"Throughout ones life there are many instances and occassions that adhere to

a persons memory. They stand as a reminder of all the good and bad that one

experiences throughout the course of their journey in this world. They stir up

images of days gone by, of people who have come and gone, and of events that

we'd just as soon like to forget but can't."


I would like to take a moment to share with all of you a tiny bit of my personal

history. Today is my 20 year anniversary as a Prince fan. It's difficult even for

me to believe that anyone could admire one artist, unwavering, for so long; but

then again this is the greatest singer/songwriter/performer who ever lived. So I

invite you to walk with me down memory lane and listen to a few personal

anecdotes and view photos of a few no-big-deal items I've picked up over the

years.


Day of Infamy

Growing up in northern New Jersey we received all of New York city's

television stations. Back in the early and mid 80s NBC(?) used to air a show

called Hot Trax. It was similar in style to American Bandstand but with an

urban dance club setting. At the time we didn't have Mtv at our house or even

cable, so Hot Trax is how I got my fill of Prince videos in the 80s.


One night in July of 1984 I awoke sometime around midnight to hear my

brother Donald and my sisters Lynn and Dawn in the living room. Now either

insomnia or curiosity got the best of me and I got up to discover that they were

watching Hot Trax. So I decided to joined them. We sat semi-circle around the

great glowing story teller much like our ancestors must have done with hearths

and fireplaces before the advent of radio or television. Not long after my

inception into their little club it happened. Hot Trax aired the video that would

forever change my world, the video to "Let's Go Crazy".


Shortly after it started I remember saying "I like this song". My sister Lynn said

to me "I'll show you my favorite part" and when it came it turned out to be the

hip-thrusting part of "ah, ah, is all I heard". I continued to watch the rest of the

video the way a young child watches the Wizard of Oz for the first time. Only

there was no yellow brick road, no wicked witches, no little people (no pun

intended) to seize my attention with whimsical fantasy. Only the mezmorizing

performance of an amazing song by an ever more amazing man whose talent

and genius I had only just been given a small taste of. I would soon come to

discover that this was more then just some pop star spending his 15 minutes of

fame. He was quite possibly the greatest muscial genius who ever lived and

what I didn't realize is that I was about to hop onboard what would turn out to

be a long, exciting, and at times, frustrating and confusing, rollercoatser ride of

musical wonderment. But as the saying goes, half the fun is getting there.


As the video went off I uttered a phrase that would go down in my personal

history the same way Julius Caesar's "Vini Vidi Vici". I declared "he's my

favorite", jumped on the rollercoaster, and never looked back.


Around The World In A Day

During summer vacation I would spend several weeks at my aunt and uncles

house in central New Jersey where I had cousins close in age. By now my

mom and I were living with my grandparents minus my 4 siblings, rendering me

an 'only' child of sorts. It was now July of 1985, almost a year after declaring

Prince as my "favorite" but I still didn't even own a single Prince recording.

That all soon change however.


During this particular year I believe I spent a month, if not more, at my aunt

and uncles house. One particular weekend my mother and grandparents came

down to visit on a Saturday. During their visit all of us with the exception of

my grandfather and uncle Bill took a little trip down to the local K-Mart. Now

keep in mind that I was 9 years old and with the exception of my cousin Chris

everyone else that I was with were women, which meant that we had to look at

every article of clothing on every rack in the store. This trip was shaping up to

be a disaster. I should've known better. My sister Lynn would take me

shopping with her on occasion and we'd go through every article of clothing on

every rack in every store in downtown Paterson. I had just set myself up

without even realizing it.


I wanted to go to the music section to look at the new Prince album. I did not

own a cassette player of any kind at the time so buying it was out of the

question but I could still look at it just the same. Anyway.


We meandered around the store avoiding the music department by at least 50

feet the whole time until we came to the cosmetics section. Oh how lucky was

I to be with 4 women and not be old enough for my mother to allow me to

strike out on my own. The good thing was that the music department was

directly across from the music department and when I saw it I get really excited

and tried to sway the group to go over there. Too bad they had different plans

and the music department would have to wait until they were done looking at

the cosmetics.


