TrivialPursuit said:

jdcxc said:

It all began with batman for me, I was 12 and into comics (still am) so I bought the OST. It grew on me and a year later I bought PR and it blew my mind. Another year later, I had all the albums released so far and I was a fan.

I was a bit late to the party, it was 89 when I got into prince and his music. Just after his so called prime! But I binged on all his albums at once ! my mind was blown one album after another. And I never looked back! The Nude tour was my first live show of his in london.

mtlfan said:

Nice, I have some of those K-Tel disco comps. I’ve discovered a lot that way.

I have Full Tilt, which is more new wave-ish (Blondie, Genesis). I also have an older Ronco Presents Solid Gold that I wore out "Car Wash" on.

Phrasing.

1999 was the gateway, but Purple Rain was the "drug".


In retrospect, I wanna be your lover was a song that was always around and a favorite.

For me it was the “Sign O The Times” movie. It would have been around 88’ or 89’, and I would have been 10 or 11. My older cousin was living with us at the time and either owned it or borrowed it on VHS. I was dimly aware of James Brown on record, but I’d never seen or heard anything like it. Cat and Sheila made an impression too.

Funnily enough, before this and like a lot of kids of that period MJ was my default idol and I remember being utterly outraged and genuinely angered by the quote on the front of the UK release when I first saw it in our local Our Price. I think that it was Prince’s sense of humour and fun, as well as his edginess that really captured me. The precise moment was when he jumps down after Little Red Corvette and launches into Housequake. Dropped MJ like a stone after that - a few years later I was deep into Miles Davis and P-Funk. Cheers Prince.

Saw him featured as a candidate for the UK Music Hall of Fame in the UK in late 2004, but he sadly didn't make it in.

From there I just started looking into his stuff, the Batman album being among the first. It didn't take long at all for me to become a big fan!

[Edited 4/26/20 8:40am]

In terms of the gateway drug being the thing that wasn't Prince, that led me to Prince... I dunno, there would be a few. Being an MJ fan, liking 'Prince-influenced' '80s pop/R&B, etc.

An old online friend who was both an MJ and Prince fan (I don't know where he is now, haven't heard from him for many years - but if he ever lurks in this thread, he'll know who he is) effectively introduced me to a lot of Prince's stuff (must've been 2014/15-ish - my memory definitely places it before his death), as I didn't know where to even start. From there, I eventually got into the Purple Rain and Gold Experience albums in a really massive way, and it all just built from there, really.

It was hearing snippets of "Let's Go Crazy" and "I Would Die 4 U" during the trailers for the Purple Rain film on TV. I was hooked. I had heard "When Doves Cry" on the radio and thought at the time that it was just okay. ("Where's the bass?") And I had seen the video for "1999" on New York Hot Tracks the previous year and the whole Jill/Lisa dynamic and the fact that it was recorded on video instead of film like most other music videos made me feel a little dirty and that it was something my 14-year-old self should not be seeing. Of course all those feelings changed a year later.

Hearing Little Red Corvette on the radio when I was 13. Then basically stealing the 1999 album from my sister and playing side 1 to DEATH....then finally flipping the record to be even more blown away (barely being able to handle Lets Pretend Were Married and hearing fuck for the first time on a record).

Then When Doves Cry got my totally hooked.

Seeing the Controversy tour in 1981. I liked the Prince album and I Wanna Be Your Lover, but 1981 was the year I became a huge fan.

onlyforaminute said:

jazzz said:

ForeverPaisley said: