I'd always liked the songs 1999,Little Red Corvette,Delerious,Controversy and I Wanna Be Your Lover before becoming a hardcore fan during the Purple Rain era.Prince was always cool with me but this is for those who were aware of who Prince was and his hit songs and such.Did anybody here never care for his music until a certain turning point? If so,what turned things around?

the first time i saw him i thought he was fascinating, but i was 9 years old and it was the "i wanna be your lover" video and i didn't quite know how to process this guy who kinda looked like a girl and who sang like a girl and who could play all the instruments. it made my poor little child brain hurt.

after seeing that video, i totally forgot about him until i saw a picture of him circa '1999' in rolling stone, and i thought "holy CRAP this guy is cool...he's like a comic book character come to life!" and then a year or so later, i heard 'let's go crazy' for the first time, and it was all over.

so nah. no resentment. i always thought he was an amazing freak.

Cool and interesting response Anx!

The first time I saw a picture of Prince, I didn't know what he was man or woman gay or straight and it confused me, I remember it was in a reord store w indow late 70's and I spit on the ground in front of it.

wlcm2thdwn said:

What was your turning point?

Little by little I would like a song then find out it was Him singing it but Doves cry is what made me fall in love with him and never look back!

Wow! Purple Rain sealed the deal 3 or 3 so far!

My brother, and then later a close friend of mine. They used to make all the usual comments about Prince until I started sharing live footage with them. In both cases, it was mainly Prince's guitar savvy that won them both over.

Never - my first introduction to Prince was the 1999/Little Red Corvette songs and videos. He was already supercool to me, and the whole Purple Rain experience a year or so later sealed the deal . . .

First time I sat and listened 2 a complete Prince song was in... 2003? 2004? Anyways... it was "Musicology" and I loved it!!! I thought he was hot.
But it wasn't until I watched "Purple Rain" in 2005 when I was like "Holy cow, this man is the " so there.

theodore said:

So,prior to that,you just never paid Prince much mind?

sitruk7 said:

It's not that... it's just that I'm in México... and people r not that familiar with Prince's music over here. So there wsn't a way 4 me 2 pay attention 2 him. U know, MTV doesn't play his videos over here. Only VH1 (where I watched Purple Rain.) But I am so glad that I ran in2 this purple man.

B4 "Musicology" I'd heard pieces of "Kiss"... and that was it.

He's hot and he doesn't care who knows it.


*
[Edited 2/17/07 9:48am]

theodore said:

Ah...ok.Gotcha!

sitruk7 said:

Never.Fell in love with him with my 1st look/listen!

My relationship/fanhood with Prince has been a little strange. I first saw Prince when I was 5 in the assless pants and it kind of freaked me out to see a grown-ups butt cheeks when I was a little kid. Four years later I got into Michael Jackson--heavily--and basically cut myself from the music world for about another four years until about 1999 when I was thirteen and all the "1999" and Prince hoopla was going on constantly all that year. I kind of peeked at Prince during my 12 years of being into Michael Jackson, because he was frowned on by my mother because well, back in the day Prince was freaky as sin and the worst my mother saw MJ do was fondle his privates onstage. (Talk about censorship, DAMN!)
Prince for me was kind of a rebellious sort of thing because I knew he was nasty and I liked it.
My turning point came last year when I saw P on American Idol and I really got into him because Michael was still in seclusion follwing that dull spot in his career in 2005. I was bored and Prince has given me something to do. I like Prince and I'm having fun being a P enthusiast.

My friends--who are heavy MJ fans--thinks that when Michael moonwalks back into the picture I'll dump Prince like I did with several other artists before I got into P.


That won't be happening.

Right now my room is half MJ and half P and I plan to keep it that way!

My dad was always into Prince and had couple of albums, but I hated him - partly because, well, it was my DAD's music (and that's never cool!) and partly because he'd scream a lot. I liked everything to be nice and pretty, tight and freeze-dried, so basically I hated Prince, The Faces, Nilsson, Jeff Beck... What an idiot.

So anyway, after a while I slowly got to like a few of the less "screamy" Prince tracks (I only had hold of Purple Rain at the time) but then I found Parade and found I was liking him more and more - but would never admit it. Even my mother, who claimed to hate him, was dragged along to one of the Nude Tour shows by my father, and came back begrudginly admitting that, yes, it was an absolutely amazing show.

When Prince was acting like a 24-carat prat in about '94, two things happened - first of all, my dad got the Black Album, which had some of the most fascinating noises on it I'd ever heard. Plus, my mum wouldn't let me listen to it! Also, everybody I knew at school was totally slating Prince. I, of course, joined in, but suddenly realised that I only really knew a handful of songs myself - so I decided to investigate this Prince guy properly so as not to be a total hypocrite. By that time I'd given up on Michael Jackson, so I had room to do so!

