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Thread started 06/15/23 3:43pm

rap

The moment Prince heard The Beatles first the first time

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Reply #1 posted 06/15/23 5:16pm

laytonian

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.
.
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[Edited 6/15/23 17:17pm]
Welcome to "the org", laytonian… come bathe with me.
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Reply #2 posted 06/15/23 11:06pm

TrivialPursuit

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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.

Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking.
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Reply #3 posted 06/16/23 12:47am

mb71

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

Formerly TheDigitalGardener etc.
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Reply #4 posted 06/16/23 5:26am

Ndorphinmachin
a

Isn't there an interview with Wendy where she says something similar? Paraphrasing, but: Prince thought The Beatles were "Strawberry Fields". She was trying to get him to dive deeper into their albums because she knew he'd like what he heard.
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Reply #5 posted 06/16/23 7:22am

Se7en

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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."

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Reply #6 posted 06/16/23 7:34am

Ndorphinmachin
a

^ Much later in his career his attitude did seem to change. The RRHOF performance. "Guitar" sounding very close to "Back in the USSR". The addition of "Come Together" into his setlists. IIRC there was a post on one of his websites or a rumour that he was considering an album of covers?
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Reply #7 posted 06/16/23 8:37am

RJOrion

The Beatles may have been very popular in the mainstream, but black people in the mid to late 60s werent generally The Beatles consumers or knowledgable fans of their music...im sure he may have heard some The Beatles tunes in passing, but sitting down and actively listening to their music and being familiar with their works as a band, is entirely different.
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Reply #8 posted 06/16/23 8:54am

onlyforaminute

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I'm sure prince has heard ppl bring up the beatles hundreds of times working in a band years before ever becoming famous. I mean what are the odds of being around music all the time and nobody ever brings up the beatles or hendricks or elvis.
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...
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[Edited 6/16/23 8:55am]
Time keeps on slipping into the future...


This moment is all there is...
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Reply #9 posted 06/16/23 9:07am

PJMcGee

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Jimmy Jam talked about Prince playing a Chicago guitar solo perfectly. That was a song from 1970, I believe. If Prince was familiar with that, I don't see why The Beatles wouldn't be on his radar.
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Reply #10 posted 06/16/23 9:08am

PJMcGee

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That was in high school.
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Reply #11 posted 06/16/23 9:36am

RJOrion

PJMcGee said:

Jimmy Jam talked about Prince playing a Chicago guitar solo perfectly. That was a song from 1970, I believe. If Prince was familiar with that, I don't see why The Beatles wouldn't be on his radar.


Chicago the city and the band, is about 7-8 hours (drive) from Minneapolis...Chicago's music was played and heard on radio and television and homes, FAR more than any imported acts from the UK...for decades, and to this day, Chicago co-headlines tours with Earth Wind & Fire...not a reasonable comparison at all...even black radio stations in New York regularly played music by Chicago...black radio and black households generally werent buying and playing The Beatles records, like they were with Chicago records
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Reply #12 posted 06/16/23 10:17am

PJMcGee

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Ha! Calling The Beatles imported like they were some exotic act is absurd. They sold far more than Chicago ever did in America. Now whether they were more popular with black audiences is another matter. There you might have a point.
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Reply #13 posted 06/16/23 10:31am

RJOrion

PJMcGee said:

Ha! Calling The Beatles imported like they were some exotic act is absurd. They sold far more than Chicago ever did in America. Now whether they were more popular with black audiences is another matter. There you might have a point.




The Beatles music was brought into the United States from overseas (UK), for sale...that is the exact and literal definition of "imported"...there are many many cases of imported items selling more than their domestic counterparts...nothing absurd at all about labeling The Beatles as imported...thats what they were, and thats what they and their music, were often called
[Edited 6/16/23 11:18am]
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Reply #14 posted 06/16/23 11:28am

PJMcGee

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At least you concede that the Beatles were more popular than Chicago.

"Hey, Prince, where did you hear that foreign band? We only listen to bands from within an 8 hour drive from here because we're just country bumpkins."
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Reply #15 posted 06/16/23 11:49am

RJOrion

.
[Edited 6/16/23 11:59am]
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Reply #16 posted 06/16/23 11:57am

RJOrion

PJMcGee said:

At least you concede that the Beatles were more popular than Chicago.

"Hey, Prince, where did you hear that foreign band? We only listen to bands from within an 8 hour drive from here because we're just country bumpkins."


If thats the misguided and ignorant conclusion you've come to, that's completely OK with me...i mean you struggle with the definition of the word "imported", so i can clearly see how you would struggle with overstanding more nuanced situations. And i never "conceded" anything
[Edited 6/16/23 11:58am]
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Reply #17 posted 06/16/23 12:46pm

happyshopper

Although it sounds insane that Prince hadn’t heard Sgt Peppers before (Although I’m sure he must have heard the Beatles though), it does make sense when you hear what he was recording for Road House Garden, and then suddenly how it changed for ATWIAD.
Something psychedelic influenced that! smile
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Reply #18 posted 06/16/23 5:55pm

TrivialPursuit

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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.

Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking.
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Reply #19 posted 06/16/23 7:33pm

MickyDolenz

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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. lol

You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton
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Reply #20 posted 06/16/23 8:37pm

paisleyparkgir
l

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The Beatles are overrated.

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Reply #21 posted 06/16/23 9:21pm

IanRG

“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.

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Reply #22 posted 06/16/23 9:29pm

IanRG

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.

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Reply #23 posted 06/16/23 11:24pm

funkbabyandthe
babysitters

Overrated? Inevitably. But still brilliant. The (pop) songwriting is still incredible tbh. Still holds up..
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Reply #24 posted 06/21/23 11:01am

Germanegro

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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!

>

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.

>

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.

>

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.

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Reply #25 posted 06/21/23 11:59am

lurker316

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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%.



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Reply #26 posted 06/21/23 3:03pm

funkbabyandthe
babysitters

Germanegro said:

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!


>


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.


>


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.


>


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.





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
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Reply #27 posted 06/21/23 5:47pm

Germanegro

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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.

>

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.

>

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.

>

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

CD

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

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Reply #28 posted 06/23/23 5:19am

WhisperingDand
elions

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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.

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Reply #29 posted 06/23/23 8:40am

Poplife88

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

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

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