Do me a favor, take 5 minutes and describe that specific moment in time which transformed you from a fan of Prince's music to an obessed fan. As in you can't get enough of his music, can't hang out on Prince.org long enough, can't only go to 4 Musicology concerts, etc. And don't trip on me about my use of the word 'obsessed'. I don't want the haters on here tripping on my dialect. I just want to feel the positivity this thread provides...

The moment in time my life changed forever: yeah, I thought I was a big Prince fan. I had 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign of the Times. Anyways, I think it was 1989, maybe 1990, I was walking along Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles near Tower Records and there was this little mom and pop store where you could listen to the cds before you bought them (that was not common practice back then like it is today). So I checked the Prince section and there was a cd entitled "Small Club, 2nd Show that Night" by X records. I had never heard of that cd before. Anyway, I asked to listen to it, heard the soundboard version of Just My Imagination, and the rest is history. Before that point in time, I had never seen Prince in concert and only owned 3 of his cds. Now, because of that experience, I have seen Prince over 25 times, been to a Celebration, have close to 1000 Prince cds, have been a Prince.org member for at least the last 7 years if not more, and am still amazed by what the brother puts out.

So please, share with me your experience, the specific moment in time which transformed you from being a fan of Prince to reaching the next level. Thank you in advance for all of your time and energy.

-phunk

1999:

i recieved a cassette of Prince unreleased material from a friend in london.
Side 1:
Rebirth...
Purple Music
Cross The Line
God Is Alive
Paisley Park remix
Beautiful Strange
Turn It Up

Side 2:
Dance With The Devil
People Without
Wonderful Ass
Soul Psychodelicide
There's Others Here....
Old Friends 4 Sale (86)
All My Dreams



My life and thoughts on Prince changed forever. I started really getting in2 my "Prince A Documentary" book and documenting re-reading every little bit about his unreleased records and all that stuff. Then i started hangin out alot on the old prince.org's "Holy River Chat" and met Drezone, Loveletter (jew), Singmia. It was just the scratch of the surface.

I got a tape of the black album, saw SOTT the movie in the theatre (college), and bought the viny boots of chocolate box, and charade in 1988.

For me, mostly it was a slow process of small events that gradually built up critical mass -

Listening to the singles chart early 80's which used to have 1999 as it's backing music

A friend playing the Purple Rain album in the backroom of the art department at school on a tinny cassette player

Hearing and loving Raspberry Beret on the radio

My brother lending me a copy of Parade to listen to on a long journey to London on his walkman.


After all those little varied moments, I was starting to take notice of Prince. Probably the main moment though, was hearing Alphabet Street for the first time on the radio while sitting in a car in a bank car park waiting for my mum to come back out. I immediately loved that song, and promptly went out and bought the 12inch, Lovesexy, and started buying up all the Prince albums I didn't have.

I don't know. I was 15, walking home from school. It was a sunny afternoon late winter/early spring. I remember walking cross a field and just couldn't wait to get back home to listen to "LoveSexy" on tape.

I was working a summer job in the book section of a department store. The music dept nearby played ATWIAD repeatedly. I had no choice. 13 years later, I have a choice, and I love the album.

In the late 1970s, I was a huge disco fan. I heard "I Wanna Be Your Lover" on the radio during the disco era in 1979 and loved the song but I wasn't officially obsessed yet. When I saw him on "American Bandstand" a few months later in early 1980, it wasn't the music that caught my attention but his appearance, attitude, and the way he carried himself. He had an extremely "gay" appearance but he was doing music that was the furthest thing from the weak "gay" stereotypes that people associated with. People liked to place gay men with "nerdy" things like classical music, ballet, opera, etc. Prince performed "I Wanna Be Your Lover", a disco/funk song and "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad", a hard rock song on the show. These were the furthest things from the weak "nerdy" stereotypes people would put on someone that looked like Prince. He also had a severe attitude like "fuck with me if you want to but you will pay for it royally when you do".

Then disco "died" and people were turning either to rock or funk. I swayed more toward the funk which was very uptempo at the time and very similar to disco. Prince came out with "Dirty Mind" that year. He still looked gay as hell even with the "fuck you" look, his music was even harder, and his attitude was even more severe, almost like he dared someone to fuck with him. He was also competing with, and beating, hard kick-ass male groups at the time such as Rick James, Cameo, The Barkays, Lakeside, etc. He may have looked gay but he was far from a weak "sissy". Most of his biggest fans at the time were hardcore black males and they would kick your ass if you talked about Prince in a bad way. All this completely turned me on and I officially became "obsessed".

I remained "obsessed" throughout "Controversy", "Dirty Mind", and "Purple Rain". Nothing changed as far as Prince's feminine look, his bad ass attitude, and his hardcore kick-ass music. Also the way his fans looked up to him.

