Grew up in MPLS (suburbs) and a friend of my younger sister gave me a mix tape of different P outtakes (The Ball, Girl O' My Dreams, a few others). This was around '92. Later that summer I found a local wrecka stow (Road Runner Records) that had only a couple of P boots and I settled on a set that would give me the most for my money. That was a six disc set called "Prince in Rock". Wow, was that ever a collection to start off with! I had "The Ride" on repeat, over and over and over and over...

It was all down-hill from there. Record shows at the VFW, Kelly Inn and Coffman Memorial Student Union. Eventually we made a connection with a seller and we didn't even have to wait for the shows. That was dangerous and costly. Then the internet happened for me in about '94 - no need for the store or the shows at that point. Boots were free at that point.

Oh and I buy every officially released work of media (music, print, film and etc.) from P and related artists that I can get my hands on. And go to as many concerts of his and related artists that I can. Boots have enhanced my appreciation for his and related artist's work. Effectively increasing his bottom line. If I could buy what I have on boot from him officially I would.

[Edited 9/4/12 15:39pm]

[Edited 9/4/12 15:41pm]

[Edited 9/4/12 15:42pm]

The 1st boot I ever bought was back in 1995 (after just being exposed to UPTOWN magazine and the 1st Prince book by Per Nilsen) was "YELLOW" & what made it so interesting to listen to were the Martika demos!! It was so weird hearing him sing those songs instead of Martika, especially since I had just bought Martika's Kitchen album from the same used CD store along with the 3rd Shelia E. CD.

That was back when I was picking up every Prince-associated artist CD & actually finding them. I found Jill Jones & The Family on cassette, & Madhouse 16 on CD still in the long-box unsealed!!!! And paid $16 for it at the time which I though was waaay 2much!!! Little did I know!!!!

It's interesting that the first experience you have with actually buying a bootleg makes a huge difference. I first was introduced to the idea that they existed and bought a Peter Gabriel bootleg of a 1986 show called State of Mind. The sound quality wasn't that great, I was disappointed, so I didn't consider buying another for a long time.

I saw Small Club in a record store and didn't consider buying it (probably didn't have the money either). Someone gave me a cassette dub of the The Black Album that had so many generations on it that I couldn't get into it.

So it wasn't until '94 or so that I took a chance on one -- was it called Now? The studio bootleg one with Days of Wild, Now, started with Interactive, had the long Beautiful Girl mix on it? Just 50 minutes of music or so. It both sounded great and fed the mad fandom of that period when you were getting stuff that was currently unreleased. The quality of that disc made some bootleggers some serious money over the next five years or so.

The Black Album on cassette. The store where I got it is still there too!

I wasn't really aware of bootlegs when I first got into Prince, but came across a DVD of the homecoming 1999 concert in Minneapois at chepstow market for £4.99. It was a pressed copy with a Nude tour cover. Suffice to say I was shocked at how bad the quality was, but then I found that very few concerts of Prince's had been released on DVD and in comparison to a fair load, the quality of this show is brilliant.

I'll give credit where due, it kickstarted my craving for illegal Prince materials

In 1997 I bought 3 cassettes that were badly made with cheep ass photocopied black and white grainy images of Prince, one was an outatkes tape with songs like Up from Below, 100MPH and jerk out (Prince mixes with a recording of the 1985 Rolling Stone interview and mixes of hello and girl.

Another was a badly made copy of the March 27th 1985 Syracuse show and the last one was a very bad bootleg of Black Album and a Camille track called Rebirth of the Flesh. They were shit and disintegrated after a few listens, I threw them out.

They were sold by a shady dude selling them at my university trade day in the 'quad'. I think I paid $3 for each of them and they were on TEAC C45 tapes.

Most of my others have been given to me, but the first decent one I paid for was my vinyl copy of Charade.

HonestMan13 said:

The Black Album on cassette.

Looks like many of us began our bootleg journey with the Black Album

..

[Edited 9/6/12 4:52am]

SoulAlive said:

HonestMan13 said:

The Black Album on cassette.

Looks like many of us began our bootleg journey with the Black Album

..

[Edited 9/6/12 4:52am]

I think the fact that it was so widely known to exist was the draw. We all started looking for it and then stumbled upon all of this other stuff in the process. I was in the small record stores every week dropping dollars on those vinyl bootlegs (Charade, The Royal Jewels, there's just too many to name).

