bjt57 said:

8 Track - now you're showing your age ! These format upgrades are certainly a way for artists to continue making money from the same fans!

alovesupreme said:

Wow you've been there since the very beginning! That's been a real ride then!

There used to be a place across from 1st avenue in dt mpls called the VENICE CAFE.My friends dad owned it.He used to llet us come down and play video games there with unlimited tokens.Any way the song Do ME BABY was on the juke box
MY friend and I fell in love with that song.....the rest is history

In 1994 heard LETITGO on the radio loads of times and loves it. Bought the single and the Hits/B-Sides a few months later and discovered the world of Prince!

Saw "U got the Look" video. Thought he looked brilliant.
Like most kids, had been a big MJ fan up to that point (Bad era). My Dad bought "Lovesexy" and used to play it in the car. Loved it, then saw "Lovesexy Live in Dortmund" on Channel 4, and the rest is history

The moment I laid eyes on this poster in my friends room when I was in my early teens..... From then on...I was hooked!

IstenSzek said:

My story...completely by chance.

I was subscribed to "Britannia Music Club" (original BRIT AWARD sponsors and organiser)...they send you out a CD every month unless you tell them not to. One month a bump on the doormat...looked, then a sigh and thought of why I never cancelled it before they sent it out.

Anyway the CD was Lovesexy with this naked bloke on the front!...even more bizarre was the one track only...I originally thought it was a manufacturing fault. From the first track I was hooked...a real life changing moment. A very fresh deep sounding CD.

The CD is fully tracked through an index system on the CD and can be forwarded like any other on the old Marantz CD40 player which i owned at the time. I hope some of you never new that!

The rest is history...so thank you Britannia Music Club....you changed my life for the better !
[Edited 3/6/07 11:48am]
[Edited 3/6/07 11:52am]

chadz said:

chadz said:

Man, that is cool. Complete randomness.

I guess my experience was by chance too cuz if we hadn't been flipping through the channels that day, we wouldn't have found "Purple Rain" and watched it, thus starting my 'fasincation' of Prince... I call it fascination only because that's what he did to me.

dammme said:

I kinda wish I had an earlier start, but then again, since Purple Rain came out 2 years before I even existed, that might have something to do with it. I"m a total 80's buff, I love movies from the 80's (The Breakfast Club) and I love 80's music (the list goes on and on...). But the way I am now (a huge Prince follower/fan), I think my dad will be sorry that he introduced me to him (thru "Purple Rain") because for the last month, I've done almost nothing but think about Prince, watch his videos and interviews, typing on prince.org, lol. But I don't think he'll be too sorry about it because Prince is the real deal when it comes to the definition of a "musician".

It was 1979 on American Bandstand. He sung I Wanna Be Your Lover and Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad. I've been on board ever since.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Yes but think about all the voyage of discovery with not just Prince tracks/albums to collect but all the assoc artist stuff! Enjoy the ride!

I've told this story before but the question keeps getting asked, so anyway, here goes.....

I heard "I Wanna Be Your Lover" all over the radio and in the skating rinks during the disco era. I loved it and I bought the 45.

Disco "died" later that year so I switched to R&B radio and started listening to funk which was the closest sounding thing to disco. "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad", "Sexy Dancer", and "Still Waiting" were in regular rotation on R&B radio and I loved them but still didn't buy the album yet.

I saw Prince on "American Bandstand" that same year and got to see the person behind the music. I loved what I saw. A man that had a gay as hell appearance and gestures but his music kicked the ass of any straight person out there and was the furthest thing from weak classical, ballet, nerdy type shit that people like to stereotype gay people as. I was in the sixth or seventh grade at the time and was struggling with my own sexuality so I was very impressed when I saw Prince with a strong "fuck with me and die" attitude.

Then I heard "Uptown" all over the radio and bought that 45 also. A local "Soul Train" type dance show called "Black Gold" was where I first heard "Head" and also saw the inside sleeve of the "Dirty Mind" album (they would show an album cover as a song was first starting). I loved the song more than anything else I had ever heard before. Then I started hearing it all over the radio also. I went looking for the 45 and was told by the clerks that it was only available on the album so I bought it (I learned how singles work by that experience). I loved every track on the album and went back and bought "Prince" a few weeks later and loved it also.

