What is it about Prince that makes people want to own everything he has released? For that matter, what is it about collecting in general? I collect, but why do we do it? I'm sure there must be a tonne of stuff relating to the psychology of collecting. I think a lot of it has to do with trying to hold onto one's past? Is that what it is for you?

Nothing to do with holding on to my past.

I collect music because i love it, it's my life.

Regarding Prince, despite the last few years of his output being horribly average imo, i still collect it, and i always will.

I collect other things too, but thats another topic.

Pretty much the same as DG said.

Also, i think for me, I was 'in the right place at the right time at the right age'. I was 10 when I first heard a Prince album (and 24 yrs later, I'm still collecting) - I guess i was an impressionable little sprog. I can honestly say if i hadn't been exposed to Prince's 80's music first, there's no way in hell I'd be into him now.

I carry on collecting because when I read the Uptown magazines and books way back, I always wanted those rare vinyls they mentioned. I've now got most of them, and won't stop until i have the others that still allude me to this day.

TheDigitalGardener said:

Nothing to do with holding on to my past.

I collect music because i love it, it's my life.

Regarding Prince, despite the last few years of his output being horribly average imo, i still collect it, and i always will.

I collect other things too, but thats another topic.

It's extremely fun and exciting for me. Thanks to my 90's birth, I missed out on a lot of fun and excitement in the much-better-free(er) 80s. And, in denial, I want to live some piece of it. Which includes listening to the old vinyl sound and getting something you really wanted for the right "deal".

To have that part of exciting, rich history that I didn't get a chance to experience is simply special to me.

cause hes got such great songs and you want to find even more great songs by him

ecstasy said:

It's extremely fun and exciting for me. Thanks to my 90's birth, I missed out on a lot of fun and excitement in the much-better-free(er) 80s. And, in denial, I want to live some piece of it. Which includes listening to the old vinyl sound and getting something you really wanted for the right "deal".

To have that part of exciting, rich history that I didn't get a chance to experience is simply special to me.

I agree 100%.

SEXUALCHOCOLATE said:

What is it about Prince that makes people want to own everything he has released? For that matter, what is it about collecting in general? I collect, but why do we do it? I'm sure there must be a tonne of stuff relating to the psychology of collecting. I think a lot of it has to do with trying to hold onto one's past? Is that what it is for you?

It's more a hobby for me, when it comes to collecting memorabilia. The music is the music and I get that when it's available but to own a piece of musical genius history, like my wife and I having P's White Cloud Guitar is a testament to that, from my point of view. I've been a fan since 1996.

ecstasy said:

It's extremely fun and exciting for me. Thanks to my 90's birth, I missed out on a lot of fun and excitement in the much-better-free(er) 80s. And, in denial, I want to live some piece of it. Which includes listening to the old vinyl sound and getting something you really wanted for the right "deal".

To have that part of exciting, rich history that I didn't get a chance to experience is simply special to me.

Awww I feel you on that.

I love anything vintage....clothes, music, pop-culture whatever..my fav decades are 70's and 80's and the 90's just because they represent my teen years. I wouldn't say i'm holding on to the past but rather I get nostalgic for the music or the tv shows e.t.c from that era. I like the feeling of nostalgia because it reminds me of happy times.

But I especially love the 80's era..and think how cool it would have been to actuallly experience everything that went on in that decade as a youth.....to those who did, they'll never forget it.

But thankfully now we can collect all these cool stuff and you can jump in a time machine whenever you want.. to go back and experience the great music and concerts as if you were there yourself. I love that.

I just love vinyl and old stuff, and its so interesting to me that a record is like a whole picture. i don't know what it is about Prince though lol. He just has SO much maybe that's it..

As far as hobbies go it’s inexpensive, easy, doesn’t take up much space, and won’t alienate friends and family.

jpnyc said:

As far as hobbies go it’s inexpensive, easy, doesn’t take up much space, and won’t alienate friends and family.

Inexpensive? Some of us have spent a lot of money on collecting Prince goods.

Or are you being sarcastic?

[Edited 1/27/11 17:18pm]

purplemookiebut said:

cause hes got such great songs and you want to find even more great songs by him

! And the more you look, the more you find & the more you find the more you want......... until WHAMMO! You damn near got the lot.... anyway better get back to looking for Prince items to buy LOL!!!!!

jpnyc said:

As far as hobbies go it’s inexpensive, easy, doesn’t take up much space, and won’t alienate friends and family.

For me,the reason I have collected(and continue to)His music is because to know the music is to know him. His music a direct glimpse into his soul. The beauty is that he can take just ine of his songs make it an entirely different song merely by focusing on one instument ,meanwhile the song stays the same,but what emerges is a whole other groove. When you're listening you go"Oh Sh!#%&*@t". That just Blows my mind. It's like discovering gold. It excites me. The lyrics are .......WOW! I love Prince's music and I love Prince.

I started collecting his music because I like it a lot.

Since 2004, I just collect his music (which I don't like at all) for the fucking completism sake.

I'm not an anal collector of official stuff willing to pay a kidney for the most obscure single as released in Botswana o Novgorod.

Of course, I have every official album, but I centered my efforts in the bootleg stuff.

Now I have EVERY circulating live date and EVERY circulating unreleased song.

Memorabilia? Not for me. If I put something in my player and no music comes out then the item doesn't interest me.

