I've been a fan of Prince since I was 2 but didn't become a hardcore Prince fan until I was 13 (When I was able 2 comprehend his music) and 2 be honest, I love his way of doing his music! My views of his drum pattern was "Some1 was knocking on his door!" LOL! I Don't believe any1 who I've encountered said anything negative about him, surprisingly, kids younger than me were starting 2 get N2 him even, as I when I was little misinterpret "Controversy!" I feel a little flack with his new direction (well attempt cuz seeing how we love his old material y he pulled a Cher by playing his oldies) but this is where his roots r, I don't think he'll ever leave it but he will always be known as a "Dirty Minded" guy rather than a Jehovah Witness!

I would of been shocked of the Prince of now, especially the JW thing. Back then he was all about freedom, now its control.

I thought he would of surpassed popularity of the likes of madonna and MJ because of his talents alone.

As he got older in his 30s/40s he would of either be dead from a drug overdose or backed off from the public eye, stopped making music for himself and just produce others new acts and end up owning one of the major music compaines like WB or some other big media company, not be in war with them!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxcoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

ME TOOO!!

I still have my 45 of "Soft and Wet" so I guess I qualify here.

I quit thinking about what Prince's career would be when he announced he retired after "ATWIAD". I didn't really think he'd retire, but it hit me that life is uncertain, and anyone's career or life can end at any time.

So I've just been thankful for whatever gets out. As it turned out, a whole lot got put out, but if it had ended at "ATWIAD" I'd have been OK.

herrherr said:

Sorry to veer a bit off topic, but I never understand where all of you are coming from when you talk about the music of today and how horrible you think it is. Are you just listening to the radio and watching Vh1? You gotta look for good stuff now, but it's there.

If it is, it's the best-kept secret ever.

Today's musicians don't hold a candle to the ones around when their parents were kids.

SagsWay2low said:

I'm posing this question for those of you who have been fans of Prince since the beginning or

damn near it.

I'm interested in the point of view of those of you (us) who followed Prince during what

we often consider his golden days "essentially anything from Dirty Mind to LoveSexy"

If you could go back that period and ask your former selves what you thought

Prince's career would be like today, what do you think your former selves would say?

The reason why I'm asking is that Prince's career is radically different from what

I thought it would be.

I honestly thought for some reason that he would continue to just keep releasing

albums every 11 months or so with major label backing, and that each album

would at least go gold.

Now, I didn't have the foresight to know that mp3s and other forms of distribution

would change radically, nor did I know anything about the way the music industry

was structured, so had I factored those into my original thoughts of Prince's music

career they would have been more complicated.

However, my 80's self would have been shocked and dismayed at his recent

output and inconsistency.

What does my current self think of all this? I'm entertained by it actually.

At every stage of his career, we have an artist who vacillates between

hitting all the right notes, then going batshit crazy and dumping "Purple & Gold" on us.

If that ain't entertaining, NOTHING is.

.

[Edited 4/24/11 4:21am]

That is pretty much what I thought the future was going to bring as well

As the 80s progressed Prince actually picked up momentum in the Uk

Album wise Purple Rain hit 7 in the charts ATWIAD 5, Parade 4, SOTT 4,

Lovesexy, Batman, Grafitti Bridge, The Love Symbol and Come were all number 1 albums

Right up to and including the gold album he had great radio support and the first single from the current album was always top 10!

Who could possibly have guessed he would go so freakin loco changing his name to a shape, the slave thing The whole tora tora stuff, the mainstream music fan ran for the hills. and so did the star making engine, MTV, Magazines, record label support, radio etc.

The hard core fans just kinda shook their collective heads went to the concerts and held out for the odd return to form (17years later still doing the same)

I never saw it coming but it has been a hell of a ride!!!!

I remember Soft n Wet. I was cool because I hung out with older cousins' and was exposed to P and other funkmasters like Bootsy Collins. Prince was my version of Jimmy Hendrix with punk, funk and soul running through his veins.

Did I think he would become what he has... Yes. Stars cannot stay on the same trajectory for long. They phase in and out. I'm sure the big WB fiasco didn't help his career plus P does things his way. For example, a lot of my cous's didn't like the Pop Life and UTCM era - felt he sold out.

I have a lot of catching up on his releases from 2002-2007. His choice to become a JW doesn't really bother me. Its his choice. P has always been preachy (religious overtones) and then talking about sexing it up the next minute. Now he's much more tamer with the controversial stuff. I mean really, I don't care to see him simulate j-off w/ the guitar or air-humpin the piano. It was wild back then. He's matured and the younger geneartion needs to experience his gift.

So glad he's back in my life now.

I'm a Prince fan since the days of "1999" and I guess I thought he would stay with a record company but I guess I could never imagine that he would put out so much amazing music ! Not oo many lows and the last few albums from Musicology onwards have all been really, really good if not fantastic!

I agree that the some of the songs with Tony M rapping aren't so great but there are so many more wonderful songs from recent years.

Prince now is almost as good as in 1983.

