i first heard prince in the batman movie. my mom bought me the video when i was like 5 or 6 and whenever "partyman" came on i would get up and dance. she then bought me the soundtrack next christmass. it was one of only 5 albums i owned for a number of years(along with paul simons graceland, miles davis kind of blue, ray charles gratest hits, and john lennons greatest hits being the others), but was then forgoton, when i was about 9-10 when i started getting into hip-hop.

then 2-3 years ago(i was 16 i think) i was reading hip-hop mag"pound" and they asked 30 rappers who thier favorite artist was, and like 90 % said jay-z.
THEY THEN ASKED JAY-Z AND HE SAID PRINCE. i then put on batman just for kicks, and i tottally saw it! i then emptied my entire bank acount on prince albums grabbing sott, purple rain, and a couple of others and its been on ever since.



i know this is not that interesting ,but i know some of you die hard fans got some interesting stories, like:.....

when i first became a fan, when i was about 13 years old, i was freakin' obsessed. i cut out magazine clippings, i got to know employees at wrecka stows who told me when to look out for new singles and albums, i made sure to watch all the awards shows and of course, back then MTV made a big deal whenever he had a new video premiere, so i'd be right in front of the TV waiting.

i think i was pretty much prince-centric through the "batman" era, and around that time i started to cool off just a little and get into other artists...i had become a big bowie fanatic around '87, and i'd gotten into some other artists as well - bauhaus, laurie anderson, grace jones, the cure, a few others - and my tastes were starting to round out a bit.

i think around the time of "diamonds and pearls" i started to float away from prince quite a bit - i still kept up, but his stuff started to seem more gaudy and less cool to me - there were still aspects i loved and stuff that kept me coming back as a fan, but he was kinda like a semi-estranged relative who was kind of embarrassing, but we loved him anyway because he was family.

after that, i made a point to get new prince stuff on the day of release more out of tradition than because i was chomping at the bit to hear it.

then, i dunno, around the time of RAVE, i started chatting with other prince freaks on the net more than i had in the past, and i was enjoying prince again, mainly because i was talking to other folks about him and that was something i'd never really gotten to do in the past, because i didn't know many "real time" prince fans, and the few i knew had drifted away from him more than even i had.

and it seems to me like this year, my "fandom" has come full circle - prince threw what felt like a big ol' party for his fans, and i've loved every second of it.

from here on out, i'm still loving his work and enjoying everything he's done and discovering stuff i'd overlooked all the time, but it feels like after this year, everything he does is gonna be gravy.

and gravy can be mighty tasty. it can make the meal.

now for my commercial from local sponsors:
my time with prince al started like 7-8 years ago whenhe was the symbol and almost every album had a PA warning on it and i couldnt have on but now ive grown up i buy my own.but what inspired me was the gold era i always loved him during that time but around 99 when he did the rave thing i really didnt care for him when he did the DVD butt i love greatest romance.so like last year when i saw ONA on tv i got right back into my fascination with him now im back.but one thing i cant do to support him is join NPGMC because i stay broke

" but he was kinda like a semi-estranged relative who was kind of embarrassing, but we loved him anyway because he was family."



well put.

jacknapier said:

thanks...and i'm glad i hung in there with him during that "estranged" period, cuz, don'tcha know it, now that era of prince (around, say, "come" and "the gold Xperience") fascinates me more than anything he's done, barring perhaps whatever he's doing now or whatever he's gonna do next.

Anxiety said:

the only thing that fascinates me with prince and the gold era is who has the masters to the gold cd because i cant find it and he should let someone re-release it so i can get it

I always liked Prince but I "crossed over to creepiness"
as my friend calls it when my brother gave me a copy
of his Hits1/ Hits2 CDs.
After that I realized that P was a WHOLE lot more than
just some singer.
Those 2 Cds were all I listened to for
about a year. Then I saw Rave Un2 the Joy.. in my friendly
neighborhood wrecka stow and I realized...
"Oh my goodness, Prince has so much more
music that I've never even heard before. I need more! MORE!"

So I started my "official" collection with that CD and from then on
the rest is history.

