"Yeah, I had to justify my love for Prince, but it was always vindicated when I was the only guy dancing with a crowd of women and all the other "cool" guys stood against the wall...watching."



yes! i couldn't figure out how they could be so stupid!

I was born in 86, born and raised listening to Prince because my parents were die-hard fans. I remember the first song I ever sang was Little Red Corvette.

Growing up I would probably be the only one of my friends who listened to the old jams (and I still am today; Hendrix, James Brown, Ray Charles, Stevie, EW&F, Sly)

But I think I became a DIE-HARD fan in 98-99 when Rave came out. I was all of... 12-13... I remember it was the first time I could watch Purple Rain and actually recolect it (I tell my mom everytime I watch it that I will marry this man, even last night when it was on VH1). I sang When Doves Cry in my talent show in Junior High, and when it turned 2000, I remember being in Times Square in the MTV studios listening to No Doubt cover "1999".

I will love Prince probably forever, he def. made an impact on my life, and it's funny how musicians can do that and not even realize.

1981

1978.....hardcore by 1980.

1982 was watching him on tv with my aunty when he was wearing womens underwear and singing uptown i was twelve years old and i totally got him!!!

what does that say about the kind of twelve year old i was?


and by the way twentythree.....a lot of us on this website do get him just maybe not all in the same sense and does that matter????

too many tequilas!! it was 1984 and i was 10! just been corrected.

i remember hearing 1999 and when doves cry when i was very young, but i was too young to appreciate it. In 92 remember I seeing the video for 7 and hearing the song blew me away, even today theres nothing like it, i mean can you define 7, is it r and b, rock, world music. So fast forward to 95, i had a neighbor who was a Prince fan and she lent me the gold experience, that blew me away also, it was the sheer versatility of Prince that got me, there are people who can do rock and soul, but how many at the same time. So she gave me all the back albums and i became more and more deep into it.

1981....at 8 years old I discovered my sister's "Prince" album and fell in love with "Sexy Dancer" and a year or two later, thanks to music videos, I saw the video for "Little Red Corvette" and I laid eyes on Prince in motion, (image, dancing, clothes,etc). I was then HOOKED 4 LIFE!

P fan 1981. Die hard 1984.

rationalman said:

Excellent statements. Prince introduced me to a world of music that has blown my mind and I still consider him the best.



In regards to your comment about Prince making men better lovers and giving us more insight into women, that is definitely on point!!! IIWYGF, the Beautiful Ones, When 2 R In Love and Adore should be standard listening for all men; especially those of us that want to step outside of macho bravado, become better lovers and possess the ability to explore a woman mind body and soul.
[Edited 1/6/05 18:26pm]

radici27 said:

I agree...the Gold Experience sparked my journey too. I had never heard so many diverse styles on one record by one musician. And he makes it sound so cohesive.

I first heard and liked his music in 81' with controversy but remember the exact moment I became a dedicated fan. Spring 1984. I was watching MTV at some ungodly hour and the video for When Doves Cry came on. It was the long version and between his super cool performance and the hauntingly beautiful tune I was hooked. Within a week I had everything I could find by him. It was an amazing summer. All my friend were in to the top 40 and MJ but I was coming off a punk jag. Prince gave us all a common ground, color blind super fly funk rock straight from the penis. It was awesome.

At the age of 9 in 1985 saw prince on award show i think singing baby im a star and i thought yum!!!got purple rain the end of that year but seriosly got into him when i was 11 then got his tapes then cds from then on but being in australia there are a few albums that i havent got i think ive got 24 how many more are there?

in 1987 when at the age of 10 I first heard.... the Purple Rain album. My first reaction was:"this guy is crazy" ( I was not speaking english at this time and had no clue the first song on the album was "let's go crazy...
Then I felt attracted by this strange album. The more I listened to it the more I enjoyed it.

Ive answered this b4 but i became a die hard fam n '81 after dirty mind.Any man that wears nothing but his underwear & a raincoat especially during that time & didnt care what people said is alright with me!

1991 - Couldn't stop playing D+P, and I still love it - despite the snooty "looks" I'm gettin' from so many org-ers (ogres?)

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I had the reverse experience with Tracy Chapman...but that romance was a one-album affair, sadly.

For Prince, it started with Little Red Corvette, the first song to make me feel kinda funny

1988.

At boarding school. Was having a sneaky fag behind the school gym and inside I heard the song Glam Slam. I had no idea who it was but I loved it!

I finished the smoke, went into the gym no doubt stinking of tobacco and asked about the last song that was just on. Prince I was told...

End of term came and my folks were in the country for a holiday. Having not seen them for three months, as is the case with boarding school, they said they would treat me to a CD player and some new CD's. (A CD player was something very special back in those days).