The777Man

I've followed Prince since 84...first album I bought though was ATWIAD....I relieved my elder brother of Purple Rain and years later bought another copy on CD...

anyway - I envisioned Prince becoming a little less mainstream and even selling CDs by himself...the internet wasn't round then but I did foresee him being more or less his own 'business'.... I didn't think he'd maintain his 'pop idol' rating to the point his is at now, I thought he'd be more like Bowie and also become a much less mainstream...... to an extent he has lived up to this prediction...TRC and NEWS testify that he hasn't lost his creativity and penchant for doing something different...but he has also released 'chart aimed' albums like Musicology and 20ten - funny that his last album to date is obviuosly aimed at his '80's fans' - but it was only released in the UK/parts of Europe....not his core audience at home!

with the ONA tour I finally saw Prince maturing into an artist that didn' play the 'numbers' game and try to be top of the pops forever..I thought 'finally, we're seeing the artist for the artist's sake"..nevermidn teh religion, the music and tour was stunning...mind you I thought that when he released The Truth (still ones of my favourite albums!!)

what I didn't expect was Prince to be doing major high profile concerts and residencies today..which is all good - except for the fact that Prince seems to be more an 'act' than a performer these days....

I do think that Prince will eventually get bored of the high profile gigs and pop life and he'll return to creating more 'creative and less mainstream' albums....possibly when he clears all the debt and financial screwups he's made lately...

the big thing I didn't expect was Prince to do the whole 'legacy act' thing which he is milking at the moment....I'd love to see him continue with the Residency-style shows, but in an ONA type setting ie smaller venues, less 'hit-heavy' setlists and maybe a little less predictable...the last 4 or 5 years has been pretty much the 'same ol' same old' in concert....

I'd love him to do another 'Gold' type tour and play full concerts with stuff we haven't heard before.... or at the very least - OPEN THE DAMN VAULT for us if he can't be arsed making or releasing any new stuff....

one day maybe....

Prince was always a bit of a train-wreck. Always. Even in the 80's. I suspected, even back then that Prince needed the right people around him to help in the studio. You could tell then that the music was radically different depending on who was in the band, yet we were being told that Prince was writing everything basically by himself. So by LoveSexy I imagined Future Prince to retire for like 5-10 years and then come back and tour just playing his hits. I was comfortable with that, because I loved the hits! The only thing is I didn't imagine the f*cked up karaoke style arrangements and lyric changes. I also expected that Prince would start his own church at some point and possibly retire and preach.

[Edited 4/26/11 4:52am]

I remember that my prediction was that Prince would give up on pop theatrics in the future, be even more experimental, go totally away from song structures...man, how wrong I was! Nearly as much as Miles Davis! lol

[Edited 4/28/11 15:09pm]

samhabib said:

I begrudgingly became a fan circa 1984 - I was (and will always be) a HUGE Michael Jackson fan and my older brothers used to hold Prince over me, as in 'this guy's the real deal... Michael's a wimp'. So for as long as possible I resisted. But when the 'Let's Go Crazy' single came out, I had no choice. Loved the song. Loved the video from Purple Rain... and that was it really. Do I think, looking back, that Prince would be where he is now? As a fan of 25+ years, I'm extremely proud of him for having gone through things the way he has. Extreme success. Extreme difficulties with his label. And coming out the other end as a winner. He took on the music business. And won. Some of his recent music has been absolutely fantastic. Prince of 1988 would never have been able to write something as profound as 'Dear Mr. Man'. Seeing him at the O2 a few years ago with a fellow longtime fan, seeing him back on top... it was pretty emotional. Like staying on the rollercoaster paid off. There were plenty of opportunities to give up on him from 1988 onwards but we never did. And thank God we never did. The first O2 show that we went to he opened with 1999 and it was a triumph not just for him but for his longtime fans who supported him through his trials and tribulations.

I was a huge Michael Jackson fan too, especially in the 70s and the Jackson 5. Thriller was great, but once I was introduced to Prince's 1999 album, it was all over.

As a fan since the days of "I Wanna Be Your Lover", I never would have dreamed as I lived through the "Dirty Mind", "Controversy", "1999" and "Purple Rain" days which seemed to get more modern/futuristic sounding with each album and yet still fit in with the current 1980s sound at the same time, that he would ever make something like "Around The World In A Day" that took a drastic turn not only in his sound, but also back to a sort of 1960s type sound and I sure as hell would not have dreamed that he would have made something like "Parade" that had stuffy ass orchestras of all things on it. I mean classical and folk music on the album of all things when Prince had always been the most badass and coolest thing on the radio. He had been the furthest thing from some stuffy ass classical shit. His audiences at the "Dirty Mind", "Controversy" and "1999" tours would have booed him off the stage if he had performed some of that classsical and folk shit on those tours.

