having this convo is cool. when i was young, i thought a lot of 80's shit was lame (with the xception of that dude) and used to ask my mom about motown and my cousins about JB and Hendrix, i was drawn to the 60's. If we werent rockin Prince we were rockin some JB or Sly because we found that stuff cooler than 80's pop. I think certain artist are gateway artist, they expose you to other stuff and prince was one of those guys for me. My daughter is 20 and she's a huge Etta James/Ray Charles nut, my son 25 likes old school Hip Hop ( 84-89') and i find that so cool about them.Now i'm into listening to old Sinatra radio show broadcast early to mid 40's and reading about his life, dude was GANGSTA in ways Jigga cant imagine LOL.

Well im 17,so im just gonna give it to yall from the start. It was December 25,2008,and I was uploading Michael Jackson music to my ipod from a undisclosed site.As I typed Thriller in I saw 1999(album),so I downloaded 1999 and Little Red Corvette because those were the only songs I knew,along with When Doves Cry.So im going to get some shoes that following night,and while in the car listening to my ipod,I stroll by When Doves Cry and listen to it,keep in mind I never listen to a Prince song before that.As I finished the song I was like,"goddamn".That wasn't the case with 1999 and Little Red Corvette.Me just getting off of rap music,I wasn't ready for all that loud Rock n Roll sound.So it took me two weeks to give those songs a listen.First it was Little Red Corvette,that song got me hook when I heard,"Girl, u got an ass like I never seen and the ride...I say the ride is so smooth U must be a limousine",I was hooked like crazy,I listen to that song 12 times that day. So it was 1999 turn,when i first heard it I thought Bobby Z. was Dez,but I liked it as a funk song.And since I was new to Prince music I thought all his songs were sex songs,even Starfish & Coffe.So March rolls around,by that time I think the only albums I haven't heard was Dirty Mind,Controversy and two more.I knew he was my new favorite artist when I was on the computer,and his Lotusflow3r commercial came on,and my stepdad and his brother said,"here go ya boy",me being kinda shy that he was my favorite I ignored them lol.So thats my story.
[Edited 9/4/09 5:33am]
[Edited 9/4/09 5:34am]
[Edited 9/4/09 5:37am]

TheKing662 said:

Sounds like Purple Music Heaven 2 me.....
[Edited 9/4/09 7:18am]

Prince was sooo SEXUALLY explicit back then, we had to cover our eyes and ears, growing up! He was always coming out with fresh and new music. He has toned it down a LOT! He always put on a good freak show, back then those kind of acts were taboo!

I will always remember those ass out laced pants and his bodyguard, that used to carry him around literally. His facial expressions with the rolling of the eyes used to crack me up. Prince has always been the odd ball out but it set him apart from other entertainers. Prince did bold things that other artist wouldn't dare do. The movie Purple Rain really blew his career up, even though he had put of great music prior to it.

What is your definition of older?

RodeoSchro said:

That pretty much sums it all up
Like your thoughts on the videos as well. A lot of hits, and all those shitty videos, It must have really been all about the music.

TheKing662 said:

Welcome to the Dawn.... great post

TheKing662 said:

Ha, that's awesome. Great post.

Kinda similar here, I guess. Well, huge football fan here (you can see where this is going...), anyways, living in Scotland, Prince played halftime at about 1am over here. I'd always kinda known who he was, and Purple Rain (the song) stopped me dead in my tracks when it came on TV when I was like 8. Anyways, this motherfucker comes on all guns blazing with Let's Go Crazy, an unbelievable Watchtower / Best of You and obviously, Purple Rain in the rain. After that I was hooked. Next day I got a copy of Purple Rain and listened from start to finish. And again. It was unbelievable. It's quite sad considering I'll never get that moment back when I first here Computer Blue, Beautiful Ones etc. After that I got some boots of the PR tour, fell in love with that era. Worked backwards from there, got those albums and downloaded The Dream Factory. Listenin to those albums always takes me back to first discovering the genious. I lurked on here for a good few years and read a post comparing TGE to PR. So that was my next album and I became hooked on 93 - 96 Prince. The Dawn boot is still my holy grail From there it was just whatever I could get, official and bootleg wise, and I have quite a nice collection today It's great though, cos each era of Prince (PR, Parade, etc.) is like a different artist all together. Well, I've rambled long enough.