I don't understand those willing to pay a fortune for a piece of toilet paper seemingly used by Prince.

i think u will find people collect less as the future becomes now .. collecting used to be like antique hunting with prince .. not only did you have an abundance of official output to wade thru .. there were also his non prince projects like the time and sheila e. sheena easton, family, vanity, appalonia, bangles. once you realize this is all prince it becomes this puzzle or game almost and its all worthwhile because contained in most of the wb years output was always a gem or two. even if it was a sucky song it usually had something cool about it. after all that u may stumble upon a live show or studio outtakes and your world expands again. a whole new realm to find some rare live song or unearth a cool different version of a song or an unreleased masterpiece

but thats all changing, not only has prince standards for perfomance and recording output dwindled, but there is no longer the joy of the search, finding some old bootleg record in an obscure record store basement. no now u just download one huge file from the internet and u have pretty much every out take .. all the good shows are up too .. and thats it. the search is over. sure there will be new shows, the w2a shows were really pretty good. but finding a new jem after 20 years of searching is less and less likely. a new fan can have it all in a weeks time.

i do have a dream that all of prince recent records ARE his outtakes and he really has some good music waiting for us .. but if that were the case i think his outtakes would be a little better

TrevorAyer said:

i think u will find people collect less as the future becomes now .. collecting used to be like antique hunting with prince .. not only did you have an abundance of official output to wade thru .. there were also his non prince projects like the time and sheila e. sheena easton, family, vanity, appalonia, bangles. once you realize this is all prince it becomes this puzzle or game almost and its all worthwhile because contained in most of the wb years output was always a gem or two. even if it was a sucky song it usually had something cool about it. after all that u may stumble upon a live show or studio outtakes and your world expands again. a whole new realm to find some rare live song or unearth a cool different version of a song or an unreleased masterpiece

but thats all changing, not only has prince standards for perfomance and recording output dwindled, but there is no longer the joy of the search, finding some old bootleg record in an obscure record store basement. no now u just download one huge file from the internet and u have pretty much every out take .. all the good shows are up too .. and thats it. the search is over. sure there will be new shows, the w2a shows were really pretty good. but finding a new jem after 20 years of searching is less and less likely. a new fan can have it all in a weeks time.

i do have a dream that all of prince recent records ARE his outtakes and he really has some good music waiting for us .. but if that were the case i think his outtakes would be a little better

After collecting for all these years I still keep an eye out for anything music related.

You just never know..

Last weekend I found The Family Sreams of Passion Dj vinyl.At a thrift store for a dollar.

Also in the same collection was a 12" by Tyka Nelson.Marc Anthony's Tune.

Both of which, I never thought I'd find.

also

12" Jesse Johnson's Revue-Be your Man

12"St Paul-Intamacy

12" Sheila E- Koo Koo

12"Promo copy of Glamslam

12" U Got the Look.I have all of these,but got them anyway.

There was a time when I wouldn't think twice about picking up anything with Prince or his association.

But recently I saw a Rolling Stone with Lil wayne on the cover.And even though Prince was featured inside.I did not purchase it.

I've been collecting his albums since 1985 and his "other stuff" since 1987. I have a rule to my collection, so I don't spend a buttload of money for nothing. The rule is, collect the music, books, and video only. The posters I don't care about, pictures I don't need, only buy memorabilia that means something and don't buy music you already own.

I made up the rule when I, at the ripe age of 15, went to buy a 12" single of 1999, thinking they all had remixes or a cool b-side or something. I paid $20 for the French 1999 12". It had the same pics from the album, and the album versions of 1999 and Little Red Corvette. Basically, I paid $12 more than I did for the vinyl of the whole double album for just 2 songs and the same pictures.

Once the internet came along, I hardly bought anything. I'll buy an occassional CD single, just to have a non-mp3 version of a song and maybe the liner notes and a cool pic. With the net, you can pretty much get all his unreleased stuff, and all the stuff that never came out on CD/CD single. Plus you can fit a loooot of music on a DVD-ROM disc, rather than a bunch of CDs that you got just because it came from a different country, or from a bootlegger. Besides, why put money in a bootlegger's pocket?

I do have some cool vinyl from the 80s that I bought just because it was cool, and I enjoy looking at it, so I think that's the bottom line. Buy what you think you will enjoy, download it if you can.

That's my theory.

Chas

I collect Prince stuff cuz I like it its not rocket science I just like the man and his music and that's rare nowadays to have something that you truly enjoy.

It may have something to do with the fact that the man has released some of his best music on the B-sides of singles, which were hard to track down after they went out of print. I was 11 years old when I bought the single of Raspberry Beret, and I was surprised that I liked the B-side even more than the A-side. When I bought the album, "She's Always In My Hair" wasn't on it. So I started trying to track down the other singles to get the B-sides and the 12-inch mixes. The older ones were mostly out of print. The hardest to find was "Let's Work"/"Gotta Stop Messin' About." I grew up in a small town, and whenever we went on vacation to a bigger city, I would beg my parents to take me to used record stores to look for that particular record. Eventually I was able to order it through Goldmine magazine. (After all the searching, "Gotta Stop" disappointed me a bit--I had built it up in my mind that it was going to be the most amazing thing ever, and it turned out to be just an OK song.) I remember the excitement whenever a new 12-inch single would be released. Later the Black Album came along, and that was even more exciting because it was a bootleg.

Now that we have eBay, Amazon, etc., it's interesting to remember the times when I had to scour record stores all over to try to find an old single.