I couldn't wait for Purple Rain, having been blown away by 1999 during the previous year and a half.I remember going to the wrecka stow a week earlier (June 18) to buy it because that was the original release date, and being told it was postponed another week. Dang! But I got the 12" vinyl of WDC that day. I got the whole album at Strawberries in Shrewsbury, MA on June 26, 1984 and loved it from the get go. Early favorites were Take Me Wih U and I Would Die 4 U.

Lawdy Me...I'm still in love.

wow! I was all of 9 years old but already loving him from the videos of 1999 and Little Red Corvette that had been on MTV. I begged my mom and dad to get it for me and my older cousin ended up getting me the album. I mustve played that thing every day for years! Even would sit there and try to turn it backwards in the bit after Darling Nikki to hear what he was sayin. lmao. My god-Still is my most prized album of his. Very nostalgic for me.

PR - 25 years older and still sounds fresh and forever Timeless

Thank you Prince for the movie & the music - i enjoyed it from day 1 and I'm still loving It.

mplsbadgrl said:

Yeah...I didn't miss the irony.

I was a shy, reserved boy of 14 at the time.

At the time I was all about Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper & Depeche Mode. Prince was too obnoxious for me.

I remember seeing the trailer for the Purple Rain movie on TV and being completely taken aback when MY DAD asked if I wanted to go see it.

I didn't take him up on the offer, and it was another 4 years before I completely became a purplehead.

SHOCKADELICA1 said:

I was 14 too!! I was hooked. I started buying everything Prince, music, magazines, posters, pins. I listened to his music every chance I got.

how ironic that purple rain released 25 years ago today.....and michael jackson dies.....very eerie

mwilli said:

Yeah...very eerie.

Smittyrock70 said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

I think it means that now Prince has to carry the torch as the last long lived black superstar. Purple Rain album release 25 years ago was a build up starting from the WDC single to the 12" release to the PR album release(which still sounds as fresh 2day as the day it was release. I remember being in a heat of excitement that whole summer. i had been a fan since the second album.
I thought the album was good. But it took a lil while 4 it 2 really hit me.It just was different from his first three. Like some of Prince songs U have 2 play it a few times 2 get it. But when it did hit me. I couldn't stop playing it.That album will 4ever b a classic soundtrack album.

mwilli said:

I thought the same thing, 25 years ago, and he died on the 25th, and both add up to a certain number if you know what I mean. Yes, very eery, but very sad.

I bought the Let's Go Crazy single and was playing Erotic City. My parents heard the record and made me destroy it. I was hooked on Prince ever since.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

you people are eerie!!

I DJ'd in high school, so I had an advanced copy of When Doves Cry...and whenever I played it at a gig, I would only do a snippit mix/blend....the crowds would go nuts....

.....my first copy of the full album was the purple disc....I hate to sound like a wide-eyed fanatic, but that summer was all about PR and getting on line to see the movie...

I was such a prince-whore....

i was 7 years old. i saw him for the first time on Countdown (Australia's music show of the 70s and 80s). he was the most beautiful thing i had ever seen. my parents bought me the album. it was the greatest thing, and still is. no other album has had the same affect on me.

I remember I was in Niagara Falls visiting my cousin around Easter or Memorial Day & was so happy to meet a couple of her friends who were also anxiously awaiting the purple rain album & movie. It was all we talked about for the week or so I was there. We must have been 15-16 & couldnt wait to see the movie!

The minute the album came out I raced out and bought it and played it so much that I think I had to replace it after about 2 months because it got scratched up! Bought new album and cassette and playe the crap out of those.

Went to movie opening day and declared it the greatest thing I ever saw. When the VHS video came out bought that & watched it over and over driving my mother & brother crazy. Even my brother who was a big metal freak had to admit he liked the movie, but always claimed P was gay. I declared him the most gorgeous speciman of man on the face of the earth, best musician ever, and my brother a jealous loser.

I new ever word in movie by heart after couple days of endless viewing. Funny, my little cousin was 4 or 5 at time and he use to insist that P pushed Apples into lake Minnetonka (spelling)- I would make him watch over and over and say "look he is no where near her, she jumps in herself..." He would say "nope Prince is pushing her in!" Funny! Even little Monte (my cousin) new the words to movie by heart and came over everyday begging me to play the video (he loved the movie).

