https://faroutmagazine.co...irst-time/

laytonian said:

I've always called BS on that. Prince grew up listening to white radio in the Midwest. He was a 6-11 years old when the Beatles were popular. How could he not have heard them? Now, if we're talking about a non-single album cut from Sgt Pepper's, that different. . .

Especially being around music in general. His father, his mother, Andre, Morris, Pepe. None of these cats every listened to Sgt Pepper or something, with him? Pffft.

This so-called "moment," reeks of modern day reaction video influenced bullshite.

Of course Prince knew who the Beatles were. Even as a young child in the 60s, he would have heard them all over the radio.

Having said that, I highly doubt that either household he grew up in owned or listened to any/many Beatles albums.

I don't think Prince was singlehandedly influence by The Beatles. I think ATWIAD is a melting pot of that entire scene of psychedelia -- and that, I think, was planned and intentional.

Side note: this quote from the article screams of Prince's confidence/arrogance at the time, having just wrapped up the biggest album/movie/tour of his entire career. He was untouchable at this moment in time of pop culture, and you can feel it.

Quote regarding The Beatles: "They were great for what they did, but I don’t know how that would hang today."

PJMcGee said:

PJMcGee said:

PJMcGee said:

Jimmy Jam was recently on the Go With Elmo with Elmo Lovano podcast and talked about his love for the Beatles. Who's to say Prince didn't overhear it when Jam was listening to something?

PS the interview is pretty good. I've not gotten through it all yet.

PJMcGee said:

They sold far more than Chicago ever did in America.

The Fab 4 are the biggest selling recording act in history. So of course they're more popular than Chicago. Garth Brooks has sold more than Chicago.

The Beatles are overrated.

“He said, ‘What’s that?'” Bobby Z recalled. “We said, ‘That’s Sgt. Pepper.’ He went, ‘The Beatles. Ehhh? Really?’ You know, it was just like that. He walked in [and we were like] ‘No, no, no, no, not this song. Start it over.’ And, of course, he didn’t have the patience, but I know he went back and listened to that song and realised that it was much better. Not better, but ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’, that’s just a novelty track on an amazing album.”

Bobby Z believed that this experience greatly impacted Prince: “But that moment, I think he realised that The Beatles were more than he thought,” he continued. “He just kind of swallowed them up”.

Seems to me like this is a case of poor writing by Arun Starkey that misses the difference between really listing and merely hearing.

By the highlighted quote from Bobby Z, Bobby appears to be saying, not that Prince had never heard of the Beatles, but that Prince did not think much of them until 'Good Morning, Good Morning' grabbed his attention enough for him to listen to the whole album. It was only after this the "he realised that The Beatles were more than he thought" they were.

paisleyparkgirl said:

The Beatles are overrated.

I agree

However, I recognise that they where a sales making machine. This makes them the 60s equivalent of Drake and Taylor Swift and this success has had an undue influence on many artists.

I venture I wouldn't say it to have been such a monumental listen. I wouldn't bother to even question whether or when Prince had listened to the Fab Four. Prince had tons of other more monumental music to absorb throughout his formative youth and beyond. Because The Beatles were popular to the world due to their "cute" image wouldn't make them essential to Prince. The Beatles used their elevated profile to indulge themselves a presentation of counter-culture expressions in their later lyrical content. That in itself isn't very impactful from Prince's angle view either, I would venture, since the Black experience in America already has that very same dynamic element set as a given within its own art and cultural expression!

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One novel element of The Beatles' indeed was experimentation in their recording age with studio manipulation techniques. However, by Prince's time those things were already being universally utilized by bands or negated by subsequent record technology and development of electronic instruments.

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So what new forms of music or recording style did The Beatles uniquely bring to the cultural table that Prince needed to hear from them to offer him a special inspiration? Maybe Wendy and Lisa would have some window view toward that, as they were able to ask him some questions and he answer--maybe that would have to do with his approach toward recording experimentation, perhaps. At any rate, I doubt that we the spectators would have much to offer in our musings for all of the reasons I typed above.

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Prince's contemporary, Sananda Maitreya, did make a big deal out of that band and I'm actually glad that he did, since by his own acknowledgement The Beatles (and big soft titties equally cited, LOL) gave Sananda the spark of imagination to develop his own prodigious talent in the eventual direction to build his own "star" persona and style to launch in the 80s years. That's a thread for another forum, though.

IanRG said:

“He said, ‘What’s that?'” Bobby Z recalled. “We said, ‘That’s Sgt. Pepper.’ He went, ‘The Beatles. Ehhh? Really?’ You know, it was just like that. He walked in [and we were like] ‘No, no, no, no, not this song. Start it over.’ And, of course, he didn’t have the patience, but I know he went back and listened to that song and realised that it was much better. Not better, but ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’, that’s just a novelty track on an amazing album.”

Bobby Z believed that this experience greatly impacted Prince: “But that moment, I think he realised that The Beatles were more than he thought,” he continued. “He just kind of swallowed them up”.

Seems to me like this is a case of poor writing by Arun Starkey that misses the difference between really listing and merely hearing.

By the highlighted quote from Bobby Z, Bobby appears to be saying, not that Prince had never heard of the Beatles, but that Prince did not think much of them until 'Good Morning, Good Morning' grabbed his attention enough for him to listen to the whole album. It was only after this the "he realised that The Beatles were more than he thought" they were.

100%.

Germanegro said:

I'd certainly call the pop movement's creative process shifting LPs over singles was the arc of a developed trend that was naturally bestowed onto Prince; you had other bands already on Prince's mind that were moving regularly down the course exemplifying the making of albums.

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You could say that The Beatles had a kind of influence to the generation of artists of a generation before Prince as an example of commercial possibilities acheivable, like The Isley Brothers, who greatly enjoyed the Beatles covering their "Twist and Shout" and followed the Beatles' commercial template by also shifting their productions toward long-play productions and applying the artful task of choosing singles for radio play. The Motown Records establishment housing Beatles' contemporary peers also followed the trend to focus on extended play records rather than singles. I think that jazz artists were moving into the same direction too and mainly due to the maturing recording technology expanding possibilities for recording length and also as their traditional playing halls and clubs were being diminished through the youth disinterest, those artists too would move their compositions onto longer-form thematic compillations. I think that we can cite technology as the main driver in this direction of building the album and not so much one particular band with a notion to do so.

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Prince's bandmates could have helped him to connect the dots to how Beatles' work displays how those particular individuals' ambitions helped to move commercial and artistic undertakings into that direction, but I don't believe for a second that it was Prince's first listening of Beatles that drove him to think of expanding his sound. He was doing that on his own all along, as long as he was feeling driven to do so, and had very many other musical resources as well as John, Paul, Ringo and George to follow as examples of how to do that.

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Perhaps Beatles' songs helped Prince to "brighten his palette" but I don't think moreso than any other sound that is out there.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Tbh its not all that stuff The Beatles made pop music think in terms of albums, not just singles No Beatles, no sly stone stand or parliament osmium But really its about how they explored so many diff genres and styles Which prince also wanted to do I can imagine that as he studied older music more and listened to music for new influences, he would see what the beatles did too Prince was a student of music as much as he was a creative artist Arguably when he stopped trying to learn, he got too settled in a too familiar groove

We're so far back in pure unabashed singles culture it's like the LP movement never happened anyway.

YouTube reactors can't even process an album cut. It's like what do you mean there's no music video, why is there is no music video.

What Bobby said...that's 100% it.

Also The Beatles are not overrated. Overplayed yes, but not overrated. Their influence is undeniable.