Even though it was getting the album Purple Rain that turned me into a die hard Prince fan I was too young to remember the excitement, hystaria, feeling when the album/movie/tour was going on in 1984. For those of you older orgers who remember can you please describe it to me?

Like the feeling when you first saw the movie in 1984?

What was your impression of Prince?

What did you think of the side prodjects the Time and Apollonia 6?

I know 1984 was different than 2006 and things were really different...it must have been unusual to see a black man make his own rock bio, some people must have felt negative/happy twords an interracial couple onscreen (Prince/Apollonia and his father and mother) it was filmed in Minneapolis of all places (Where's that? ) and to see Prince in all hyped out "Prince" character.

I'm just wondering if any of you can share your expereinces what it was really like as a fan back in 1984 when you saw/heard Purple Rain.

Thanks!

Krystal666 said:

For me it was a sense of excitement, it was cool to have something new and punchy, up until PR it was all the same music....Duran, Duran, Simple Minds, Thompson Twins etc. Don't get me wrong, I loved and still do love 80's music, much more than any music following -

This quote interests me a little as my answer will explain it

some people must have felt negative/happy twords an interracial couple onscreen (Prince/Apollonia and his father and mother)

I never even noticed Prince was black !! That is to say, I knew he was, but I never thought ooh this dudes black and funky !!as for the Interracial thing, again, I never noted it...It didn't matter - Plus.I was too busy checking out appollonia in the lake scene and the Love scene She was HOT !!!!! lol I doubt any bloke would have overlooked Appollonia 6's Attire...


I do however remember reading a lot about Prince and the majority of comments where about him being the first black musician to do this and that...Shame really as I always did think it made more of a point of his skin colour than of his talent.

1984 was such an amazing year,and a thrilling time to be a Prince fan.I still remember the first time I heard "When Doves Cry".I turned on the radio and there is was....that pulsing beat,those incredible lyrics,those hypnotic synths.I went crazy and called my sister into the room...

"They're playing the new Prince song!!!!!"


Several days later,I saw the video.Prince Fever had officially begun.From seeing the clips of the film,you could tell that this movie was gonna be HUGE.The hype was tremendous.What was funny to me was...I had been a Prince fan since 1980 and back then,he was more of an "underground"-type artist with a limited following.Now,all of a sudden,everybody was going around,saying they were a Prince fan.In 1984,everybody was a Prince fan,lol.

I actually feel sorry for the younger fans who missed out on the "Purple Rain" hype of 1984.It was incredible!

DavidEye said

I actually feel sorry for the younger fans who missed out on the "Purple Rain" hype of 1984.It was incredible!

Oooh the Hype.....I forgot all about that.....The movie clips, I remember seeing Prince riding his bike up to the front of First Avenue with his Tele slung over his back and thought "cooooo - oool" lol.....

Going to the see PR at the cinema was amazing, my girl at the time CERTAINLY enjoyed, think we went to see about 8 times in a fortnight-it was the only way we could finally watch it in full !!!!
As far the Time is concerned, Ice Cream Castles is a fantastic album and as it's almost sister to PR, it goes down well back to back with PR !!

Anybody know Morris Day's "Oak Tree" ???
I think it's funky !!!

Aaahhh, the summer of 1984 ! I was twelve, Prince was not really popular in Germany, and then the single When Doves Cry and the Purple Rain album came out.
Me and a friend of mine rode to the recordstore on our bikes, bought the 45 and listened to it all day and couldn´t stop laughing about 17 Days ( we liked it, but we still had to laugh, don´t know why).

My basketball trainer, may he rest in peace, asked us whether we were faggots because we were " listening to that faggot Prince" instead of Billy Idol .

Prince would always be on my HipHop mixtapes together with RunDMC, DougE Fresh, EgyptianLover, LA Dreamteam, Fat Boys and Sheila E.

I kinda lost interest when he became strictly pop (around 1986) until a friend of mine made me a mixed tape which I still have to this day.That tape and his liveshows and tons of unreleased stuff made me a hardcore fan, because if it was for the official stuff only then I wouldn´t have realized the greatness of his genius.

Looking back, the year 1984 was quite a good one...the aftermath of ET and Star Wars, and some DOPE music by Prince.
Everybody wanted to be like Prince back then, musically and visuallly, and people didn´t really care whether he was black, white or Italian or whatever...a lot of people could relate to him.

I think I first heard When Doves Cry on TV before we got the 45 single.
And then I saw Little Red Corvette on Solid Gold, the German version.

Good old times.Seems like the summers were warmer back then.

