Graffity Bridge in 1990. Before that I was vaguely aware of Prince, mainly from the fact that Batdance was a big hit the previous summer. I didn't have a clue that he was the same guy who sang Purple Rain and wrote Tom Jones's Kiss and Sinnead's Nothing Compares 2U... But I loved the screams at the end of Thieves in the Temple and I heard The Question of U somewhere, so I bought it and never looked back...

My first Prince record--the first music I ever purchased with my own money--was vinyl 45 "Raspberry Beret". I was nine, and I was obsessed with the song. I bought it at the now-defunct Pay-n-Save in Ballard (Seattle) for 99 cents, which I saved from my allowance. I brought it home and listened to it incessantly. The day after I bought the record, I found it in my room, broken in two. My (mean) older sister claimed that she "accidentally stepped on it". When I complained to my mom, she told me that I was not allowed to replace the record, because, in her words, "Prince is a weirdo". I was totally crushed. This is like one of the traumas from my childhood that still tinges with injustice.

Later I bought the tape for Purple Rain...

[Edited 9/20/14 10:45am]

madness said:

My first Prince record--the first music I ever purchased with my own money--was vinyl 45 "Raspberry Beret". I was nine, and I was obsessed with the song. I bought it at the now-defunct Pay-n-Save in Ballard (Seattle) for 99 cents, which I saved from my allowance. I brought it home and listened to it incessantly. The day after I bought the record, I found it in my room, broken in two. My (mean) older sister claimed that she "accidentally stepped on it". When I complained to my mom, she told me that I was not allowed to replace the record, because, in her words, "Prince is a weirdo". I was totally crushed. This is like one of the traumas from my childhood that still tinges with injustice.

Later I bought the tape for Purple Rain...

[Edited 9/20/14 10:45am]

Wow, I thought my Dad was strict...