All right, y’all know the drill by now. Continuing our (kinda sorta) Prince-themed 6 Degrees series, connecting albums from The List and carrying on from where we left off last time. This is essentially a guest post as avi_miller provided the connections for the last four albums in this set, so a big thank you to them!
Robert Fripp – (971)
…this album by Robert Fripp, who was in…
King Crimson – (568)
…King Crimson. The line-up at the time of this album included Bill Bruford on drums/percussion, who had previously been the drummer for…
Yes – (527)
…Yes. This album was recorded at Advision Studios, where part of…
Kate Bush – (576)
…this album by Kate Bush was also recorded. This album features Jimmy Bain on bass guitar, who also played bass on…
Some fun connections between this group of artists and The Purple One. Let me know in the comments if you know of any others!
In 1990, Prince invited Kate Bush to meet him after a show, and they decided to collaborate. The two couldn’t again get in the same room, so “Why Should I Love You?” (released on Bush’s 1993 album The Red Shoes) took 2 years to create (or, rather, construct, then deconstruct, then reconstruct…) by sending tapes back and forth.
Kate Bush does backing vocals on Prince’s “My Computer“, from his 1996 album, Emancipation.
The soundtrack to the 1995 film Showgirls features two Prince songs (The Gold Experience‘s “319” and Crystal Ball‘s “Ripopgodezippa”) as well as David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans”, which was co-written by Brian Eno.
Both Prince’s Purple Rain and Brian Eno’s Another Green World have inspired custom perfumes made by dublab that are supposedly meant to, umm, smell like them (like the albums, not the musicians).
Both Prince and Ritchie Blackmore, guitarist and leader of the band Rainbow, are known as two of the greatest guitarists of all time, and both loved to break out lengthy but spectacular solos. On Rolling Stone‘s 2023 list of the top 250 guitarists, Prince ranked at number 14, and Blackmore at 75. (There are actually a ton of artists from The List on Rolling Stone‘s list, because we have great taste.)
Prince and Ronnie James Dio (the singer for Rainbow at the time of the Rainbow Rising album) both packed an enormous amount of talent in a smaller frame – the two were nearly the same height (with or without their fabulous high heels). (And speaking of fashion, some of Dio’s stage outfits wouldn’t look too out of place on Prince, and vice versa.)
Tune in on Friday for Part 6, to see how we get from Rainbow to Madhouse!