I knew the PR was coming out and that a single should hit the radio soon. It was at 2:30 am I stumbled on to "When Doves Cry". I immediately recognized it as Prince, but couldn't get my mind around the sound. It was the first time I realized I should temper my expectations. I was looking for a continuing of 1999.
Anyhow, quickly hooked and proud to be a Prince fan. It was overwhelming to be honest. Like someone else noted. Prince was kind of 'under the radar' of most.I had always defended the funky/quirky lil man. I was kind of like,...' back off this is all my glory'.
It was a great time to be a small towns official Prince officianado (sp?). It definately helped with the ladies Getting tickets to that tour was a pain in the ass. Young and old were going to see the man.

KoolEaze said:

nevermind. though no prince relation in my case, I was supspected being gay because I wanted to share a flat with a close male friend of mine. This was during my famous army-days... good god.

back to topic: but didn't you feel somehow a possible loss of Prince as "your artist"? I simply do not like such a hype, even if it might be justified. And on the other hand Prince "needed" it, I guess. But I think that might have distracted me a bit.

And see what happened then: Mrs. Tipper Gore bought her 8 year old daughter the LP EVERYONE HAD TO HAD, and then was shocked about the lyrics (Darling Nikki). And yes, the bored housewife got furious and ... created the PMRC. The rest is history.
[Edited 1/3/06 11:33am]

I as 14 when Purple Rain came out.
I didn't see it in the movies, though. A friend of mine had on a bootleg tape and I watched it in her house and fell immediately and madly in love with him.
He corrupted my 14 year old mind, I tell ya!
I even remember the MTV premiere where he's walking with a single rose walking with big Chick.
I can't even begin to tell you how many times I watched the movie with my friend. She even went and bought that poster where he is wearing a white lace suit holding a flower. I am such a dork I took pictures next to it in my nightgown. god, if those pictures ever got out, they would be blackmail material.
Anyway, a Prince groupie was born!

1sexymf said:

I totally understand how you fell in love with him. It was when I saw Purple Rain but in wasn't in 1984.

Krystal666 said:

When did finally get to see it?
And on another note, I wasn't into to him during his 1999 days. Part of the reason was because i was younger and I thouhgt he just looked weird. another friend of mine had the 1999 poster where he is wearing taht purple suit/costume. When I first saw it, I thought, um he's weird. Now, I'd lick the pants off him.

SenseOfDoubt said:

My mother took me to see Purple Rain. Good enough movie. She covered my eyes during the love scene Even as a child I could see Morris Day out acted Prince, during some of Prince's lines some people started laughing, that was the kinda theater I was in.

My family owned Prince and 1999 so I was already familiar with Prince, I remember getting into arguments later on who was gayer, Price or Michael Jackson. The Ama's in 85 really cemented P's PR popularity. I remember that well.

I havent seen the film but I like the CD

I remember that there was an over-all excitement over the film after the "When Doves Cry" video came out.
I got the feeling that, just before the movie was released, people sensed that the music-world was about to be injected with something new & exciting.
For me, I didn't think that any cooler music would be heard after Purple Rain & Ice Cream Castles for that year. Then, the radio started rotating a song titled "Erotic City", and I thought," Damn! This has got to be one of the best years of music I've ever experienced."

Great thread!

I was 14 in '84. Just a year or two prior, a friend of the family introducted me to Prince with the 1999 album. It was the coolest music I had ever hear. And I felt really hip because no one else I knew were familiar with him, so it was a kind of an insider thing. At my age, that was a big deal! I had the album sleeve up on the wall. The one where he's on the bed with the sheet barely covering his ass and he's got his fingers in watercolors. Yum. I don't know why my mother didn't make me take that down.

Anyway, I was more than ready when I heard about the movie. Me and Andrea went to see the movie the minute it opened. And we stayed in our seats for three shows (that was back when the theaters were independently owned and used to permit that). I was in awe of what I was seeing. The music was just too "perfect" to be believed.

After that, I was in full-on Price mode. I had the lace gloves, the jacket pins. I had purple hair barrets and earrings and shoe laces.. it was crazy. When we heard When Doves Cry on the radio, I got a chance to finally say "I told you so" to friends and family who couldn't understand what my obsession was all about.

Plus, back then, not everyone had cable (I didn't) so we couldn't readily see his videos. But that just made it more of an event, when I'd go over to a friend's house and stare until the video came on. Goodness, and I remember that this was back in the day when VCRs weren't that common, so you couldn't readily record stuff. When I could, I wore those tapes out. Plus, on regular TV, video shows used to come on mad late (like 1am or so) and often would not be listed in the TV guide. So you always felt like you were missing an opportunity to check out the latest and greatest thing. But when you did manage to stumble on something (usually with 5 minutes left ) it was like a miracle.

I have to tell you, the harder you have to work at something, the more exciting/rewarding it all is.

