dacca said:

khill95 said:

I'm new to the Prince fandom. I'm 21, have always liked Prince's music, but didn't become a SERIOUS fan until right before his passing. Only then I discovered that he wrote all his music and played all his instruments, I just thought he was a guitar guy up to that point(you can only imagine the thrill I got of seeing Prince behind a drum set, being a drummer myself!!). Then when he passed, and a lot of his performances and songs started going up on Youtube, it was like a door that opened to a whole new world of music. The thing I'm wondering is, when he was alive, why didn't he get credit when it was due?? Growing up, I only ever heard his 80s songs on the radio. I'm talking about the big hits like the Purple Rain stuff, the 1999 stuff, Kiss, etc. I had no idea Sign o the Times or Lovesexy existed. No idea that Diamonds and Pearls or Musicology existed. No idea that he released an average of an album a year. I feel like if I knew about this stuff, I would've hopped on the Prince train a LOOOONG time ago.

Anybody else feel like this?

Holy shit no way I'm in the exact same boat. I'm also 21 and only got into prince maybe 4 or 5 months before his passing. I had only known songs like 1999, Kiss etc., but though I liked them I'd never really understood the scope of his talents and song writing skills an so on (being a guitarist I had heard he was great but all his hits dont really have that prominant guitar moments). It was only when I was watching an interveiw with D'angelo where he mentioned princes name like 13 times or something and I was like right I'm buying a Prince album now. Cut to now and I have like 300 or so songs on my iPod. I too am sad that I wasnt a fan sooner, and also just missed out on tickets to see him when he was in Australia a few months ago Anyways that's so cool I've found someone with what sounds like the same experience I'm having. I wonder if there are like heaps of younger fans like us going through all this haha

YES. I'm not alone! I don't think there's heaps of us sadly well at least not here in america, I don't know about Australia. I think the only younger fans here are either related to the OG fans or REAL music fans and musicians. But that's so cool that you're into him as well! What's your favorite album so far?

dacca said:

fen said:

Hi there,

I discovered Prince after watching the SOTT film on VHS as a 12 year old in the early 90s. I was dimly aware of James Brown but I'd never seen anything quite like it, and by 14 I was a borderline obsessive. I quickly acquired his back catalogue (more or less chronologically) before collecting live shows and bootleg material. I remember deeply regretting the fact that I'd never experience Prince when he was at his most raw and subversive in the early eighties, that I'd never attend the SOTT Tour in person and so on. I could say this about a lot of artists – I would have loved to have seen James Brown in the 60s or 70s, Jimi Hendrix in London, Parliament-Funkadelic at their height, Miles Davis... It's a real shame that you'll never experience Prince live, but it's just one of those things... the main thing is that you've discovered something great.

Apart from Prince's body of work itself, one of the things I'm most thankful for is the fact that Prince led me to so much music that I couldn't be without. His musical references and influences are so eclectic that he functioned as a veritable encyclopedia of modern music for me as a teenager. Everything from James Brown, Sly Stone, the whole P-Funk movement (another vast creative world to fall into) to Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush. I started listening to Miles Davis because of his association with Prince, which in turn led me to Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Hermeto Pascoal, Cecil Taylor, Evan Parker. Not to mention the Blues (Robert Johnson, Skip James, Son House). You could argue that everyone's musical journey has to start somewhere, but I think that the sheer variety and eclecticism of Prince's music encourages open-mindedness in his listeners. I mean, his run of 80s albums is extraordinary – every one is different and separated by a mere year. I listen to pretty much everything now and as I said, it can all be directly or indirectly traced back to discovering Prince as a kid.

With regard to his lack of cultural presence in recent years, I think it's partly due to the critical response to his post-80s work and partly his own doing. There's no point reigniting the old debate regarding the former (I'm afraid that I'm one of those fans who were less enamoured with his later studio work). Even in the 90s few of the arty kids were listening to Prince. I seemed to get a lot of stick whenever I told anyone that I was a Prince fan (mostly based on ignorance it should be said). My friends at that time were either listening to alternative rock (Beck, Radiohead etc) or the emerging “IDM” scene (Aphex Twin, Autechre... which I loved). They associated Prince with stuff like “Diamonds and Pearls” or “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” which, despite being fine songs from a mainstream pop perspective, can hardly be considered edgy or particularly interesting from a creative point of view. To counter this, I'd play people stuff like the original version of “Tick, Tick Bang”, “Erotic City”, tracks from “1999”, “The Black Album” or “The Undertaker” set. A few were converted, but nearly all conceded that there was more to Prince than they'd thought.

