Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Hello, sweetie!!!

My story is differen, Maybe I'm younger or in Spain Prince wasn't so known like in other countries. But more or less in 1988 I heard Lovesexy and I loved it. I watched a concert (live in Germany) on television. And I liked Prince, even with Batman.
In 1991 Cream and Diamonds and Pearls were a surprise for me, and when I listened to "Money don't matter 2night" I felt this is the music I loved the most.

And I say my story is different for the next point. After hearing "Money don't matter 2night" I bought a bigraphy of Prince, and I was amazed with his life. And when I read that he made that album that way, he played that instruments, he met that people, I looked for in shops the albums to check it out.

Nowadays I have all his official discography and a lot of bootlegs.

In 1998 he played in my city, and it was an exciting moment for me.

And I can shout: HE IS THE BIGGEST MUSICIAN ALIVE!!!

Summer of '84. My cousin was babysitting me for 3 weeks and Purple Rain was all she listened to.

I paid attention ever since.

stymie said:

Whatever... The rest was good, but I guess that didn't count, huh?

Mcwatson68 said:

It was early summer of 1984, and I was with my dad in his car driving around Hutchinson, MN in the rain when on the radio came "When Doves Cry". I was hooked from there on.

i have always been into music in a big way, i'm nearly 40, so when i was 8 or 9 prince was about 13/14 and not releasing any music yet.i was into whatever my mum was buying i was lucky she was buying mainly diana ross, donna summer, and barry white i remember listening to the 1st the last my everything by bazza with 1 speaker either side of my head (its a miracle i aint deaf) my teenage years were spent groing up with the clash, the jam, sex pistols, generation x , 999,stranglers, punk rock became the soudtrack of my youth ol princey boy was releasing music by now, i wanna be your lover, gotta stop twice ! and 1999 were released, but i had no chance of hearing this stuff as i was carried away on a wave of pure punk !

now i get to how i got into prince.

i saw prince video on totp for when doves cry and never paid attention to the music because i was pissing myself laughing at what a ridiculous little shit prince was. i slaughtered him !!! i thought he was shocking .

a few weeks later i was in a record shop and this song came on wdc and i am thinking to myself "what a great song" but i'm sure its someone i dont like ! (i know i am pathetic). this was back in the day you could go to the counter and the sleeve would be displayed with a sign NOW PLAYING. bastard !!! confirmed a brill song only snag it was this prince guy i didnt like !

i gave in bought the single then the album pr. talk about blown away PRINCE WAS MY NEW GOD ! i had never heard anyone that different/good ever ! i found the single 1999 in a second hand shop and when i played the b side i cant describe how i felt, how come u dont call me... is still my all time fave prince song , i couldnt believe a song that good was a b side. i bought his back catalogue of albums and started collecting the singles for the b sides ! i had always been a serious collector of music i actually sold my entire music collection to use the money to spend on collecting prince.i was hooked !!!every month for 10 years i had an ad in record collector selling my collection bit by bit and buying prince collectables bit by bit.ive got a pretty complete collection now, almost everything me thinks !i dont think anyone has EVERYTHING ! but feel free to correct me if i am wrong.

I was like still pretty fuckin young back then and one day I went with my brother to a recordstore where they sold new import albums. Once inside I noticed that Dirty Mind was displayed pretty dominantly, the record must have just been out. Anyway, he was staring at me with those eyes ...



... and there was something beautifully strange about him, I just had to buy the record - so I did.

After listening to it extensively that week I felt I had seen the Light, this was sooo iiiiit for me - Dirty Mind, Uptown, When you were Mine, Sister, Head ... aargh, I became obsessed and totally hardcore, I absorbed everything about Prince I could get my hands on, bought all his singles, many 12" versions, to be able to listen to the great B-side tracks, all his albums, almost all magazines that had articles about him, books, posters went to all his concerts, that guy was my God for many years in music, I totally and completely loved the guy, his music, the way he looked and dressed, his style, everything. His music, with each album for many years to come, only got better and better. Seriously those were some good good times.


[This message was edited Thu Oct 2 16:43:16 PDT 2003 by SunDance]

A-U-T-OMATIC, tell me what to do-oo-oo.

That was it for me.

.

