"I Wanna Be Your Lover"..First time I heard it on the radio I thought it was a girl..(Sister Sledge?/Carrie Lucas?/Patrice Rushen?)..When I heard it was Prince I thought; "So that's what the dude with the big Afro sounds like?".."Soft And Wet" was never played on the radio back then...When I saw pix of him with the new 'do/spandex outfit/hoop earring in "Right On!" magazine I had to do a double take. But somehow that image and the song worked for me. That song (and album) is near and dear to me..That was my first musical intro to P.

Soft and Wet.

The story:

I was in fourth grade in 1978, and a new kid named Glen, from Minneapolis had just started coming to my school in Maryland. During indoor recess, when it rained, we were allowed to bring in records to listen to. Well, he brought in Prince's first album, and told us how he used to live in the same apt. building with this weird guy named 'Nelson' who was always making a bunch of noise with music, and this was his album.

I was hooked on the music immediately, even though I had no idea what 'soft and wet' meant. Lol.

Little Red Corvette. I had heard it on the radio when I was dating my first boyfriend, who had a little red chevette and we'd sing chevette instead of corvette. But that wasn't when it was sealed for me. The first time I saw him on MTV was in 1983 and it was the LRC video. There is a scene in there where it looks like something caught his attention and you can tell the video is edited there. I don't know why that scene in particular, but that look at whatever caught his attention, and the passion with which he sang it.

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But I remember the first time I saw him. I was standing up and that video came on. I remember moving closer to the television screen, just drawn to him. I was married at the time to a man who was not a good man, though I didn't know it at the time. I said, "That is one sexy man." The next thing I knew, I was on the floor with my ex standing over me and calling me n... lover and other names. After that, when Prince came on, I would change the stations (tv or radio). It wasn't until 1998, when I'd been divorced and was dating and my then boyfriend took me to the NPS concert in Collinsville, Ill. Again, I felt completely drawn to him, magnetized. I didn't know any of the songs he performed that night, had never heard the album, but I knew I had to find out more about him. I will say it is LRC that was the song that sealed it for me, because I knew from 1983 on that there was something special about him. It was just years later before I could find out what it was.