So Prince being "out there" these days is nothing new to me. But at least back then, even when he was drastically changing his style from badass to "artsy", he didn't give a damn if current radio liked it or not. And believe me, current radio was hot back in those days so he should have been concerned. But nowadays, he does seem to be concerned about current radio because he always puts at least one sellout shit hop or neo stool type track on each album such as "Gaydown", "Ol Fool Crappery" "Miss Goodnight", and "Inshit and Candles". Even though he didn't seem to be concerned with current radio back in the late 1980s, I still had respect for him because he consistently and truly didn't seem to care and just did as he pleased whether if I or anyone else thought he made the right decision or not. But nowadays, he still tries to act like he doesn't care but proves himself to be a liar by recording sellout shit hop and neo stool tracks.

I first saw prince on MTV in his suspender outfit in 1982. I was shocked and stunned at the same time. I turned the channel right away. Two years later I saw purple rain and fell head over heels with his music. I wanted to go to the PR Tour in Philadelphia but the shows sold out in less than an hour. He didn't come back to phila. until 1988 and I was blessed to get 3rd row center at the spectrum for the LoveSexy Tour. Hoping to go see him and stevie wonder again. I was 16 when I saw Stevie and 23 the last time I saw prince. This will be so great to see how awsome he still is after all these years. He has grown tremendously in his art. I am ever so thankful that he has found god and is still here to tell about it. May God bless and guide his steps forever.

Peace & Love To All:-)

funkomatic said:

man, how wrong I was! Nearly as much as Miles Davis!

What do you mean? Any particular quote in mind?

^I don't have a special quote in mind, but in his autobiography it seemed as if he was very optimistic concerning Prince's future, when in fact Prince's creative zenith was already over.

As you surely know you can find Miles' quotes in his autobiography from 1989!

creamdoll said:

I first saw prince on MTV in his suspender outfit in 1982. I was shocked and stunned at the same time. I turned the channel right away. Two years later I saw purple rain and fell head over heels with his music. I wanted to go to the PR Tour in Philadelphia but the shows sold out in less than an hour. He didn't come back to phila. until 1988 and I was blessed to get 3rd row center at the spectrum for the LoveSexy Tour. Hoping to go see him and stevie wonder again. I was 16 when I saw Stevie and 23 the last time I saw prince. This will be so great to see how awsome he still is after all these years. He has grown tremendously in his art. I am ever so thankful that he has found god and is still here to tell about it. May God bless and guide his steps forever.

Peace & Love To All:-)

I know it was 30 years ago, but you have some dats mixed up here.

funkomatic said:

^I don't have a special quote in mind, but in his autobiography it seemed as if he was very optimistic concerning Prince's future, when in fact Prince's creative zenith was already over.

As you surely know you can find Miles' quotes in his autobiography from 1989!

"For me, he can be the new Duke Ellington of our time if he just keeps at it."

I guess he didn't keep at it...

... great thread BTW

I remember watching MTV debut the long version video of "I Would Die/Baby I'm A Star" back in early 85 (?) and being blown away. This was P truly at his peak I thought.

That night before I went to sleep I had a funny thought. I figured P (25 years from that night)would go the route of Little Richard and denounce all things rock and roll, sex and other good things and become a minister.

I was 'almost' right. Still love him or I wouldn't be here.

rgsince81 said:

SIGN OF THE TIMES>>>>>>>Life changed, Music changed, Prince changed

Is that Rude Gal that used to be in the PPML in the late 90s with a picture of the kitten?!?!?

Like others, I didn't see the JW thing coming. As others have said, P was always religious, but it was a religion that allowed him to do whatever he wanted... hell, Lovesexy almost converted me!

Also, I didn't expect him to become as race-obsessed as he did for a while there. Call me naive, but I always preferred P's "white, black, Puerto Rican, everybody just-a-freakin'" school of racial politics.

I was a teenager. Losing my virginity, hearing purple rain in the background

Prince his future definitely was not on my mind. Actually it still isn't.

Music was very important for my stephdad, it was always around. And guess what, he didn't like prince. I thought that was great. Allthough it wasn't why I got into Prince, but it was a good extra

I cheris the memories of that era. The posters on my wall (shared with the Cure and James Dean)

and the hours of camping outside for a ticket and than again outside the venue in order to be able to see at least a glimpse.

I loved Cat, the basketball on stage and everything.

When I think back, I was actually the only one who loved Prince. I had only 2 or 3 friends who loved him too.

When I go out, I like electronic music. It's like classical music, the singer doesn't get in the way of the beat and feeling the music. If I had to choose between a live concert, obviously it is P.

However, when at home, I just listen to P. His music always amazes, comforts, inspires, surprises and relaxes me. I love hearing his voice. All the variations of his voice. Love his songs. And I'm still the same as back then, I really don't care what people around me think of my P obsession.

I think it's great that friends of me went to see a concert because they wanted to know why I was so crazy about him. They experienced the purple high and understood me. However, they are still not a P fan

I like his versatile nature.

And accepted his JW conviction along the way. It's not up to me to judge.

However, I do feel sorry for all those JW's who have been traumatized by the rules and estranged from their families and friends. To me that doesn't add up, however, when he's okay with that, than he is.