i did get the black album ... in a small record store near my house ...

then i found another record store closer to philadelphia which had boots - and i got the "second show" boot and i was hooked ..

over the years i do have to say i have a few really bad boots that ... i did get "unhooked" ...

I was 15 years old in January 1997 here in Detroit when my mother came home with an issue of Uptown magazine (issue #26 to be exact). I had never even heard of Uptown and I quickly read it cover to cover. By the time I got to the back of the magazine, I saw that there were 25 back issues of Uptown that I needed to collect. I begged my mother to please bring home another issue from where ever she got it from. She did a couple of weeks later with an issue that had a "bootleg discography". I didn't know what a bootleg was but I was intrigued with the possiblity that there was a whole world of underground Prince material that I knew nothing about, and I knew that I had to get my hands on some!

Well, one day my brother and I rode with my mother to pick up her paycheck, and we passed a record store called "The Record Collector". My mother says "that's where I got your Prince magazines, do you wanna stop inside", and of course I said yes. As soon as I walked in, there was a magazine rack with tons of Uptown magazines, as well as the Turn It Up book. I go to the Prince section of the cds and I almost shit my pants. Right in front of me were alot of the bootlegs that I had read about in Uptown. I was overwhelmed, scared, horny, confused, and excited all at the same time Then I went to their video section, and there was concert footage on VHS that I never even knew existed: First Ave 8/3/83, Detroit 6/7/86 Cobo Hall, 4 Those Of U on Valium 3/21/87, Lovesexy Germany '88, Nude Tokyo 1990, etc. I couldn't decide which one to get so since I'm from Detroit, I just settled on the Cobo Hall Birthday show. Plus, I remember my dad going to that concert when I was 4 years old and he took tons of pictures. Uptown will always hold a special place in my heart for opening me up to the world of Prince bootlegs.

[Edited 10/20/14 9:33am]

My first "bootleg" was the Black Album. A friend of my mom's taped it from LP onto cassette for me. I don't consider that a real bootleg though . . . in my mind, it was an ultra-rare official album.

.

So I guess in my mind my first bootleg was Neon Rendezvous.

1988 (in high school at the time) - I lived in Indiana and knew a guy from another high school who would make monthly runs to MPLS to see shows and pick up material from various places. He had aspirations of becoming a DJ and recorded his own series of "bootleg" radio shows that he sold for like $5 a cassette for a 30 min show that he called "New Power Radio." I paid him for a number of cassettes, including a cassette containing the "When Doves Scream" rehearsal and "Last Heart," which I didn't hear in perfect quality until Crystal Ball was released. He sold dubs of boots and also his own compilations, including one he called "Chocolate" (including Prince's version, along with other 1999 era outtakes).

.

Another early boot was a cassette of a soundboard recording of the Dortmund Lovesexy show. I remember that one clearly because all of the Purple Rain performance was backmasked so it was unlistenable, and the rest was in perfect (cassette) quality.

Black Album, and a SOTT Rehearsal. Got it off a peddlar on the street in Dublin selling bootleg cassettes. Quality was shit though.

I was naive about bootlegs. I went to a record show in 1994, saw a bunch of Prince cds I never heard of. I was freaking out, thinking they were records Prince only released in foreign countries. I bought Small Club, expensive. Took it home and shit myself. Thought all the cds had clear sound, later being very angry over spotty boots. lol.

Jewel Box first outtake one. Crucial, Rex Club, others.

I supposed the Black Album was the first of many for me. I was in the Army stationed in Georgia as 1988 began. I dont know how I heard about this album that Prince pulled for Lovesexy because I wasnt really on the internet- and it was nothing like the net is today.

I knew of a record store in Washington, DC that sold alot of imported stuff (it was called 12 Inch Dance Records and it was in DuPont Circle, if I recall). They had some "under the counter" items and supposedly had some copies for sale to discreet customers with the acquired taste.

I had a girlfriend order one for me sinc I could not get there myself. She got it as a birthday present for me so I dont know what she paid for it. It was mint condition and authentic. SHe even made me a Lovesexy sweatshirt when I came home - what a great girlfriend. I was I had kept her.