And I am happy to report that the PR concert was the first one I ever went to, at Nassau Coliseum in NY. I don't think I stopped staring and screaming from the moment I entered the arena. As we all know, it was something to behold. Naturally, I bought the Tshirts, pins, everything. Sadly, I didn't keep any of this. It was impossible for me to recognize at that age how special and one-in-a-lifetime most things Prince are.

I wish you newbies had a chance to experience some of this. I've never again in my life had the joy of waiting for an artist to come out with a new song, because you knew it was going to be different than anything you've ever heard and it was going to change the direction of music.

I actually wish that I was a little older in the 80s, then I could have been more into his headier club, afterparty stuff. But I ain't complaining. I've got great teenage memories.

One more thing, that interracial piece was pretty deep back then. I know it's hard for some of y'all to appreciate this, but things were really very segregated back then and the fact that he was integrating things (esp. music) was something that people noticed. In particular, people noticed that he was bringing non-Black women in to the mix. This fact was constantly brought up to me when I was younger, now that I think about it. People would say,"How can you like someone like that who doesn't even like Black women -- you never see them, where are they... he wouldn't like you... cuz you're not mixed." Something ignorant like that. (BTW, Chick Huntsberry said that P recieved a lot of mail criticizing him for it.) It was a blow to the self-esteem at that age, but what are you gonna do. I know that this particular topic aggravates some orgers, but I think experiences like the ones I have had are the source of it. You had to be there to understand.

What can I say...Prince in the 80s was a genius in his prime and on a roll. It was a trip and a half -- and I don't think it'll ever happen again like that. The music industry and media have changed too much.

Thanks for the memories!

You wanna know what the summer of 1984 was like? I will tell you:

gather around chirrens...

the country (and the world for that matter, but I'm talking specifically the US here) was CONSUMED with Michael-mania (Jackson, of course). And so, everyone was just moving along, loving Michael to pieces, when suddenly...


whoooosh...there came a sound from the North...



...it was "When Doves Cry".



NOBODY and I mean NOBODY saw "Purple Rain" coming (least of all Michael Jackson )

That album and movie came out of NOWHERE and it took EVERYONE who was in the thick of Michael mania by surprise! As for me, I walked out that movie theater with my friends in the summer of 84, holding my heart...because Prince had totally stolen it.


84 was supposed to be MJ's year, and it still was to an extent, because of the Victory tour..but that tour, historic as it was, was seriously eclipsed by Purple Rain...the album and the movie. By the end of that year...we no longer belonged to Mike...we belonged to Prince.

NOBODY could've predicted that a little black man from Minneapolis would come along and steal Mike's thunder like that, but he did.

WaterUdrink said:

that wasnt my world.

sosgemini said:

you never liked Prince, so you don't count


[Edited 1/3/06 16:47pm]

WaterUdrink said:

oh yes i did and do. but it was never a prince taking over mj thing from where i came from. and nobody was expecting mj to retain anything.

from what i recall mtv created this crazy spastic timeperiod when artist after artist took center stage..and people ate it all up.

but thats just my experience.

lauper, springsteen, madge, mj, prince, janet....they all came, took center staged, wowed the crowd and made room for the next superstar. it was a very inviting time period from my recollection.

sosgemini said:

you're right. I guess I am talking from my experience, because in the summer of 1984, I was obsessed with MJ until Purple Rain came out. My point is, though...I'm not the only one who went through that.

I have always been a big Prince fan and was so excited when I found out about the movie, I couldn't wait to see it. I remember waiting in a long line in downtown Milwaukee to see the movie the day it came out. I went with seven of my friends including my boyfriend. The theater was packed and the crowd was wild. We had a great time and it was the best movie experience I have ever had.
I miss those days.

Hi all,

My quick recollection of Purple Rain / 1984:

Guys wearing leg warmers (What the hell?)and wearing that weird "one-eye" prince pirate patch do-hicky

Girls coming to High School dressed like Vanity 6 and being turned around at the door by the principal who was'nt having any of it!

People saying stupid Prince talk like "Let me take you to the waters of Lake Minnetonka" and girls falling for it.

I still liked the movie and I bought all of the albums, though!

Mutts

Krystal666 said:

Ok Krys,

1) If you were with Prince starting with the "For You" album it was great that he finally kicked MJ's ass on the charts. It was sort of a to the MJ fans.

2) Regarding the seeing P on the big screen for the first time: it was great except everytime he was on camera you couldn't hear what was going on because of girls screaming. You literally had to see the movie several times to get all the dialogue.

3) After a while though hearing Purple Rain, etc., on every station like 10 times a day got real old.

4) Girls were actually walking out the house in lingerie and everything had to be lace. Guys were wearing parachute pants and styling their Jheri curls (cringe) so they hung over one eye like Prince's permed and hot curled hairdo.