So into HMV we went, I bought Lovesexy and Purple Rain (I couldnt remember which one Glam Slam was from!). I then went with the old man to Dixons or Currys and bought a Sharp, double tape deck WITH CD player. YeeHaaaa!

And that was it for me. Prince was da man...

The next year Batman came out.... There was no turning back for me then. And ever since I have had to endure the ridicule of being a Prince fan... Its easier now as so many people just arent aware of what he is or was... But back then when he was starting the fall it wasnt always easy being a fan. Especially at 15 yrs old when Bros, Jason & Kylie, Curiosity killed the cat, simple minds etc were the real fashion statements to be making.... Having said that, I still had the last laugh occasionally when all was written off and then something like Gett Off came along and stormed the charts. Alas, those days seem to be gone. Here in the UK anyway...

Maybe its age and wisdom and the mellowing that comes with it, or maybe it is Princes fault. But the adventure and discovery of something new, something that hadnt been done before started to fade and the "new album" syndrome and the desire and instinctive NEED to have it just doesnt exist anymore...

Maybe I have spent too much of my life idolising and not enough of it seeking out new artists and new music which can offer those same feelings of anticipation and discovery...

Who knows, maybe Prince has ended up narrowing my horizons and prevented me from discovering so much more....

2002- heard when doves cry for the first time.. the romeo and juliet cover version - found out prince wrote it.. thought it was one of the greatest songs ive ever heard. typed in prince in kazaa.. like every song that i listened to - bought album after album.. and the more i see or hear of prince.. the more im convinced that he is the most talented individual musically on the planet - a musical genious of the highest order.

It was 1984 and Purple Rain just came out. I was 14 and not allowed to see the movie but a friend of mine had a bootleg VCR copy and we watched it at her house - OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I couldn't get enough of it or the album itself. I was totally in love with him in every way. We played that until it got scratched ungodly. I kind of fell of the map with him during the mid-90's ,but never stopped listening to his older stuff. I didn;t realize he had other CD's out, because there wasn't major publicity. When he released Musicology this year, I went to 2 of the concerts and lost my mind all over again. It was love a 2nd sight.

Must've been around '82. I heard "Let's Work" at a party and couldn't believe how funky it was. The next day I went out and bought the first Prince album I could find. It happened to be Dirty Mind and I was floored by the music. I started reading the liner notes and realized that the same person was playing every instrument and singing every note! After that I bought Controversy and loved that album. When 1999 came out, that was it. I was hooked for life.

My parents (both)shared a very large record collection and among them were 'dirty mind' by prince...I first saw this black and white album with a man wearing a thong, bandana scarf wrapped around his neck and trench coat!
Which drew my curiousity even more as to how he'd sound, I listened to the album and wasn't very impressed, (keep in mind; I was 7 or 8 years old).
The Album was really deep in lyrical content, too deep for my virgin ears, so I stopped listening to the album and continued to stare at prince! (LOL)

Shortly after in 1984, my parents took me to the drive inn to see 'purple rain'.
being really young, I didn't remember much, but the violence in the film and the performances of prince and band which stood out the most to me.

It was a few years later...my mom took me to a local record store called 'Detroit Audio' and once again I saw prince on the wreck!
Butt Naked with the words "LOVESEXY" written across the cover.

I had some allowance, so I ran to the album, not ever hearing anything from it and bought it.
The Clerk asked me did my parents know I was buying the album and I said yes!
My mom is the one who brought me.

So I payed for it and once I got home, locked myself in the bedroom and listened to the album from start to finish and was amazed!

WOW,this album became my favorite since 'Colour by numbers' by the culture club, which was the very first album my mom bought me!
I recall, getting up in the morning playing this record (daily) and couldn't wait to get home from school to hear it again, over and over again!

So it was 'LOVESEXY' in the year 1988, which got me deeply into prince.
This album opened my mind and my ears!
I started to understand life a lil bit more and also understand who I was ; meaning, my feelings for men became more and more transparent.

I knew all along since a very young age that I was gay...but never did I know their was a label placed on it.
I knew I was different...atleast I had different feelings than most of my friends, who loved girls and thats all they would talk about, but with me, music was my first love, I was a momma's boy, I loved sports, but I loved to see the guys play them more so (LOL).

The album made me think about love, religion and sexuality, and how prince fused them all as being something great and nothing to be ashamed of.
I then embraced it all.

I Loved Prince's music from that point, I'd buy all of his records a day before their actual release, by talking certain retail stores into it; mainly local stores.

And I soon went back to buy all of his past albums on cd!
Which now at age 26, I'm still as big a prince fan!!!

Well thats my story.

So 1988 was my becoming a prince fan year!