I'm a music freak, so I'm constantly listening to music new and old. That being said, Prince will always be my number one. This morning, I realized that I haven't had a heavy Prince listening period since Fall 2021. From then to now, this has to be the longest "drought" of Prince music I've ever had since discovering him. So it got me thinking, what has been your longest drought of Prince? A couple months? A couple years? Decades?

Apollo85 said:

I often have lengthy breaks from listening to Prince. There are so many other artists out there that I have an interest in. Weeks, months and longer can pass before anything Prince sparks my interest.
The longest time period without any Prince music in my life, would be several months, maybe longer.

Great questions.

From '86 through the mid-'90s, I was an obsessive fan. My longest droughts during that period would have been perhaps a couple weeks at most, and those were rare.

From the late '90s through 2016, my passion for Prince had nearly disappeared. I could go a year (perhaps even more) without listening to his music. I suppose you could characterize that period as one massive drought.

Prince's death caused me to revisit his music and fall in love with it all over again. It also gave me a chance to re-evalutate and come to appreciate his late career catalogue.

But even now, in my current period of renewed fandom, I still have periods of droughts. In fact, I'll go from one extreme to another. I'll listen to Prince obsessively for some period of time (perhaps a couple of weeks, perhaps a few months) to the point where I make myself sick of his music. Then I'll go the opposite extreme and not listen to him at all for some period of time (two weeks, three months, or whatever).

One things that is sure to pull me out of a drought is the release of new Super Delux sets... I suppose that's true for most people.

Another thing I'll do to pull myself out of a drought is listen to a Peach & Black podcast album review. Hearing them discuss songs gets me excited to listen to them. In fact, I'd just been going through a drought of several months, so I popped in their reviews of Come and 3121 to get me excited to end my drought.

mb71 said:

lurker316 said:

Great questions.

From '86 through the mid-'90s, I was an obsessive fan. My longest droughts during that period would have been perhaps a couple weeks at most, and those were rare.

From the late '90s through 2016, my passion for Prince had nearly disappeared. I could go a year (perhaps even more) without listening to his music. I suppose you could characterize that period as one massive drought.

Prince's death caused me to revisit his music and fall in love with it all over again. It also gave me a chance to re-evalutate and come to appreciate his late career catalogue.

But even now, in my current period of renewed fandom, I still have periods of droughts. In fact, I'll go from one extreme to another. I'll listen to Prince obsessively for some period of time (perhaps a couple of weeks, perhaps a few months) to the point where I make myself sick of his music. Then I'll go the opposite extreme and not listen to him at all for some period of time (two weeks, three months, or whatever).

One things that is sure to pull me out of a drought is the release of new Super Delux sets... I suppose that's true for most people.

Another thing I'll do to pull myself out of a drought is listen to a Peach & Black podcast album review. Hearing them discuss songs gets me excited to listen to them. In fact, I'd just been going through a drought of several months, so I popped in their reviews of Come and 3121 to get me excited to end my drought.

It’s pretty much the same story for me. I discovered Prince as a teenager in the 90s and that represents my hardcore period (I fell as deep as anyone). I still eagerly awaited his contemporary releases at that time, but my obsession was mostly on the strength of his 80s work. As the 90s wore on he gradually lost me, and by the early 2000s I wasn’t listening to him much at all. Every now and then he'd cut a track like 3121 which would pique my interest, but overall the period from 2001-2014 was one long Prince drought for me. I started really getting back into his music around 2014 (again, mostly the old stuff), and his death just cemented it. Finally hearing unreleased tracks that I'd coveted as a teenager has been an absolute joy. Hearing the original We Can Fuck made me feel like a 14 year old boy again, I just need to hear Evolsidog in full now!

fen said:

lurker316 said:

Great questions.

From '86 through the mid-'90s, I was an obsessive fan. My longest droughts during that period would have been perhaps a couple weeks at most, and those were rare.

From the late '90s through 2016, my passion for Prince had nearly disappeared. I could go a year (perhaps even more) without listening to his music. I suppose you could characterize that period as one massive drought.

Prince's death caused me to revisit his music and fall in love with it all over again. It also gave me a chance to re-evalutate and come to appreciate his late career catalogue.

But even now, in my current period of renewed fandom, I still have periods of droughts. In fact, I'll go from one extreme to another. I'll listen to Prince obsessively for some period of time (perhaps a couple of weeks, perhaps a few months) to the point where I make myself sick of his music. Then I'll go the opposite extreme and not listen to him at all for some period of time (two weeks, three months, or whatever).

One thing that is sure to pull me out of a drought is the release of new Super Delux sets... I suppose that's true for most people.

Another thing I'll do to pull myself out of a drought is listen to a Peach & Black podcast album review. Hearing them discuss songs gets me excited to listen to them. In fact, I'd just been going through a drought of several months, so I popped in their reviews of Come and 3121 to get me excited to end my drought.