I was 12. Saw the 1999 clip on TV and was intrigued - the look, the whole thing. My friend's parents owned a bar with a jukebox, and she said it had the song 1999 on it and played the b-side to me over the phone and taped it for me by putting her tape recorder next to the jukebox speaker! I still have that tape today, 20 years later.
My little sister and I pooled together all our pocket money the year after, and we were going to buy Thriller or Purple Rain. Luckily we bought PR! Listening to that for the first time in my mum's car outside the supermarket was kind of the moment that nothing has ever lived up to again (including first kiss etc!) and I spent $$$ to try to get the feeling again. The only thing that ever cam close was when I bought the Jill Jones CD in the early 90's, it took 10 weeks to order from Japan and I cried when I first heard it.

Uhhh, my story is nothing like the rest of yours, being 20 years old. But hell, I'll tell it anyway.

I saw the ad for Emancipation on TV late 1995/early 1996 (can't remember exactly). I was aware of Prince through the fact that I was a huge Michael Jackson fan, but had never really listened to any of his music. The ad had some music in the background that made me sit up, so I begged $50 from my mum (which was a huge amount for me at age 13!) and ran out to get the CD.

As a couple of people mentioned, I hated it at first. I was like "man, I could have bought 3 shirts with this cash!" but after several marathon listening sessions with two of my friends, we were all heavily obsessed with "Face Down" and "Mr Happy". I even tried to make my entire music class listen to it at school... after they stopped laughing, I got reprimanded severely for the foul language. LOL.

Since then I've bought a lot of the back-calalogue, admittedly not all. I probably own about 12 albums.

I was seeing a guy a year or two ago who was a diehard, hardcore fan, and had every bit of P stuff you can get (and some you can't). He burned me a couple of compilations of the best tracks from albums I didn't have, and opened my eyes to the vast wealth of music I was ignoring. To summarise, I'm still learning but I like most of what I hear (obvious exceptions - Graffiti Bridge, etc). hehe.

We are from a Penticostal, God fearing family. But my older sister would turn on the video channel when my parents weren't home to catch Madonna's "Borderline" video. Almost everyday when that video was done, like clockwork "When doves cry" would come on. That signature synth dug a hole in my skull that has never found its way out. My mother caught us watching the vids and told us it was wrong to watch "those things". My sis stopped but I was too far gone. Damn that Prince!!!




"Maybe I'm just like my father. Too cold."

My first introduction to Prince happened around 1989 when I was 10 years old. My friend and I sneaked into her sister's bedroom, took her copy of Purple Rain and played it over and over again (God, if my mother only knew!!!). The love affair begins. Then Batman came out in cinema and I went to see it. I heard Partyman in the film and sat to watch the credits to see who it was. I couldn't believe it was Prince. I bought the Batman soundtrack and at the time wasn't that impressed but it has grown on me over the years. I didn't buy GB when it came out cos I was kinda disappointed by Batman. Then in 1991 Gett Off came out and completely kicked me up the ass. When I heard the song on the radio and saw the video I was completely hooked. I bought D&P and played the album to death. After that I bought all the successive albums, the back catalogue and whatever else I could find.
[This message was edited Fri Oct 3 2:01:20 PDT 2003 by LolaM]

I think I was 6 or 7. My sister had the 1999 tape. She played the hell out of it. I was feeling them records! I remember Purple Rain landed in theatres when I was 7 n askin my mom if I could see it n my big brother laughed at me. Cause it was rated R.

Oh yeah, it was on from then. I think all the ass whuppins I got for sneaking my big sisters 1999, PR, and ATWIAD, tapes and listening to em in my room enforced my passion. Is that why I like that pain/pleasure stuff? HA HA HA!
yeah baby!

Easy. Watching my wife wearing a thong and shaking her sweet ass to Gett Off and Cream. Nuff said.

Well, if you guys remember the old days on Friday Night Videos that was on late night Fridays on NBC? Well, I saw a Prince video and was kinda cool about it for the way he dances and moves with the mic stand. I can't quite remember the video. Then a year or so later, I was young at that time, I saw two of his videos, 1999 and Little Red Corvette on some Saturday late morning show that would have videos playing. I started to dig it. Then I went out and bought the album. Quite young for me to be playing it as my parents were amazed at some of the songs in 1999. But it didn't stop us from getting Purple Rain when it hit the streets. You know back then at that time, parents were upset and demand some warning label. My parents were cool and just made sure that we knew it was wrong and not to act on it. Ever since, my whole family knew I was a fan of him. But I couldn't go to the Purple Rain Tour as my parents were afraid of the exposure or whatever. Damn it! A friend of mine did and told me all about it.

mochalox said:

quite a rarity to go from punk to incorporating prince...

danielboon said:

JDINTERACTIVE said:

lol I know

9th Grade - my girlfriend played "Head". And then she played the song.

