For the old timers (like myself) - how'd you get your copy of this? Nowadays with the internet things like this are a piece of cake. But back then you had to search.....

I got mine at a little indie wrecka stow that sold hard to find albums, imports, indie, and bootlegs. They were just selling The Black Album for $20.00 a pop. And I remember looking at it and thinking it looked like Spinal Tap's SMELL THE GOLVE ("How much more black could it be?" "And the answer is none - none more black.") But I loved most of the tunes. Ahhhh, the good old days of real record stores.

I was at a little hole-in-the-wall wrecka stow in a city I had just moved to. (It was 1989 - two years after The Black Album was supposed to drop.) I actually went in to buy the Batman album (on vinyl - I hadn't gotten a CD player yet) and got to chatting with the clerk about Prince. Said the only thing I didn't have was the Black Album and boy, would I like to hear that, etc.

He said, "I don't have one, either - but I know someone who knows someone who can make you a tape. Give me your name and come back in a couple days." I was so excited, I almost floated out of the store.

I went back a couple days later and, true to his word, the guy handed me a cassette. The sound quality was terrible, but the album was complete. Guy didn't even charge me for it, that I recall.

When the album was finally "officially" released in 1994, I hopped on it and bought one right away.
[Edited 6/10/08 14:09pm]

found mine in a hole in the wall wrecka stow as well. was a relatively new fan (some 6 or so years ago ) and was actually looking for batman for some reason and decided to get the black album too, since it was "rare" and whatnot, 17 bucks or so . i remember i couldn't stand batman at first (it's grown on me considerably, but still not my "favorite", a few songs i ), but the black album was immediately some of the est, funkiest, not to mention weirdest, shit i had ever heard and is still a personal fave .

Tape-trading, then I bought one of the bootleg releases on CD. Then years later the official release obv.

I don't remember but I do know I don't like it.

I found a really crappy-sounding tape being sold on the street in New York City in the summer of '88. I was thrilled. I still have it, even though it's a homemade tape that sounds awful.

I woke up in the dead of night cuz I heard this noise...I got up and looked out the window and perched on one of the branches in this big ass tree on the lawn was the Black Album. So I went outside about 4 in the morning, climbed up the tree and pulled it down.

blackguitaristz said:

nuuu-uhhh

I inherited mine from my brother when he moved away and had more Prince stuff than he cared 2 haul with him.

There was a vinyl fair in Pesaro, Italy, back in 1993. It was the first vinyl fair I went 2. It was set in a Five Star Hotel basement and right there I found a bootleg vinyl copy, the one with the green writing on the cover sayin' "Prince - black album". The name PRINCE was written in the Lovesexy fonts.
The sound quality was not bad.

More than a year later I got my official copy on cd.

And right now I'm sparing money for one of the orange marbled numbered vinyl that came out in 1994.
[Edited 6/11/08 2:03am]

Tamera1 said:

For real...As I was sitting in the tree looking at it, (it didn't even have an album cover) I was amazed that the record looked brand spanking new. It had been raining and the tree branches were soaked but the record was dry. When I started to climb down, I saw this firgure in another tree and then it turned into a black crow and it flew away.

blackguitaristz said:

Uuuuh, I don't know about that one, Black.

ToraToraDreams said:

Yep...it was a note attached to it that read: tsrif egroeg trebor yalp

blackguitaristz said:

[Edited 6/11/08 23:38pm]

I always wished Prince would have released this in 87. At the very least, combined this album with Lovesexy. I know Warner's wasn't having it since Prince had just released a double album with Signs. But if he had done the album like he did on the Lovesexy tour,...

My boyfriend, (soon to be my fiance and now my husband) gave it to me for my birthday.
He was a recording engineer at the time, don't know how he got it, didn't ask, didn't care
It was those kind of things that made me marry him

a friend of mine used to work in a record shop.

he gave me a copy on cassette

all those years ago.

he even typed out the song titles for me.

did a proper fake cover.

Tamera1 said:

U know what I'm talking about...

Discovered a copy a few years ago at a tiny used cd shop for around 10 bucks I believe. A welcomed surprise.