The only song Prince thought would “still be here in 2,000 years”

Among the myriad implications of this, one of the more subtle ways in which musicians exploit the modern transience of art is that things focus on fads, go viral, and become increasingly niche, leaving timeless masterpieces on the growing ash heap of scorched cultural history. While Prince’s statement about technology may sound blasé due to his typically loose language, it was an attitude that drove his art, and in turn, balanced the art he loved.

John Lennon was a musician who also had an analogue obsession. Even at a young age, he was aware that the Beatles were etching the essence of the zeitgeist onto their tapes, not just little ditties. This gave their work a lasting, artistic integrity and reflected what was happening in the culture. “The rock star thing is dead,” Prince once told the Minnesota monthlyin an “Eye of Time” manner that could easily have come from the culturally aware Beatle. “I mean, I still have bodyguards for my personal security, but for me the whole thing is over. I’m not that rock star trip anymore, I’ve done it. It’s over.”

Creatively, he was concerned that music had to be true to itself in order to endure. Whether that was literally analogue or the earnest feelings it implied, there had to be truth and integrity in what you were doing if it was to be timeless in an age where hundreds of thousands of songs were being written every day. Lennon, he believed, was a master at staying true to himself and the times he was in.

“Now a lot of people say, ‘Oh yeah, Lennon lost his edge’ when he got out of the whole domestic scene and started recording again. Man, what does that mean, lost its sharpness. It usually means some kind of dysfunction,” Prince said. “The guy goes through something that makes him angry or lonely or upset and ends up dealing with it on a personal level. And what happens to his music? They say it’s ‘domesticated.’ Hey, I hope they say that about my music too. I want my music to be domesticated.”

In fact, Prince believed that Lennon’s retreat into a more contemplative mood enabled him to find greater universality. He claimed that Liverpudlian “would never have written the beautiful music he wrote at the end of his life if he hadn’t gone through what he went through with Yoko and himself.”

He continued: “He would never have written ‘Imagine.’ And ‘Imagine’ will, thank God, still be around in 2,000 years, but a song like ‘I Am The Walrus’ will not. Do you know why? Because John was not the walrus, he was John. ‘Imagine’ is a song about truth and will always win in the end. If John had never climbed the ladder in that art gallery to see what Yoko had written there when he first met her, his life would have been completely different. What he found was the word ‘yes’ and for me that defined the beginning and the end of their lives together as people and artists. For me that one little word says it all.”

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