I stood at the edge of the cosmetics department looking over to the music

department less then 20 feet away. Off to my right there was a 3 tiered 3 sided

display shelf of which I could only see the three shelves on the left. On the top

shelf there was a particularly eye catching album. It was very colorful. I didn't

know what it was but I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Something drew me to

it. I wanted to see it up close to find out what it was. I turned to look at my

traveling companions to see where they were and they had wandered off

toward a back wall. Fuck it, I'm going over there.

I walked over to the display shelf and got my first good close up view of the

album that had been beckoning me from the cosmetics. There were characters

on it, drwaings of people some of whom looked familiar. Was this the Prince

album? I looked for a title but there wasn't one printed on it anywhere.

"Let's see that guy looks like Dr. Fink, and that looks like Wendy, and that

kinda sorta looks like Lisa; but the guy with the cloud guitar and jumpsuit

doesn't look anything like Prince. He's white with spiked, blonde hair. Still

that's the guitar Prince was playing in the video and he was wearing an outfit

just like that one. There has to be a title on here somewhere. Wait, there's

writing on that balloon that's carrying away that little boy. It says "Prince and

the Revolution Around The World In A Day" this is it!!!" I snatched the LP

from it's confines and ran over to my mother who was, alas, still in the

cosmetics section. I begged her to buy it for me and she agreed. I now had my

first Prince album, on vinyl, the only medium I had at home that could play

prerecorded music.


It's held up pretty good over the years!


Prince Can Do Whatever He Wants

In recent years I have learned that a favorite Princely novelty among fans

are/where the B-Sides. Prince had been putting unreleased songs on the b-sides

of singles since 1983 but until "Sign 'O' The Times" I was not aware of this. I

had never bought a single before. Why would I if I already had the album.

Why buy the same song twice, right? Now if I had known about the b-sides

things might have been different. Very different. Meaning my first purchase of

a b-side would not have been one of utter heartache and disappointment.

A few weeks, give or take, after hearing "Sign 'O' The Times" on the radio the

day to buy the album finally came. There was nothing special about the event

other then the a fore mentioned excitement, anxiety, and anticipation that I was

brimming with anytime I went to buy a new Prince album. It would take place

in it's usual fashion, my mother and I taking a bus trip up to Wayne Hills Mall

and me making a b-line (haha!) for Sam Goody where I would immediately

seek out and capture the first copy of the album that I saw on cassette.

They usually had the new releases on a display rack right by the front door in

plain view so that it was easy to see but this time it wasn't tha case. Seeing that

it wasn't there I went to the back wall which was nothing but one big shelf full

of cassettes. I looked for it but couldn't find it there either. I started to get

worried as I searched the rest of the store thinking that maybe they didn't have

it.


I finally found what I was looking for, it was to the right of the front entrace

where I came in roughly 20 feet away. They had two entire shelves full of

them plus another smaller shelf on the display case next to this one full of them

also. Pay dirt! The cover was orange and unlike the "Around The World In A

Day" album this one clearly read "Prince Sign 'O' The Times". There was no

doubt about this one. I turned it over to read the tracklist. Much to my surprise

theres were only 2 songs on it, "Sign 'O' The Times" and "La La La He He Hee"

and they were repeated on both sides. I began to have my doubts about this.

This was probably the first time I ever questioned Prince's actions. Literally.

"Why would he release an album with only 2 songs on it?" I asked myself. I

asnwered. "He's Prince, he could do whatever he wants." My open minded

reasoning satisfied me and whatever doubts I may have had were now gone. I

was resigned to the notion that what I had in my hand was the new Prince

album. I was ready to take the baby home from the hospital for the first time,

so to speak.


After our obligatory trip around the mall it was FINALLY time to head home to

listen to his latest creation, short though it was. Anytime I purchased a cassette

at the mall the bus ride home always consisted of me ripping the shrink wrap

off of it so that I can have a gander of what was inside. I always hoped for

printed lyrics but was satisfied even if there were just credits. I always, for

some reason, liked to read the credits, even as a kid. This trip home would be

no different, with one exception. This time the credits would not satisfy me,

they would disappoint me.


The bus had just turned the corner and we were still within walking distance of

the mall when I finally managed to get the damn plastic wrap off the cassette.

