“If you need a path”: The artists Prince believed every musician needs to study
Music should never be considered a job for anyone. To become one of the greatest of all time, it’s important that every note that comes out of your instrument comes from a place of fun, even if it isn’t the most adventurous chord sequence that anyone has ever laid down. Although Prince eventually got to the point where he could have easily taught a clinic on how to make hit records, he knew that he was far from the first person to come up with the idea of making catchy pop tunes.
Then again, Prince sure as hell perfected what the idea of a pop star was supposed to be. From his manic production style to making every single song feel like the greatest tune of all time, everything from Purple Rain to Sign o’ the Times to even his later albums like Musicology could have stood up next to the best records by any of his contemporaries, be they in rock, R&B, funk or anything in between.
Even when he was interpreting someone else’s material, ‘The Purple One’ managed to add his own secret spice to everything to make it seem like one of the most earthshattering performances of all time. His take on Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ is already one of the finest covers of all time, and despite not singing a note, his performance of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stands as one of the greatest guitar solos in history.
But the real essence of Prince’s music doesn’t come without practice. He knew that he had to approach his music like it was a lifestyle, and that was something that people like James Brown and Ike Turner knew all too well. Despite the despicable actions of the latter, both R&B legends knew the power behind making a great groove, and that meant playing off the band just the right way so that everything sounded pristine when they got onstage.
That certainly was a good foundation to stand on, but that didn’t leave much room for adventurousness until someone like Joni Mitchell came in. Prince may have had plenty of inspiration from people like Carlos Santana, but Mitchell opened up his mind to what music could do, complete with tunings that sounded like they were coming from different musical universes.
And somewhere in between each of those musical titans was Prince’s definition of what great music is supposed to be, saying, “If you need a path to follow, a good place to start is by listening to Ike Turner—he was as tight as they come—or James Brown, who is all about rhythm. Put any colours you’ve learned from Joni Mitchell on top of that, and then you’ve got something!”
Although Prince was always going to sound like himself, it’s easy to see the pieces of himself that were put together by Mitchell specifically. There are plenty of groove-based songs throughout his career that have been descended down from Brown’s days in the limelight, but his attention to detail when it came to finding new melodic ideas was second-nature to Mitchell whenever she played.
Beyond being great musicians, though, Prince was taught that some of the greatest artists of all time don’t necessarily need to be tied into one style. Music has always been elastic, and as long as there was a band onstage with you and a guitar in your hands, there was no limit as to where the songs could go.
