Remember years ago when Prince went into a local a record store in New York and bought all the bootleg material they had in stock? Does any one know if he sued them afterwards?

Do you know which wrecka stow it was? I wonder if it's the same one I useta buy all my...erm...empty jewel cases at?

FanofDaFascist said:

Hey,
I don't think he sued them. The store was Generation Records in Greenwich Village. He, Mayte and a Bodyguard were there on a Sunday in May I think. The year was 1997. He was in town to present an award on The Essence Awards TV Show. Also, he didn't buy the bootlegs. He demanded to see the owner. When he was told that the owner wasn't in, Prince demanded 1 copy of each of his bootlegs and then walked out of the store. Needless to say, the employees were freaked!!

That's was such a cool thing to do, I bet they laughed their asses off (Prince and crew) afterwards.

manray10 said:

Awww, it's not where I used to go for, ahem, blank jewel cases, but Greenwich Village has got several prime locations for the latest in...well, you know...Prince coulda made a day of it.

Romance1600 said:

Yes, I don't think he bought them. I heard he just walked out with them and said something like, "These are mine". I guess the record store didn't have much recourse, considering they were selling illegal material.

Still, it's always been sad that Prince doesn't understand the whole bootleg thing and why they are great.

TonyC said:

It is even more sad that YOU all don't understand the whole bootleg thing!

I wonder if he was the one that went into the indie music store in my hood and made them stop. One day I went there and they did not have one boot in stock by him, I asked him what was up and all the owner would tell me is that he got busted and that he'll never ever carry anymore boots.


LL edit is hard as hell!
[This message was edited Thu Dec 4 23:24:09 PST 2003 by sinisterpentatonic]

Well Prince missed one boot, becuase I was in that store not long after and picked out one of the empty jewel cases of Prince Music.The guy behind the counter asked where did i get this becuase the employees were told to take all the Prince music off the shelves. I quickly bought my cd and went down to Prince Street to buy some chinese food.

I understand Prince's point, particularly as it relates to unreleased studio material, but he should be taking the long view of this... significantly bootlegged artists have NEVER been hurt by the practice. Ask Springsteen or Dylan or the Grateful Dead or Metallica or Phish. The bands that actually encouraged taping, set aside "taper's pits" at their shows, are the ones who still play to packed houses long after they stop moving records. I really don't know why he never got this.

TedW said:

He never got this because he's an idiot who doesn't get the most obvious trick in the book.

Right before that time I think.I actually contacted Paisley Park about 50 boots I had at the time.I wrote them a letter.Well in less than a week I got a reply asking if Id be interested in helping them out with their little problem.Now everyone who knew what I did thought it was crazy,but he wanted me to send ALL my boots to him.Then they would send them back to me.No one believed he would actually send them back.They did come back after they were done along with a nice care package...thanks P.