In August, 1982, two months before the release of Prince’s electro-pop-soul masterwork 1999, my best friend Jerry Rodriguez and I watched the performance clip of the album’s self-titled first single when it played on the thirty-foot video screen at our favorite nightspot, the Ritz. Clad in a dark vintage suit and white sneakers, I was a nineteen-year-old college student at Long Island University who spent more time prowling darkened clubs than studying. After becoming boys, Jerry and I would take the D train into the city from his Brooklyn apartment where we usually ended up at the Ritz with its five-dollar cover charge, ear-blowing sound system, and cheap drinks.

Buzzed on Long Island iced teas, my jerky dance movements came to a sudden halt when I heard keyboard chords bubbling. Turning around, I stared in stunned awe at the spectacle projected on the screen. Wearing a flowing purple coat and high-heeled boots, Prince resembled a futurist Dr. Strange steppin’ through time and space to warn us mere mortals of the forthcoming apocalypse that would happen in 1999. “I was dreamin’ when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray,” he sang, “but when I woke up this morning I could have sworn it was judgment day.”

For the next few minutes, sonically tripping, head nodding to the future shock blaring through the speakers. Musically, Prince made a song that was, at least to me, the best new wave and best funk single of that year. Lyrically, he laughed in the face of Armageddon while shaking his ass until the dawn. As the world was being ravished by nuclear annihilation, Prince was just getting the party started.

From the opening party at ground zero and the robotic voice of God declaring, “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you, I only want to have some fun” to the smoldering ballad “International Lover” that closes the over-an-hour-long aural experience, the album was prophetic (“1999”), hedonistic (“Let’s Pretend We’re Married”), spiritual (“Free”), sexy (“Little Red Corvette”), and sinister (“Something in the Water”), and collectively visionary. When 1999 was finally released in October, I bought the album at Disc-O-Mat in midtown and ditched school for the rest of the day.

Wow....I broke down about 2/3 through this.....simply heartbreaking. God bless u my friend.

Great read. I remember that 1994 gig at the Palladium from a bootleg of that show. The version of Shhh... that he played that night is one of my favorite versions of that song. I loved what he said when he ended the song (but I would have to paraphrase because I don´t remember the exact quote).

And I absolutely LOVE the 1999 album, and much like the author, I spent a good amount of time looking at the album cover over and over again.

What a sad little story.

I like how the author shares these highly personal memories with the readers.

His book Bring the Noise sounds very familiar to me, I think I´ve read it back then.

If I recall correctly, he ended Shhh... with something like "New York, all women are beautiful. Love your women." or something like that.

I think I´ll go and listen to that bootleg recording of that show again. Shhh....was the absolute highlight of that show.

And I love the cold vibe of the 1999 album...songs about sexual frustration, unrequited love, heartbreak...Something in the Water, Lady Cab Driver, Little Red Corvette...the hedonism and carefree and celebratory attitude of DMSR.....the uplifting gem of a song that is Free.

1999 is one of those Prince albums that probably saved my life.

It took mer some time to get into it, now that i am, it's a superb album. Cold and lonely kind of sound.