It was like a new Prince CD was dropping every other week!

Never bought one, all gifts or finds

my first was Old Friends 4 Sale, but I didn't realize it was a proper bootleg because the radio station late 1985 early 1986 played it as a Promo for up coming Prince movie UTCM

then was the Black album right after it wasn't released a guy at an urban clothing store had it and was playing it over the sound system... announced the music we were hearing was the Black album by Prince... I had a copy 2 days later

The Jewel Box was first. I bought a vinyl Black Album form a bootleg store in '88 which I long ago gave away, was never sure if it was official or a bootleg vinyl.

My favorite boot of all time is Paris Affair, simply because it is a soundboard quality Sign O' The Times show with a just a few seconds of fuzziness here and there.I remember the excitement I felt when I gave it to the guy in the store to play over the sound system and realized immediately that it was soundboard. "I'll take it!"

I have to say, though, that it was the bootleg dvd's that have excited me most over the years. Scoring the Cobo Hall from 86, Lovesexy from 88, Nude from '90, Staples Center from 04, all professionally shot, was very exciting. And there was a great series of tv appearance dvds that covered everything from 91-06 that were a major find. And I was thrilled to see myself on a fan shot dvd from Musicology in NYC, 7/13/04.

Of course, with the rise of torrents, for the last few years I no longer have need of paying, or even looking, for physical boots, which is great. I have collected such a wealth of digital material over the past few years, as I'm sure many here have, it's been a whole new world.

Yeah Prince, until you open that vault: Viva la Boots!

The Jewel Box, for me too man that was a great outtake collection to start with:

Lisa, Vibrator, A Better Place To Die, U Call Me, Extra Loveable, Purple Music, Possessed, Do Yourself A Favour, Chocolate, Electric Intercourse, The Dance Electric, All Day All Night, G Spot, Manic Monday, Old Friends 4 Sale, In All My Dreams, Baby You're A Trip, Last Heart, Expert Lover, Crystal Ball, There's Others Here With Us, Data Bank, Moviestar, She Want A Place In Heaven, Girl O My Dreams, We Can Funk, Neon Telephone, Power Fantastic, Can I Play With U, Wonderful Ass, Sexual Suicide, Eternity, Crucial, Rebirth Of The Flesh, If I Love U 2nite, Witness, Cross The Line, Alphabet Street Blues, Welcome 2 The Ratrace, Cookie Jar, Murph Drag, Good Man, Your Love Is So Hard, The Grand Progression, Schoolyard, Glamslam 91, The Flow

i mean, i submerged into that in winter and didn't come out again till the summer

IstenSzek said:

The Jewel Box, for me too man that was a great outtake collection to start with:

Lisa, Vibrator, A Better Place To Die, U Call Me, Extra Loveable, Purple Music, Possessed, Do Yourself A Favour, Chocolate, Electric Intercourse, The Dance Electric, All Day All Night, G Spot, Manic Monday, Old Friends 4 Sale, In All My Dreams, Baby You're A Trip, Last Heart, Expert Lover, Crystal Ball, There's Others Here With Us, Data Bank, Moviestar, She Want A Place In Heaven, Girl O My Dreams, We Can Funk, Neon Telephone, Power Fantastic, Can I Play With U, Wonderful Ass, Sexual Suicide, Eternity, Crucial, Rebirth Of The Flesh, If I Love U 2nite, Witness, Cross The Line, Alphabet Street Blues, Welcome 2 The Ratrace, Cookie Jar, Murph Drag, Good Man, Your Love Is So Hard, The Grand Progression, Schoolyard, Glamslam 91, The Flow

i mean, i submerged into that in winter and didn't come out again till the summer

Chile, as fine as you are, you need to submerge yourself in waters of Lake Mini-whatever, and come walking out glistening wet naked. lawd.

