Here’s a golden advice for the newbee’s

The oldtime-fans didn’t have this massive back-catalogue all at once.
They learned to appreciate the albums one by one
They didn’t skip trough the album, no they listened to an LP, without a next button.

So here’s my advice:

Pretend you don’t own any Prince albums
And "buy" them chronological.
Start with "For You" and only play this Prince album for about a week (of cause you can listen to other artists as well) ...
Find out where side A ends, and side B starts so you’ll understand the order of tracks (don’t believe the cd-booklet)
You’ll be longin’ for the next release (the "Prince" album), which you can buy after this intense "For You" week.

So you’ll be discovering Prince’s music as we, and Prince himself, did!
This is the only way to fully appreciate Prince’s back-catalogue.

You’ll appreciate the music more
You’ll understand the music more
You’ll understand the development of Prince’s music
You’ll understand the track-listing more
You won’t be skipping through the albums so often!

i'd spend time listening to prince's first five albums and getting to know them first and foremost. then i'd pick up the time's albums and if you can get your hands on 'em, vanity 6's stuff. then i'd dig on purple rain and the 12" singles and b-sides and the PR side project albums (the time's 'ice cream castles', apple 6's album, the first sheila album), then i'd launch into 'around the world in a day' through 'lovesexy', and try to get as many protege albums and maxi-singles from that period as possible. after that, i'd just pick up whatever looks interesting to you as you're able to find it, preferably chronologically, but however you can acquire it. by the time you've absorbed 'lovesexy' you're pretty much good to go with whatever comes after that.

Anxiety said:

Why not let them feel the disppointments too?

Maybe they'll understand that we lost interest after the third disappointing release in a row (Batman - Grafitti Bridge - Diamonds and Pearls)
I doubt if they're still eagerly awaiting the "release" of the symbol album after those three weeks!

Batman was not a disappointment, at least for those who like catchy songs and not pretentious filler.

[b] i loved Batman and i think Grafitti Bridge is a great cd,the movie sucks :lol:Diamonds and Pearls hardly gets played

I agree with ur method! I think that the best advise 4 a newbie is 2 avoid at all cost "The Very Best of Prince" compilation...

In my case, I started with an album (Rave ) and made a regression...

lilgish said:

The pretentious filler started when the cd became the main medium (Grafitti Bridge).
For me, Batman was a great disappoitment ...
Grafitti Bridge was a huge disappointment, mainly because we had already most of the tracks on tape as a superior demo version!
Diamonds and Pearls .... ???? still don't get it!

So true. You ain't truly been a Prince fan if you weren't disappointed at one time or another.

ThataintFunky said:

yeah, but the thing is, the nineties-through-current-day work is such a mixed bag, what's a disappointment to you might be a masterpiece to me or someone else. i think everything up through lovesexy can be pretty much agreed upon as some kind of success - artistically, commercially, whatever. after that, discovering prince's later work is like going into a forest and not really knowing what's gonna come at you. the stuff leading to that forest kinda lays down a groundwork that puts the later stuff into a little bit of perspective.

hell, listen to 1999:the new master if that's your bag. just don't make me sit there with ya.

As much as I, as a fan, hold no fond feelings for stuff like Rave, Emancipation and Musicology, it is these sort of releases that pull in many 'newbies'.

I mean the stuff that reaches out the furthest, is the stuff that brings people in. If it wasn't for D&P and I wouldn't have got into Prince, and I didn't listen to his stuff chronologically.

There's a whole new audience because of Musicology, and whilst I don't personally like the LP, a lot of fans will always remember it as the LP that brought them 'into the fold'.

If you're a newbie to fully appreciate all of Prince's back catalogue I'd say that yes you need to listen to all the albums gradually over time , personally I'd suggest buying his early 90s work BEFORE the 1980s albums .Get Diamonds and Pearls , , Come ,The Gold Experience ,as Prince picked up a lot of new fans in the early 1990s , whereas he LOST a load of casual fans after 1985.
When you've enjoyed them , then pick up his albums from Prince (1979) through Purple Rain to Lovesexy , and the progression and expansion of his music in the 1980s will be appreciated more without it possibly alienating you , as you'll already be familiar with a lot of different styles in his music anyway.
The advantages of this are

a) You wont develop a dislike of rap or hip-hop in Prince's music that lots of people who listened to his albums from the early 80s onwards seem to have
b) You'll enjoy more of his albums because your expectations from his 1980s work won't be carried through into his 1990s work necessarily .

Those of us like myself who were introduced to and developed a love of Prince's music from the early 1990s onwards appreciate his 1980s work just as much ,whereas it seems lots of the people who dislike his 1990s work were already long time fans from the 1980s and were distraught that Prince's music , instead of setting trends and creating genres , instead began following trends . I can speak only from my my own experience , but I'm a happier fan I think knowing that I enjoy and can see the brilliance of his 1990s music just as much as his 1980s work because I had no expectations of what a Prince album in the 1990s should be , I just listened and was thrilled .