Controversy

Dirty Mind!

A buddy snuck the cassette into our grade school class and it forever changed my world.

Musicology - I was a little late to the party (hehe). The thing that did it for me was when I saw Prince in the Black Sweat Video (I fell in love) but the first album I brought was Musicology and then 3121 & everything else followed. Collect both CD and Vinyl.

gollygirl said:

Purple Rain

Around The World In A Day. Took me from a casual fan to a superfan.

funkypixie said:

For me Emancipation. I became a fan in about 2001 and started off working my way through the classic 80's stuff (as most new fans do) which I loved. Then I found a cheapish copy of Emancipation so picked it up but did so with a bit of trepidation having read the typcial press narrative about Prince losing his way in the 90's, putting out too much material etc. Suffice to say while I didn't love every track, I still thought it was terrific and I knew from that point I would likely enjoy his output from any era and hence became a 'permanent' fan!

RODSERLING said:

Emancipation

That's the album that made me stop being a Prince fan. I couldn't believe how derivative the songs were, how stale the drum programming was, and how plastic the whole sound came across. I stopped being a hardcore fan and didn't come back into the fold until after he passed away.

dualboot said:

The original album had a fold out cover of Prince(r.i.p.) naked on a horse.

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''1999''

First heard the song on the radio, desperately wanting to have it.

Only a couple of months later I got my hands on the album through import.

Delighted with the discovery of the electro-funk - a brand new sound to me.

I knew nothing about Prince yet.

''Purple Rain'' and the wordly hype after that only made it worse in the utmost positive way.

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[Edited 1/13/21 22:32pm]

"I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Uptown" sparked my interest enough to buy the 45s. Hearing "Head" on the radio was the funkiest thing I had ever heard and I had to have it and went to the record store looking for the 45. When you're a kid, you don't know how the business works. You think everything you hear is available on a 45. When I found out it wasn't, I bought the "Dirty Mind" album. I loved every track on it and a few weeks later, I bought the "Prince" album.

Purple Rain. Crazy to think I was only 12 years old when it was released.

kingricefan said:

1999. Musically and lyrically there was nothing like that album. I would put my headphones on, lay back and just lose myself in that universe that Prince had created. I can't even count how many times I played that album. Man, I studied that album!

machinegun said:

kingricefan said:

1999. Musically and lyrically there was nothing like that album. I would put my headphones on, lay back and just lose myself in that universe that Prince had created. I can't even count how many times I played that album. Man, I studied that album!

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genuinely, it was D&P

I would say Purple Rain, which is the second Prince album I heard. First was 1999.

It was a link of Controversy and 1999

kingricefan said:

1999. Musically and lyrically there was nothing like that album. I would put my headphones on, lay back and just lose myself in that universe that Prince had created. I can't even count how many times I played that album. Man, I studied that album!

That is one of my favorite Prince albums as well. Top 3 along with PR and SOTT.

I read that Prince was into Blade Runner when he was making 1999. Once I read that, it was immediately clear!

RODSERLING said:

Emancipation

I can honestly say that I have never listened to the album all the way through. I might need to do that someday.

That being said "Jam Of The Year" is one of my favorite Prince tracks.

MIInsane said:

Emancipation