FEATURE:
U Got the Look
PHOTO CREDIT: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy
The Legacy of Prince
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I am going to do another one or two…
PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Katz/The Prince Estate
more general features about Prince before 21st April. That date marks five years since we lost the genius. I have already looked at his greatest albums and, looking ahead, I will investigate various sides of his work. Maybe it is not easy to distil Prince’s legacy and what he gave to the world. I have been looking at features writing about Prince following his death; people trying to explain how Prince Rogers Nelson changed the world. I think Prince is like Bowie in many respects (another artist we lost in 2016). Each album was different and we got to witness such a broad range of sounds through his career. If Bowie’s transformations and iconic looks were among his greatest gifts to the world, I think that Prince’s was his phenomenal voice and guitar skills; his exceptional songwriting and, above all, his tireless and peerless workrate – I think that it is said that his famous Vault (where unreleased material is stored) holds nearly a century’s worth of material. Whilst that may be exaggerated, it is beguiling to think about Prince releasing albums as regularly as he did and having all this other music left aside! I wonder whether Prince was planning on releasing this material himself or whether he intended there to be this wonderful music for the world when he died. We were all so shocked when his death was announced.
At only fifty-seven, we were looking ahead to years and decades more of his magic! Regardless, the tributes that flooded in when he died were moving. People from all around the world shared their memories and reasons why Prince meant so much to them. From his fashion, musicianship and sheer innovation, there are so many sides to Prince. I want to start off by sourcing from a VIBE article of 2018. Although there have been some album releases since then, they spoke with Susan Rogers, Prince’s legendary ‘80s studio engineer, about the possibility of 1980s-recorded material being released - in addition to how Prince should be remembered:
“That seems like a natural progression for someone who was releasing music and performing live at a furious pace towards the end of his life, right?
Right. Prince used to say funny things when we were rehearsing like being envious of the Revolution’s Matt Fink and his piano abilities or Lisa [Coleman’s] musical training. I believe he would have studied jazz piano more deeply. I remember one time we were all talking about what we would be if we weren’t in the music business and Prince said he would have been a music teacher. He liked working with young people; he liked the innocence. I could see him mentoring as he did with younger artists, advising them and helping them to have a life in the arts.
PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Rasic/Rex Features
Has The Prince Estate asked for your help in re-mastering any of the classic ‘80s albums set for future re-release?
I was asked during the early round of talks that included the Purple Rain deluxe reissue. They asked me if I would consider coming in to remix some stuff. I said yes, but with some trepidation. I have a full-time job as a professor. I haven’t worked in the studio since 2000. That work is better suited for people who are currently mixing today. Thankfully, I did not end up doing any mixing.
Prince was far ahead of his male peers in the music business in terms of working with women in positions not traditionally open to them, decades before the #MeToo movement. Looking back, how surprising was it that he championed female studio engineers and musicians when it wasn’t the norm back then?
It was a delightful surprise. I was in my 20s when I started working with Prince. Wendy, Lisa, Sheila E, Jill Jones, and Susannah [Melvoin] (Wendy’s sister, frequent background vocalist and member of the Prince-produced group The Family) were around that age as well. Being older now, I can see it as extraordinary, but when you are young and you are trying to break down barriers as a woman, at the time it made perfect sense. When you encounter a person like Prince, who doesn’t put up any barriers, you see him working with women in non-traditional roles as normal. I was grateful then and even more grateful now just how smart he was. He knew that looking for people that normally wouldn’t get a shot was the right thing to do. Prince liked outliers a lot.
How should we remember Prince?
In the history of important Americans, his name needs to be on the list. Because Prince was an important cultural export and he advanced music. He achieved the height of fame that Michael Jackson achieved, but Prince did it in the typical American way. Which is pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do it all on your own. Michael, who was a great artist, was also the product of the Motown system. Prince was a self-made man.
Prince was also an important musical figure because he contributed to the advancement of American music. Miles Davis called him his generation’s Duke Ellington. He was an important cultural figure by the way he dressed and the way he looked. Prince was one of the figures that made it possible for androgyny to be accepted; for men to wear makeup and for women to be empowered. I want the young generation to see what a genius he was musically. Prince deserves to never be forgotten”.
I wonder if there are any plans to put out a Prince biopic. I think there have been plans and suggestions in the past; there may be something in the pipeline right now. It seems that, for a genius who left such a mark on the world, a cinematic release is an inevitable step. I am going to bring in a few more articles before rounding things off. I feel Prince’s legacy is so large that I need to divide this up and write another feature or two.
I mention a biopic because, not only is Prince’s legacy compelling; he also had this fascinating start and career progression. Digital Music News discussed that when they paid tribute to Prince in 2016:
“Prince wasn’t just a legend because he made great hits; he crossed barriers in the music industry that paved way for other artists to be more creative and original.
Prince made being different okay, he made being unique something artists now crave to be. He didn’t define his music in one genre, he often combined genres of music. He created a new sound and people all over the world fell in love with his inventiveness.
Prince, a household pop icon and one of the biggest artists in history, hailed from a musical family with both parents in the music industry. His father was a pianist and songwriter, and Prince’s mother was a jazz singer. He was born in Minneapolis on June 7th, 1958 and passed today (April 21st).
