I'm just wondering why Prince dressed the way he did at the start of his career. Now, I'm not knocking it, I think early Prince was cool...but I'm just wondering what it was that made him go, "Hey, I know what I should wear! A trenchcoat, black pants, stockings and heels!"

I think it was to be controversial. It was definitly going to get him noticed, that's for sure.

Anyone else have any theories as to his decision to appear the way he did?

Prince himself said it was for shock value and also his personal style choices. back in the 80's you could get up on stage wearing whatever you wanted without a bunch of angry mothers or some church group picketing your show.

Prince just took off like a wild stallion out of a stall...

I still love him now that he's starting to just handsomely graze in the grass.
[Edited 9/3/09 19:06pm]

Different time, different shit

"Our clothes, or hair, we don't care. It's all about bein' there."

blackielawlessrules said:

on tavis interview he said it was a way to be flashy to show confidence cos he got teased at school

Andre has said that he started it by wearing plastic pants with shorts underneath. Then, Prince came out with briefs without the plastic pants so Andre put on some jeans because he didn't want to look like he was copying Prince. But if you look at the "American Bandstand" performance which is before "Dirty Mind", Andre is definately wearing shorts with plastic pants.

He wanted audiences to know that it is indeed possible to braid one's taint hair.

squirrelgrease said:

Taint hair aside, did he realize he probably stepped on his guitar cord in that picture?

berniejobs said:

That was a rare acoustic show.

i think he was very keen early on to not be limited by the R&B image. Prince was an observer or trends, he noticed punk early and observed the new romantic trends on his dirty mind tour of europe. R&B bands of the late 70's early 80's were unknowingly uniformed (shiny, big collared outfits with the funk boots) and Record Company staffs were as segregated as radio-which is ironic because these were boomers. Princes early image was a desparate attempt of a youthful artist who peeped game and said "not me". We are a small portion of the population and we shift taste very quickly, look at the rappers, aint it hard to keep track of who the it guy is?. Prince knew that and it reflected in his image, he wanted a Stones like cult following that White Rock acts enjoyed and profited from long term, hence what we have here today-pretty shrewd huh.

He just wanted to be different I guess. It worked for me.

Damn, that is THE best picture of Prince that I have ever seen. I can see his entire dick...the balls, the head, the shaft, and all that sexy pubic hair. I'm gonna save this one in my computer when I get home.

Tame said:

More like a miniuature horse

i think he dressed that way to get ladies. ladies with reallllly wierd out there tastes and fetishes

vainandy said:

You can even see his dick slit.

You sure can. And you can definately see that he is cut also.

Later on in Prince's carrer Prince came out and said when he wore those clothes (Leg warmers, underwear) and sung those lyrics. He did it to gain ATTENTION.

This thread turned out to be 7 kinds of wrong...























...and I love it.

blackielawlessrules said:

Legend has it that, one night early on, Prince came out in some black stretchy pants with no draws on. The pants left little, if anything, to the imagination.

Bob Cavallo reportedly told him that he couldn't go out on stage wearing those pants with no draws.

So Prince put on some draws...and left the pants in the dressing room.

^^^ is Dez wearing flipflops??

Genesia said:

Classic!