Honestly, something like The Hits/The B-Sides is a great jumping point. It's a very wide variety of Prince in the Warner Bros years. has some songs they would know of course and many they won't. The liners note are a great education, too.

After that, start them at Controversy, 1999, Dirty Mind, Prince, ATWIAD, Purple Rain, For You, Parade, SOTT, Lovesexy, and sequentially after that. I like to mix up the early stuff just to show similarities and juxtapositions of sounds and eras.

Stay away from outtakes and boots, for now. Let them get the 80s and 90s into their system first. If they want to go further, you can figure out what's next base on what they're responding to.

I was 12 when I got The Hits/ The B-sides, and it totally captured my imagination, and made me a fan. I loved trying to figure out which songs came out when, and reading the liner notes and wondering who all these women were. The whole thing felt mythic.

mrdxw1213 said:

My friend wants to get into Prince, as the title above says. Thanks in advance ✌🏿

It won't work: Prince is straight.

However, if Prince ever felt so inclined as to be "gotten into", as you so kindly put it, your friend would, at the very least, need the following accessories in order to have the slightest chance:

- Elegant clothes

- Incence sticks

- Candles

- Purple (and purple only) condoms

I wish your friend good luck

ufoclub said:

What music does the friend already like? And what Prince songs already got him interested? Personally I think hits and B-sides is such a mixed bag of Prince flavors that it could turn off someone who doesn’t like a ballad but likes more hard funk, or doesn’t like the bare Dirty Mind sound but would like the Purple Rain sound (which is typical).

Spot on!

People givin you their playlist won't be of any use to you, neither will giving your friend your playlist.

What you need on is to know what sort of music your friend already digs, and honestly if it was me I'd give him an album or 2, as such, not a playlist, because Prince knew how to compile great albums.

But obviously it really depends on the friend's tastes. I wouldn't give the same album (or couple of albums) to all my friends because obviously, one may love Lotusflow3r and hate Newpower Soul or the other way around, another may love NEWS and hate 3121 or the other way around, etc.

It all depends on what they dig.

Prince's music is an aquired taste for the most part, so begin with what's easy for them

Perhaps you might want to curate songs in sets. 17 would be a meaningful number for each set.

Half of each set would be popular songs from the prime of his career.

The other half would be songs made over his whole career YOU think your friend would enjoy.

For sheer example:

Soft and Wet

I Feel For You
Uptown
Controversy
Delirious
When Doves Cry
Mountains
I Could Never Take the Place
Alphabet St.

It's Gonna Be Lonely
Private Joy
17 Days
Sometimes It Snows In April
Strange Relationship
No
And God Created Woman
The Dance

Ask your friend what were his/her 3 favorite tracks from the set. Then make another one (1/2-1/2) according to his/her preferences. If your friend gravitates to songs of a certain era (say from the example above the friend's favorites are Controversy, Uptown and Delirious), then give/recommend 1-2 albums from that era (Controversy and Dirty Mind).

[Edited 4/5/18 13:14pm]

[Edited 4/5/18 13:15pm]

databank said:

ShaggyDog said:

databank said:

It won't work: Prince is straight.

However, if Prince ever felt so inclined as to be "gotten into", as you so kindly put it, your friend would, at the very least, need the following accessories in order to have the slightest chance:

- Elegant clothes

- Incence sticks

- Candles

- Purple (and purple only) condoms

I wish your friend good luck

You forgot the most important one, an ethically ambiguous but exotic skin tone.

databank said:

ShaggyDog said:

databank said: You forgot the most important one, an ethically ambiguous but exotic skin tone.

if a man looked like Vanity....???

You all forgot fishnets & mirrors on the ceiling

StrangeButTrue said:

You all forgot fishnets & mirrors on the ceiling

Just listen to Purple Rain a few times.

start 'im the same way prince did us, show him the bandstand clip, play him controversy,1999 and purple rain, leave him alone after that.

PeteSilas said:

start 'im the same way prince did us, show him the bandstand clip, play him controversy,1999 and purple rain, leave him alone after that.

this.

Let them listen to the Prince album. Then in a few months later I'd hand him Dirty Mind... a few months later 1999...then Purple Rain and so forth. I wouldn't make a mix tape just let him listen to the albums. I listened to these albums repeately for about a year before moving on to the next. I'm not sure how people can process and adore music so quickly. Slow down. Love slow.. It's so much better when we take it easy....

