Prince, Without The/A Net

Do you remember being a fan before you entered the net and the Prince world on it? I’m not sure if the net has been a gift or a curse (effa Blueprint).

Do you remember (Jill Scott) when you only knew about the official releases..and The Black Album was the boot that was king? Or going to a “real” record store and seeing Prince In Rock and others. Thinking, “what the hell is going on here? How did these songs get on here? What are these songs? How can I be down? Like Brandy I wanna be down heh.

Remember not knowing the behind the scenes shenanigans…when Dave Hill’s A Pop Life was THE revelation and the info giant?

Remember the time before the net erased the enigma from the chalkboard? Hell even Prince had a hand in doing that. He chopped down his own damn personal Joshua Tree by stating that the Rain was fake…. damn near. It was Universal Studios rain.

Ignorance is bliss but so is being outside of the matrix and having the knowledge, not just power, comes great responsibility. There was no primer for anyone once the net hit…the purple was lived as a continuum.

I guess the net was the next practical step and his efforts on it prove so. I remember an interview he gave ( Prince Talks? The 1985 RS one?) where he stated that it would be cool to materialize in “people’s cribs”. Well with the net he semi got his wish. And I remember he described critics as mama jamas in Izods…I guess I became a mama jamma but with more freakish dress.

Remember thinking he could damn near do no wrong but with the net I found that there was a lot of criticism and even balanced my own views…maybe influenced it too much at times, for the good and the bad. I never knew how bad NPS was until I heard the news on the net ..Im not sure if that influence has kept me from blastin’ that release…I mean I remember Mad Sex, wasted Kisses and a few more being jams…but that’s where the net and the unreleased took over…

Thank god for the net I proclaimed once I got the nerve to give my addy to someone to help me out with some unreleased. It was like a whole ‘other bizarro Prince career of releases. ANYONE REMEMBER CYBERSEEKERS LOL? Man I bought Return Of The Bump Squad soundboard for $60.00 and For Those Of U On Valium for like $40.00. But dayum if I didn’t feel as if I didn’t find me a goldmine…even though being burnt by bad deals and rip off artist…hey..ya play ya gonna pay a lil, so overall the good in unreleased wayyy outweighs da bad.

I came after the Purple community was built. 98 era, after the CB drama but knee deep in the NPS aftermath and smack dab into the sue the fansites hoopla. Wow, what a baptism. My last pre-net release was Crystal Ball and NewPowerSoul. Late, I know but I always arrive late. I had no chance of being disappointed in CB because I didn’t know better….didn’t know what was out there that could have been on there …but so I can still at least appreciate CB because it was Prince without a (the) net.

Finding other people who were purple was a trip and a half though as well. I remember entering a Prince related chat as a virgin and thinking.. “why are these people discussing everyday things and not concentrating on my question about Purple Rain?” Hehe.

Remember before the empire took over and all the personal prince websites? It was great seeing and knowing that there were other fans…it took the net to see the other fans like you were out there because in real time the other fan u know is not as Deep Purple as you are. The people oh the people...where do they all come from. It takes and you get all kinds. The freak, the punk, the metal, the hip hop, the easy listener…they all meet at the same place and then go back to their respective genres and homes and friends and family…but everyone meets at the same purple place for a few minutes…Cheers bizarro…its like everyone knows your name but they may not always be glad ya came…

Before the net on release day it was a special day for only you…you went to purchase...but damn if everyone else didn’t either spread out about the land because he would go top ten…where were these others in line? And what if there was no net or you were not on it. I think a lot of the info on Prince and his doings are largely due to being aware of the net and his place in it. Without a net would you-I- even knows about Pre NEWS Post TRC material…or the High material…or would we think he just semi retired. Cant really blame others for not knowing his current and last few years of activity if they aren’t familiar or follow the purple net because mainstream media is not covering him as before.

Before the net times were simpler. You didn’t have all the baggage of the net website war etc and not every move was reported etc...some enigma remained...but its also like Pleasantville and who the hell wants that? Without a net there’s pretty houses all in a row but like the beginning of Lynch’s Blue Velvet, the underbelly of that peaceful pre net bliss are the worms and slugs and beetles in the yards battling it out.

Prince without the net was innocence. Was cherry. All one did was hear about what Nik did and how pretty the Diamonds n Pearls were. All the while thinking that everyone was everyday people and that it was safe to walk at night in Uptown…and before the net it was safe to walk at night in Uptown because everything was about something else…before He even had his net cherry popped.

