I know it's a weird subject line but stick with me.

Do you have a Prince tune that reminds you of a friend? For specific reasons, not just cuz the song is "like" them (ie: Your girlfriend always in your hair, etc). More like, was a Prince song the first song you danced to with your mate? Was it a song you MET because you both listened to it, noticed the other, and started talking?

For me, it'd have to be "I Wish U Heaven" maxi single. I had a great old Navy buddy who worked in Dental. I worked around the corner and down the hall in Engineering. I'd pass his little cubby hole of an office regularly. I noticed he had Prince photos from magazines hangin' up in there. I stopped to talk one day, and it went from there. This was 1987, so SOTT was ripe, and the movie was due out soon. I LIVED off that album, and MJ's BAD cassette.

Anyway, he gave me my first ever bootleg of The Black Album, on a hissy little cassette which I cherished for AGES after the fact. I used to go to his apartment in San Diego, where he lived w/ his girlfriend (and even took me to her parent's house on Thanksgiving which was most excellent, along with a couple of other buddies of his). We talked so much about Prince, and somehow he KNEW things about Prince. (Although he was totally wrong on who "The Beautiful Ones" was written about, sorry bro. lol) I remember taping "I Wish U Heaven" maxi single off him. I had that, "Scarlet Pussy", and JJ Fad's "Supersonic" on side one of that cassette. I kept it forever, because I never found it much after that. I never thought to buy 12"s for the sake of collection. I've never forgotten him over the past 20 years. Ever.

I kept in touch w/ him a couple of times over the next couple of years, until about 1990, then lost touch. I wrote a 300 page autobiography last year, and he was mentioned even in there when I talked about my Navy days.

Last night, 20 years later, he found me. HERE, on Prince.org. I'm still reeling from it. I really do wish him heaven. He made my otherwise miserable Navy experience quite tolerable, and I thank him for that.

So...how about you?

By the way, I remember the cassette I had "I Wish U Heaven" on. It was this kind, exactly:


[Edited 5/1/09 22:13pm]
[Edited 5/1/09 22:16pm]

Um, too many to count. It's almost an impediment to me enjoying his music sometimes, if you know what I mean.

errant said:

Yep. I could probably think of a couple of bad people associated w/ a Prince song. But the good outweighs the bad.

Excellent story!

ernestsewell said:

Oh, I don't mean to say that I associate them with bad people. Just the opposite, really. Good people and good times. I just don't always want to remember them when I listen to his music.

errant said:

I get whatcha said, def. We're on the same page, just different paragraphs.

Mindbells9 said:

Thanks. I'm just stoked at the mutual discovery. Who would've though.....THE ORG???

That would be the whole lovesexy album reminding me of my sister. She introduced me to Prince - or - I would sneak listing to this album when she wasn't there... Today, I'm the one listening to Prince all the time.

Beautiful story

thanx 4 sharing

ernestsewell said:

This doesn't quite fit the topic, but the image of the Memorex dBS tape made me all and nostalgic about one of my Prince memories from back in the day:

The first "copy" of SOTT that I ever had was dubbed for me by my sister off of her cassettes (the real ones) onto a 60-minute (30 minutes per side) Memorex dBS tape. But being a 90-minute album, it didn't all fit on there...

She cut "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" off Side A (so "Housequake" was followed by "IT"), but even then, the tape ran out about 1 minute short of the fade-out on "Hot Thing," so "Forever In My Life" was missing. Side B was intact up until the half-way point of "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night," when it, too, ran out, omitting "Adore" entirely!

I didn't realize any of this until I picked up SOTT on CD more than 12 years later! It was like hearing 3 "bonus tracks" on the album that I'd never even known existed up to that point!

Ahh, memories...

I've been a Prince fan since the Batman album (I was around 9 at the time), and rapidly managed to acquire all the back albums in my teens despite being over here in the UK. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of the really good stuff, like concerts, bootlegs and rumours, and probably still do.

I've only recently noticed, though, that the song Purple Rain could be written for all the women I've known in an intimate way in terms of how the lyrics are pretty close to what I want to say to them.

So, here's my question - was that just coincedence, or has my Prince obsession saw me subconsciously treat the women this way so I'd be able to say this???

There are other Prince songs that remind me of people I know, definitely.

Unfortunately...
I started listenin to Prince jus around the time I started seein this dude that has some facial and physical similarities to Prince...
and now me and dude don't talk anymore.
So beside seein someone who fret me that looks like Prince...
there's also the fact that I listen to Prince and the songs remind me of dude CAUSE DUDE LOOK LIKE PRINCE!

His music definatly reminds me of certain times of the past. One that touches me the most is Sometimes it Snows in April. I had a cousin who was appointed the first black female Judge in Richmond California. The whole family was elated when Gov. Brown Appointed her. She became ill with cancer shortly after and passed after serving a short term. Those kind of cars don't pass u every day because she was special. Patricia died soon after a long fought civil war because she was a fighter. And yes there were a lot of fools that she left behind.
[Edited 5/2/09 15:03pm]

"Just as long as we're together," reminds me of my girlfriend.

We would play Prince and Adam Ant all of the time...Her being the big Adam Ant fan, and Me loving Prince....This song was one of her favorite's by Prince.

Tame said:

Remember "Ant Music" ? Loved that weird ass tune.

This was so many years ago. My best friend of over ten years at the time was also my college roommate. We were "studying" and listening to my Purple Rain album and she starts in saying how much she disliked P. I knew she liked "Darling Nikki", her name was Nicole. So she's going on and on and I'm asking her when she started disliking his music. No real answer. Anyway as we are talking about this 3 of our friends come over and one of them, Shannan comes in dancing because she loved the album and she says, "I love Prince". Nicole says "Me too". My mouth drops open and I look at her, she gives me one of her poo eating grins, and winks at me. I remember thinking that my mom had been telling me she was nuts for years. I finally believed it. I can't listen to "Darling Nikki" without thinking of her. Needless to say, we are not friends anymore because of other craziness.
[Edited 5/3/09 6:31am]

Great stories!

For me, it'd be God (Vocal Version). This was my first 12" single, and my first non-album Prince b-side ever. My best friend Johnny, whom I met in 1980 at nine years old (and we're still best of friends) and I huddled around the record player, trying to gobble up every note, and announcing the lyrics together as they came... as if the record was gonna vanish after we listened to it, or something. Hah - we musta looked pretty ridiculous:

Prince: "In... the beginning..."

Us: "IN THE BEGINNING!!!"

Prince: "...there was God..."

Us: "THERE WAS GOD!!!"


[Edited 5/3/09 11:17am]

eyewishuheaven said:

that's funny

No.

ernestsewell said:

Yes...and of course, "Just as long as we're together," was my favorite...I have a funny story that happened to my girlfriend when she was trying to impress Adam Ant as he walked by her in a Hotel Lobby....She decided to put her arm up in a doorway...and one of her fake fingernails flew off. She said that Adam saw it happen and she was so embarassed. I think it's funny. I never met Adam Ant...although I met some of his crew and band at some point...can't remember though.