...and then you listened to every Prince song ever made in chronological order!

Experiencing all those songs for the first time would be amazing. And listening to the evolution would be great as well.

As much as I still love all of Prince's albums, 90% of the time it's the first time I heard them that they were the most special to me! I'd love to experience that again.

As exciting as it is to go back into the catalogues, I'm SO glad I knew of Prince from day 1. There's SO much to go through w/ him, I think my head would blow off if I were just getting intro'd to him @ this point

I was speaking to a 30 year old Chinese woman the other day and I asked her if she liked Prince and she said she'd never heard of him. I couldn't believe it! I don't know much about Chinese culture or media so I assume Prince didn't get much coverage in China even at the height of his popularity.

CalhounSq said:

That would have been great! (err.. not the head blowing off part) I've only been a serious fan for the last four years, so the only albums I've heard in order were Rave, TRC, ONA, ONAL and Xpectation (and loving every minute of them!). Even in just those five you can see a change developing.
[This message was edited Mon Apr 14 3:47:37 PDT 2003 by toejam]

toejam said:

It is cool that you have so much to look forward to in terms of going backward through his catalogue, especially now when things are kinda quiet

A friend of mine is getting a crash course in Prince so that IF (by miracle ) the Celebration happens, he'll have some idea of most of his songs. It's kinda fun taking him through it

CalhounSq said:

Yeah, I've basically heard everything now, but I'm dissapointed that I didn't hear them in order

toejam said:

If i had never heard of Prince, I'd probably be a cold, rich whore. Blame it on my childhood.
[This message was edited Mon Apr 14 5:21:58 PDT 2003 by SummerRain]

SummerRain said:

Interesting idea.. I'm interesting in hearing the order some of you got into prince in what order you DID hear his albums

My introduction to Prince was MTV jamming his stuff down my ear and radio during his Purple Rain superstardom. To be completely honest, as a 9 year old Prince's music wasn't appealing to me.

Then on my 10th birthday in February of '85 my parents bought me 3 cassette tapes as my present, They were "Purple Rain", Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" and the 3rd one escapes my memory could possibly have been the "We Are The World" compilation or Tina Turner's "Private Dancer"

Anyways I"m thinking Ohh great.. a *roll of the eyes* PRINCE tape!...

After about a week in my possession I decided to give this album a try. Well what do you know it became my favorite album and I'd say about a year later had to get a new copy due to the tape getting worn out!!

Being naive and 10 years old I had no idea Prince had previous albums. Until a few months later I was in a music section and decided to look at the "Prince & the Revolution" section to find an album entitled "Around The WOrld In A Day".. actually his other albums were there, but I was drawn into "Around The World In A Day" as my next purchase for the reason that it was labled as "AND THE REVOLUTION"..since thats what I liked was Purple Rain, I kinda had an idea that the Revolution stuff would be more interesting.
So this 10 year old brings home this tape with all this psychadelic cover art and with an expectation of a Purple Rain type of material for more listening pleasure...
I still remember QUITE clearly that first time I heard that bizarre scream on the opening of the title track...what the hell is this?!?! Well whatever the hell it was grew on me.
But yet being a broke 10 year old I just enjoyed those 2 albums for a while, until it was the eve of my 11th birthday..no lie!
I vividly remember laying on the couch in the living room VERY late one night with the radio on and the DJ announced a Prince song premeire on the radio.. Which happened to be "Kiss" It was the COOLEST song I had EVER heard. I never heard anything sound like that song before. Didn't take long for another trip to the record store.."uh that album doesn't have a release date for about a month and 1/2 yet"
Welcome "1999"!!!


Anyways here's the order of my listening experience:

1985

Purple Rain
Around The World In A Day

1986

1999
Parade

1987

Sign O' The Times
Controversy
Prince

1988

Lovesexy
The Black Album
Dirty Mind
For You

*I think its critical to mention "The Black Album", I still find it amazing that at the age of 13, I tracked down a Bootleged album. Even though it was a mail-ordered cassette copy, which for a 13 year old $25 bucks was a steeep price to pay!! From same source I obtained a cassette of all the B-sides and 12" versions of songs... Of course which is introduction to a new world all of its own!)
It was also pretty much during this time that I starting figuring out the whole protoge thing and started collecting anything on the Paisley Park lable, then found out its NOT just stuff on that particular lable.

1989

Graffiti Bridge

1990 - present
Everything as it comes out, as soon as I can obtain it, usually RIGHT on release dates. REmember when release dates were so much fun.

Well this has been interesting for me to backtrack my introduction to Prince.
Would love to hear more of these!

this is how i got into Prince. total immersion of the entire catalog within a short span of time.

AaronSuperior said:

ditto.

toejam said:

Yes, man! This is similar happend to me!

I got an overdose d' Amore!

sovembol, Great story. I enjoyed reading it - really sweet.


'...'

If I had never heard of Prince and then was later intorduced to him, I probably wouldn't like his stuff except for a few Purple Rain hits. For me Prince music has to wear on me for a while before I get into it, esp the jazz. Unfortunately it goes like this more often than not---I like it because it is a Prince song.

toejam said:

i won't have to imagine, if i ever have kids they will probably expirience it as you explained unless they fall into another groove...

enjoyniki said:

Im the same, although in a slightly different sense.
It started with ATWIAD - I was EXPECTING one thing, and He delivered something else.

That something else proved (in time) 2 be a great, great album - even 'Q' magazine (England's equivalent of 'Rolling Stone') re-evaluated it's status recently and described it as 'essential'.

So now more than ever, I think that is the essence of why I personally, like Prince - I like the fact that u have 2 go with it, and it's a little like a journey: it may be a long, bumpy ride, but when u get there - it's all worth it.

It's a very rare thing nowadays 4 me 2 like an album that doesnt have any 'work' involved 4 me listening-wise - I like something that will stand the test of time and age like a good wine!

toejam said:

Chronological order huh? I would start gettin' a little bored by the second disc of Emancipation...

going back and getting his back-catalogue was my happiest time as a fan.

I remember that exciting feeling of 'discovery' 2 Mark!