In 1969, the free-thinking psychedelia that laced the decade until that point had to be drawn to a fitting close.
An album was required to bring down the curtain on this iconic creative decade, and of course, The Beatles stepped up to the plate and delivered it. The era, defined by this Liverpudlian band, said its farewells to the beautiful soundtrack of Abbey Road.
Some ten years later, when music fans looked back on what may have just been an even finer musical decade, the landscape felt equally as uncertain. 1979 brought with it clear evidence that its following decade would be far more futuristic and more technologically inclined. Where would this leave the gritty world of authentic rock and roll? Some fans were worried. That was until Prince released his sophomore self-titled album, comforting people that the future was indeed different, but just as bright.
He was the perfect genre-bending artist for the decade. Weaving together influences and sounds that individually boomed in the 1970s, and making something wholly coherent with all of them, proved to be the authentic tonic the otherwise singular 1980s needed.
“He seems to stand out from the crowd, He looks good, he dances good, he sings great, plays great guitar and I like a lot of his songs,” Paul McCartney once said of the musician, quite simply outlining what it was that made him successful. Because in a decade where commercial viability was becoming more of a priority and talent less of a concern, Prince’s outright possession of skill made it clear he was head and shoulders above the rest.
But while Paul McCartney is keen to praise his showmanship, you would be forgiven for thinking that he was above being subjected to any sense of artistic influence. Traditionally, McCartney has been on the other side of the coin, laying the foundations for future artists to follow his lead. But this is where Prince differed, for his influence can be found all over McCartney’s two songs, ‘Hunt You Down’ from 2018’s Egypt Station and ‘If You Wanna’ from the 1997 record Flaming Pie.
“Those two definitely,” he answered when asked what songs had the hallmarks of Prince’s style on them. But maybe McCartney’s admiration for Prince is so overwhelming that remembering every point of influence he drew from him has become muddled. Because while Macca credits those two songs as being the primary beneficiaries of Prince’s style, he’s forgotten one more obvious take that he made under the influence.
“I’d written ‘Distractions’ on guitar and could see it needed an arrangement to really take off,” he said. “I’d heard one of Prince’s arrangements on Sign o’ the Times, his album of 1987. I saw that the arranger was someone named Clare Fischer; that was the only name. I assumed it was a very talented woman who had worked such magic for Prince.”
It just so happened that Clare Fischer was actually a middle-aged man, and McCartney got in contact with him to harness some of the Prince magic he had once created. Fischer continued working with Prince for two more decades after Sign o’ the Times, leaving the question: was he the unsung hero of this relationship?
