A lot of great advice in here, except the part about Come being non-essential. *cough*imago*cough* You have to listen to it as an album, though. Not as a collection of singles, which is how a lot of his albums are put together.

Great advices. I assume you want to listen to every single album by Prince? My only advice would be

1. Do not read the reviews before you listen to the albums, don't ask questions like "what's a good album I need to listen to?". Just try to go through the albums with an open mind. I don't think you should know know what others consider to be "classic" or "essential" before you make up your own mind.

2. Do not listen to certain songs before you listen to the entire albums; hope that makes sense. One of the things I regret is how I was introduced to certain songs before I got to listen to them as an entire album.

Emancipation89 said:

Great advices. I assume you want to listen to every single album by Prince? My only advice would be

1. Do not read the reviews before you listen to the albums, don't ask questions like "what's a good album I need to listen to?". Just try to go through the albums with an open mind. I don't think you should know know what others consider to be "classic" or "essential" before you make up your own mind.

2. Do not listen to certain songs before you listen to the entire albums; hope that makes sense. One of the things I regret is how I was introduced to certain songs before I got to listen to them as an entire album.

I agree with that PERFECTLY!!!!!

Welcome to Prince & ALL things Purple!

You're in for a ride!!! A lot of his material, will scare the HELL out of you. But that's a good thing! Haha..You need that.

Vict0r said:

Hi! I'm the same age as you and I love Prince. He's by far my favourite artist, even though I only started listening to him almost four years ago. Your thread reminds me of myself a few years ago. I had so much fun discovering the albums, researching and reading about his history, background, career. Reading threads on the Org (to be honest, I'd been aware of these forums since 2007, but I wasn't a Prince fan), looking up live setlists, learning about the associated artists, the unreleased material, getting the bootlegs. There's so much stuff to discover, I'm so glad that I became a Prince fan.

Sometimes that's an advantage of being a young fan. For the older fans, they've lived through those times, heard those albums and songs countless times, they probably know everything already. But for the newer fans, it's really amazing listening to those same albums and songs for the first time and being completely blown away.

AND YOU're so right about that!

Especially now, living in such a age where music is becoming very difficult to hear. Haha

My favs are:

SOTT

Love Symbol

TRC (musically, it's genuis, lyrically, it's whack)

All his other work is good and some albums have amazing gems on them. but for me, SOTT is his best work ever!

I agree with discovering the early albums(controversy,1999,dirty mind, For u). Many of those albums will have you hooked for years. I also personally like the Gold Era. Try the Gold Exp or even seek out "the Dawn" 3cd boot, that will give you a good taste of that era.

Welcome, and enjoy the ride!

I love discovering young fans like myself. I'm 17 and I started digging Prince around 2 years ago when I was 15. I originally listened 2 the hits 4 a while, until i disovered some prince albums in my dads never ending pile of cds. Suprising he had the newer albums which I initially listened to before anything else, i know alot of fans tend to disregard the newer albums, not all, but i think it really depends what era you grew up in, and hey, i dig the new stuff, i grew up with it i suppose. musicology was a car favourite of dad's back in the day (which i'm sure older fans will think it wasn't that long ago, compared to the 80s or 90s stuff they grew up with) and probably the first prince album i've ever heard of in my life. my first fav prince songs like many was when doves cry and kiss, songs i'll never get sick of. unlike older fans, there is still allot i haven't listened to, such as unreleased stuff, proteges, keep in mind there is alot to listen to if ur a new fan. my suggestion if ur a new fan, like me, would be to start off with the main albums, which is what i did, and now i am moving on to the bootlegs, associated artists etc. the first prince albums i REALLY dug was purple rain of course, probably the most well known prince album amongst the general public, after that i got love symbol and grew a deep liking towards that album, those albums really hold so many memories for me. sign o the times was after that and soon after i got my hands on any other prince album i could find. prince fits all the music catagories i dig, which for me is very diverse. i LOOOVE funk and r&b, sly & the family stone, stevie wonder, james brown, otis redding, marvin gaye, funkadelic. also love jimi hendrix, i dig the 80s, the jackson fam of course, david bowie, huey lewis, billy idol, queen, i enjoy hip hop, run dmc, a tribe called quest, 2pac, even some kanye. i crave me some jamiroquai, aaliyah, lenny, and i enjoy music of today such as alicia keys, christina aguilera, muse, gorillaz, the list goes on.... being a hip hop dancer i appreciate electronic music, although i do agree that some music of today sounds similar and generic, but i find the general vibe is either u enjoy older music and disagard today's standards, or either ur a fan of todays music and don't pay attention to older stuff. I'm always studing music trends of the past, but I always tune into today's charts, just the whole development of music over the decades is facinating....

Anyway, cheers to the young fans, the old fans have done well to keep prince's legacy fresh for the newer generations

UnpronounceableSymbol said:

I love discovering young fans like myself. I'm 17 and I started digging Prince around 2 years ago when I was 15. I originally listened 2 the hits 4 a while, until i disovered some prince albums in my dads never ending pile of cds. Suprising he had the newer albums which I initially listened to before anything else, i know alot of fans tend to disregard the newer albums, not all, but i think it really depends what era you grew up in, and hey, i dig the new stuff, i grew up with it i suppose. musicology was a car favourite of dad's back in the day (which i'm sure older fans will think it wasn't that long ago, compared to the 80s or 90s stuff they grew up with) and probably the first prince album i've ever heard of in my life. my first fav prince songs like many was when doves cry and kiss, songs i'll never get sick of. unlike older fans, there is still allot i haven't listened to, such as unreleased stuff, proteges, keep in mind there is alot to listen to if ur a new fan. my suggestion if ur a new fan, like me, would be to start off with the main albums, which is what i did, and now i am moving on to the bootlegs, associated artists etc. the first prince albums i REALLY dug was purple rain of course, probably the most well known prince album amongst the general public, after that i got love symbol and grew a deep liking towards that album, those albums really hold so many memories for me. sign o the times was after that and soon after i got my hands on any other prince album i could find. prince fits all the music catagories i dig, which for me is very diverse. i LOOOVE funk and r&b, sly & the family stone, stevie wonder, james brown, otis redding, marvin gaye, funkadelic. also love jimi hendrix, i dig the 80s, the jackson fam of course, david bowie, huey lewis, billy idol, queen, i enjoy hip hop, run dmc, a tribe called quest, 2pac, even some kanye. i crave me some jamiroquai, aaliyah, lenny, and i enjoy music of today such as alicia keys, christina aguilera, muse, gorillaz, the list goes on.... being a hip hop dancer i appreciate electronic music, although i do agree that some music of today sounds similar and generic, but i find the general vibe is either u enjoy older music and disagard today's standards, or either ur a fan of todays music and don't pay attention to older stuff. I'm always studing music trends of the past, but I always tune into today's charts, just the whole development of music over the decades is facinating....

Anyway, cheers to the young fans, the old fans have done well to keep prince's legacy fresh for the newer generations

I loved reading your post, and you're from Australia as well! Which shows are you going to? I feel so young compared to the majority of the people going hahaha.

Blessed all the new purple people. Chronological order sounds a a good way to approach it, I'd second the opinion about taking in the B'sides as well, Shockadelica etc...basically all the Camille songs.

In a way I'm kind of envious that you guys can discover all the Prince tracks for the first time. I demand a recount.............We get Bieber and Jepson

It would help if you told us what albums you don't have. Try to buy them, so Prince won't whoop us..lol.

You should avoid anything after 1998. lol.

Terrible, I saw Purple Rain in the theatre in 1984. You envious? lol