THAT will make you sit up and listen.

It's all Mojo's fault.

the first Prince cd I ever bought was '3 Chains O Gold'.. My parents were ultra-religious when I was a kid, so I wasn't "allowed" to buy many albums.. then when I was 13, A friend turned me on to Prince shortly after "Money Don't Matter 2night" premiered on MTV.. I was intrigued by Prince, mainly because I had been kept away from the "mainstream" for so long due to strict Catholic upbringing, so it was slightly devious listening to his often raunchy work..

The moment I really started "digging" his music was in 1993 on the 7th grade school bus. Our bus always had a radio tuned to the top 40 station over the intercom, so we could listen to music as we rode. The kids (including myself) were always loud, misbehaved, rambunctious, and hyper.. except for one morning.. The radio was on, and the students were as loud and unruly as ever... then, suddenly, "The Morning Papers" came on the radio, and the entire bus fell dead silent. It was so damn quiet.. everyone was listening to the song in awe, and that's when I truly became a Prince fan. As soon as the song was over, everyone began screaming out the window at passing pedestrians, throwing paper and bottles around the bus...

Of course, those magical moments have become rare these days, and I've become a bit jaded since the total letdown of "Emancipation," but I'd take fuzzy nostalgia over swill like "N.E.W.S." any day..

I first heard of Prince when I saw a picture of him in Smash Hits ( UK Pop Mag ) around the time of Dirty Mind. At first I thought it was a picture of Sylvester.
First song I heard was the original UK release of 1999 ( in 1983? ).Thought it was a good song but never bought it.
After that I kept hearing his singles on the radio and my interest grew until I started buying his records in 1987. I was a big fan of George Clinton and James Brown at the time and noticed the musical references and through that I was hooked.In return Prince turned me on to rock music as before then I was a bit of a soul snob and wasn't interested in other styles of music.

I didn't realise how much fun it is to read the different ways people started to dig him.
I get the idea that each of his songs expanded the community.
Keep the stories coming please, I'm eating these!

My love for Prince started once I saw the Batman movie. I really dug the soundtrack and wanted to find out more.

Its been a pure delight to be a fan ever since

It was 1989 when I spend my vacation with my parents in France. I was 10 years old back then, and ofcourse I was a huge MJ fan, like all 10 year old boys were back then. However, My dad had this tape of SOTT, which he had been given by a friend of his. At first I wasn't interested because I had always judged Prince as an ugly cunt. But the first time my dad played SOTT in the car I was hooked. I spend all summer listening to the tape, and the time we got back I immediately bought the Batman album (which had just been released).
Untill the age of 14 I was totally obsessed by Prince. However, in the same time house music was really booming, Especially in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands a new subculture was rising: the gabberculture. Gabbers are people (often bold) who go weekly to big raves where they take as many drugs as possible. I was totally intriged by this phenomenon, and started listening to gabber house (real hard house music). From my 16th till my 20th I attended as many raves as possible, and Prince wasnt on my mind anymore.

As I grey older and lost interest in drugs, I accidentily heard the emacipation album (disc 3) by a relative of mine (I think this was in 2001), and again I started to dig Prince. Nowadays I listen to Prince a lot, but I'm not obsessed by him anymore like I was when I was in my early teens. My scope has broadened: techno music, enigma, Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Macy Grey, Beck, white stripes, etc. etc.

The muso vote says Livesexy !

I happened to tune into Channel 4 at the beginning of their Lovesexy concert (88 ?), and was blown away by the excellence of the musicians and the variety of style. Sure made a difference from the Yes and Rick Wakeman I was listening to at the time (ouch !)

Had to buy Lovesexy the very next week, and it's still a firm favourite - the heavy layering on that album is still peerless. It's a trip all right !

From then on went through his back catalogue and liked more than I disliked (except for the first album possibly). "Ole' boy" can still amaze musically too (TRC), so is always worth a listen

a Co*WOrker of mine let me borrow The Gold Xperience when i used 2 work 4 FL&L (FloridaPower & Light) & she seemed like an Odd Character & i always thought (becuz of my Parents) that P was Gay or something. i listen'd 2 TGX all the way 2 the end & i was on the verge of tearz becuz i thought it was such a Beautfully Composed Album...

been in2 P since Emanciaptaion Era

I don't "dig" his music, I listen to it.

Got a million of em.

I started digging a hole for his music after the release of "Graffiti Bridge" and that hole keeps getting bigger and bigger!