For me, "The Beautiful Ones" -- because I sent a copy of it to my girlfriend who broke my heart after I dedicated 7 months long distance love to her (and vice versa).

I needed her to hear those words, those screams, that pain. I also made myself a copy and drove around listening to it knowing she'd hear it. Yeah it was weird but I was young and romantic and heartsick----but it was cathartic.

"let's go crazy". the first time i heard it, as background music for a TV commercial for the 'purple rain' movie, i thought i was going to die. literally. when i heard that ending, i'd never heard anything so cool in my life, and my brain didn't know how to process it.

keep in mind i was 13.

"Venus De Milo"

'Cause I used to have a desperate moment in my life a couple of years ago when I thought "...okay, this is the last song ever I listen to..."

Life still goes on!

? "holy river" proberly. 1996 was a weird year for me. I was 11 and things were getting worse. Beutifully frank lyrics.

"still see the picture upon the wall".....

"gold" gave me goosebumps though

"kiss"--i used to see the video for it all the time when i was about 9 years old. i didn't know what a falsetto was then so i'd always think, "how can he sing so high like a girl?!" that, and i was just so entranced by how the whole song was laid out. still love it to this day.

"the most beautiful girl in the world".....i've loved the song since i was 4yrs. old..

raneisha said:

you must be pretty young...i was about 15 when that came out.

"When Doves Cry" This song seems to be the soundtrack of my life.

Anna Stesia

The lyrics say it all.

D.M.S,R...when I was a little kid I used to hear it on the radio on Saturday nights...dance around my room....or my dad would be driving downtown Minneapolis on his way to the liquor store and we'd be listing to it...and I 'd look at all the adults roaming around looking to have a fun night on the town and fantsize I was a beatuiful woman going to the clubs and meet a guy like Prince and have a wild fun night!

Memories are strange. I always remember listening to "It" back in '87 with a Walkman and riding in the back of a truck and thinking how happy Prince makes me with every new record. Funny.

Love this thread. Basically because it allows me to talk about myself and wallow in misery in public with a good excuse, but I really can't tell anymore.

Maybe "The Holy River", "When Doves Cry"? Awh, I'm gonna have to go with "Come" instead - and this not down to personal social/love life/the lack of it - experiences. I just remember very vividly listening to it with headphones at night when I was 15-16, often falling half-way sleep at somewhere in the middle and when that glorious ending section hits and you're physically partly in a dream state the whole thing works like a psychededelic drug. I miss that, I used to be able to feel music so intensively, physically when I was younger.

8up said:

Werid! I used to listen to that song around the same time on my walkman..I had Sign 'o the Times and on audio cassette and IT always reminds me of stitting on the bus the Minneapolis 16A staring out the window and dreaming of being a famous model, actress, dancer, Prince girlfriend, anything! I really love that song....

Take Me With U

When the song and movie came out I was dating my first love. We went to see the movie together with a bunch of friends. As you all know when they play the song in the movie Prince and Apollonia are riding on his motorcycle. Well me and my boyfriend used ride my bike together all the time, I would sit with my arms around him and he would do all the the pedaling. I know this sounds corny but we were teenagers. Well anyways he died about 10 years ago and whenever I hear the song I think about us when we were young and miss him.

switters said:

"The Beautiful Ones"!! Me too. When he sang it at his concert in DC I thought I would die.

switters said:

You too? I think every Male Prince fan has sent a girl a tape of that song or got it played on the radio. Ha ha ha!

It works!

switters said:

switters,

I feel your pain!! I am going through sorta the same thing, right now. My song of choice is "I Hate You". It really sums up the feelings of a good relationship gone completely nuts!!!

Prince's music in general reminds me of my boyfriend, because I met him right around the time I started getting into Prince. I Would Die 4 U in particular since it was playing on my car stereo when we first kissed.

But more recently it's been Man 'O' War, since we were fighting pretty badly a few weeks ago.

17 Days. When I lived in Chicago, my then boyfriend & I would go to Berlin's Prince night almost every month. I loved when they played 17 Days, even though I didn't really know what album it was from, etc. Then my (then) boyfriend was like, You have that song--it's on the B-sides!. (I had never listened to them!) So I played 17 Days constantly. Then when we broke up I played it some more because I thought the lyrics described my situation perfectly: sitting in a lonely room waiting for my sunshine...a broken heart, and my ex not answering my calls because he was with someone else.
Good times.
[Edited 4/21/05 16:19pm]

I'd have to say "The Beautiful Ones" because it just to me feels like 1984! When I think of 1984 I think of Prince's Keyboard in the middle of this song which turns this song from a Ballad to a Rock song!

That Keyboard when I first heard it just floored me amazing stuff! Now when I hear it I think of when I was in Junior Highschool just becoming a huge Prince fan and loving his ideas in lyrics and different sounds on his albums.


That Keyboard in "The Beautiful Ones" is tops for me! That whole song is

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

I was in 4th grade and my mom bought this single and played it all the time
in the car. She's not a crazy music fan like I am but we would always sing it
together.

Little did she know that about a decade later
she'd be living with one of those "crazy Prince fans"

Soul Sanctuary

"I Wanna Be Your Lover" because it was the first time I actually saw him back on American Bandstand in January of 1980.

I'd heard the song on the radio already but when I actually saw how gay looking he looked and the strong way he carried himself, I instantly admired him. Someone that appears gay is usually looked down on and disrespected by the general public but Prince turned the tables, looked down his nose at them, and was such an arrogant, lowdown "bitch" that people were scared to mess with him.

rasberry berret.

I saw prince make a paraody called rasberey sorbet to beat rizzo in a bet

AFKAP: hey wants on the menu for desert
elephant guy: rasberry sorbet
AFKAP: [singing] she wore a rasberry sorbet

thekidsgirl said:

I bought my mom that cassette single on Mother's day way back when! She listened to it all the time-oh yeah and she loved Prince too!

The first time I heard "If I was your girlfriend", I was completely blown away by the vibe and originality of the lyrics. It remains one of my top 5 favourite Prince songs.

The first time I heard "Do me baby", I knew Prince was the artist for me.

"The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" because when I was like 9, I just remember after I saw the video with my favorite gymnist Dominique Dawes in it, I would go around the house for no reason everyday singing that song and sometimes do cartwheels. Not to mention it's a beautiful song.
[Edited 4/22/05 8:07am]

Let's Go Crazy (the long, movie version).

I listened to this one a lot when my mother was dying of cancer.

The talking part that Prince does at the beginning reminded me that my mother was going to a better place. The rest of the song reminded me that I could hold it together during that horrible time.

Now, when I listen to it, it puts me in a melancholy sort of mood, but it also reminds me of all the things that have happened in my life since then.

Fabulous memories.
[Edited 4/23/05 22:31pm]
[Edited 4/23/05 22:31pm]

Anxiety said:

I agree with you. Let's Go Crazy had a powerful impact in June 1984.

Of all of Prince's tunes, THAT song was THE most memorable.

vainandy said:

Prince: Because they wouldn't let me produce myself.

Yes, he was very arrogant back in the days!!!
[Edited 4/24/05 22:46pm]