Peace, & Be Wild

Steve

Chic35 said:

if you remember 77-09'

Graycap23 said:

I agree, I loved buying the 12" singles to get an extra B-Side song. That was a real bonus!
Also PRINCE was the shit after Purple Rain, and still is. The Beatles, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Little Richard all rolled into one and then some...

Even though a lot of us older diehards resent the book "Possessed"by Alex Kahn i think it would be a great book for a younger fan who is just learning about him. Especially the Dirty Mind-Purple Rain period. Dirty Mind is a demo LOL, Princes management had to fight to get that put out and for a black artist in 80-81 with that album cover was buck assed wild. The evolution from underground to becoming one of the "holy trinity"of the 80's was a hard trick cus dude wanted the paper but he didnt want to sacrifice artistic integrity or control. That trick is still hard to pull off, but he did it and it seemed like he took us on a ride, our dude was getting that money but still being avant garde and crazy as hell LOL.

Graycap23 said:

Probably a fortnight's worth, if you've got a turntable large emough.

Crazy how it took 3894725280 negative replies to get a relatively informative one. /=

autumnsays said:

what

squirrelgrease said:

TheKing662 said:

This subject was JUST posted a month or five weeks ago when someone asked the same question of "what was it like in the 80's". You tend to dupe a lot of threads, as usual. Dude, ya gotta be more original and stop copying people for the sake of upping your thread total on the Org. There are bigger goals in life to achieve.

I typed "Back in the 80's" in the search box and it was THE FIRST RESULT.

http://prince.org/msg/7/318306

ernestsewell said:

To bad mines was posted first(9/1).Also,to set the record straight,I said,"older people" can yall school us on Prince from back in the day".Back in the day doesn't just mean the 80's,but also the 70's.

[Edited 9/22/09 23:17pm]

TheKing662 said:

Good attempt at a save, but Prince was only around for 2 years, and was relatively unknown/not that popular, so that 70's cover ain't workin' for ya.

I really dug his music before 1980 but one day I saw the Video for 'When doves cry'
He was all naked and wet and crawling out of the bathtub towards the camera. Well hot-damn, that was the beginning of it for me.
[Edited 9/23/09 6:24am]

squirrelgrease said:

HAHAHAHA! Your posts ALWAYS make me laugh.

Graycap23 said:

That was me too! I was the kid listening to the funk...in a mostly southern rock kinda school. I had the first and last boombox in my school- even though I was pretty respectful, they realized it was a can of worms .
Being a Prince fan back in the day was like trying to convince people of a new religion. They didn't see it coming, but when it did everyone wanted on board (Purple Rain). It was sooooo cool to get the 12" mixes and songs on b-sides that were every bit as good as the rest. Back then you HAD to play instruments well, so that was a given with almost all bands..even the lamest (imagine THAT kids!)So to stand out was really something. Prince brought sex - but on his own terms. Everything was on his own terms. Every album was an evolution in sound. the live shows tended to even top the albums...which was amazing cause the album versions were so great. Prince was an enigma AND a great player with a band that was like a well oiled machine. Prince let them all have their thing too- clearly not afraid of any of them upstaging him. He gave great material to other great performers. Clearly he felt the music well was pretty full and never expected it to run dry.
Then somewhere after Gold (imo) it all took a turn. Even tho his fight with WB yielded some good stuff musically, it was clear that his head was in the politics of music and not the music. I felt like it was suddenly all about getting paid...which is ok, you have to eat....but Prince was one of those who actually SAW money from the records since he was producer and writer as well from the early days on. He really seemed to be making albums just because it defines who he is as a person - rather than being inspired. Pumping out an album a year does not make you a better artist, it just makes you prolific.
Unfortunately his ego also got in the way and instead of proving himself every time a new release dropped he just starting declared himself via his lyrics to still be the shit. He turned away from many of the things that I believe MADE him the interesting musician he once was.

ernestsewell said:

Sooo...mines was posted First aka 1st.So I did not still anything,if anything they copied me. And people still can talk about his career throughout the 70's.
[Edited 9/23/09 22:03pm]