In my early teens when I remember listening to Prince with interest. Especially Alphabet St., When 2 R in love, Positivity and Dance on... Those were the songs I really liked and played over and over again

Erika2k8 said:

I love happy stories like this one!

For me, it was hearing When Doves Cry on the radio back in '84. Up 'til then, I didn't realize you could express yourself in music beyond "ooh baby I love you" or "let's party". Prince seemed to be coming from a pretty violent home life, which I could identify with, and he seemed to want to free himself of those demons through sex. Troubled, hormonal 13 year-old that I was, I was hooked!

What keeps me here? The hope of remasters!

I bypassed the early years, barely paid attention during the entire "Purple Rain" madness... It wasn't until "Sign 'O' The Times", when my friend Sam physically sat me down and made me listen to most of the tracks, that I "saw the light".

So, over the years, I fervently defended the man. I was there grooving with "Batdance", I actually paid full price to see "Graffiti Bridge" in a real theater, I let my friends' criticism of the "slave" thing bounce off me.

But I have to admit, with each album after "Lovesexy", I was beginning to see a tiredness in his music. Like he wasn't trying anymore. And then with "Rainbow Children", I bailed. I've gotten a few tracks here and there off the last couple of albums, but I don't know if I'll ever buy another full CD from the man.

To me it was Prince himself.

It happends with "When doves crys" till now

I'm still here cuz it's pretty easy to score with org-chicks.
And I like getting laid.
I don't know why.
I just do.

well im still an adolescent buti waz drawn to Prince cuz hes a frikin genius. Hes so original & no 1 else is jus lyk him.Im 15 and ive been a fan 4 watz goin on 5 yrs now. as a musician ive becum so much better bcuz of bein inspired by him. musically hes the most influential person 2 me

my mom bought the DM album for herself and i was only 10 at the time and i could not belive was i was listen to it was diffrent than anything on the radio then came Little red corvette and after that i was hooked.

cinnamongrl said:

I have a 14 year old. You both share the same love of the English language. But, I have not been able to influence her to the genius of Prince. So, maybe someone switched the babies at birth.

"Purple Rain" was the second album I ever owned..."Thriller" being the first. I guess I have MTV to thank for that. I remember everyone talking about "Thriller" and how great it was...but I could never get past loving "Purple Rain" more. A LOT more...

Of course, even back then liking Prince put you up on that "weird" pedestal...a black man who sings, dances, plays guitar, sings graphically about sex...and wears high heels. Not exactly the stuff of normalcy in the 1980's.

At the time, I really had no idea what I was listening to...musically or lyrically. Unbenknownst to me, several other songs I really loved at the time..."Manic Monday," "Jungle Love," "The Bird," and most especially "The Glamorous Life" were also written by Prince. When I found out that "Nothing Compares 2 U" was his as well, I was sold. I just couldn't put my head around one person being responsible for so many songs I truly loved.

So I began to start reading everything I could find about him...and discovered not only could he play every instrument on an album, but that most "artists" at the time couldn't play the cowbell if they had to. Add to this that he wrote his own songs, had an unbelieveable voice, and was able to dance like someone from a 1930's musical on stage...and I was awestruck.

As I grew older, his sense of spirituality and not a defined religion began to speak to me...as did the fact that he didn't shy away from mixing it with sexual innuendo. Nothing was off limits to him...and I respected that immensely. Of course, over the years a lot of what attracted me to him has changed...but a lot of my life will always be defined by Prince and his music. I remember seeing an interview with Gwen Stefani a few years ago. In it, she said something to the effect of:

"And then there's seeing Prince live...actually singing...and not missing a note...actually playing his guitar...and not missing a note...all the while dancing and spinning around...to a song he wrote and recorded."

To me, that's about the best description of him out there...and the best proof of how talented he really is, because very few people can do all of that...and even less as well him. I forget the source, but in another interview I read someone said he was one of the the single most talented people in the world...in any field or occupation.

I agree.

Lots of things.

Little Red Corvette song and video got me hooked. The music was fun, spiritual, mysterious, sexy, unlike anything I ever heard before.

I always got the feeling at the time everyone was accepted, limitless possibilities for music, the music became a refuge for me growing up.
Alot of the sexual stuff I did not really understand when I was younger so I ignored alot of it.

It has been 25 years since then and I am mostly still hooked on the music.

I was 8 years old.... one simple phrase was all it took

"I sincerely wanna fuck the taste outta ur mouth, do u relate?"

And it was a wrap!

i think it was a one-two punch that got me into prince:

1. i was fascinated with him after seeing a picture of him in his purple 1999 trenchcoat in an issue of rolling stone magazine. i thought he looked like a comic book supervillain or something, and i wanted to know every little thing about him. of course, this was the old timey days and we didn't have wikipedia, so i was plumb outta luck.

2. then a few months later i heard the end of "let's go crazy" for the first time, during a commercial for the purple rain movie. that clip of music just flipped my shit out and i knew i had to at the very LEAST have the purple rain album.

life went terminally downhill from there.

in the early 80's, i was heading down the road to ending up a gangsta, or ending up in jail. during that time, hip hop wasn't as explosive as it is now, and was mostly an African-American thang. so, when a close friend turned me on to Prince, my perception of what it meant to be young and of colour changed. Prince showed me, through music, that i could also learn to appreciate wailing solos on guitars and band members making live music, unlike hip hop at that time which was mostly electronic. It was to be a few years later that RunDMC brought distorted guitars in2 rap.

the way Prince spoke English also was an example to me in that - even though the way people spoke English in the hood had its cultural history, there was nothing wrong with speaking it 'in a mainstream' kindof way.

Prince helped me to appreciate diverse kinds of music at a young age, and to see myself through different lenses, as opposed to being killed on the streets or locked up in jail for something stupid.


[Edited 8/23/08 23:34pm]

I still am an adolescent too at 16, and i'd known the hits like 'doves' and 'crazy' and 'corvette,' but when he came out from behind that stage on American Idol, did Lolita with that added dance break in there and then segued into Satisfied, I went nuts. That powerful voice, cool dancing, he had just a command of the stage like I'd never seen before. I'll never forget when they showed him walking on stage, I don't think I blinked for the full 5 minutes. He was so much better than anything I'd listened to before or seen. I'm now totally hooked and am a super prince fan!