I bought the "Controversy" 45 before the album was released. Then I bought the album. During that era, I heard a Prince double play on the radio featuring "Controversy" and "Soft and Wet". I had always thought "Prince" was the first album so I went to the record store a week later and bought "For You".

Thank you to my mom and her good taste in music...she bought 1999 when it came out (she was barely in her 30's) I was 11 or so. She played it non-stop. Then she bought Purple Rain when it came out. She wore it out and had to buy another copy. She took me to the movie at least twice. Then came the Purple Rain Tour....she took me with her...(my first concert of any artist) when I was in the 6th grade! Then came the buying of all the previous albums. As a teenager in the 80's I was one of only a few of my friends that listened to Prince getting them all upon release. By the time I was college age I remember buying "The Gold Experience" and unwrapping it in the parking lot (my friends and I would Pre-Funk to P-control). I have successfully converted all my friends over the years and now I am working on my husband (we danced our 1st dance as husband and wife to "Adore" in June of 1999). BTW...Mom is in her 50's and as never lost her love for Prince.

My cousin, my best friend, my sister and I all went to 3121 in December (my 5th time seeing him in concert since 1984). I love all the press he's been getting lately. All the after parties. He's been everywhere lately.

My best friend and were 10. We would put a ton of make up on go down to the gas station that rented movies. We would walk in there looking like Madonna wanna b drag queens so the guy would think we were old enough to rent the movie Purple Rain.Then we would hide in the basement and watch it cuz our parents would have had our hide for watching it. Then we got the tape of Purple Rain and wrote down all the lyrics. Now we are 32 and my friend and got together over the phone to watch the half time performance and giggled like schoolgirls just the same as we did when we were 10. He just keeps getting better!

See, that's what I absolutely love about Prince! He is so feminine but throws down so hard. He breaks absolutely every weak stereotype that people like to place on gay people or even gay looking people.

vainandy said:

Amen to that! I'm a straight guy but I believe a good part of my ease and acceptance of gay men came from the ethos Prince represented. I was so influenced by the whole spirituality/sexuality/all-inclusive nature of his image and music/lyrics. There was no stigma no matter what your race, religion or sexual pursuasion. It made me a bit sad in the late 90s early 00s when it appeared that Prince's adoption of JW made him seem to lose his own ethos!

vainandy said:

Not to hi-jack the thread, but I love all ppl I dont care what they are, Prince is famous, he can do what he wants, but him wearing the boots wont change ppl's minds in the real world.. you know an ordinary dude wearing 3 inch boots, walking down the street wont make it to the next corner without ridicule.

I got a few...

I remember in 1989 (I was only 6) when I first saw bat dance on VH1. My brothers and I were watching it in the basement of our house.

In 1991 I remember when Diamonds and Pearls came out. I was still too young too fully understand the song, but I always thought the music was beautiful

In 1995 (when I got hooked) The Most Beautiful Girl in the world came out. I thought no better song could ever have been written

And in 1996, I remember my big bro listening to Prince, I loved (an still love) the Emancipation album

In early 2003, I became a hardcore fan.

But it's not just being famous and being able to do whatever you want. It's his whole bitchy and superior attitude about it that I love so much.

He carries himself like...."I'm all that and if you don't like it, I don't care. You're trash and beneath me so why should I care what you think".

Instead of going off somewhere and crying like a weak sissy, his attitude just gives off vibes of bitchy arrogance that pisses them off because they didn't upset him. He turns the tables and makes them the joke. That's how I've carried myself ever since I laid eyes on Prince. He gave me strength to make it through my rough teen years.
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[Edited 3/8/07 13:20pm]

See this thread to get the full story

http://www.prince.org/msg/7/220582

I finally saw the entirity of "Purple Rain" and it was well worth the wait. It's definitely on my gift list for my 21st bday in 4 months and 16 days. That'll be worth the wait too.

I'm glad that I saw it with a clearer, more informed view of who Prince is... so I was able to distinguish him from "The Kid", as they are two completely different people... and as I read somewhere, his character is merely a person that's an extension/limitation of his own. Based on his actions alone, I can pretty much tell what Prince would and wouldn't do that "The Kid" did/didn't do.

It feels good to be in the know.
Either way, the past month or so as a huge Prince fan hasn't been boring. It's been an awesome experience and I continue to learn more about him every single day. That's what makes Prince so appealing to me, more mysteries to uncover and new things about him to be discovered.