After that, I moved to LA and almost every independent record store had some kind of bootlegs. the first Prince boot on CD that I got was Hot Chocolate. I played it to death. It cost a grip - or at least that is what I thought at the time. Typically the shops in LA wanted $25 - $40 for a bootleg and Prince discs tended to be pricier.

From there it is a blur - I have over 1000 bootlegs now over the last 25 years of collecting, downloading, trading, and flat out stealing.

Studio: Deposition, Fantasia and Dreams.

Live: Small Club

I asked before has anyone else been duped buying Prince boots, looks like it was just me then.

WorldofPeace said:

KingSausage said:

WorldofPeace said:

I asked before has anyone else been duped buying Prince boots, looks like it was just me then.

Send me your boot collection and I'll listen to them all and tell you whether you were duped. I've got your back.

I was pretty late into the bootleg game, I did not get my first proper one until 2011, which was a copy of the Birthday Show from 1985, which I love. Prince was in a great mood, and then in 2012 I got the 1986 show which was also great (In Detroit).

.

But these were gifts from a friend. My first semi bootleg was some flaky guy who sold pirated tapes of various musical artists at our University on some market day back in 1997. There were 3 Prince ones, and all of them were pretty nasty. They cost like $7 each but were recorded on Teac C90 tapes (Our version of Tonemasters) and one of them which had a Diamonds and Pearls era concert, ripped straight away (I got my $7 back). The 2nd tape was a recording of the Syracuse March 1985 show, merely an audio recording of the video cassette!).

The 3rd tape was the best, versions of 100mph, Old friends for sale, All of my dreams, Others here with us and other 1985/86 outtakes (I forget which as it was lost years ago - probably wore out). It also had the Neal Karlen interview from 1985, which was pretty good. Sound quality of course was dire!!

.

I remember a couple of years earlier in 1995/1996 a record store in Dunedin, New Zealand (Where I lived then, honestly I was Dunedin's biggest Prince fan then!!!) had all these bootleg CD's like Licence to Fuck, The Sex of it and 4 those of u on Valium. I wanted them, but they were all like $50 or $60 each as the store claimed they were all rare imports. Of course had I bought them I would have some very valuable collectibles there as they were all from the 1988 -1992 period. Someone bought them eventually ( I wondered who as Dunedin was a small place - seriously google it, you will think Dunedin is at the end of the world (Not the one in Florida!!!!).

.

Finally in 2012, a nice friend gave me his harddrive full of bootlegs and now I am in bootleg heaven listening to all the boots and unreleased jams I ever wanted. Lets just say it helped rediscover Prince's music all over again. There was a period in 2013, where I listened to nothing but boots for a whole month, no official songs or anything until Screwdriver came out!

The Black Album..

I purchased what sounded like a 5th generation cassette when it 1st started circulating around 1987?

..

Bob George blew my mind.. as well as Dead on it....

Small club may have been next...

ive been kinda slacking on boots since about 2007.

Same here , Black Album for all the reasons mentioned. Paid $50 for it too yowza. I felt like I had the keys to the purple kingdom. Immediately the next day I hunted down the vinyl for the "Crucial" bootleg

I was in a small independently owen record shop in Encintas, Ca. The clerk knew I was a Prince fan and he turned me onto the "boot" world. It was 1st time I'd ever heard of "boots".

Neon Rendezvous (1984 Birthday Rehearsal Concert) to this day, the BEST bootleg of any artist I've ever owned! I still own the CD to this day.

[Edited 10/20/14 19:00pm]

I have a similar experience..

The shop only sold boots.. Hendrix, Springstein, Stones, ect.. He told me he had to start selling Prince because so many customers liked him.. eventually he hung a huge lovesexy era poster in the front window and that was the place to go for Vhs tapes & boots on Vinyl, Cassette & Cd.

Graycap23 said:

I was in a small independently owen record shop in Encintas, Ca. The clerk knew I was a Prince fan and he turned me onto the "boot" world. It was 1st time I'd ever heard of "boots".

Ego101 said:

I have a similar experience..

