Old school fan here....I'm surprised to hear that some of ya'll have only recently gotten into Prince...I didn't think he had any new fans, only old fans, which are dwindling in numbers.

Prince is still the coolest of the cool....but ya'll missed the magic.

God this thread is making me feel old! (and I'm not old!) ANYWAY....

My cousin had Prince on vinyl, I discovered it around the age of 4 or 5....I thought the whole riding pegasus shit was oddly cool. Around the same time 1999 dropped and my sister had it. Needless to say I ended up basically stealing it. The rest is history.

of course Prince is going to have some new fans, there are still kids my age who enjoy alot of 80's artists

1984 MTV is the culprit

At the time of Get Off - my fandom died.

Michael Jackson, 2009 - the catalyst to bring it to life again.

1979...I want to be your lover...Of course I was only 11 or so and didn't really know it was Prince but that's my first memory of him. Then of course those mixed up teen years just had him all intertwined thru them all. Prince Got 2 Luv Him!!!

And when I get to go to see him you look to the left and right and it's people from all walks of lyfe, ages, creed and color....

Revolution said:

Old school fan here....I'm surprised to hear that some of ya'll have only recently gotten into Prince...I didn't think he had any new fans, only old fans, which are dwindling in numbers.

Prince is still the coolest of the cool....but ya'll missed the magic.

I am with you.... Magic!

My oldest brother, thankfully, was a Prince fan from back in the day. The "Dirty Mind" album is my first memory of him playing Prince.

Rudegirl since 81!!!!!!!! It all started when i heard his music , then when i saw his face it was rap!!!!!!!! :

617automatic said:

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

30 something odd years ago specifically because of a wonderful DJ named....The One and Only Electrifying Mojo! He turned the city of Detroit out on Prince and his music, damn near every night...from 1978 through 1988...consecutively!

If you are over 35, and grew up in motor city MOJO is the reason you loved Prince. I feel for the young people of today. What MOJO did on the radio was just so special,no DJ today even with XM, could or would do what that man did every night....ain't nobody like you... I mean come on. Just imagine turning on your radio at night and hearing PRINCE music for 2 or 3 HOURS straight. Uncut, album versions, remixes, extended mixes, b-sides etc.

I've been with Prince since 1977.....forever. Soft and Wet. Then through Right ON! magazine.....Thank you Prince. thanks MOJO8-)

There's a treat I posted last week on this thread:

http://prince.org/msg/100/352760

That I believe you will most definitely enjoy! Check it out!

dyvrdown said:

^

Lol!!! I can still picture her face, !!!! Priceless!!!!

It was 1979 or 1980. My cousin was in the shower and he was playing STILL WAITING. When he got out I was like "Who's that girl singing. I love that song." He said it was PRINCE. I ended up buying the second album with this song on it. Then I bought the first. After that....well you know the rest.

And I'm seeing him tonight. Woohoooooo!!!!!

wow, theres a lot of long time fans here :]

im not old enough (no offense ) to have been able to follow him through most of his career, but i wish i knew about him sooner... because i agree with whoever it was that said i missed the magic. no doubt, even though in my eyes hes amazing now, its obvious hes not what he used to be.

Sometime in mid80s.

Liked the usual suspects Little red corvette, 1999, etc... I really got into him through The Time. I still love those guys but when I found out how much Prince was involved. I started to listen to his whole albums and here I am 25 years later writing this post.

Finally, happy to see a few new fans of Prince's music!

Let's see...I was at the wee little age of 7 and I was sitting in front of the TV watching maybe Video Music Box and BAM there it was....Rasberry Beret...then Kiss...then Manic Monday....and the rest is history.

I also heard Love Bizzare on the radio when I was 7 and would play my little tinker toy piano to the song while my dad played drums. (Those were the days) Honestly, besides my dad being my musical influence, I would not have tried to learn the piano if it weren't for Prince. I remember the first song that inspired me to learn by ear was DMSR. I played through that song like a champ with my little synth tone on the keyboard. Anyway..that's all another topic.

I would like to add that although I liked Prince at such a young age, it was when I first saw Purple Rain for the first time that I was hooked! How old was I....??..I wanna say 9 years old. I saw it on tv in like 89 or 90 and recorded it and played it ALL DAY EVERYDAY. I'm not even lying. My sis got so mad at me.

Then the obsession continued when I owned my own radio and cassette/cd player (1991) I would scan the stations thoroughly for ANYTHING Prince. Then one day I heard Rasberry Beret again for the first time in years....it was like I was hearing Prince for the first time ever. Then I kept scanning and found Pop Life and then the ultimate....DMSR!!!!! - I was DONE! I knew it was official then! (If Prince reads this I know he'd shake his in disbelief on how sad I am. lol - How embaressing.)

purplemookiebut said:

grew up on batman 1989,seen purple rain on tv and was mesmerised and when i got my ipod i filled it with his music....

same for me. Seeing Purple Rain on tv did me in.

Saw him perform on tv (purple rain tour).Couldn't believe my eyes and ears .I was like 14.

Then some friend bought me Madonna's album with "love song";I was intrigued...a lot!(I kept listening to the track to hear his voice, and I don't even remember the name of the album , really..)

Then, I saw the picture on the "Lovesexy" album.

I decided to purchase something of that man and I found "Graffiti Bridge"

I was 15 or 16 and became a fan.I think...

I'm a fairly new fan.

I had heard his hits all my life. When I was in high school, I read a lot of reviews and artists' mentions of him and decided to watch Purple Rain on a whim. I was sort of spellbound, mostly by the music.