After cracking through in the 70s, Prince became known for melding pop, funk, R&B, rock, funk and other styles, with raunchy lyrics and ribald showmanship signature elements of his style.
Like most musical legends, Prince started at a very young age. He developed an early interest in music, writing his first song called ‘Funk Machine’ on his father’s piano at age 7. Before recording his first debut album, he made music with his cousin’s band ’94 East,’ writing the songs for the band and playing guitar.
In 1976, at age 17, he made a demo tape with Chris Moon, who took the tape to a Minneapolis businessman named Husney. Husney then signed Prince, which led to a now-famous recording contract with Warner Bros. Records.
He then moved to Los Angeles and recorded his first debut album, titled For You in 1978. But it was Prince’s second album, Prince, that hit it big, going platinum in 1979. The two main songs that drove that album’s success were ‘Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’”.
Not to detour too much but, not only has Prince inspired so many other artists in his time – I will put a playlist out of artists who are inspired by him -; he drew from a lot of great musicians himself. As we read, Prince absorbed a lot of different sounds and channelled this into something gigantic and hugely accomplished:
“Prince's music synthesized a wide variety of influences, and drew inspiration from a range of musicians, including James Brown, George Clinton, Joni Mitchell, Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Chuck Berry, David Bowie, Earth, Wind & Fire, Mick Jagger, Rick James, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Curtis Mayfield, Elvis Presley, Todd Rundgren, Carlos Santana, Sly Stone, Jackie Wilson, and Stevie Wonder. Prince has been compared with jazz great Miles Davis in regard to the artistic changes throughout his career. Davis said he regarded Prince as an otherworldly blend of James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, Little Richard, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Chaplin. Prince and Miles Davis performed together for a Charity Event at Paisley Park. This performance was viewed as the pinnacle of their on-again, off-again partnership.
Journalist Nik Cohn described him as "rock's greatest ever natural talent". Prince was a natural tenor, but had a wide vocal range from falsetto to baritone, and performed rapid, seemingly effortless shifts of register. Prince was also renowned as a multi-instrumentalist. He is considered a guitar virtuoso and a master of drums, percussion, bass, keyboards, and synthesizer. On his first five albums, he played nearly all the instruments, including 27 instruments on his debut album, among them various types of bass, keyboards and synthesizers. Prince was also quick to embrace technology in his music, making pioneering use of drum machines like the Linn LM-1 on his early '80s albums and employing a wide range of studio effects. The LA Times also noted his "harnessing [of] new-generation synthesizer sounds in service of the groove," laying the foundations for post-'70s funk music. Prince was also known for his prolific and virtuosic tendencies, which resulted in him recording large amounts of unreleased material”.
It will be sad, in April, remembering Prince five years after he left us. I don’t think we will ever see a musician like him! Someone who can do so much and is such a creativity machine! I haven’t even touched on his scintillating live performances or taken a dive into some of his key albums – again, something I may do in a week or two. When The Guardian wrote about Prince legacy in 2016, they named a few artists who were touched by The Purple One:
“Few artists cast a shadow over contemporary music quite like Prince. Disco, funk, pop, hip-hop, house, electro – nothing would sound the way it does today without him.
Musicians who defined an era in pop and hip-hop, such as superstar producers the Neptunes and Timbaland, took cues from him; listen to Pharrell William’s Frontin’ and the Prince influence is clear. Prince was Timbaland’s idol and like his hero he tried to operate in that colourful area between R&B’s sensuous sexuality and the unbridled machismo that hip-hop can exude.
Talking about the first time he heard I Wanna Be Your Lover, Timbaland said: “To this day, I don’t really know how he created this unique sound, and that’s why it’s so dope. He’s in his own world and nobody else can get there, although I’ve tried.” Another group to operate in this space were the otherworldly Atlanta residents Outkast, who played with sexuality, fashion and consistently pushed the boundaries of 00s hip-hop.
IN THIS PHOTO: Daft Punk/PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
His uncompromising approach to the music industry set the blueprint for artists such as Daft Punk, who in a Princean move struck a deal with Virgin that gave them total control over their music and imagery, setting them on a path that made them cool, cult and commercially viable. And that’s before mentioning the debt that the group owe to him for the sound of Discovery, which has so many hat tips to Dirty Mind-era Prince it’s enough to give you neckache.
Then, take one look at the duelling R&B stars Miguel and Frank Ocean and you see two artists who play with the concepts of sexuality, blackness and style in a way that simply would not exist without Prince. Ocean wrote yesterday on Tumblr that “My assessment is that he learned early on how little value to assign to someone else’s opinion of you… An infectious sentiment that seemed soaked into his clothes, his hair, his walk, his guitar, and his primal scream,” this coming from a man who came out just before he released one of the most important R&B records of the last decade”.
I think one of the most rewarding things you can do is to spend time simply listening to Prince’s albums. They are so rich and important, one can learn so much from him. As I say, I am going to discuss artists who cite Prince as an influence at a later date. I wanted to do a general feature to explore the legacy of the Minnesota-born legend. Although it has been almost been five years since Prince’s death, it is clear that his light will…
SHINE forever.