OK I know, it's just a new twist on a no doubt well-worn question, but I was just thinking. Listening to Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad a few minutes ago, it reminded me that it was that song that really finally hit home just what I'd missed out on before buying the Hits ? B Sides compilation. I had nothing older than Sign O The Times at that point.

I'd loved what I heard in the late 80's and really took notice when Gett Off / Cream came out - and was waiting excitedly to hear whathis latest was gonna sound like, now that I'd started to notice him. Then they released the Hits compilation and that directed me to all the earlier albums.

So my question is this - even though you may have started a fascination with Prince earlier on, was there one song or album that sealed the deal later down the line?

clbrooks said:

So my question is this - even though you may have started a fascination with Prince earlier on, was there one song or album that sealed the deal later down the line?

mine was 1999..the song/video and album. I had the single I Wanna Be Your Lover when it came out in 79. It wasnt that special to me, justa nice pop hit that I wanted. I had heard SNW a year early and wasn't over the moon either. My sibling had Contorvery..I played Let Work a lot and Private Joy. But when 1999 came on the radio it was awesome to me. Then the video on MTV. and I was hooked like a mutha. Forever and ever because of that song, video and album. I went back and reintroduced myself to the back catalogue, especially Dirty Mind that I had passed on years before as he was too weird for my young mind then lol.

rdhull said:

clbrooks said:

So my question is this - even though you may have started a fascination with Prince earlier on, was there one song or album that sealed the deal later down the line?

mine was 1999..the song/video and album. I had the single I Wanna Be Your Lover when it came out in 79. It wasnt that special to me, justa nice pop hit that I wanted. I had heard SNW a year early and wasn't over the moon either. My sibling had Contorvery..I played Let Work a lot and Private Joy. But when 1999 came on the radio it was awesome to me. Then the video on MTV. and I was hooked like a mutha. Forever and ever because of that song, video and album. I went back and reintroduced myself to the back catalogue, especially Dirty Mind that I had passed on years before as he was too weird for my young mind then lol.

That's what I'm TALKIN' BOUT!

Ive told this story on here before but I always knew who Prince was and I didn't like him or his music at all. In fact, the only album I really remember was Purple Rain and I wasn't aware of ATWIAD or Parade. b

But then when I got into music and also bring a musician, I was reading about SOTT in magazines and I rememebr the fuss the critics were making over it. This must have been a year after SOTT was released. I went and bought it on cassette and I liked it but it took a while.

But what I found was that I just kept going back to it and over the years I realized it was my favourite album of all time.

I was a solid Prince fan by the early 90s and I remember Grafitti Bridge coming out and I instantly loved it especially the Prince songs. We all wish that remained a Prince solo album. The next time something like that happened was with Chaos and Disorder. LOVED IT from jump! Also The Rainbow Children - loved it from the second I listened to it.

My story is a bit strange I guess.

I was going through puberty and having thoughts about sex constantly. I think I was 12 or 13.

Purple Rain was huge, and though I knew who Prince was becuase MTV had been constantly playing Little Red Corvette previous to the release of Purple Rain, I wasn't really a fan. I found Little Red Corvette to be so-so, and 1999 to be utterly boring.

But, one of my friends talked about how several of Prince's songs are dirty and "x rated", and this peaked my curiousity. Also a very 'sexy' girl moved into our neighborhood and she owned the 1999 album, and a really nice stereo. So when she played the album for me, I was blown away by the sound, how the songs seemed to go on and on forever, and the lyrical content.

By the time I got ahold of Purple Rain I was a fan. Computer Blue was the song that made me see music in a different light. It was just the strangest song I'd heard. The bridge was too long, the signing only takes place in the first few seconds of the song, and it seemed like 2 songs in one. I just loved that.

But, it wasn't until SOTT that I began to become aware of his real genius. This is due to the fact that I was 15/16 when it was released, and began to appreciate music differently.

I feel kind of sorry for, and in awe of, young people who start digging him due to recent recordings. I think as a musician, he's only gotten better---but there are so many other incredible acts out there now---picking Prince out of the crowd is more difficult.

In the 80's, he was the obvious genius.

Cream may have been the song that made me a fan, but Diamonds and Pearls was not the album, I realised quickly shear off the singles and jams like Insatiable, Thunder and Daddy Pop, and you have very little left. It was actually a second hand tape copy of PURPLE RAIN I bought in that same week in November 1991. I think I paid like $8 for it and after the busfare from where I lived (26km away from Christchurch city) used up most of my $15 a fortnight pocket money (I got a pay rise to $25 when I turned 16, mostly as my mother got a huge promotion at work).

Anyway I took the tape home and having only being mildly familiar with the singles, discovered so many gems, The Beautiful Ones, Computer Blue, Baby I'm a star and just thought "Diamonds and Pearls is shite compared to this". I played the tape over and over, on the walkman, even in a class before the teacher came in. She turned the tape on expecting French sentences and got Darling Nikki instead, she was upset, I got detention for that, it made 2 Live crew look lame in comparison.

Anyway I still have the tape copy of Purple Rain and it plays excellent still, of course now I have a CD copy too, but that tape really is the roots of my Prince Love affair.

4 me it was a joint combination of 1999 What Time Is It Purple Rain Glamorous Life ATWIAD + Sugar Walls

My radar definitely picked up the whole Purple Rain 1984 phenomenon in the UK and especially the song When Doves Cry, but I was only 13 at the time and didn't really "get" him at all. I remember a girl in my school tutor group bought in a vinyl record one day, and that photo of him in the big circular sunglasses was on it the sleeve. He just seemed like a strange looking very effeminate oddball to me.

This was reinforced by his appearance at the 1985 BPI awards with Big Chick. "Thanks be to God" speech and the hosts/presenters (Noel Edmonds/Mike Smith) taking the mickey out of him a little.

I think 1999/LRC singles were re-released in the UK after Purple Rain but he didn't really pique my interest again until I heard Kiss in 86. I was 15 now and starting to form some opinions on music and what I liked. That sparse electronic funk and the chicken scratchlike funky quitar licks was probably one of the best contemporary things I had ever heard to that point.

Again a little time went by and I think both Purple Rain and the 1986 detroit Cobo arena gig were shown on UK TV around this time. I watched both I recall but he still didn't really grab me by the goolies.

Then Sign 'O' The Times came along. Hooked.

[Edited 6/11/12 7:41am]

some of us are old.

Raised as a christian, P was a guilty pleasure for me for a few years during the 80s, I didn't own any albums but really enjoyed the Sign'O'The Times concert video and Batdance/Partyman, even though christian friends were telling me he was evil cos he had a backwards message on Darling Nikki lol.

It's funny thinking back but at the time I was young and gullible so I was confused.

I got Grafitti Bridge album on cassette and loved it, I used to play it all the time on my paperounds. I was into other artists but this was just a league above all the rest, then disaster happended....

I believed what my christian "friends" were telling me and I threw my beloved cassette away

The next year was a sad musical wilderness where I tried other artists including MJ but simply nothing compares to our boy!

It was hearing the Diamonds & Pearls tracks on the radio, and actually thinking for myself for once, that made me realise I was being a massive twat and fell in love with his music again yay!

Some great responses - weird isn't it? How age can dictate what you heard first and when, and whether you had good stuff to look forward to or back on....