It’s pretty much the same story for me. I discovered Prince as a teenager in the 90s and that represents my hardcore period (I fell as deep as anyone). I still eagerly awaited his contemporary releases at that time, but my obsession was mostly on the strength of his 80s work. As the 90s wore on he gradually lost me, and by the early 2000s I wasn’t listening to him much at all. Every now and then he'd cut a track like 3121 which would pique my interest, but overall the period from 2001-2014 was one long Prince drought for me. I started really getting back into his music around 2014 (again, mostly the old stuff), and his death just cemented it. Finally hearing unreleased tracks that I'd coveted as a teenager has been an absolute joy. Hearing the original We Can Fuck made me feel like a 14 year old boy again, I just need to hear Evolsidog in full now!

Like you, even though I wasn't following him closely during my extended drought, I would check in occassionally and sometime find a track I loved. Also like you, I'd cite 3121 as one of those tracks that I enjoyed.

Actually, looking back, I suppose I did completely stop following him in the two-thousand-teens. The last album I'd heard was Lotusflow3r (2009). After that, I wasn't even aware he was still putting out albums. It wasn't until after he passed that I became aware of the existence of ArtOffiicalAge, PlectrumElectrum or the Hit N Runs. I actually really liked Lotusflow3r, so I'm not sure why I completely gave up after that.

To keep this post on-topic, I'll point out that anther thing that helps me avoid droughts is the diversity of styles of Prince's music. If I make myself since of his dance songs, I'll switch up listen to his rock songs. As I'd posted in another thread, I don't think any other artist has his range. Listen to Loose! and Te Amo Corazon back to back.

The longest drought I have had was about 2 years , but even then I was still keeping an ear open in case new material was dropped online. In a lot of ways when Prince passed it was a big adjustment as I was a fan of what "Prince is doing now" and now everything is back catalogue unfortunately.

I always remember years by what Prince records were released, so my sense of time has been distorted post 2016 (though covid hasnt helped)

Apollo85 said:

I'm a music freak, so I'm constantly listening to music new and old. That being said, Prince will always be my number one. This morning, I realized that I haven't had a heavy Prince listening period since Fall 2021. From then to now, this has to be the longest "drought" of Prince music I've ever had since discovering him. So it got me thinking, what has been your longest drought of Prince? A couple months? A couple years? Decades?

.

I am a music freak too and I am always listening to new stuff. But I listened to some Prince like everyday. When he passed away, I started avoiding listening to him because it made me sad, and it was a time where I discovered many great musicians who were playing contemporary pop/R&B, modern jazz, etc like Alfa Mist, Esperanza Spalding, Robert Glasper, Thundercat, Mono Neon, Kamasi Washington, etc. Dont know how much time, but maybe like 3 months or so.

I am defining drought for myself is a long period in which a Prince album or song was rarely played. The first drought was from the moment that I heard a bit of The Rainbow Children in 2001 till the release of Musicology in 2004. Rainbow just hit my int the wrong way at the time, and I had no interest to join a Prince music club while still reeeling from TRC. The longer drought was between 2008 (following the tepid Plane Earth) until he died. The subsequent 2.5 years I averaged about a Prince LP a day.

92 to 95: I hated the symbol album and the name change threw me. I had no idea The Black Album or Come was even released until years later. The Gold Experience got me back.

98 to 2001: Not as severe as above as I was still somewhat paying attention. But NPS was barely a blip on my radar and Rave was such a disappointment. I did see him live a couple times around this period and he was amazing of course. The Rainbow Children got me back for good.

The one I'm going through now, not helped at all by the estate going such a long time without releasing anything new or interesting

Poplife88 said:

92 to 95: I hated the symbol album and the name change threw me. I had no idea The Black Album or Come was even released until years later. The Gold Experience got me back.

98 to 2001: Not as severe as above as I was still somewhat paying attention. But NPS was barely a blip on my radar and Rave was such a disappointment. I did see him live a couple times around this period and he was amazing of course. The Rainbow Children got me back for good.

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- I almost gave up during what I call ´Kirky J years´, but Rainbow Children got me back on the boat

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I think Symbol album is such an underrated one. Some great songs with a great band and horns.

The longest draught I've had is about 3 weeks (about 17 days ). It always rains after that. The beauty of his universe is that at least one era is fascinating to me at any given moment.

A couple of years; but when I revisit I revisit hard. It was the SOTT deluxe release that snapped me out of my most recent barron spell.

[Edited 7/31/22 12:29pm]

I went on a self-imposed Prince detox in May. It wasn't intentional at first - I was back in London, for the first time in quite a while, and was listening to only British music. Having heard no Prince for a couple of weeks, probably for the first time since I was 12 (I'm 43), I decided to extend it. And it was broken last night, accidentally, when the better half put on a P-heavy playlist. My plan had been to break it with the Revolution Live bluray.

It's going to be interesting to see if there is any difference listening to Prince after a 3 month break, having gone a solid 26 years (when I properly fell in love with his music age 17 with Emancipation) of probably something close to daily listening.