With total elation and drool running down my chin (not literally, of course

) I opened the case and removed the tape. I pulled out the insert and

read the credits. Wow! "La La La He He Hee" was co-written by Sheena

Easton! Cool! What else does it say. "Original version of "Sign 'O' The Times"

available on 4th-COMING DOUBLE ALBUM...". I didn't

understand what that meant for a second then the phrase "Double Album" hit

me. I had completely forgotten that this was supposed to be a double album

which meant that there would have to be more then just 2 songs on it. "This

isn't it" I said in a panic. "It's supposed to be a double album, I forgot. See" I

said as I pointed out the line in the credits to my mother. "We have to go back"

I said as if I had just left behind a loved one doomed to certain death. "You can

get it next week" my mom assured me but to no avail. I was now pissed off,

with myself for being so stupid and forgetting that it was supposed to be a

double album and convincing myself that Prince would release an album with

only 2 songs on it.


The fact that the spine clearly read "maxi-single cassette" should have tipped

me off that something here was amiss but I didn't know what the hell a 'maxi

single' was. The only thing I had ever heard of with the word 'maxi' in it was

'maxi pad', and this clearly was not one of those. I was also a little mad that my

mom wouldn't let's us go back to the mall. It was within walking distance after

all. What was the big deal? Mostly I was pissed off because now I had to wait

another God damn week to hear the new album.






A wooden plaque I made in 7th or 8th grade in shop class! Notice I fucked
up hte 'E'.


A wallet I found sometime around 1986/87. Actually my mom found it, I
didn't have the patience to look through all of the other ones they had just in the
hopes of finding this one.


The picture is a cover to a notepad that Lois Watt, a 6th grade classmate,
tore off and gave to me. Everyone was well aware of my fan status.
The ticket stub in the bottom left corner is from when I went to see "Sign 'O' The Times" in the theater when it first came out.



Even though I haven't bought a Prince album on cassette since 1992, these are still my babies. The only one that ever wore out was "Controversey". Go figure.



Only recently mounted, my 2 Prince posters circa 1986 and 1991 respectively.



The ticket stub to the first and, so far, ONLY live show I've ever been to
along with one several souveniers purchased after the show.

For those of you who made it all the way to the end, I thank you for your time and
patience! I hope I didn't bore you too much. You can go have a nap now!

All right baby...

Just some quick first impressions reading this, if it seems disjointed I apologize I haven't slept in 28 hours or so

First thing that runs through my mind is... Fuck sweetie you have the worst memory, you have no clue what you ate for lunch yesterday, how do you remember all this shit?!

Then I realize how this all must have effected you.

Next I think.....

DAMN! I KNOW every place you are talking about and that is really cool. Now matter how far away you are now, we do share the same home turf, and the fact that I can drive to all the places you describe in less than half hour, makes me feel like part of you is here with me, and that feels really good.(and I had an Uncle Bill too! I can see Lynn REALLY liking the hip thrust thing )



And on a less personal and probably more important note, I see your love for the music that had once meant so much to me.... as the years have gone by I have lost the "fire" that once drove me as a Prince fan. I still love the man and his music, but the passion has gone out of my relationship with it. Reading this reminds me why I became a fan, and it makes me a bit embarrassed of my hater ( as you say) ways.

Does this mean I'm gonna hit the Purple kool- aid? Naw, I'm not and I'll be back to hating in an hour or so, but thanks for reminding me of the innocence that I had when discovering Prince's music and madness for the first time.

It is an incredible journey, one you are still on and in many ways that makes me a little envious of you.

Thanks for sharing this with us Pill, it is appreciated.


oh and


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!





[This message was edited Sun Jul 18 14:45:24 2004 by Sweeny79]

beautiful.

LittlePill said:

If, for any reason, you decide to sell those. Come to me pleeeeease!!!

Spookymuffin said:

NEVER EVER EVER!!!!

Sweeny79 said:

Thank you sweety! A lot of these memories are still very vivid. These were just a few condensed excerpts from an unfinished writing I began over a year ago.

Wanna take a LittlePill field trip? Hit the Sam Goody story at Wayne Hills Mall. Oh, and don't the neglect Kmart. In fact I think I showed you the approximate spot where I realized my mistake when buying "Sign" while I was out there in May.

LittlePill said:

Yeah I know you did.

Finish writing whatever it is you started,you might learn more about yourself than you realized.