Sometimes I wish I could had been old enough to fully
enjoy P in th 80's but really its great to be a young fan.
I've got all this music thats relatively new to me and thats kinda fun.
Plus it trips people out a bit to hear that your
dream man is a 46 year old man who is a foot shorter than you
rather than the average male singer.

but blah blah blah, long story short...
Prince is cool,and liking him makes me feel cool

My first exposure to Prince was hearing "I Wanna Be Your Lover" on the radio and in the skating rinks and seeing the performance on "American Bandstand".

I loved Prince already but "Dirty Mind" really got me hooked.

i was kinda hooked the first time i saw him. i was up real late about 8 years ago, and i was watching this infomercial for 80's music, and they showed LRC and i was like "O M G...WHO IS THAT?!?" and i fell in love with the song. Then i saw WDC, and was blown away again, and i'm thinking "who the hell is this guy?" cuz at the time all i was listening to was Missy and her clique that was out at the time. So i was cleaning my room one day, and they were having this request day on the radio and this lady called in and the d.j. said "what do you want to hear?" and she said "there was this song Prince had that was number one back in 88'(i think, can't remember) and he had to look it up in this book, and he said "ah yes, with Sheena Easton, called U got the Look" so he started playing it, and i was right under the radio, and i put my tape deck on record AND BLASTED THAT SHIT. and i fucking fell in love. i played that song for the rest of the day. after i was finished cleaning my room, i was still up there playing and dancing and learning the lyrics. that little "world series of love" part kinda creeped my out at first. Then one day i was flicking and just caught the beginning of Purple Rain and i was like "OMG...HE HAS A MOVIE OUT TOO???" now, i didn't know all this stuff was old since i was just getting addicted. But that movie version of LGC...HHHHHOOOOO SHIT!!! and then Darling Nikki? damn. i was officially a fan, not really hardcore, but getting there. Then last year, i was watching music videos and started flicking and caught VH1 classic and saw this tiny man flittering around the stage in a polka dot outfit, and i instantly knew who it was. It was the end of Glam Slam when they were jamming across the stage, and i fucking lost my mind. i was like OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG...WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS THIS SONG??? WHY AM I JUST HEARING THIS?? I NEED THIS SONG!!!" literally, ask my brother, he was there. so then i waited forever for the credits and saw "Glam Slam" so not even half a second after the video was over, i flew to the computer and downloaded it. and sat at the computer and played it ALL DAY. just fucking fascinated cuz i never heard anything like it. when i used to go to CDnow and look for his music, Lovesexy always came up, but i never payed any attention to it cuz it sounded weird. Then a couple days after seeing Glam Slam for the first time, i saw the Alphabet St. video for the first time, and i flamed around my living room to it. Then i saw that both of those songs were on the same album, so i decided to give Lovesexy a chance. And the rest is history....sorry that was so long...

Saw a publicity shot in the back of Jet Magazine c.1976. I hated "Soft & Wet" and I wasn't really crazy for "I Wanna Be Your Lover" at first, but it grew on me. "Sexy Dancer" nailed it for me.

I couldn't leave for high school in the morning without listening to "Dirty Mind." All those years prior to "Purple Rain" he seemed pretty underground. I mean it was hard to find Prince buttons/pins & stuff. After "PR" he was EVERYWHERE! I think that's when my fandom began to wane a bit. So I'm sort of stuck in the mid 70s to mid 80s era.


[Edited 11/1/04 7:27am]

When I was a kid, I only heard Kiss and Purple Rain on the radio and I always thought "hey, that's nice music" ...
When I was 13 I found "The Hits 1" in my mom's partner's CD-shelve and that cover shoot really caught my eye. I remember thinking "OMG, does that guy look gay or what ... what a funny little man!" but on the other hand I felt quite attracted to the strange sexiness of it ... so I took the CD to my room to have a listen - and fell in love instantly. The next CD I discovered accidentally (in a box in the basement!!!) was The Black Album ... I loved him even more after listening to it.
The first CDs of his I bought myself were The Hits 2 and Come, at age 14. And ever since then I've never stopped loving him



.
[Edited 11/1/04 7:50am]

My first exposure to Prince was around 1981 during Controversy. I was only about 6 at the time but my sister who is 10 years older than me had the album. My parents were both really religious and didn't allow us to listen to "Worldly" music. Well anyways I remember one day at the dinner table I broke out singing "Privat Joy" and got sent to bed without dinner. I didn't even know what the song was about. I just knew I liked the way it sounded.
Three years later that same sister who exposed me to prince took me took me to see Purple Rain (behind my parents backs of course). After that at the age of 9 I was in love with Prince, the man and his music.

