What is the most unusual or interesting experience you have had purchasing, or observing someone else purchasing, the "Lovesexy" album?

Mine happened in the early 90s, travelling with my parents in some God-forsaken wasteland in west Texas, a few years after the album came out and when Prince was at a nadir of popularity. We stopped at truck stop store by the interstate to "use the facilities", buy some snacks and gasoline. A long-distance truck driver got out of his "18 wheeler" and followed us into the store. He was fat, with a long, light brown beard and bushy mustache, appearing to be about 40 to 45 years old. He wore jeans, a denim sleeveless jacket, and t-shirt commemorating the tour of some 80s hair or country band. He had long unkempt hair. He looked very trashy (think a younger, fatter version of Chick Huntsberry, Prince's former bodyguard).

He went to the toilet, came out after a couple of minutes and looked at the carousel of available music by the cash register. He saw the "Lovesexy" album smiled intensely, picked it up and took a few steps back to the cash register to pay. The grin did not come off his face. He kept on starring and smiling at the cover, only looking up to pay. After paying, he almost jumped out of the store with speed that belied his large frame, and with an enthusiasm usually witnessed only in buyers of teenie-bopper magazines such as "Teen Beat","Bop" and "Tiger Beat".

First, he didn't look like the type of person who would even consider buying a Prince album, much less one with a naked Prince on the cover, especially in those days when 80s cultural experimentation was gone in favor of a grungy, "authentic" 90s flavor. Second, his obvious visual admiration and enthusiasm in bounding off with it were strange. Given his look of glee, I wonder what he did with it when he got to his cab and whether he enjoyed it, meeting his expectations. He certainly appeared enthusiastic about the purchase.
[Edited 7/22/07 13:36pm]

I just got a weird look from the clerk

i got it on ebay

I had no problem buying it! That's the best thing off Europe: no one gives a fuck about a naked man!

violetorgangrinder said:

You know what they say about truckers don't you.

NouveauDance said:

That reminded me of this excellent pet shop boy's b-side:

THE TRUCK-DRIVER AND HIS MATE

Parked inside the lay-by
their destination can wait
dancing in the moonlight
the truck-driver and his mate
Acting out of compulsion
after hours sitting in the van
taking coals to newcastle
talking man to man
Loyal to the point of madness
solemn as an act of fate
dancing in the moonlight
the truck-driver and his mate

You know it!

NouveauDance said:

Pethead here!

How the LOVESEXY Album Changed My Life!!!

Here is a segment of a letter I wrote to a friend about five years ago after the One Night Alone tour in Dallas. It concerns the epiphany I experienced when I went to purchase the "Lovesexy" album, almost twenty years ago.



I remember hearing the song “Alphabet Street” well over ten years ago in my senior year of high school and wanting to own a copy of the new Prince album it was from--Lovesexy. I gathered up my money, and zipped down to the token music store at the mall in my hometown in search of the album (actually, a cassette back then). I quickly found it, but wasn’t prepared for what would come next. The cover art to the album shocked me, and I stopped dead in my tracks.

The cover art depicts Prince naked on the cover, a nude pixie astride a large colorful flower. One leg is modestly raised, a necessary gesture of self-censorship. His skin seems to glow, his hair messily brushed back--and one arm crossed gently across his chest, as if attempting to cover his heart. The image suggests a sensitive and fragile creature in a delicate environment. It is an image of stark vulnerability from Prince, a rare glimpse into the soul of a talented, yet often misunderstood artist. I remember the picture making my face turn red as my pulse quickened slightly. Looking around to see if anyone had seen me take it from the shelf, I placed it back. Pacing around the store, I thought heavily about what I should do next. “If anyone ever sees me with this album,” I hastily assumed, “They’ll think I’m gay.”

You see, gay boys aren’t necessarily welcome in the small Southern town where I’m from. In certain circles, I would be heavily chastised for even owning a musical selection from a black artist. The fact that Prince’s choices in costumes (or lack thereof) are bold and flamboyant--flaunting his raging sexual ambiguousness, certainly didn’t help matters much. It would be several years before I would make the decision to come to terms with my own homosexuality, and at this point I was just seeking acceptance by my peers. Gridlocked, I left that store feeling frustrated and kicked down, disappointed in myself for needing to fit in so desperately.

