up that fantasy "1986" box set, which lists about 70 studio recordings for that year, i.e. not even two songs PER WEEK.

BartVanHemelen said:

joyinrepetition said:

Let's look at it this way, say Prince recorded 2 songs a day 2x365=730 songs in a year and that's just 2 songs a day. Prince sometimes recorded more.

.

Oh for crying out loud, READ A BOOK. Duane Tudahl wrote a detailed account of Prince's studio activities in 1983-84 and recording multiple songs in a day is an exception.

.

There are tracks on PR that Prince worked on for days and days. Go count the songs mentioned in that book.

.

Or go look up that fantasy "1986" box set, which lists about 70 studio recordings for that year, i.e. not even two songs PER WEEK.

Also, I heard Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in a half hour. That'd be 48 plays a day, so he still wins.

[Edited 12/17/19 12:12pm]

Well, not everything was brilliance.
Craft could take over inspiration on some days.

But his persistance alone is out of this world, and it's true whatever artistic expression you compare it against.
Few artists have followed this strange, phenomenal, relentless discipline of starting with a blank canvas every day.

'Like Shakespeare rumors, does anyone ever think it was impossible for Prince to create this huge body of cool work?'

Hank Williams was The Hillbilly Shakespeare. He wrote 167 (kick ass) songs, and died at age 29 - so possible.

[Edited 12/17/19 18:51pm]

I don't think it was impossible. Look at how many times someone has told a story about starting a song with just a few chords or an idea, and when they woke up in the morning, Prince had already written a finished song! The guy was up all night creating music. I agree with POOK, you burn a candle that hot, and it is going to produce alot more wax than the other guy's.

We will never know what actually drove him, but it may have been the complete love of music on his part. It was always with him, and he trusted the power that gave it to him. (unlike people in his life that he saw had feet of clay, or stole things from him.)

Just my opinion.

I mean... he had some misses too!

I want to hear ALL of them. ,-)

Though sometimes I replay two or three all day. I’m stuck on “Automatic Late Show LIVE” and “Rearange” and “Marz” right now. How could he possibly come up with lyrics and arangments for so many songs in just one day. Some clearly requried more than a day’s work.

joyinrepetition said:

Let's look at it this way, say Prince recorded 2 songs a day 2x365=730 songs in a year and that's just 2 songs a day. Prince sometimes recorded more.

So on the low end of 730 songs over a 40 year career 730x40=29,200 songs over 40 years. Minus what was released, it could be said Prince could have 26,000 to 27,000 songs left behind. Some could be masterpieces while others could be mediocre, still while some could be just ideas made of a snippet. However, if there is that many songs in the vault and even if half (15,000) are completed we will have Prince songs beyond our lifetimes

It is sometimes wild to think about how much incredible music he created...This is especially reinforced when I look at other artists/bands that I like, and their bodies of work seem so small in comparison.

ufoclub said:

I mean... he had some misses too!

.

Understatement of the millenium!

.

If the Estate insists on issuing all the shit tracks, it may eventually have an unfortunate diluting effect on his official body of work.

As I’ve always thought — and as Price repeatedly said himself — most of the “misses” off sounding releases Prince published, were’t his best versions of his songs. It always sounded like his worst releases, not being demos, but just a few layers of songs that were not fully assembled; some seemed to simbly be missing bass, or melodies, that were obvious on other songs.

All those misses make still be in The Vault in their complete and magnificent form. I think the estate knows what they've got and are trying to release and monetize them before someone else releases them. Surely assistants made copies...!

CAL3 said:

ufoclub said:

I mean... he had some misses too!

.

Understatement of the millenium!

.

If the Estate insists on issuing all the shit tracks, it may eventually have an unfortunate diluting effect on his official body of work.

appleseed said:

As I’ve always thought — and as Price repeatedly said himself — most of the “misses” off sounding releases Prince published, were’t his best versions of his songs. It always sounded like his worst releases, not being demos, but just a few layers of songs that were not fully assembled; some seemed to simbly be missing bass, or melodies, that were obvious on other songs.

All those misses make still be in The Vault in their complete and magnificent form. I think the estate knows what they've got and are trying to release and monetize them before someone else releases them. Surely assistants made copies...!

CAL3 said:

.

Understatement of the millenium!

.

If the Estate insists on issuing all the shit tracks, it may eventually have an unfortunate diluting effect on his official body of work.

.

When you write and record a lot more songs than most other pop artists, there are inevitably a lot more turds mixed in with the gold nuggets, too.

.

Now casual fans are getting a chance to hear what we harder-core fans have heard for years - the rotten ones Prince himself knew better than to foist upon the public.

CAL3 said:

Well... I have about 3 days of official released music by Prince. Suppose each song he recorded the vocals (he did), bass, drums, keyboards and guitar (he mostly did). So each song takes 5 different recordings which is about 15 days of recording. And that in a 40 year career? Please...

(his is a joke/irony for those who don't get it..)

Just listen to your catalogue of official releaases and get surprised by it. No need to make it bigger than it actually is.

LoveGalore said:

CAL3 said:

.

When you write and record a lot more songs than most other pop artists, there are inevitably a lot more turds mixed in with the gold nuggets, too.

.

Now casual fans are getting a chance to hear what we harder-core fans have heard for years - the rotten ones Prince himself knew better than to foist upon the public.

We haven't gotten to that point yet. So far, it has been nothing but great material.

.

Beg to differ! Peace.

appleseed said:

Just listening to the sheer breadth diversity of styles, subject matter, characters, sounds, it often makes me wonder “How could one dude do it in one lifetime virtually by himself even collaborating with others?”

I bet there are 100 great producers, with abundant talent to recruite from, who’d give their left ear or pinky to have 5 of Prince’s hits — not to mention the super cool songs that were never pushed enough to be charted.

You're obviously new to his catalogue.

[Edited 12/26/19 18:37pm]