Dennis1972 said:

jtfolden said:

It was 1985, I was 15, and I watched Purple Rain on HBO that summer... bought the album and liked it. THEN, I bought ATWIAD and that's when I was officially hooked. It wasn't that either album would end up being my favorite but rather the fact that Prince could and would easily slide from one type of music to another instead of just making a "Purple Rain #2"...

That is what I like the most about him: he always makes music he likes and doesn't go for a second version of a hit. Personally I always have found Most beautiful girl in the world an example of Prince saying how easily he can make a new hit. But he always surprises me when I hear a new song of him.

I wouldn't mind though if he is making a album such as Purple Rain

Yes, TMBGITW and the bulk of the Diamonds & Pearls album are good examples of prince writing to get a hit. Granted, I don't think he can do that now so easily but it's often obvious when he's gunning for chart action.

I remember when I was a little kid my parents asked me to draw some artwork for their wedding CDs and the Prince songs Kiss, When Doves Cry and Musicology were on it. Those were the first Prince songs I heard. Back then the Musicology video was on TV alot and it got stuck in my head for a long time (can't believe it's been 10 years since then, what!?). When I was around 12 or 13 (can't remember) I found the Musicology album in the garage and it instantly bought me back to my childhood, which really wasn't that long ago since I'm a significantly younger fan, the rents called me an old fart though (thanks mum) cause we didn't know many folks my age obsessed with Prince. I decided to give it a spin, really enjoyed it and wanted to buy more of his albums. I found 3121 not long after and fell in love with that too, and I decided from that point on I was going to become a Prince fan. My goal throughout high school was to collect all the albums. I would go to secondhand record stores and hunt down all the Prince stuff I could get my hands on with the limited ammount of dollars I had... ah, I was living the high life. To me musically his music held a certain depth I was craving because most of the time throughout my high school years, and still to this day, I'm surrounded by teenagers and young adults who very much live in the moment, listening to whatever is being fed to them. I made it a goal for myself to dig underneath the surface and to find a variety of musicality, lyricism and experiementation in different genres. Since Prince has explored and experimented with so many different styles he ticked all the right boxes for me. I'm now a collage student (crazy man!) I'm proud to say I pretty much own all the albums (besides a few rarities) and am now officially 'Princed' for life. I credit him alot for opening up my mind up to a vast variety of music and am now obsessed with collecting and finding out as much as I can about music in general. (I guess I could say I've become a musicologist ) In a way (not to sound corny or anything) I feel like he's always been a teacher to me.

As a kid, when I first got really interested in music (in the late 1980s), it was because my two best friends at the time were into gangsta rap. I wanted to go buy Ice-T's "The Iceberg" and a CD that I can't remember now. My dad had done some professional studio work as a jazz guitarist and pretty much only listened to jazz; I imagine he wasn't thrilled with my choices, but he did take me to the record stow and buy me the CDs. While we were there, he told me, "I'll buy you these, but I'm going to get two other CDs I want you to listen to from start to finish in return." I guess it was sort of his version of a "music education" class. He figured my ear wasn't really sophisticated enough for jazz yet, so he bought CD's by the two non-jazz musicians he most respected -- Prince and Stevie Wonder. He picked up "Innervisions," and then also got "Lovesexy." You might think being basically forced to listen to music would make a kid hate it, but my dad must have had a good instinct because I actually loved the Prince and Stevie CD's and realized almost immediately they were more interesting than the rap CDs I had wanted. It wasn't until years later when it occurred to me that the "nude" cover on Lovesexy was controversial and it may have been a bit odd for my dad to buy his 8 or 9-year-old son that CD. Then I thought, well, he also bought me a CD that includes the lyrics "Donald D fucked a freak on a ski lift; it was ten below and he gave her the dick," so Lovesexy probably wasn't much of an issue in comparison

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[Edited 4/25/14 11:35am]

[Edited 4/25/14 11:37am]

1978

For You Album and the hit Soft and Wet!