I kind of strayed away from Prince somewhere around Rave. I never stopped listening to his music I just wasn't as supportive as the previous years.

For some reason about the middle of last year I found myself listening to the man more and more. I was pulling out all my old albums, tapes, cd's, video tapes everything that had anything to do with Prince. Now I'm back in that place where I was for so many years. A Loyal and Devoted fan. The best part about it is I can listen to his music as loud as I want and for as long as I want without being sent to bed without dinner. The funny part about it is my sister who introduced me to the man and his music hadn't been into him since Purple Rain until a few months ago when we went to his first Musicology show that he did here in Michigan.

I will be forever thankful to her for opening my eyes to this beautifully talented man.

I got into Prince with the ATWIAD album. I LOVED Pop Life. I could play that song all day. Then Parade came out the next year and I loved Girls and Boys, Anotherloverholenyohead and Mountains. I heard the extended versions of Mountains from a friend and to this day it is my favorite extended version by P. When SOTT came out, i knew then that no other artist would captivate me and keep my interest like P. I started collecting his back catalogue after SOTT.

Damn-- While blasting "Glamorous Life" one day, my father bursts down the steps and says "what the hell-- is that Sheila E.?"
"Yeah-- I love this song", I reply.

He says, "Did you know that when you were a baby you wouldn't fall asleep til i put this song on and danced around with you in my arms like an idiot?"
Imagine my surprise.

So i guess i loved his production style since birth. I grew into hip-hop and ignored my prince roots-- until they were shoved down my throat by a good friend (thank god for Sunny Poughkeepsie)-- the first DVD i ever watched was Purple Rain-- around '97-'98-- and that brought my fandem back fr. the dead.

Everytime i'm in a wrecka stow i walk up and ask them where they put the Prince.

Anxiety said:

Same here. I was a huge Prince fanatic from 1983 thru 1988. I was upset with the Batman distraction when Prince lost the Lovesexy vibe, and that's when I started to pull away from him. He didn't stay true to his message, and I lost some respect; though, Graffiti Bridge gave me some hope that he was coming back to it, and then "Gett Off" was released during a time that I was getting into all kinds of naughty stuff -- so that was cool to me. But I never was as a big a fan as I was during '83-'88, with the climax being November 10th, 1988.

Snap said:

Why specifically November 10th?

I respected Purple Rain when its was out (but not enough to take free tickets to the tour!), really was impressed with "condition of the Heart" when that came out (plus the album packaging, the little kid, the balloons, the characters) then Housequake really blew me away with its crazy funkiness, then I saw the SignotheTImes movie twice and heard the BLack ALbum, and then discovered the bootlegs... and kept collecting...

Also the ONA tour stop in houston, the xenophobia concerts, the live telecast of musicology LA... some of the best stuff I've witnessed live.

cinnamonjo said:

Saw the Lovesexy concert.

Snap said:

O... it all makes sense now.

I've been a fan since the second album. I heard STILL WAITING and I was hooked!!!! I collected everything!! I had/have all the buttons that I could get my hands on. I knew/know every little click or sound, moan, scream that he made. Obsessed, yes. I've listened to the past 3-4 albums without being a huge fan. Of course I have never stopped collecting his stuff. I just kind of fell off the bandwagon. I'm back though.

I have to say that DIRTY MIND really changed my life as far as music was concerned. Guitar parts, lyrics and synths. The perfect album.

I also got into a lot of the boots. No, not Prince's boots. My favorite is the original Old Friends 4 Sale and the Lisa version of Place In Heaven.

Miguel