Got the soundtrack, devoured it, and the rest is just as predictable.

1999, the album. I liked the song 1999 too, but Little Red Corvette, Delirious were the songs that pulled me in.

My brother, our friends, and I used to play hoops at a local outdoor court. My brother's best friend always brought his boom box and played Prince, MJ, Stevie, Rick James. I didn't know much about them, but I liked it. When I got 1999 on cassette...wow. Great album. I was only 13 but it stuck.

When Purple Rain came out in 1984....When Doves Cry was on the radio, the movie, then Let's Go Crazy, PR, etc. I knew at then, at 14, Prince was in a league of his own.

2001, I became a massive, massive fan (aged 18) for reason I don't really know. I'd known him and his massive hits before then, but I don't know what it was that made me step it up. I think downloading became the thing then, and I started to download some of his stuff.

17 days was the song that hooked me though.....downloaded that, and I think I spent about 50 quid on his stuff on a credit card I couldnt really afford there and then.

dyvrdown said:

what was it that got you hooked?

im a huge fan, even though ive only been for about a year and a half.. but ive been like, obsessed since i saw the interview on tavis smiley in 09. he just seemed so interesting to me, so i got purple rain and lotus/mpls, and.. lol well

what about everyone else? :]

1983 ...i was on a train in NYC where I live 14 yrs old on my way to school and saw some graffiti written on the inside of the train that read " Michael is coming.......but Prince is here"...and i thought .."what are they talking about?" now i was familar with the songs " i wanna be your lover, controversy and 1999" because they were on the radio...but never really paid attention to who sang them. Then in the winter of 1983 a friend and his girlfriend kinda gave me the scoop on his music...and then Purple rain came out....than Parade...then Sign o the times...the my 1st concert ever...the Lovesexy concert at MSG......and I havent missed a Prince Concert on the east coast since...The man is Genius.

From what my mom says, I have always been into Prince. She said that one day I was crying in my crib and wouldn’t stop so she turned on the TV hoping it would help. From what she says, Purple Rain was just beginning and I immediately stopped crying and stared intensely at the screen. She says that I stayed like that for the whole movie and she was so happy that she bought a tape hoping it would work every time. Long story short, any time she was busy/wanted me to sit still she put on the tape and it worked every time. Sometimes I wonder if I was brain washed…

I was about 12 or 13. I'd heard 'Cream' and 'Gett Off' and like both of them, but I didn't make the connection that they were both done by the same dude until I also heard 'Thunder'.

At that point I realised that they were all by the same guy and all on the same album. And the rest is a very expensive history...

summer 1987...my friend Russ gave me the sign of the times LP, said listen start to finish then judge Prince...I was a die hard from 87 to 97..

blackbob said:

first heard him when 1999 made the top 30 in the uk charts back in january 83...thought it was a great dance song...then i saw him on entertainment usa tv programme when little red corvette was climbing the us chart in early 83 and i remember thinking he was a great performer and the song was very good.....then a year later when when doves cry came out in 84....that was it...the dj was praising him and the song so much that i taped it and listened to it closely because it did sound weird then i realised the brilliance of it and since then ..i have spend thousands on the little shit for the last 27 years.....

For me it was almost exactly the same, but what clinched it was when I was in a TV store in November 1984, when "Purple Rain" had just been released on video, and the opening scene of "Let's Go Crazy" was playing on all the TV screens in the store! That's what prompted me to buy my first Prince concert ticket a few months later in February 1985 when the Purple Rain tour hit the forum in Los Angeles! The rest is history! I've lost count of the number of times I've seen him perform since then, because for me, he is at his best when performing live!

About 27 years ago, i tore a picture of a guy out of my step sisters magazine. I knew she's slap me for it but, there was something about that pic.... I was 8 & still have ot to this day. At some point I heard 'lovesexy' & got the Album. My parents banned me from playing Prince. That summer, aged 12 I ran away from home to see him in Lovesexy Tour (I was living in England at the time) parents caught me, 2 miles awayat the train station....I never saw him. By 14 I was out of control. teased at school for wearing his t-shirts but feeling nothing but pride.

In 2003 (now living in NY) I had VIP tickets to MY FIRST concert & my baby girl at 4 months, got her first fever I stayed home....

In 2005 we got tickets again.....baby sitter had huge row with husband & couldnt come....all our family is in England, I stayed home again.

2010....I went, I saw, 3rd row. I left knowing it wasn't enough. Three shows later, it stll wasn't enough.

NO-ONE can do funk, jazz, classical, reggae, soul, ballets, folk, rap, all on one track & make it so fiiiiine. His sexuality & ability to articulate it, is a gift within itself. His musical talent is like noone before him & noone since. He's timeless. He's Prince. The way he dances, entertains, produces, acts.........ahhhhh, what i wouldn't give just to spend time watching him.....

Given the chance, I'd like to thank him. He's brought so much joy & expression to my life. I'll always be thankful that he shared his gift with us.

jpnyc said:

MTV. I was always mesmerized by Little Red Corvette and Kiss. It’s probably why I’m gay.

& why i'm not! I guess i should have known by the way you parked your car.....

well I'm 19 years old and I've been a fan for about only a year.

Maxwell and D'Angelo were my favorite musicians at that time(and still like them very much),

and they always say Prince is their idol, biggest influence, etc.

So I was curious about Prince's music but not enough to check out by myself, until I happened to hear the song "The Beautiful Ones"...

I got hooked real bad by that song. lol Now I wish I was born in the 60's

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[Edited 2/22/11 17:54pm]