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Prince, my greatest influence in life. Beyond musical talents and work ethic, his prolific drive and spirituality fuelled my hunger to discover my profound love for all things creative; Music being the main factor. The reason for the selection of my first influence is his effect on modern-day music and the path he paved for present musicians. Prince was shown reverence as one of the greatest musicians and had such impacts upon artists such as D'Angelo, Frank Ocean, Beyonce and many more as suggested in https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/14-artists-that-wouldnt-be-the-same-without-prince-767323 - CITE THIS. Revealing his grand guidance upon many great artists today. The greatest experience I gained from Prince myself was his prolific work ethic; being that he was a perfectionist but also created a grand scale of work throughout the 41 years of work. It was said that Prince created or wrote an estimated "8,000 songs" (CBS, 2021). The sheer creativity he held but also the ability to craft all this himself by playing most of the instruments himself to produce the piece is the musical cherry on top "Prince wrote the songs, sang the songs and played most instruments" (CBS, 2021).

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Purple Trivia_ 12 Surprising Facts About Prince _ Essence

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Joni, a great part of my childhood growing up. Despite jazz and Afro-Latin genres being the greatest section of my musical inspiration; I consider Joni a great influence on the instrumental and recording techniques she would use, her debut album Blue was written and fully produced by herself. Joni pulled inspiration from artists such as genres such as Leonard Cohen, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis in her later years. Include Citation. Being strong from a drive in women, my mother would often play ABC Jazz and other foreign radio stations when I was younger and Joni caught my ear on Saturday morning whilst I was mopping. Her voice conveyed tones of sharp piercing yet melodic staccato. At first, I heard the instrument she was playing but couldn't identify what it was, I did some further research to find that she used an "Appalachian dulcimer" or a Mountain Dulcimer, during her live concerts and recordings. In hearing the equipment, I did a deeper dive to then realise Jean Ritchie had a very similar tone and style of musicianship and singing that mirrored and was adapted from Joni Mitchell.

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https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2017/04/20/a-guide-to-princes-musical-inspiration                                                                                                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSVD1P0mRwM

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Larry Graham, a founding member of Sly and the Family Stone, was well-known to Prince from a young age. Grand Funk Railroad is frequently suggested as the inspiration behind the name of Prince's first band, Grand Central, while Graham Central Station. We get to see how Graham's innovation of the "Slap-and-Pop" also influenced Prince such as on tracks like "Stare, 2015" and "Musicology, 2004".

Larry is generally renowned for having introduced Prince to the Jehovah's Witness faith during their late 90's to Early 2000s tour. A clear reflection of this would be the rainbow children album, which is strong on the deliverance of a journey in faith. "A lot of people will remember Prince for his music," Graham stated. But he would also like his insights from the Bible to be known. We lost a spiritual brother and a very close friend." (Swensson & Papineau, 2017) This also is a great inspiration to oneself and many others fusing faith into music without shame or worry of judgement, allowing art to simply be seen as art, regardless of the content.

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https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2017/04/20/a-guide-to-princes-musical-inspiration                                                    https://diffuser.fm/prince-the-work-pt-1/.                                            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIU8TBJ7SYU

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"James Brown played a big influence in my style," Prince told MTV in 1985. "When I was about 10 years old, my stepdad put me on stage with him, and I danced a little bit until the bodyguard took me off." (Swensson & Papineau, 2017).

Prince had a strong solace towards the Funk Godfather, James Brown. Brown appeared with Prince and Michael Jackson at a Los Angeles event in 1983. This can be seen when Prince and Michael Jackson are summoned to the stage by Mr. Brown to perform. From 2002 to 2009, Prince performed and recorded with Maceo Parker, Brown's saxophonist.

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The foundation laid before Prince by the world-famous and renowned band Funkadelic commonly featured Bootsy Collins the Bassist and George Clinton, who paved great inspiration from the lead singer. Prince supposedly wrote "Erotic City" the same night he saw a Parliament-Funkadelic concert The Current, "On this day in 1997: Prince inducts George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame". Furthermore, Prince and Clinton co-wrote the song "We Can Funk" in 1990. This was a great deal and inspiration for Prince who ultimately deeply respected and admired the band and their work over the years, a true Funkateer.

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George Clinton_ a life in music – in pictures

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"Among them was a Miles Davis record and that started a shift in me I think musically um, which didn’t come out right away. Miles is, his taste is so beautiful, you know, it’s just elegant." (Steve Rowland, 2016)

Throughout this interview with Steve, Joni speaks on her constant awe and surprise to discover jazz and all fusions of the sort. We get to see not only Miles' major influence, but her gradual learning throughout the years that stemmed from Miles and other artists like Coltrane and so forth.

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In this article, we get to see the impact and influence Cohen had upon Joni, from an early stage she didn't only admire his music, but more so his poetry. “Leonard was an early influence. I remember thinking when I heard his songs for the first time that I was not worldly. My work seemed very young and naive in comparison." (Aimee Ferrier, 2023).

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"Interviewer: How big an influence was Dylan on you?

Joni: I wrote poetry, and I always wanted to make music. But I never put the two things together. Just a simple thing like being a singer-songwriter – that was a new idea. It used to take three people to do that job" (Rolling Stones, 1991)

From this interview found in Peter Stone Brown archives, we get to see the main influence Joni had which was more focused towards the literature of artists than the sound, the lyricists she would look up to shaped her understanding and gave her a new standard to fulfil.