What is your very first Prince memory? Feel free to paint the picture as much as you would like, including where you were, what you were doing, etc. These are mine:

1) It was a picnic in late summer 1983, and it was around dusk. I was having a good time, feelin' the vibe of the time of day totally, and then comes this song on the radio - 1999. It caught my ear right away, and I remember thinking to myself (something to the effect of), "I like this song. Hope I hear it again." Others at the picnic seemed to be vibing to it.

2) It was my first day in tenth grade (San Diego, Hoover High, class of '87), and I was in the football stands for the first assembly, and I heard the song When Doves Cry" for the first time. I remember it made an impression on me, but I don't know if I really liked it or not. I do remember people around me talking about it (this was three months after it was a hit), and they liked it.

3) A couple months later, my family attempted a move up to Livermore, CA, I had just registered in school, and it was my second or third day. I got a ride with my cousin Jessie (who was my first girl crush), and she put on the stereo, and from out of nowhere came this low, gritty, funky (as all get-out) strut of a number. I'd find out that this was the song Computer Blue. I hadn't had my mind hijacked by a song like this since "Genius Of Love".

Ur turn...

1. The first time I saw his Picture-I did not like him at all
2. The first time I went to his concert- Purple rain
3. the first time I saw his movie- Purple rain

Not necesarily the first...

I remember thinking, what a pansy, when I saw him in 1999 and Little Red Corvette clips.

I remember being transfixed hearing When Doves Cry on the radio. Asking, who is THAT?

I remember being awed by Sign O The Times. I loved the music, the art design, the photography.

1. First time I heard the beat to Black Sweat. "Yay, another hot n dirty minimalism song!" I love them

2. First time Purple Rain really hit me and I thought "Wow."

3. Just the joy of discovering so many songs in just a few months.

1. Seeing the video for Little Red Corvette and thinking how pretty he was, I was about ten.

2. Seeing him getting out of the bath in the Doves Cry video. I thought he was more than pretty

3. Saving up my pocket money and buying the 7" of Doves Cry at Woolworths without my parents knowing. I didn't have my own stereo so could only play it when they went out. Then I totally crapped myself when I thought that I had buggered up the needle on their stereo.

I still have that record, although it's a bit battered it makes me feel totally about the innocence of youth.

1/ Thinking oh here we go again - mum falling in love with a weirdly dressed black man - 1982-3 (I was 11-12)

2/ 'Oh my goodness he is wonderful!' tears streaming down face after watching Purple Rain at the cinema with bemused (annoyingly always right) mum!

3/ Aargh he is in the same building as me - first concert at Wembley Arena (1986? - Parade) - once again tears streaming down face!!

Plus an infinate amount in between and since!

X

i was about 13yrs old. watching top of the pops with my mum. when doves cry burst on2 the screen...prince climbing out of a bath & crawling across the floor. NAKED! i just remember looking at my mum...our jaws had dropped. i just wanted 2 grab a cushion 4 fear of seeing his doo dar.

my friend claire & i found a poster of prince in smash hits mag, or something similar. he seemed 2 have a huge head perched on top of his body. i remember being in stitches as we pinned the pic 2 her bedroom wall, slapped on some lipstick & took turns kissing the pic...her mum came 2 c what the fuss was about & we had her take a photo - which i'm certain is still at my mum's house somewhere. i mean 2 look it out & will post it here someday!

loving little red corvette & enthusiastically singing along.. great little sing about a car



[Edited 11/29/07 3:38am]
[Edited 11/29/07 4:02am]

lottielooloo1968 said:

Always nice to hear an 11 y/o sing lines like

I guess I must be dumb cuz U had a pocket full of horses
Trojan and some of them used
But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right
And U say - "What have I got 2 lose?"

HamsterHuey said:

actually, i just worked out i was more like 13yrs old, but hey! i think i can b 4given 4 thinking he was singing about cars & horses...running free. i had visions of black beauty galloping across the fields.

lottielooloo1968 said:

LoL. I mean REALLY LoL.

As English is my second language, I can be forgiven for taking the cherry from Erotic City as fruit and nothing else.

1) my very first Prince memory ever, was hearing the song Delirious. I was 11 years old at the time, and my sister was 2.5 years younger than me, and the chorus used to crack us up. We would laff hysterically hearing it . It was a few years later that I realised it was Prince.

2) little red corvette on the tv, mtv specifically. i remember the chorus of the song standing out, and Prince being one of a small numbers of musicians
of colour on tv

3) i remember being really young, and going to friends of parents, and meeting their daughter. they were an African-American family, and I remember this teenager showing me the cover of 1999 and other Prince albums. i thought she was interesting, but she shonuff loved Prince



Pic source

Winning the "Prince" Album from a radio station, and falling "In Love" with the album cover.
Listening to the Prince album over and over again, knowing the words by heart by the third play.
Buying "For You" soon after, and doing the same thing. Then it was "Dirty Mind."

