Prince Was Seeking A New Sound Before His Death: He May Have Found Something Revolutionary

Prince was seeking a new sound before his untimely death. Like so many musicians in recent years, he was seeking an escape from the vanilla mainstream doldrums that have impacted twenty-first-century music. Michael Nelson, an orchestral arranger and trombone player for the Hornheads, has been collaborating with Prince to discover potential new styles. Nelson told Rolling Stone he and the “Purple Rain” icon were very close to developing a revolutionary new sound.

Prince discovered many new styles in the past. Always a creative trendsetter, maneuvering his career through decades of trending music styles, he always managed to top the charts with new and innovative music. Prince has seen funk, punk, metal, and hair bands come and go. He survived disco to watch what many consider the decline of music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMps1ue_024&list=PLCQM-gIyEsN6CCzNvWXpv3cfSSDB1t7oU

From Harry Styles of One Direction to rapper Diggy Simmons, many musicians have been questing for the holy grail of musical originality in a very vanilla environment. Maroon 5 has even written a song called “Seeking A New Sound,” announcing their own quest for something different.

Harry Styles, Diggy, Maroon 5, and countless other musicians are seeking a new sound by creating music. While popular artists have been attempting to hone their creative skills, music industry agents are actively seeking new talent, hoping to discover something unique to define this century’s musical style as something other than bland.

Prince was seeking a new sound as a musician by creating different potential styles. There are other related fields like music theory and online analytic analysis also seeking new styles. The quest for new musical styles, similar to the quest for the Holy Grail in scope, is also the intellectual pursuit of musical theorists like those writing for New Sound International Journal of Music, who seek better music through scientific and theoretical concepts. Even internet analytic experts, like those at Next Big Sound, are trying to categorize and understand successful musical productions in a way never attempted before. They are seeking to identify and define truly epic music.

Prince, while seeking a new sound, discovered what could be the new style so many musical experts are looking for. About a year ago, while recording his hit single “Baltimore,” a truly unique idea surfaced from the mind of the “Purple Rain” musical genius. He immediately contacted Michael Nelson, a frequent collaborator for Prince. The two of them have worked together on a semi-regular basis for the last 25 years.

Prince asked Nelson to help him replace parts of his four-and-a-half-minute guitar solo with truly unique orchestral arrangements. This may be the main example of the new sound to be released. The sound has been evolving since “Baltimore” was completed, but the best examples have not been released. Nelson explained the process of arranging the new sound of “Baltimore” to Rolling Stone.

“On ‘Baltimore,’ we basically orchestrated his guitar solo with strings and woodwinds and brass. When we finished that track and sent it to him, he sent me back a note with a link to the finished recording saying, ‘As you can hear, we’re onto something special. We’re going to redefine the Minneapolis sound, and I’m going to need your pen to do it. So block off some time in the summer.’ “

The Prince song, “Baltimore” was just the beginning. Nelson is fretting about the fate of a song, titled “Pangaea,” that represents the pentacle of their musical development before Prince’s life was cut short.

“I don’t know if it will ever come out but it’s one of the most incredible things I ever worked on.”

Prince was seeking a new sound similar to the style of “Baltimore,” but more evolved. He was apparently very impressed with Nelson’s work on the song “Pangaea,” sending a small note with only one short sentence in all capitals.

” ‘PANGAEA’ IS MAGNIFICENT.”

Without Prince, Nelson grieves not only the loss of his long-time friend but also for the loss of some unique songs and the potential music styles and new sounds the world is now deprived of.

“Besides the loss I feel personally now, I feel like my creative world has been gutted. These songs were big productions and they take a lot of people. We were doing 10 strings multiplied four times. And I was doing the horns, I was doing woodwinds and I was bringing in French horns and in one e-mail, he said, ‘I want harp and timpani and bells and everything. Have fun.’ What artist says that? And what artist can pay for that? What artist can support that?”

Prince estimated it would take a 30 to 40 piece brass and string section plus his own guitar to produce his creative new sound. Some examples of the new sound have been recorded, but most have never been released. They are trapped in the vault, among untold thousands of unreleased Prince songs.

The Prince music vault currently holds at least 25 of the unreleased songs Nelson worked on. What will happen to these and other amazing Prince songs? With this iconic star gone, the fate of all the music, stored carefully in the vault, remains uncertain.

“There’s so much music. I just can’t even imagine. … God, I hope some of this comes out.”

Prince was seeking a new sound, as are many younger artists like Harry Styles, Diggy, and Maroon 5, who might find clues in the music veteran’s vault.

[Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images]