The shop only sold boots.. Hendrix, Springstein, Stones, ect.. He told me he had to start selling Prince because so many customers liked him.. eventually he hung a huge lovesexy era poster in the front window and that was the place to go for Vhs tapes & boots on Vinyl, Cassette & Cd.

Graycap23 said:

I was in a small independently owen record shop in Encintas, Ca. The clerk knew I was a Prince fan and he turned me onto the "boot" world. It was 1st time I'd ever heard of "boots".

my first bootleg was The Black Album,which I purchased in 1988.

the person who sold it to me mentioned that she had a ton of other bootlegs available.That was the beginning of my journey into the world of Prince boots

The first bootleg I got hold of was a friend's copy of the Black Album in the summer of 89. Copied it onto a cassette. Had some weird issues fading in and out of different speakers, but--hey, it was the Black Album!!! He found the thing, and at that point I hadn't ever actually encountered a bootleg of any sort.

.

Sometime in the next year or so I actually found and bought my first bootleg myself: Intimate Moments--an absolutely terrible quality record, honestly. It hinted at something interesting, but it really sounded awful.

.

Didn't buy anything else until during the Gold/Slave days, and those were CD. Still didn't buy many--there just weren't many in my stores. Napster and the newsgroups is where my collection really expanded. And then there was a nice few years just a little while back......

Black Album on vinyl in 1988... it was the one that had the U Got the Look 12" cover but in a much more reddish tone.

Then came "Chocolate box" on vinyl

Then "Charade" on vinyl

All in that 1988-89 school year!

Interesting to see , so many of you got the Black album as your first boot. I was not really a fan when the mystique was around over it.

.

Probably as I only became a fan in 1991, and only knew of it by mid 92, but did not really collect the back catalogue of albums before late 1993 (I did want all the hits though!!).

.

By 1994, I knew I needed to get this thing, if I ever wanted to be a serious fan, but that year when Come came out, they were having a hard time moving it, and later that year they gave away a free copy of the Black Album with every copy of Come (The 1994 re release black album, not a boot), so thats how I got it. I still have that CD today and what I like is the fact the black on the CD is printed slightly off centre to the right, so there is a 2mm sliver of plain CD around the 9 o'clock position. The CD leaves no doubt its a reissue with 1994 written on it.

.

Apparently the 1994 re issue is not the most common thing in the world, by this time it was seen as dated and I remember it was not a big hit and was only on sale for a few weeks. Is this true, or is it as common as muck? I like the Black Album, but I hardly see it at the level of the albums around it. SOTT and Lovesexy leave it to shame.

Correction.. Small club wasnt my 2nd Bootleg.. it was this boxed set...

Ego101 said:

The Black Album..

I purchased what sounded like a 5th generation cassette when it 1st started circulating around 1987?

..

Bob George blew my mind.. as well as Dead on it....

Small club may have been next...

ive been kinda slacking on boots since about 2007.

Paard van Troje.

Marc played some stuff on radio 3.

sorry for the noob question but where do you even buy bootlegs? I have only ever downloaded them..

sixty2strat said:

sorry for the noob question but where do you even buy bootlegs? I have only ever downloaded them..

We're talking about a time without the internet as we know it now. Maybe you're to young to remember.

The Undertaker. I could never find that anywhere and a cat in Belgium hooked me up. This was pre-Internet we're talking about! (LOL)

A time when you actually purchased an expensive ass magazine just for some new photo's of Prince.

A time when what you were into was the Hottest S--T in entertainment!

A time when you thought you might hyperventilate because prince showed up to a 1986 awards show in a tuxedo w/ finger waves in his hair.

A time when you could 'Only' see the trailer for UTCM in a theater..

A time when you couldnt even believe that Prince even talked and acted like a normal person!

A time when the diehards had to DIG for unreleased music and concerts on VHS tapes for Real!

A time when collecting felt like some Underground, International,

Collection of freaks, outcasts, weirdo's and 'Funky Cool people' all into Prince!

ludwig said:

sixty2strat said:

sorry for the noob question but where do you even buy bootlegs? I have only ever downloaded them..

We're talking about a time without the internet as we know it now. Maybe you're to young to remember.

[Edited 10/21/14 6:26am]