On the second point, his attitude to YouTube was obviously a massive miscalculation. I understand not wanting studio tracks being made available for free, but allowing old concert footage could only have strengthened his reputation and won him new fans. As you say, he was virtually completely absent to whole generations of young listeners and was simply swept aside by the huge cultural changes that were taking place. In the end however, he seemed quite content to market his material to a relatively small group of core, die-hard fans. Ultimately, I'm not sure that this kind of hermetic environment is particularly healthy for an artist... but I'm digressing. Of course, every now and then he would remind the world how extraordinary he was with something like the Super Bowl performance, but considering all of the above, it's completely forgiveable that young music lovers only have a limited awareness of what Prince was all about. x

[Edited 10/31/16 23:07pm]

Its interesting that you point out that he wasnt all that relative in the 90s which makes sense. I consider it a bit of a shame he isnt often mentioned in the same breath as classic rock musicians like Hendrix, the beatles, the stones, nirvana etc when he could basically run rings around all of them (imo haha).
Your last point is really interseting too, I really hope he becomes more accessable then he was before his death.
Thanks for sharing

[Edited 10/31/16 23:58pm]

Sadly you're right about the running rings around them comment. After listening to P for a while now, a lot of other music seems kind of bland, except for artists that are unconventional like him like Bowie.

Loving the conversation between you two...

also...converting others is something we all try and do...and its suprisingly tough...

You kind of cant help coming off all Avengelistic like...

Prince is almost a religious Experience..Once youve seen the light you cant go back..and like one of you said...or both of you...I D K

other music seems dull and bland...

Welcome 2 this Prince thang 2 U 2

dacca said:

khill95 said:

YES. I'm not alone! I don't think there's heaps of us sadly well at least not here in america, I don't know about Australia. I think the only younger fans here are either related to the OG fans or REAL music fans and musicians. But that's so cool that you're into him as well! What's your favorite album so far?

Haha nah I've met one other person my age that's into him at a tribute at a club in Sydney when he died but yeah there's not many of us hey haha I'm doing my best though to convert everyone haha Um theyre all so different but 1999 is my fav cause it's the funkiest. I'm really digging lovesexy (I'm not really religious but the rhythm sections on that album are unreal), and like the crystal ball stuff particularly the song crystal ball which is on another level. Wbu?

I only actually own 5 of his albums, but if I were to put them in order

1) Purple Rain

2) 1999

3) Around the World In A Day

4) Sign o the Times

5) Dirty Mind

Purple Rain and 1999 I can listen to whenever and wherever, Sign and ATWIAD are ones where I kind of have to be in certain moods for, but a lot of the individual tracks I LOVE and can listen to whenever and wherever. Dirty Mind is a complete mood, I'm not a big fan of the demo quality, and even though there are good songs on it, they PALE in comparison to his later work.

I'm new to the Prince fandom. I'm 21, have always liked Prince's music, but didn't become a SERIOUS fan until right before his passing. Only then I discovered that he wrote all his music and played all his instruments, I just thought he was a guitar guy up to that point(you can only imagine the thrill I got of seeing Prince behind a drum set, being a drummer myself!!). Then when he passed, and a lot of his performances and songs started going up on Youtube, it was like a door that opened to a whole new world of music. The thing I'm wondering is, when he was alive, why didn't he get credit when it was due?? Growing up, I only ever heard his 80s songs on the radio. I'm talking about the big hits like the Purple Rain stuff, the 1999 stuff, Kiss, etc. I had no idea Sign o the Times or Lovesexy existed. No idea that Diamonds and Pearls or Musicology existed. No idea that he released an average of an album a year. I feel like if I knew about this stuff, I would've hopped on the Prince train a LOOOONG time ago.

Anybody else feel like this?