Then "Around The World In A Day" came out. This album was completely different from the previous ones and much weaker. Herds of longtime hardcore fans, and myself also, were hanging on for the next album to see if Prince would come back hard and strong. When "Parade" dropped with it's "weird" vibe and even classical music (a complete turnoff), many of them dropped Prince forever. This pissed me off also but I couldn't just drop Prince like they did because he had always meant more to me as a "strong" role model rather than just his music. I continued being a hardcore fan and warmed up to most of the music but I was no longer "obsessed" like before. Prince's strong, in your face, "fuck you" music was gone but his strong bitchy "fuck you" attitude still remained so I guess that's what kept me around.

I became obsessed with Prince when "When Doves Cry" dropped. When I heard this track on the radio I was completely blown away. His strong "sexual freak" image was also appealing to me at the age of 12, and I became a huge fan and until this very day I still am.

I became of a fan after I heard When Doves Cry when it came out. I heard a few songs at that point but I knew with that song that he and his music was different from everyone else at the time and I was 5 then. I saw Purple Rain a few years later and I became a hardcore fan. With the film and the album, I knew that I was going to eventually get every Prince album that came out from that point forward.

At the time, I was more into Michael Jackson but when Dangerous came out in 91, my view of MJ changed. I got so used to having a new album every year from Prince, that when Black or White came out I just wasn't excited about it the way that I was when Gett Off dropped a couple of months before. That's when I knew that I was "obsessed" and I still am 14 years later.

I've told this story b4.....

I turned my radio on...WJLB in Detroit...

2 the Electrifying Mojo's show....

"Ronnie Talk 2 Russia" was playing.....

the rest..is history....

Back in the early 80's - the first time I heard Do Me Baby. I thought "oh my god, this is hot". I was hooked!

When I found a copy of the Hits 1 and 2 in my brothers cd collection
I insisted he make me a copy since "I liked Prince too"

once I heard those two, I needed more and more and now Im a bonafide fam
and my brother knows more random Prince info than I think he ever wanted to

Life is good

The day I opened my first 12". Throughout the 80s, I was listening to pop, R&B, and rap. It wasn't until the mid to late 90s that I started to rebuild my collection of Prince music.

attended the lovesexy show in copenhagen in 1988, with some friends, more or less just because they were going, and thinkin' kind of just why not?

the show of course was an absolute trip...

but feeling heartbroken and in deep longin the day and days after made me realize that something had changed.....

Watching a bootleg of the Glam Slam Birthday gigs.

Hate 2 be predictable but it was - 1984 in the form of Purple Rain.

March 21, 1983 Radio City Music Hall, NYC...1999 Tour.

goat2004 said:

Same here. Hell I even broke up with my girlfriend after the movie as I knew she wouldn't fit into Purple Lifestyle from then on. Yeah I know..I need a hobby.

When I saw Prince perform DN in Purple Rain (the movie).



Still one of my all time favorite images.

the intro 2 Purple Rain,the movie,when all that stuff is goin on while "lets go Crazy" is playin'...

I'd read a review comparing Purple Rain to the greatness of Ziggy Stardust. So on the recommendation that Prince was a great a talent as David Bowie, I went to my local record store. ((sadly it's deceased now)) I picked up Purple Rain and 1999.


With the first playing of Let's Go Crazy, I was a fan. Prince speaks to me in words that have meaning to my life. I can never describe how much Prince's music really means to me.


As I rock out to the one night alone live version of "1+1+1=3"
[Edited 5/13/05 17:43pm]

Purple Rain did it for me. I started buying all his albums, cassettes, & singles i could find. I brought any magazine he was in. I taped his videos. I had posters all on my walls. Man i went beserk.

My cousin had the shower poster from Controversy and I was mesmerized by that tiny man in bikini briefs. One week later I heard 1999 on the radio and wanted to know how three people singing a song went by the name Prince...cuz I loved the song. Once I found out the guy in the shower was one in the same...the love affair began

As a very young girl listning to I want to be your girlfriend, Do Me, ect. really just turned me on! How many people would say these things? Only in my wildest fantasies. My daughter is now a Prince freak! My husband took me to see him in LA last year and was a dream come true. He is even better live! Nothing compares to him!

When I was 17. I don't know I was listening to "Kiss" and wanted to learn every word of it and it spawned from there.

Jasmine333 said:

Except a good bagel with cream cheese and a cup of latte, perhaps.

i was about 15. it was a very late saturday night just flickin through the usuall trash on tv wen i came across a film which i later found out was Purple Rain, and i was hooked from that moment on - it just blew me away and changed my attitude 2 life! Now iam 30 and still as crazy mad on him as i was all those years ago, so i thank Prince 4 openin my eyes 2 another world!!

Phunk said:

i guess it was when new power soul was released and i thought it was the best cd ever.

playing the interactive game all the time just to hear the jams, i didnt have any cd