“That’ll never happen to me”: The Beatles song Prince always had issues with
It’s no one’s duty to love one artist on principle. Every group has those few songs that aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and there are even a few that could churn a few stomachs if not executed properly. Although Prince normally had a certain degree of brilliance no matter what project he was working on, he admitted that The Beatles getting back together in the 1990s to create new songs never sat well with him.
For any fans of the Fab Four, though, The Beatles Anthology was a dream come true. The idea of a chronological story of their lives was one thing, but being able to bring John Lennon’s voice back to life in new songs like ‘Free As a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ made it truly feel like the impossible was happening.
Because when you think about it, Lennon never got to close that chapter of his life with his bandmates properly. His murder put an end to everything on a tragic note in 1980, so being able to hear him and his old mates performing together from beyond the grave felt like they had settled all their differences and gave the world one last piece of magic.
Then again, Prince was never the kind of person to dig back into his catalogue for songs. He was always about forward progression, and considering the ungodly amount of albums that he put out during his lifetime, he seemed like the kind of creative tornado that most people are just lucky to get swept up in when they heard him.
By the time the 1990s rolled around, Prince was much more interested in securing the rights to his music, which involved him going to war with Warner Bros and changing his name to a symbol so no one could do anything with his music. So when he saw one of the greatest musicians of the modern age getting put through different effects for one more product, it’s no wonder that he felt a little bit jaded about it.
When talking to Guitar World, Prince said that he was never happy with how The Beatles handled Lennon’s presence in the song, saying, “That whole virtual reality thing… it really is demonic. And I am not a demon. Also, what they did with that Beatles song [“Free As a Bird”], manipulating John Lennon’s voice to have him singing from across the grave… that’ll never happen to me. To prevent that kind of thing from happening is another reason why I want artistic control.”
And looking at what Prince’s music looked like after he passed away, it’s not like his estate hasn’t followed that to the letter. There have been a few albums that came out following his death, but looking at records like The Originals and Piano and a Microphone 1983, each of them is about catching Prince in his rawest form rather than trying to glam it up to the point where it sounded like an all-new track.
Even though many high-end producers could probably turn Prince’s voice into another classic record if they wanted to, that’s not how he’s meant to be heard. No matter how much AI could probably work around his performances, only human hands could make something as divine as the solo during ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.
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