I think I could pick any random person in my life, have them watch Purple Rain with me and when we watch it through again, they think the same things about Prince.

My dad, for instance, will remember the last portion of the movie where he does Purple Rain, I would Die 4 U and Baby I'm a Star.

But I feel like it's different with me. Maybe it's because I've dug deeper in2 Prince's history than anyone else in my life who doesn't give a care about him either way.

When I watch Purple Rain, I remember what scenes meant what, but I look at Prince and I never have the same experience twice. Some scenes are more enjoyable than others and sometimes I look disapprovingly at a couple of scenes that I enjoyed on other occasions.

And it's not just with his movies [where one day I find The Kid more appealing than Christopher Tracy and vice versa]. When I listen to an album, I never have the same experience twice. Maybe it's the knowledge I've gained about him or the current song. Maybe it's something else.

Am I alone in this?

And I'm not talking about actually following him through his career and saying "I didn't like him as much during the name change", etc, etc. And not about when "one day an album sucks and the next, it's awesome."

Each album is like an immortalized piece of who Prince was during the time of its creation and each "Prince" is slightly different, more evolved than the next. I say there are no bad albums because they are more like experiencing who Prince was at the time of its creation and you can't really compare experiences.

Being a "fan" feels like an ever-changing equilibrium. My perceptions of him change and evolve, but I still remain loyal to him and his beliefs as an artist.

Those who can keep up with all this, do you agree with my statement in bold?

hey you guys need a friggin' delete thingy on here.

Nope.

Once crazy, always crazy!

My perceptions of him has definitely changed. After this latest nonsense of attacking YouTube with the baby dancing to "let's go crazy" in the background, I have lost a lot of respect for Prince. I really don't consider myself to be a dedicated fan as I once was. I am now only a fan of his post year 2000 stuff.

i entirely agree with you.
but i imagine a lot of people dont because of pure narrow mindedness and an inability to see the bigger picture of an artists work...the same with many acts who are talented enough to evolve over time..just that prince is a far more talented and diverse artist than most and therefore has a bigger effect and has more people whining.

My perception of Prince used to evolve. Lately, it's just been sinking like the Titanic!

Your personal opinion is only validated by you at the time.

We all can look at things differently, at times...I believe your statement is fair, and you thought deeply on your perspective of a musician you love.

absolutely

That man is so unpredictable at times so I'm not surprised in changes of perception.