You hear a million Prince 80s tunes from this one song. His pop especially. The Kim Carnes song is from 81, before anybody was into him. The song is weird too like his shit. Prince did always like to pretend he didn't listen to white artists.

2freaky4church1 said:

Find that in his music?

Phase3 said:

No, Wendy and Lisa had to remind him of the Beatles.

Went and listened to it again because my first reaction was to disagree but ...yeah, it's undeniable. I feel like we can dig and find examples of him doing some of these things prior but ....yeah.

The synth signatures are similar, the hand claps, lyrics that start with "She ...."

I still don't think it's that cut and dry. Prince heard the same music that Bette Davis Eyes' producer heard. There was also an element of artists hearing massive hits and thinking "They just slowed down the intro and threw in some hand claps to hide the tempo change, screw that, if that's a hit I can make a hit", and then copying that. That was definitely true of Black artists hearing their music filtered back at them under white radio formats. As much as we think of Prince as one of a kind, he really wasn't opposed to copying song structures with an "I can do anything you can do better" attitude. Also don't know how much his band influenced certain things. Lisa was already in the band by then, and Bette Davis Eyes strikes me like it could have been her jam.Maybe Fink too? Just conjecture. He also changes his own synth style around that time to maximize the combination, so some of it might be from that.

lavendardrummachine said:

^or was "Faith" heavily influenced by Prince`s Kiss. Chicken or egg?

PJMcGee said:

Didn't he admit that Alphabet St was a rewrite of George Michael's Faith?

Didn't know that but Faith must have been influenced by Kiss and they were probably both influenced by Papa's Got a Brand New Bag and a hand full of other songs.

andrewm7 said:

^or was "Faith" heavily influenced by Prince`s Kiss. Chicken or egg?

I remeber one GM interview in which he confessed he was obsessed by Prince for a while and tried to make music like him. I think it was the Faith era.

2freaky4church1 said:

Find that in his music?

Oh, my favorite song!" she said, and it was Joni singing "Help me, I think I'm falling..."

lavendardrummachine said:

the hand claps, lyrics that start with "She ...."

.

because no other songs in history had these things lol

TheEnglishGent said:

savagedreams said:

lavendardrummachine said:

the hand claps, lyrics that start with "She ...."

.

because no other songs in history had these things lol

Can you name some?

I tried to think of Prince songs prior to 1981 that did it, and I really couldn't.

The slower synths come from a band called Suicide and then Tubeway Army but I don't think they put it all together.

[Edited 11/28/21 13:13pm]

Like all creators of great hit records Prince knew how to "borrow" heavily yet maost stealthily.

lavendardrummachine said:

savagedreams said:

.

because no other songs in history had these things lol

Can you name some?

I tried to think of Prince songs prior to 1981 that did it, and I really couldn't.

The slower synths come from a band called Suicide and then Tubeway Army but I don't think they put it all together.

[Edited 11/28/21 13:13pm]

.

Just as long as we're together (Disco Mix) 1978

IanRG said:

Just as long as we're together (Disco Mix) 1978

Not trying to move the goal posts but that's not the same formula by a longshot. He uses actual hand claps, snaps, and symbols with effects on them but it's a disco breakdown. I guess the symbols on the alt version do hint to him trying what would become the Linn claps but it would be like saying Privae Joy because it's considrerd his firs Linn track.

Still cool to listen to that track and hear a lot of what became hallmarks with The Time, and his vocal flourishes

lavendardrummachine said:

IanRG said:

Just as long as we're together (Disco Mix) 1978

Not trying to move the goal posts but that's not the same formula by a longshot. He uses actual hand claps, snaps, and symbols with effects on them but it's a disco breakdown. I guess the symbols on the alt version do hint to him trying what would become the Linn claps but it would be like saying Privae Joy because it's considrerd his firs Linn track.

Still cool to listen to that track and hear a lot of what became hallmarks with The Time, and his vocal flourishes

.

That's OK. I dont see that suddenly there was a change in Prince's songs so that, thereafter, so many of them met the Bette Davis Eyes formula.

IanRG said:

That's OK. I dont see that suddenly there was a change in Prince's songs so that, thereafter, so many of them met the Bette Davis Eyes formula.

Aren't there songs on his next 4 or 5 albums and over the next 5+ years of work that could fit? Not everything of course.

lavendardrummachine said:

IanRG said:

That's OK. I dont see that suddenly there was a change in Prince's songs so that, thereafter, so many of them met the Bette Davis Eyes formula.

Aren't there songs on his next 4 or 5 albums and over the next 5+ years of work that could fit? Not everything of course.

.

Once you separate that Prince both followed and created trends and explored new emerging sounds and instruments all the time - I am not hearing it.

.

People have done claps, double claps, even triple claps (Boney M for example) forever - real and fake. Synths were emerging before Bette Davis Eyes. Prince has borrowed from so many people and lend to so many others.

.

Bette Davis Eyes is a cover. The orginal was done in a trad jazz style and this was updated with Kraftwerk style sounds and artificial claps.

lavendardrummachine said:

savagedreams said:

.

because no other songs in history had these things lol

Can you name some?

I tried to think of Prince songs prior to 1981 that did it, and I really couldn't.

The slower synths come from a band called Suicide and then Tubeway Army but I don't think they put it all together.

[Edited 11/28/21 13:13pm]

.

i didnt say prince songs before then had it. but if you think you can point to one song in the whole history of music (bette davis eyes lol) to say thats where he was influenced to use handclaps and start a line with "she"? thats ridiculous.

2freaky4church1 said:

You hear a million Prince 80s tunes from this one song. His pop especially. The Kim Carnes song is from 81, before anybody was into him. The song is weird too like his shit. Prince did always like to pretend he didn't listen to white artists.

You just don't know how happy I am that I saw it was YOU that posted this because I really need to go take my happy ass to sleep right now. Otherwise, I'd have been spending the rest of the night....straight fucking clowing up in here.