1. What is the first Prince record you ever BOUGHT (album or single, no matter the format - cassette, LP, CD, digital download). Records owned by family members or borrowed to friends don't count, copied on cassette or burned on CD or downloaded illegally don't count, even though u can mention them in question 2. I want to know about the first record you actually purchased.

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2. Why did u buy it? (i.e. what was the reason you felt you had to own a copy of that particular record?)

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3. When did it happen (year) and how old were you?

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My replies:

1. Batman, on cassette.

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2. Because I was what was then called a "batmaniac", 4 realz ! I was into comics, the perspective of the Batman movie was a very exciting thing back then when super hero films were so rare (and usually so lame) and I bought loads of Batman-related stuff that summer. I didn't go as far as to buy the related singles at the time, though, but I also bought the Danny Elfman score.

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3. I bought it on the day of release in 1989, and I was 12 (which explain the "batmaniac" thing I guess).

[Edited 9/18/14 5:06am]

My 1st was the Controversy 7" Japanese edition which I found for $2 in some random shop.

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I didnt buy it so much because of Prince, but more because I thought the cover looked awesome with the Japanese writing and all.

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Years later I sold it for $200!

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True story bro.

The first Prince record I bought, on my own, was Around the World in a Day. My sister bought 1999 on vinyl, which is the album that got me hooked and I promptly taped, and she also bought Purple Rain on cassette, which I basically hijacked (Eventually buying my own copy a year or so later). But the first one I went to the store and bought on my own was ATWIAD. I bought it in June of 85 after hearing much of it on the radio and loving everything I heard. IIRC a single wasn't released initially, it was just given to DJs and let them play what they wanted. Raspberry Beret was the clear favorite and eventually became the 1st single.

it was feb or march 1983.. in my local recordshop (Pladepusheren in Ålborg, Denmark)...

I saw the double vinyl "1999". (I think it was an import-vinyl 2LP from the US).

I had it on the turntable in the shop, listening to side A and B... and I was like this:

THIS was something excellent I knew right away.

When Purple Rain came out I was very sceptic, could Prince repeat the excellent "1999" album... I was in doubt.

It showed he really could... and a lot more really fantastic Prince albums followed....

(and here I am, ------ still a Prince fan, 30 years later - 31 to be exact, time flies..!)...

[Edited 9/18/14 5:50am]

Graffiti Bridge on tape, on New Year's Eve 1993. I found it in the bargain bin and I think it cost ten marks (which would be about 1.50 euros). I bought it because people at the time were saying that Prince is comparable to Michael Jackson.

I was 13 and didn't really get the music on the record just yet. I think I might have liked "New Power Generation" and "Thieves In The Temple" back then, but even the intro to "The Question Of U" seemed too "artsy" for me.

I saw the video for 'U Got the Look' on MTV (1986?). I went into my local record store that very day and bought the 12" vinyl. To be honest I bought a lot of music and there was nothing at first to suggest that this record would change my life.....until I flipped the B-side and heard 'Housequake' that is!!!

I often think of this record as the start of a very long, expensive and enjoyable journey. One in which only people on the org understand

1999 on vinyl - after which I promptly went out and bought the first four albums.

PR, LP

because i liked the singles from the album that i heard on the radio/ the clips i saw on TV.

1984 or 1985, so i must have been 13.

For You 1978 about 3 minutes after hearing Soft & Wet on the radio.

I was about a month away from my 13th birthday when I listened to my cousin's copy of 1999 on cassette. I was all set to copy it but it was so good that I decided to save the blank tape and buy it. This was June '83. By the time Purple Rain was released a year later I had Dirty Mind & Controversy on a 2-albums-in-1 cassette and Prince on vinyl and he was already my favorite.

I picked up Purple Rain on cassette the day it came out.
I still have that first tape of 1999 and somehow, even though I played it hundreds of times, and even though it's a double length tape and they were known for wearing out faster than shorter tapes, it still plays.

"Soft and Wet" single in 1978. I liked it when I heard it on the radio, so I bought it.

1. When Doves Cry vinyl single

2. Amazing song and I think Prince's biggest selling single

3. 1984, 14

Prince - LP, 1979. I saved all my money for it. Went to Sam Goody's in the local mall. I was 12. I fell in love with I Wanna Be Your Lover. Wow after all these years...still here. Thanks Mojo. Growing up in Detroit at that time, we had our very own Prince station, all Prince all night

Graycap23 said:

For You 1978 about 3 minutes after hearing Soft & Wet on the radio.

Me and a friend, back in the day, when to the record store owner and asked for that song "Hey Lover"

It was Friday, June 22nd, 1984. I had always hated Prince, but wasn't really aware of who he was until Dec 1982. But "When Doves Cry" changed everything. It was one of the best songs I had ever heard in my entire life, which I'll keep private..lol. A local store had promo copies of the Purple Rain album before its actual release date and were selling them early, and I seem to remember that they may have even put the info in a radio ad, or maybe it was a friend of mine who knew the owner...I can't remember. It was Vinyl Fever records in Tallahassee, once recognized as one of the great record stores in the country. They finally went out of business a few years ago, including their other store in Tampa.

But it was purchased on Vinyl for 6.99, and maybe 4.99...and I still have it with the gold promo stamped in. I bet it still plays, and when I get a new cartridge for my turntable, I will listen to it again.

I was tempted to lie like I did on the other thread, where I said "Jughead" was the song that got me into Prince...but I decided to tell the truth.