At this point in his career, Prince was starting to get kicked down a bit too. Many people had begun to form an anti-Prince mentality. The mind think at that time had regarded Purple Rain as a masterpiece, and left little room to consider other works that didn’t instantly deliver the same commercial impact. “Prince isn’t cool anymore,” I’d hear often. Or “Oh, it’s a good song, but not as good as “Let’s Go Crazy”. Or “Prince hasn’t come out with anything good since Purple Rain.”

Indeed, many who purchased Around the World in A Day, the highly anticipated follow-up to Purple Rain felt they were misled, betrayed by the infectious hit single “Raspberry Beret. The rest of the album was definitely a far cry from Purple Rain. It was chaotic and dark, mixed with odd and strange musical moments that sometimes startled us. I’ve since accepted that music from this artist is often not what we’d expect for him to do next at all. His music is a wild and beautiful thing--like an alien flower from another planet, which has somehow made it to Earth. It is colorful and mysterious, strangely hypnotizing in complexity, and at times it is perhaps a bit ominous.

Back in that mall I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. “I just want to be like everyone else,” I told myself leaving upset. “I just want to fit in.”

Something in my head snapped as I realized the forces I was setting into motion. “Am I to become this?” I wondered. “Am I to become a slave to the expectations of what others want me to be? Or am I to stand tall, and choose for myself, regardless of what I think others might want me to be? ” I took a deep breath, swallowed and turned back around. Making a bee-line for the cassette, I made my purchase and took it home to devour it.

As Prince blazed through the song “Anna Stesia” toward the close of the Dallas show on April 16th, I found myself looking back on that decision and feeling like I had come full-circle. The song had been one of many favorites from Lovesexy, a spiritually fulfilling album with so many wonderful compositions and themes. “Have you ever felt so lonely that you thought you were the only one in this world?” the song inquires of us. “Have you ever wanted to play with someone so much you’d take any one boy or girl?”

The song continues, reaching into that well of darkness inside each of us. “Between white and black, night and day, black night seemed like the only way, so I danced.” In the angst-ridden torment of my youth, Prince had become the artist with which I could most identify. The song contained everything I viewed as monumental at this time in my young life… alienation, desire, redemption. Prince had become my hero. In him, I seemed to recognize the misfit within myself--a sexually conflicted outsider with universe-bending goals, and the courage to stand up for what he believes in.

Thanks for sharing your story, robertes71

Well, I bought it on cassette at first. Nothing weird there.

But then in 1994, I bought it on CD. I was at Best Buy. It was on the rack. I picked it up and took it up to the counter and paid for it, then took it home.


Really fucking weird, huh?

Raze said:

I'm shocked!

I bought it the day it was released. I went to one of the downtown Chi record stores during my lunch break to get it. I was surprised they hadn't put it on display yet. So of course I went to the counter and asked the clerk for it. He gave me this funny look. He turned to dig into a bow which was sitting on the floor behind the counter. Out came my new cassette....

of a naked ass Prince.

I looked at it... said.. ring me up... and I'll admit my thoughts were...

'ohh boy... this mutha done lost his mind!'

Oh man, I still have to work up the nerve to buy the cd. I almost bought it, but after I saw what happened to my friend, I just couldn't.

I live in a little shitty town that has no record stores that stock anything past the "Purple Rain" cd, so we have to go to the mall and place an order to get any other cd that's not "mainstream".

So my friend Rebecca and I went into the shop, my mind was set on the Symbol album and Rebecca kept telling me, "Tiffeny, I'll choose at the store."

The guy behind the counter who waited on us seemed nice enough--he looked like a hippie that the 60s had left behind. LOL.

So I placed my order with no trouble and then Rebecca asked the man what other cds he had. I could see his computer screen from where I was standing and just a list od titles came up and as the guy got to "LoveSexy", Rebecca said she wanted that.

The guy clicks on the name to make an order and it opens into another window and there, on the screen in living, vibrant color, is a naked yellow man on a big purple orchid.