And then it was like an avalanche - I became absolutely obsessed. I don't think I listened to anything but Prince for a couple of years after that - stole my dad's CDs; collected all the back catalogue; got really upset at the note on Chaos & Disorder saying it would be his "last album for Warner Brothers" and then really excited when Emancipation came out. Yes, I was so fanatical that I even insisted I liked every track on Emancipation; I thought "Solo" was a piece of genius; I believed "Private Joy" was classic pop; I was adamant that "3 Chains O' Gold" was definitely not in the slightest bit pompous or overblown. I started using "2" "U" and "eye" when I wrote, and developed some strange philosophy that involved reincarnation and being 320 years old...

I think the turn started when I first heard "The Truth", and later when "New Power Soul" came out and Larry Graham wouldn't go away - that's when I started to mellow out a little and get to the stage I'm at now: Prince's worst stuff is better than a lot people's best, but my GOD even he's done some turkeys! I remember being really REALLY angry at the sanctimonious preaching at the beginning of that song at love4oneanother.com - was it "One Song" or something?

Hell, I've gone on for a bit! Anyway, that's my story. Now it's back to Hugh in the studio...

I didn't hate him but I remember when I first saw the Little Red Corvette video, I was shaking my head saying, "what freaking weirdo". Then, a year later, I got pimped slapped by a song called When Doves Cry which changed everything.

When I found out who he was, I was 4 and it was during the 1999 period and I thought he was weird. I became a fan the next year with When Doves Cry but before 84 ended I got sick of him for a couple of months because everytime I turned around, it was nothing but Prince and I was more for MJ. I was waiting for Michael to come out with a song or something. It was around the time of the American Music Awards in 85 when I got over it and I haven't disliked him since.

I didn't hate him, didn't resent him. I thought he was really strange. I mean, he was tinier than some women I'd seen, liked purple more than I did, and various other things. I definitely knew he was talented, but before I was a fan I considered him too bizarre to consider even buying a "best of" album. Which was why I was so creeped out about listening to one. And then I turned on 1999 and forgot all about feelings of far-to-strange-for-me-to-care-about and all that.

Very interesting stories here people.Thanks for sharing.

In the 80s I was only listening to hard rock/metal. I used to hate Prince, I thought he was an arrogant gay who did gay music.

But even then, I remember I stopped everytime "When doves cry" played on the radio, just to listen to that great guitar work. But I became a fan only in 93. Now I understand people who dislike him, because I used to think like they do. But I get upset when I see people dissing him...

"Hate" isn't the right word, but I definately thought he was kind of weird. Growing up in the early 90s, I just though he was just another 80s pop-star with more "star appeal" than actual talent (in the same vein as Michael Jackson, Madonna and the like).

But, like most people here, you start to see/hear different things and slowly but surely you realise just how talented and badass he really is

Anx said:

That's a cool description, Anx.

I was in junior high and got hooked on 1999. I then bought his previous music on cassette (Prince, For You, etc.) In high school my carpet was black and two walls were white while the other two were purple and adorned with poirot masks or dolls (think Purple Rain) I remember my friends weren't allowed to watch his videos. I was definitely an odd ball as a hardcore Prince fan since Micheal Jackson was having his day. In fact, I went to his Lovesexy concert alone (no one wanted to go, their loss!) My husband became familiar with his music (aside from the radio songs) through me, and after the Musicology concert, he really began to appreciate Prince's musicianship. We just returned from Vegas, and the aftershow and my husband is now a true fan. We are hoping to go back in March.

Hmmm, I guess I was very reserved. Prince was very different to the male ideal of my then community, and you weren't really allowed to dig that kind of thing where I was growing up, especially during that specific time (early 90s).

I really remember one particular comment I voiced about Prince to my friends before drifting into his records, I think I was 13, "Prince tries to do everything but he really isn't good at anything he does - he can't play the guitar that well, can't sing that well, can't dance too good and isn't a good songwriter".



Kids. They're stupid, you know.

Cool idea for a thread sitruk7! No I was listening to his hits on the radio and loved them before I ever knew what he looked like. Then when I found out how androyonous, mysterious, and original his "look" was I fell in love with him.

Yeah, sometimes it´s frustrating to know that, if he was less androgynous, he would probably have many more fans.

I always liked him, but one day we just fell in love

Krystal666 said:

Thanks for the compliment and the response Krys!

GustavoRibas said:

Definately! Some people can't get past the visuals enough to let the music sink in and digest.