[Edited 4/8/18 10:06am]

Imo, all of Prince's sound can be found on the Prince album. It had everything. It was past, present and future of all his music. The only except is Camille. She came from nowhere.

[Edited 4/8/18 10:09am]

000000 said:

Imo, all of Prince's sound can be found on the Prince album. It had everything. It was past, present and future of all his music. The only except is Camille. She came from nowhere.

[Edited 4/8/18 10:09am]

that's true, the prince album had almost everything that prince would come back to for the next several years, music wise, it had all the portents of the minneapolis sound and thematically, the only thing missing was the crazy god talk and maybe a little of the societal/political talk. Outside of that, the raunch, the gender bendings was all there in vitro.

mrdxw1213 said:

My friend wants to get into Prince, as the title above says. I made a playlist but im pretty sure it has like 60-80 songs and its a lot to handle for a newcomer. I need help with a playlist and stories on whether or not you guys got your friends to into Prince or not. Thanks in advance ✌🏿

If he is really into music and is something of a music geek, give him the 'Dream Factory' bootleg on CD (the reconstructed lost album). That one has blown away everyone I've shown it to, most of whom are more into indie and experimental music and tend to be music nerds, especially when I mention he shelved it.

If he's more of a casual music fan, Purple Rain or 1999 are good places to start.

StrangeButTrue said:

I always suggest Lotusflow3r and Chaos & Disorder or Sign o' The Times as all are full on, press play type albums from different decades. It really depends on people's tastes and I seem to hip more rock fans to Prince. For friends that like to dance and have a little fun I suggest Rave or Art Official Age or Musicology, for friends that I might want a lot of fun with I suggest Come. His albums read more like the presentation a moment in time rather than containers for hits, if they dig a few albums in time they dig deeper, The Hits and Ultimate are there for that.

With all due respect, I would not recommend Lotusflow3r as the first album for someone getting into Prince.

[Edited 4/8/18 11:44am]

[Edited 4/8/18 11:47am]

StrangeButTrue said:

I was thinking about something like this the other day.

My thought was that the best way to get into Prince is probably as many would have done in the 80s.

Purple Rain album first, then listen the next few albums in sequence up to Lovesexy, maybe jump back to 1999 and Controversy/Dirty Mind, after the first couple.

james said:

I was thinking about something like this the other day.

My thought was that the best way to get into Prince is probably as many would have done in the 80s.

Purple Rain album first, then listen the next few albums in sequence up to Lovesexy, maybe jump back to 1999 and Controversy/Dirty Mind, after the first couple.

Good idea.

That's almost exactly how I did it in the 80s though after PR I was all in.

How does one "wants" to get into somebody??

TheFman said:

How does one "wants" to get into somebody??

haha, kids these days...

ShaggyDog said:

StrangeButTrue said:

I always suggest Lotusflow3r and Chaos & Disorder or Sign o' The Times as all are full on, press play type albums from different decades.

Are you sure about recommending Chaos And Disorder as an introductory album for a Prince newbie? Rather than turning them on to Prince they'd probably find it a bit meh, it's not really a great album. It's not terrible but it doesn't seem to have anything special about it, and it definitely doesn't have any iconic or top quality songs. PR, Dirty Mind, ATWIAD, or even Diamonds & Pearls would all be better studio albums for a newbie to start off with perhaps I think. I agree that SOTT is a great album but just because it's so varied I wonder if it might be better introduced a couple of albums in where someone should then really appreciate Prince's range and cross-genre artistry.

.

It depends on the person. Do all newbies seek the 80s sounds? In my case I have known several metalhead/rocker types that are obsessed with innovative ways to approach guitar that have all appreciated C&D. Sure theres some hokey shit here n there but D&P is equally hokey at parts and much more pop-oriented.

.

Dirty Mind is all falsetto (some folks might not appreciate), ATWIAD and D&P have mega popular hits smattered with... the sounds of that era in time. All three of those albums are the type that a casual listener would just zap to the 2-3 tracks they heard once in aisle 3 while shopping for groceries.

.

Lotus is a beautiful rock album with relatable content like Crimson & Clover or Dreamer, fun yet introspective stuff like $ and Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful and the epic Colonized Mind which is more appropriate now than ever. Both C&D and Lotus have been "press play" albums a la SOTT while the three you cite are the ones I hit skip a lot on personally.

.

Rave Un2 might be more accessible to a newbie than all of the items we have both cited as it features more mainstream talent/collaborators that one might be familiar with jamming with Prince.