It's okay - Stillwaiting we knew you were taking the piss in that other thread and a bit of reverse psychology is always amusing. But seriously take out Jughead and Push and D and P is a great album I think. It did the job for me and made me a Prince fan for life.

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1. Cream/Horny Pony - Cassette single (Had cover with Prince coming up on Diamond or Pearl) with a purple Border. Cover was cheep ass cardboard and the cassette single itself, was that clear plastic shit with blue tape reels. I remember it had the two songs on each side, so once Side A finished, I flipped it and Side B played it all again. I wore that tape out!!! I think it got thrown out about 1995.

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Sometimes I have eluded to a local compilation album called "Pump up the Hits 89" released around Sep/Oct 1989 which had 16 songs on the charts. This album had Partyman by Prince and I liked it, but I did not buy the album for that song, it was merely an extra song I found that I thought was cool. I bought as it had Pump up the Jam one of my absolute favourite songs of the time, a Neneh Cherry Track (Kisses in the wind), Paula Abdul (Straight up) and Bobby Brown (On our own). But I found a couple of other great songs like Partyman, and the Depeche Mode track - Personal Jesus. Its not really my first purchase, as I was not a Prince fan then and just buying the tape for the other cool songs.

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2. Because I had seen the video for Cream on some Video hit show on TV earlier that morning and it blew my mind. I decided I needed to buy that song.

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3. Would have been a Saturday in the early part of November 1991 (Possibly 8th or 15th). I was 15 years old. The next Monday I bought the Gett Off single, then next weekend found a copy of Insatiable and for Christmas the Diamonds and earls Album. I was instantly hooked into Prince. Early 92 I bought the Diamonds and Pearls single and until mid 1993, I only had cassettes, I only got a CD player on my 17th birthday on April 30 1993.

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Until I was 17 I did not work and lived off pocket money, being in a rural township at least 10 miles from the nearest mall with no car and shift working parents, my opportunities to buy music were severely limited. What I liked about each Prince cassingle I bought, was that each track was a different type of music, yet it was the Prince sound in each one. I kind of knew of Prince because of earlier songs on the radio and my 1989 Hits album with Partyman. Plus at the time like most 15 year olds I found sex was funny and dirty rather than an expression of love physcially and kind of thought that "Cream" was a euphemism for semen and given the raunchiness of the dancing particularly after the 3rd verse. Having very strict parents I knew this was forbidden fruit and for the first few years they curtailed my interest in Prince as he was a person of "questionable morals" in their eyes.

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Now later watching the video, I realise the song is more a series of double entendres, yes sex and semen, but also about someone wanting to be a huge star and become the "Cream" of the crop (Prince's vanity). The video now rather than being a raunchfest, now I see as very clever, he has the whole group playing their instruments and well and yet also stepping and the whole thing conveys a very good band performance and one of Prince's best videos. I still look back at that song with tender memories.

[Edited 9/18/14 17:08pm]

1999

Cause I really liked this new "band" called Prince with white chicks, black dudes and small puerto rican lead singer.

and there was a hidden penis in the cover.

Give me a break I was only 13 1983.

[Edited 9/18/14 18:24pm]

emesem said:

1999

Cause I really liked this new "band" called Prince with white chicks, black dudes and small puerto rican lead singer.

and there was a hidden penis in the cover.

Give me a break I was only 13 1983.

[Edited 9/18/14 18:24pm]

I first thoght Prince was Sylverster when I heard I Wanna Be Your Lover on the radio...

The 1979 Prince LP as a gift for my father (i was 9, and i think i got the money from one of my sisters). My dad was an RnB/blues fan, and liked "I Wanna Be Your Lover." Interestingly, i don't think he ever listened to the rest of the album because "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" turned him off, and whenever it came on, he made me turn it off. Eventually, i recalimed the album myself and listened to it. That was my start.

The first one I ever bought all by myself was Batman on cassette, when I was 13.

On my bike ride to Title Wave, some guy in a truck pulling out of Taco Bell hit me, knocking me to the ground and crushing one of my tires. He drove off like nothing happened.

I left my damaged bike with a concerned patron of Taco Bell, and ran my ass off to Title Wave to get that tape! My mom had to come and pick me and my damaged bike up.

I should have known then that it was an omen. Prince fandom was going to be a bumpy ride.

1998.

I was 16, a fan of Maxwell's "Embrya", and every other magazine review made comparisons of Maxwell to Prince. Since I had so much discretionary income (thanks Baskin-Robbins!), I strolled into Sam Goody (RIP) to buy a Prince album. Little did I know, there was a Prince album recently released, and that album was "New Power Soul". Yeah, technically, it's an NPG album, but I didn't know that then, and with all the posters and free swag throughout the store, it looked like a Prince album to me. I bought the compact disc (RIP) and played it in my car all Summer (I'm from South Carolina and yes, kids at the time were able to get drivers' licenses at the age of 15). From there, I borrowed "Sign O the Times" from my public library. Having ignored Prince up to that point in my life, the next two years were devoted to buying every Prince album I could find.

Those were the days...

1986, Parade did it for me, Mountains and i saved up to buy all his previous albums straight after.

Around the World in a Day

Purchased in 1985; the week it came out.

I was 8 years old and my mom and dad let me get the cassette tape.

It was a magical time to be a Prince fan. I listenend to my brother's 1999 and Purple Rain tapes until they didn't work anymore. Remember when the tape got tangled in the satero and you needed a pencil to get it back in the tape? And I went on to purchase every tape until 1990 when I switched to CD.

The "I Wanna Be Your Lover" 45 back in 1979.