5) My friends and I actually plotted how we could kidnap his little ass.

6) As for me I actually had a pair of boot like he wears. (Don't laugh, they were cute. However I have no idea how he wore those things all the time. Christ my feet were on fire after about an hour in those things.)


Damn! I forgot the best part. When the Purple Rain tour rolled through town my girlfriends and I went and we had really crappy seats. However, after he did his encore he was heading backstage and he had to walk past our section to get into the tunnel leading to the dressing rooms. Well of course everyone in our section was screaming like fools when we saw he was coming our way. Right as he got in front of our section he stopped looked up (we screamed louder ). Chick Huntsberry was right on his heels and handed him a towel. He wiped his face with the towel and tossed it high enough in our general direction so we could catch it. My five 5'3 self became Shaquille O'Neal-like and grabbed that sucker. My girls and I had to beat off about 5 other chicks trying take it from me. And yeah I still have it.

And there you go.


.
[Edited 1/5/06 17:55pm]

Krystal666 said:

I was 14 when Purple rain first came out so i saw it the next year on VHS. My aunt was the only person I knew that had a VCR and she cooked for me and my buddy and we all watched. The next time i saw it was later that year, we had to actually had to rent a VCR back then(anybody remember that) and finally my buddy made a copy of it off cinemax or showtime or something for me cause HBo wasn't showing it

I Knew who Prince was and knew the singles off 1999, but 84 was the year I turned into a freak and it wasn't when Doves Cry that did it, It was Let's go Crazy, after that I had to get the album and after I was floored by that I had to have everything by Prince and everybody that had anything do do with him.

This was my first experience with the Time as well. They absolutely played the shit out of Jungle Love and the Bird on the local stations around here. I know both of them stayed on the local battle of the songs every night for a month each and i think one of the songs finally knocked the other one off and then they retired the other one

When i saw morris and jerome in Purple rain I was like these are the Coolest motherfuckers I've ever seen(and they still are)

I typed the whole thing it got erased..Crap! If anybody ever wants to hear my Experience ..Someday I'll tell you in person..I don't have enough patience to retype.....All I Can Say was it was the BEST EXPERIENCE a YOUNG GIRL COULD HAVE...When I saw The Time I Thought they were Cool.....Prince was FIRE LIVE,...He just was SOoo HOT.....I will Never Forget That TIME....I saw him 6 out of the 7 shows. I was IN LOVE with Him From that Day On.....For REAl...

1sexymf said:

I think it was 1992. I was eleven going on twelve. I really liked Michael Jackson and for Christmas I got the book The Magic and the Madness a biography on him and I read how he didn't like Prince and went to a private screening of the movie before it came out and I remember thinking "Oh yeah Prince has awsome songs on the radio maybe I should see it" I got the CD Purple Rain and listened to it like every day...every song blew me away. So I asked my mom if we could rent Purple Rain and well she was pretty permissive so she was like "Sure! I love Prince" She thought he was pretty sexy so I watched it and I FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM! It was all over after that!

Ahh, the good old days.

I was 14 in 1984 and that summer you could feel something getting ready to blow up when When Doves Cry came out.The song was on the radio all the time.( Radio ? Anyone remember that ?) The day Purple Rain was released my sister asked me if I wanted to go to the movies with her to see Purple Rain. I said ..."is that the movie with that fag in it?" She said yes and "Prince is not gay." We waited in line for 30 minutes to get tickets. The theater had an electricity that I have not felt at another movie since. When the movie started people started clapping and dancing and when Prince came on the screen it was over .Girls lost their minds. People were dancing in the aisles and acting like a damn fool.At the end of the movie people were crying during Purple Rain.

It was the greatest day of my whole life. I had to go back 3 more times to see it because the same reactions were occuring during the other showings of the film.I liked 1999 and other Prince records but that week I bought all Prince tapes and 12 inches that I could find.

Krystal666 said:

Girl, I'm with you. I was too young to watch PR back in 1984 and also 1992 was the first time I seen Purple Rain on a cable channel and I was also eleven turning 12 too. Anyway when I watched it for the first time it was breathtaking watch Prince performed on stage throughout the movie and also especially toward the end of Let's Go crazy where he played the shit out with his electric guitar.

That was when I developed a strong crush on Prince. For the next four years, I was so in love with him that I used my extra money to buy his albums and also rerent Purple Rain, The Hits, SOTT, Prince Live, Graffiti Bridge, and Under the Cherry Moon.

By 1996, I lost my attraction for Prince to another celebrity, who I was in love with for nine years. And now my main like of Prince's music was-and still-is pre-1985 era, and all of Prince's movies suck except for PR, of course.

Now I been deeply in love with a non-Prince related celebrity for almost eight years, and still going strong.
[Edited 1/4/06 14:38pm]