With my 1,983rd post, I'll pay tribute to the year I found Prince.

I heard the song 1999 on the radio and loved it. It was Denver's 1510 KDKO AM -- the "black" station. One day my sister called me into her room and had me listen to another song on the radio. It was International Lover. "Who's singing that?" I asked.

"Prince, the guy who sings "1999", she answered.

"Oh, he's got a girl doing vocals?"

"No, that was him."

"Really? Hmm..."

Then shortly thereafter I hear Little Red Corvette for the first time. That was it. Being an unemployed pre-teen, with a three song minimum I would lobby my mom to buy me an album.

But this time was different. This time, when I got to 3 songs, I decided to buy the album MYSELF. It was $9.98, which was cheap, er inexpensive, for a double album, but still more than the usual 6-7.98 album. I looked at it at Record Bar in the Northglenn Mall numerous times before I actually bought it. I was amazed that a double album had so few songs. I loved the overwhelming purpleness of the cover and back side -- purple was already my favorite color.

I saved pennies -- yes, pennies -- for months. It seemed like an eternity. I remember when I finally had enough. I asked my mom to take me to the bank so I could cash in my pennies, then to the mall.

The album was on display on the main wall, even though it still hadn't "crossedover" to the pop charts. I marched in, picked it up, and went straight to the counter. I wanted to go straight home to hear my new discovery. We did stop next door at Hickory Farms on the way out, to tell my cousin Amy hello. (She worked there.) She asked what album I bought. "Prince," I proudly answered.

"Who?" she responded. Needless to say, in a few months, no one would be asking that anymore!!!

I went home, put the record on the record player, and it hasn't stopped spinning since.

Thanks, Prince!!!

GRATUITOUS TATTOO POST:


FUNNY NOTE: My 1999 tattoo was done November 17, 1999, on my 29th birthday. I'd had the album over 15 years at that point. It's my 3rd tattoo, the least painful, and the quickest done. I took the day off of work to do it. When it was done, I looked at it, and for the first time, without the purple background and white dots surrounding it, I realized the 1 is a giant DICKHEAD!!! I was sensitive about it at first (as one should be with a dickhead), but now I'm proud of my 2nd dick!

madartista said:

yeahhh!!!

rdhull said:

thanks, man!!!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

and thank U too!!!

Excellent post!!It made me laugh and it made me misty.I still have my 1999 tour tee.That is a most excellent t-shirt!!They should really re-print those!!One of the best rock tees ever!

Thanks for sharing madarista!! Very cool. Makes me nostalgic...

One day in 8th grade (Fall '83), a teacher asked the class, "Who's your favorite musician or band?" One at a time, each of us answered. Most people said Michael Jackson, Loverboy, or Def Leppard. Then this one really hot chick said, "Prince." Everyone, I kid ya not, said, "Who?" and "Is that his real name?" And I was like, "Huh... hmm, I wonder what turns her on about this guy?" The next day, she brought in the 1999 album to show us. (Remember the Ally Sheedy character in The Breakfast Club -- the outcast with the Prince album? Poor girl.) Most of the kids said, "Eww... him?" But a couple said, "Oh... yeah, I like that one song..." I also knew a couple of the songs (I listened to the radio A LOT), but I didn't know who sang them. I thought "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" were by two totally different people. "That's the same guy?" Anyway, I wanted to hear more about this "Prince." I couldn't believe it when I found out he'd been around long enough to already have four other albums. But you know what really made me a fan? Our town finally said, "I want my MTV" enough times that we finally got the music channel, and one day I saw the video for "1999" and I flipped. This is Prince?! I thought he was the coolest thing I'd ever seen! Christmas was only a couple months away. I put 1999 on my wish list, and my stepmother bought it for me. She later told me that when she went to buy gifts for me, all she could remember is that I had asked for a cassette by some guy named Prince. When she went into the record store, she asked the guy behind the counter, "Do you know who Prince is? My stepson wants something by him." The guy knew exactly what to give her. On Christmas Eve, we were allowed to open one of our small gifts. I opened mine, 1999, and I played it all night long for my family. I quickly found out which parts not to play in front of my parents, not that I really knew what was being said. But I plain wore that tape out! Really, it broke; so I bought the double-vinyl with my own money. I remember playing it each and every day, several times a day. Loved it! Right along with Lovesexy, 1999 remains my favorite Prince album ever.

Jasziah said:

five stars...both of these backgounds are quite similar to my experience...it feels good

Sweet man, that's really sweet...

Jasziah said:

Great story! Thanks for sharing it. I used to listen to it with the bedroom door closed for when the naughty bits came up!



I add Purple Rain, and that forms the triumvirate upon which my Prince fandom is based. I loved it all, but 1999 was the first, Purple Rain blew me away, and Lovesexy, well, it's Lovesexy!

rdhull said:

it's nice to see the common threads, huh?

TheBluePrince said:

thanks!

Cool stories!

I remember watching the 1999 video for the 1st time, my older sista was all excited and dancing her butt off to the video, I was on the other hand rolling my eyes(I wasn't a fan then lol) I was like "Man, the sucka couldn't even afford decent gloves. I've seen the same gloves in the garbage man's hands everytime he passed my our crib".

I was however flooered when I saw the Little Red Corvette, I was like "This couldn't be the same fool in the 1999 video,,,impossible!"

Yeah man, I would be a foolish bitch if I underesteemated the power of 1999. That album(and its outtakes 4 that matter) are the PEAK of my Prince collections(along with the pre-warner/70's outtakes).

A friend and I both saw a clip of the 1999 video on some show like America's top ten
we both loved it
we both thought Prince was the name of the band
The next year he went Van Halen and I went Purple Rain, I bought that, Christmas got me 1999 and controversy

1999 got side one played for a week or so before the rest of the album was played, and then I knew with certainty that I hadn't latched on to just another pop act (at the time Purple Rain was just everywhere and I couldn't really objectivly judge it yet)





Oh yeah everything was records

madartista said:

summerdawn said:

I know! I nearly fell off my chair too. Very cool tattoo, but don't you think you should've looked a bit closer at the 1999 before you got the tat??

kisscamille said:

Yeah, probably.
But then again -- ABSOLUTELY NO REGRETS!