The Black Album

IstenSzek said:

The Jewel Box, for me too man that was a great outtake collection to start with:

Lisa, Vibrator, A Better Place To Die, U Call Me, Extra Loveable, Purple Music, Possessed, Do Yourself A Favour, Chocolate, Electric Intercourse, The Dance Electric, All Day All Night, G Spot, Manic Monday, Old Friends 4 Sale, In All My Dreams, Baby You're A Trip, Last Heart, Expert Lover, Crystal Ball, There's Others Here With Us, Data Bank, Moviestar, She Want A Place In Heaven, Girl O My Dreams, We Can Funk, Neon Telephone, Power Fantastic, Can I Play With U, Wonderful Ass, Sexual Suicide, Eternity, Crucial, Rebirth Of The Flesh, If I Love U 2nite, Witness, Cross The Line, Alphabet Street Blues, Welcome 2 The Ratrace, Cookie Jar, Murph Drag, Good Man, Your Love Is So Hard, The Grand Progression, Schoolyard, Glamslam 91, The Flow

i mean, i submerged into that in winter and didn't come out again till the summer

YES! Seeing all those song titles on one compilation, most of which I had never even heard, was like finding the holy grail. And such a disappointment when that bitch wouldn't sell it to me.

The Black Album. 87 or 88.

First I'd ever heard of Prince boots. It was on after that.

djThunderfunk said:

In my search for the Black Album, I actually came across and purchased another boot first:

When Doves Cry It's A Sign Of The Times, a double LP of a live show from the Sign "O" The Times Tour. Still have it...

LOL! Same here. I was about 17 and knew nothing about bootlegs. I was under the impression it was going to sound "official" because of the high price and the fact the guy running the store told me it was. Young and stupid I guess.

Anyways after that 1st purchase I picked up the the Royal Jewels. From then on I was obsessed with finding everything out there. Made several trips up to the Detroit area and several record shows. Good times!

[Edited 9/8/12 14:00pm]

electricberet said:

The Black Album in 1987. I think if you did a poll at least half the people on here would say that. I had a few different versions actually. I think first I bought a cassette, then I had a record that played at the wrong speed, then I got a CD. I tossed the cassette and the CD when the official version came out, but I kept the record for sentimental reasons. It's the one with Prince from the "U Got The Look" video on the cover. I wrote the song titles on the label myself. Haven't tried to play it recently, though.

Exactly. The Black Album was my first bootleg on cassette around 1987. Then I started collecting Prince boots again around 2005.....

The Black Album in 1988, one of my sisters copped a dubbed version on cassette. It was all sped up.

Then in 1991 one of my sisters' friends made cassettes for me of Royal Jewels and The Aug. 13, 1986 Parade show.

In 1993 I discovered a local record shop that actually sells boots, so I bought When Doves Cry Its a Sign O The Times and Cross The Line... and many many more after that.

The first pressed vinyl boot was "From 1999 till now" I believe. Picked it up either end of 85 or early 86. Can't remember exactly.

Discovered a great set of boots called Testament which have an album each year from 1976 up to 1998 with usch gems as Moonbeam Levels, Lisa, Soft and Wet with the Angora Fur Lyric, Rave un2 the Joy fantastic, I mean wow.

My one and only boot is a CD called "Prince All Mixed Up". It's a very good mix of Prince and his proteges (Vanity 6, Mazarati, Morris Day, Ingrid Chavez, and others). I think the songs' time frame ranges from Sign of the Times through Crystal Ball.

First I every heard: One of my Dad's friends found a copy of the Black Album and gave it to me in 1990.

First I bought: A couple years later I found a place called Penny Lane (on Queen West in Toronto) that had a huge selection of boots, Prince and otherwise. I bought either the White Album or Crucial that first visit, but I went back MANY times after that.

The first I heard was The Black Album. My cousin had it on vinyl and I had a really good copy on cassette.

The first I bought was Wonderboy from Real Groovy in Auckland NZ. They had Small Club as well but I got Wonderboy because it had the bonus Studio tracks. I remember I switched the price tag from $59.99 to $29.99 and got away with it

I think that was Small Club. It's still my favourite. What a vibe that night. After this I wanted more.

can't remember if it was charade or the first jewel box. i'm pretty sure it was the former . my introduction to these princey outtakes

Parade Tour 12-8-86 on tape. Sometime in '86 or '87.

I sorta borrowed it for a bit then went back weeks later to pay for it and grab some more.

[Edited 9/23/12 4:57am]

Black LB it was so raw and mess up it sounded like it was made in someone basement-The first live boot was a tape also it was giving to me at a show back in 1983 (March 9,1981 Sams) again He was underground at the time we just was ever note the kid made!It was a pure time in the music!