When my other little cousin (danielle) came to visit from Maine, she was about 8 or 9, she too fell in love w/ movie and the entire summer (she would spend summers in NY w/ her father, my uncle) she begged me to play Purple Rain over and over. She too new it word for word and loved the music. When she left the end of that summer, I discovered she STOLE my Purple Rain tape! She had begged me to give it to her all summer, as she knew I had the album already. I told her no I needed both and the power of P's music moved her so much she actually stole the tape from me. I remember calling her a day or so after she got home and asking her about it and she said she had to have it and cried a river begging me to forgive her- how could I not, P was & is just mesmarizing w/ his music.

I am so glad I was around to see his rise to stardom and all his progression. His music is the soundtrack to my life. When I was young thang, full of teen hormones what better to listen to than P... from Head, to Erotic city, to Darling Nikki, Do Me Baby... I could go on and on but the passion P sang w/ on these tunes and the playful teasing , the questioning and challenging of authority, assumptions, etc. P was doing this while I was doing this (teen experience).

Such a wonderful time, can't believe it's 25 years! Damn I am getting old when 25 years seems like it shouldnt be anymore than 10 years ago!

mwilli said:

Off The Wall VS. Prince
Thriller VS. Purple Rain
Bad VS. Sign 'O' The Times
Dangerous VS. Diamonds & Pearls
HIStory VS. The Gold Experience

The Michael Jackson VS. Prince debate will lived on for many years to comes. Nothing eerie about this at all. Just symbolic.

Just noticed I kept spelling knew as new- I am not an idiot just got excited thinking back. Great times!

Purple Rain was the first album I bought on my own, without any parental involvement. I remember seeing a cardboard cutout of Prince on that motorcycle and that was all she wrote. I fell in love with Prince and his music and have been obsessed ever since. Purple Rain was an album at the height of his creative genius. I love all his work but his 80's albums and bootlegs had a mad, frenetic genius to them that continues to entertain and inspire me today.

Purple Rain rocks now and forever.

I was 10! Let's Go Crazy was the 1st single I ever bought and I was blown away by the B-Side (Take Me With U). I then bought WDC/17 Days and then Purple Rain/God and was just confused by how this all came from the same man/band...

I asked for the album for my birthday the following year and I got ATWIAD - completely lost in Prince's world at this stage. I didn't get the Purple Rain album for another few years, but it does seem just like yesterday...

TonyVanDam said:

what is this Prince news doing on the MJ.org site?

"PURPLE RAIN" marked the beginning of what has simply become a phenomenon.
The entire context for in how we listen to music has been revolutionized by PRINCE. With album after album release, PRINCE took music to a higher level and it never had stopped...not even now in 2009. "PURPLE RAIN," equals KNOWLEDGE!!
" THERE'LL NEVER BE ANOTHER LIKE HIM."
Nicky Tuzio
e-mail: tuztones@optimum.net

Wow, 25 years. I was ten when the movie came out and I fell really in love instantly. My mom had two of his albums that I used to like to listen to, well ,I still do. (I had no idea what the lyrics meant but I sure did like the music) I have been hooked on Price ever since...wow. He is such an amazing artist. Sorry MJ, but with Prince there is no comparison.

Happy 25th Anniversary Purple Rain!

Don't forget, tonight at 10pm, e.s.t. on emancipationradio.com we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of this classic album with a ton of treats that a lot of you have probably never heard before. Tune in!

Work-in-progress versions of classic Purple Rain cuts
The B-Sides / The Extended Versions from the Purple Rain singles
What was Prince working on in June 1984, once the Album was ready for release?

BUT THAT'S JUST THE LEAD-IN TO THE MAIN FEATURE:

We will be airing, complete, the August 3, 1983 concert at First Avenue...
This was Wendy's first show with the Revolution...
The concert includes the first versions of five Purple Rain classics
performed NINE MONTHS before the release of the album, plus definitive versions of seven other songs, including the never-issued "Electric Intercourse".
Prince & the Revolution absolutely burn the house down and you don't want to miss it.

Plus other surprises?

10PM E.S.T. don't be late!
Keep your headphones on.
[Edited 6/26/09 16:13pm]

It's been a 25 year love affair.

Sorry I'm late but Rock on Boo! Congrats Prince!!!!!

mwilli said:

Yeah I was just saying that to my husband.
[Edited 6/26/09 16:11pm]
[Edited 6/26/09 17:01pm]

I am going to try to go to this:

http://www.newbevcinema.c...lendar.cfm