[this was seeing Prince, not hearing him... I wouldnt want to leave one occasion out cuz I just heard 2 of his songs ]

1) Seeing the 1999 video when I was half the age I am now (roughly)... the impression I got just based on the way everyone was dressed... out of this world. But more in the bizarre way It was part of that mix video of music videos my dad made of the 80's videos... I think we were watching it cuz the year was 1999 or 1999 was coming soon.

2) A couple years later... flipping thru the channels some given Saturday or Sunday... we stumbled across VH1, my dad says to stay on it. "Purple Rain" is a good movie, he says... or it has great music. Can't remember which. Anyway, I saw a musician who dedicated his entire life to his art and would only play the things he wrote... takes a lot of pride in his work. Very hard working. Then when I saw him do the last two songs, oh so familiar to me by that time... just seeing him dance, move around stage, command the crowd... I was mesmerized/head over heels... and it was then that I knew Prince was special.

3) May 2006: surprise, surprise, I wanted to see if Taylor Hicks or Kathernine McPhee would be crowned, then Prince makes an appearance on American Idol! Get those girls out of there, I want to see him get his groove on. Wow... I never thought he'd show. I thought he didn't approve the way the show is run (not real music by real musicians)... I didnt listen to the songs, but I just watched him take the stage, do his thing and strut off stage, just being Prince.

Those were bascially the thoughts that crossed my mind.
I swear I must have told these stories a dozen times since I got here... but you never forget your first time...
2) was the biggest step that would lead me here a couple of years later. Perceptions may change... but I'll never forget what I saw that day.

Tame said:

1. For me, i have vague memories of hearing "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Controversy" on the radio. I do remember seeing Willis impress "Janet" when dancing to "I Wanna Be Your Lover" on Diff'rent Strokes.

2. Hearing "Little Red Corvette" on the radio -- this is when I first started to take notice.

3. Seeing the video to "1999" -- I knew I wanted MORE as soon as I saw him. Got the cassette (it was cheaper) and played it nonstop for MONTHS! Tape broke, so I had to patch it, which took a beat or two out of LRC, so then I got the double-vinyl album -- loved the pics and lyrics, not to mention the music! I was so hooked by now.

1. "I Wanna Be Your Lover" on the radio and in the skating rinks.

2. Prince performing "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" on "American Bandstand".

3. "Uptown" being played all over the radio and on our local "Soul Train" type show called "Black Gold". Also, "Black Gold" and the radio playing "Head" and it being so funky that I had to get the album.

1. I can recall what I now know to be a knock-off of the Dirty Mind synth line in a local department store TV commercial. It was an embarrassingly bad spot, but I really liked the music -- so when I actually came across the real song some years later (thank goodness, considering the lyrics), I was pumped!

2. I recall seeing the Time perform live on some TV show. I had zero idea who they were, but I liked the baggy pants and thought it curious that the lead singer intentionally seemed to be going for a black Charlie Chaplin look.

3. My sister's roommate her freshman year of college had the Controversy poster of Prince in a shower with nothing on but a cross and a G-string. I thought it was horrendous and I had no idea who it was at the time, but the fact I still recall it vividly 25 years later is testament to Prince's earlier savvy with regard to a striking, memorable aesthetic.
[Edited 11/29/07 23:33pm]

The first time i heard "when doves cry", i said it was the most anoying song i've ever heard.
When i saw a picture of prigipas (prince), i fail in love the first time.
When i heard "purple rain", i fail in love the second.

This was a good one! I remember there was a LOT of discussion about whether or not he'd appear on AI, and it had been decided and the "confirmed" that he would not perform, and that any rumors of him coming on the show to work with the Idol contestants were put to rest. And then, just at the very tail end of the program, right when they were having to stretch for suspense...

...the intro chords for LOLITA come on in the background. I thought it was just a montage or retrospective moment, but then they cued right to Prince and the Twinz. I really, REALLY dug that - it was the coolest!

3) May 2006: surprise, surprise, I wanted to see if Taylor Hicks or Kathernine McPhee would be crowned, then Prince makes an appearance on American Idol! Get those girls out of there, I want to see him get his groove on. Wow... I never thought he'd show. I thought he didn't approve the way the show is run (not real music by real musicians)... I didnt listen to the songs, but I just watched him take the stage, do his thing and strut off stage, just being Prince.

I can't really remember specifically,
but I will say that I remember when I first found out that Prince, Vanity-6 & the Time were were all in one "camp"
& shortly thereafter, I saw each of 'em for the first time on different episodes
of Solid Gold.
I guess those can count as three earliest memories.
If they don't,
then to hell with the whole lot of U.






...picky ass mutherfuckers.....

Boy, can Illustrator make me laugh!
You need to do this for a living.

Anji said:

He cracks me up too!