PARADE - Being the young Prince-obsessed kid had not changed with this album. It only made my love deeper. But I think it might've changed other people's attitudes since those casual types thought the man went off the deep end. But you couldn't get me away from him if he committed the most heinous of sins. But that would be unlike Prince. Anyways, take also into consideration that my Mother was and still is a die-hard fan. And as I have explained many times here in orgland you can thank my mother for bestowing the fandom upon her 2 sons. I was more into the man that my brother though.

Prince was at the epicenter of all the music that rocked my world. Janet, Tina, Madonna, Mr. Idol, MJ, Duran, T4F, Cameo, RUN DMC, Sting, Anita Baker..... as good as they were, none of them could hold a candle to what my purple hero created during this period. Anyways, it didn't matter what I heard it was all good to my singing and dancing 4 year-old ears. It was funky, jazzy, rockin', and had this sophisticated feel to it. And that was nothing short of amazing to me. And my mother knew about sophistication when it came to music. She loved Jazz, R&B, Funk, Fusion, as well as Rock and Pop. So she knew good music when she heard it. And this was kind of like music education to me as I look back on it now. It brought a beacon of happiness to our rather dull existence in the then slums of Harlem, USA.

I have some funny memories of "Parade" now: smudging cheese doodle stains on the cassette cover, the pineapple/orange juice that hurt my throat for some reason, my mother's electric guitar that I messed around with, etc. For some reason these things come to mind when I think about the first time I heard this album. I remember something happened to that tape where we wouldn't see it for years. In fact, I didn't get a new copy (in CD form) until Christmas 1992. In between that time I had forgotten the first 3 songs. I only remembered the title track onwards.

Now trying to hip the other kids in my Pre-K class was a challenge. Because I lived in the 'hood the majority of us were into "urban music". And while Prince hadn't completely alienated his Black audience, he wasn't the creme de la creme that his "Purple Rain" and "1999" albums made him out to be. But the truth I think, was that Prince was so far ahead of the pack when it came to Black music in 1986. Most of those artists ranging from Jam and Lewis to Mazarati to Cameo to Ready For The World were still trying to catch up to what Prince was doing with his Synth/Funk/Rock sounds. But he was over that and expanded his palette with new and interesting sounds. I was very much open to what my purple hero was trying to create here. But I guess it went over many of my peers heads. They were still quoting "Purple Rain" and shit thinking that that was all the man did. But they couldn't even get to the funkiness of "Kiss". That was and still is some stone cold FUNK! But they'd rather listen to Whitney or Janet on their fucking Hello Kitty boom boxes. But I got no love when I was singing stuff like "it's on da mountain, annnn seee" (picture a 4 year-old singing this ) and "you need a lover lover". But fuck it, I didn't care. This is what made me stand out in the class.

And oh man, the videos!!! You could not get my innocent eyes away from the TV whenever a Prince video came on. Whenever I would go to my Grandparents house on the weekend I would totally take advantage of their cable TV. My brother was into Nickelodeon and of course I was into MTV. So seeing the latest Prince video on that station made my fucking day! BET was there too, but I wasn't big into that too much, although it was a treat to catch Prince videos there too. I used to dance up a storm to his funky sounds. I didn't remember seeing that contest event that was on MTV. But I do remember the videos which still inspire me to this day (thanks to that DVD). My mother had that mariachi hat that Prince wore in the "Mountains" video. I didn't see the movie at that time since I was too young. It probably would've traumatized my virgin eyes anyways, especially with that death scene. I'm actually glad about the time I did finally see the movie: summer of 1996. 10 years to the month after the original release, I got this nugget of joy on VHS as a Jr. High graduation gift which ended up making my summer.

Great times.

Flowerz said:

how dare they walked out of this gem of a movie? from the time cat hangs up the phone and that beat 4 if i was ur girlfriend comes on ..u can't talk 2 me during those last remaining moments..pure xctasy!!!

L4OATheOriginal said:

u know what im saying!! the concert was kickin' .. how can u walk out on that? .. *A Train!* ..

parade: being born

Flowerz said:

perhaps they were revolution fans

My memory was my mom buying the SOTT album and listening to it once then just put it on a shelf to collect dust. So I took it a listened to it one day and fell in love with it!!! And that is basically how I became a Prince fam. Love ya Prince!!!
[Edited 3/20/08 17:32pm]

I just say all my memories are good.