The guy flipped out.

This was his exact comment:

"Oh hell no! Don't tell me that this man is NAKED as a fucking jay bird on an album!"

Everybody and thier mom heard him scream that and started laughing. Poor Rebecca was embarrassed and ran out.

(She ordered it online in the privacy of her home that night.)

It makes me super nervous to get it, but I eventually will.

I'm a badass like that! LOL!

MikeMatronik said:

No problem. It was actually quite liberating at the time.

Open question: what artistic statement do you think Prince was trying to make?

DieLon said:

Me too!

How did I get Lovesexy?

Well, way back in 1992 (I was 13 and just started collecting Prince), my mother and I was just hanging around downtown - just a few days before our holiday in Italy - shopping and stuff.
We were near to a good old record store where I often went to browsing old vinyls. I told my mother that I want to look in - and she was like "ok, let's go..."
We checked the Prince vinyls and I just noticed the Lovesexy vinyl which I didn't have yet. I started begging to my mother to buy it and after a few minutes she said "ok"... So, we payed and left... That's all. No one cared about the cover...

I bought it when I was 17... the vinyl with the big cover, y'know. I never thought anything of it... just Prince being Prince. I have no idea what the clerk was thinking and don't remember any weird looks or anything, but I wasn't looking for any either. Could've been that they've seen me buying Prince music for years, and naturally I'd be in to get the new album as well, no matter the cover art.

What's so damn special about buying Lovesexy?
Yes, it has a naked man on the cover. What's the big deal?


I think I purchased mine like four years ago or something. Saw it in a record store, picked it up, went to the counter, paid for it, went home. End of story.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

You don't live in America, do you?

I don't remember any comments or embarressment when I bought Lovesexy but the salesclerk did snicker when I bought George Michaels I Want Your Sex.

a friend gave it to me. but i remember seeing it at a record store, and some seven year old pointing and saying "look, a naked lady." hehe.

midnightmover said:

Nope, I'm European

Is it( nudity M/F) really still frowned on in America,no one has ever remarked about the album art to me in the (UK).

robertes71 said:

AMEN!! Where's Supa?

My story is kinda similar, in ways.
It was 2003. I was flicking through channels on the tv. and I went past Vh1 classic and saw a skinny man in a black and white polka dot suit dancing, I IMMEDIATELY turned back and realized it was a Prince song I NEVER heard before, and I started jamming to it. I waited for the credits because I HAD to have that song! I finally saw it was called "Glam Slam" as SOON as the video went off, I got online and started FRANTICALLY looking to download it. I found it on WinMX and I stayed on the computer for 10 hours waiting for the whole thing to download. Early the next morning when it finished, I sat there and listened to if back to back 5 times. It was like nothing I EVER heard before. I instantly fell in love. At the time, I was also initiating my coming out process, as to whether or not I should do it or not. And then I heard "Anna Stesia" and I don't know if it was the music, or the words, but that song just eased me SO much. Especially the beginning "Have you ever been so lonely..." After hearing that, I was SOLD. Then when I heard "I wish U heaven" omg...that song is so beautiful...I swore it was like God talking to me, telling me that no matter WHAT, I still love you and wish you heaven. I was becoming a P fan before, but Lovesexy catapulted me into fandom.

I was sick but I had to have it first day so I asked my mom to buy it for me. She was so embarrassed because she bought it at some record store that did not display it and had it behind the counter. It was like sending my mom to buy me porn.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

I think it's because.. ppl like Prince, Madonna, Michael.. they did stuff.. other artists didnt do.. i look @ the Kiss video and we're wearing that stuff today (all that body jewelry).. Prince wore that 20 years ago(when it wasnt even in style to do).. no one else wore stuff like that (except Jody Watley) .. nowadays.. ppl do it all (nudity) and nobody cares.. but in the 80s when Prince n Madonna (her strutting her tail as a hitchhiker nude) did nudity it was like groundbreaking lol..

FuNkeNsteiN said:

4 years ago? Of course a naked man on a c.d. cover isn't gonna be controversial anymore.