We all had to graduate someday though…we could not be Re-Run hey hey hey hangin around Dee…for better or worse before the net we were actually more united as fans but now we ate from the net tree of knowledge so to speak. There are some who still are living with Prince without a net and they are the ones we get upset with at times…maybe we should actually envy them perhaps. I realize that when each one graduates , or does itin the back seat so to speak or however you want to call it…we have to both be glad and sad…it will never be the same for them and they can never go back to how it was…once you lose it you can never get it back. But hasn’t it cleared up your skin and made you feel good/sexier?

20,000 posts leagues under the purple sea you all

.
[This message was edited Wed Jan 7 20:00:05 PST 2004 by rdhull]

Damn, U write long s**t like me.

& mean s**t as N GOOD s**t, not bad.

The Org is a microcosm of the net: a hub of a lot of rumors. Don't believe everything posted/said just because some hardcore fan said and believes it without any substantiation.

The net has kinda ruined the experience for me.
[This message was edited Wed Jan 7 20:13:37 PST 2004 by psykosoul]

psykosoul said:

close

rd

I love reading your stuff!

rdhull said:

Nice post RD, I feel where you coming from. Maybe we should envy the one without "a net"... Somehow I always suspected it to be a bumpy ride in this "virtual" reality... the purple underground never looked the same to me...

Great writing man. U are a credit to the Org. I haven't allowed the Net to color my perceptions of Prince. He is a flawed human being like the rest of us. I didn't need the Net to know that. My relationship with Prince is what tumbles out of those speakers and into my brain. And nobody's opinion of the man or his art effects that relationship. I find the opinions found here to be interesting but guess what, i still like Jughead, and Arms of Orion and whatnot. I'm still in Awe of Prince's talent from "For U" thru "NEWS". I guess he is my musical guru. And that will not change.

Hey RD! I posted the following response on NPGMC too. Keep on keepin on man!


Now this is Reflection. RD this is great stuff. I love the way you throw your thoughts onto the page like this. Yet another chapter in how the sickness manifests.

I must have found the "net" Prince around the same time as you but took even longer to participate fully. I regularly checked the Prince official site and the old org from 1998 but still didn't join them until 2002. I was still working out how to get the crystallballcd.com site to load properly. I missed out on all the 2001 downloads and still haven't heard them, even though I knew it, I was there on the join page, reading the membership options, but realising I had dial-up (and pay as you go at that - we don't have free local calls in the UK), I had just bought my first house and internet enabled PC with my wife, money was an issue, as were download times. man I was so gutted to hear about these tracks that with hindsight I should have just bitten the bullet and joined.

I subscribed to Controversy and it ended one month after I joined. I subsribed to The Interactive Experience fanzine for quite a few months, where I first heard about The Truth, the Crystal Ball setlist (needless to say I well near wet myself when I saw some of the tracks) hell I even wrote to them to thank them for accessing the websites on my behalf and printing it all for us non-net people. Then they were shut down by the lawyers literally a week after I had just paid for the next years subscription.

Gutted, I had to find another way and went straight to the source. It took me 3 or 4 years to fully embrace it and become an addict. I still only really participate in forums though. Chat? no, Trading? no. Hell I dind't really even get to "know" some of you till this past year even though I have seen your names on my screens since 1999. I wait for the offical releases and read the moans and groans and feel despair and wish I hadn't read them but I know I will read them again. I can still honestly say I love everything the man puts out. He is music.

Now! Tell me again where do I find out about Musicology? The Chocolate Invasion? Best Songs? The Dawn? Purple Rain DVDs? New Tours? Yep that's right the net, the web. Some are rumours, some get postponed, some are just around the corner but it sure is fun isn't it?

That was my rant "RD" Style!

Peace

Abrazo said:

same here

tricky99 said:

Un fortunately I have...and I am trying to remedy that this year.



I kind of did..I was enamored with the enigma of it all..and thats a good thing the net did do though..made me realize that he is just like errybody else etc...deep down I already knew this ..I just never acknowledged it




I think that was why I beefed with so many idiots in amp...because I feel th e same way and no matter what most of them acted as if they knew what was good and what was bad...I later became one of them in my stance etc...Im shedding that skin though

KeithyT said:

I love you sir keithyt...able to take the lumps and keep on keepin on un-phased...

waiitng all behind th e wings for tha long etc? stamina and perseverance like a mutha

thanks for stayin on and finall;y showing up

go head with ya bad self...

Supernova said:

word em up lol

amen.

rdhull said:

This is perfect! A fantastic commentary.

RD, you've truly outdone yourself with this post. I'll be your sex slave if you want ... or I'll just do your laundry. Your choice.

What has really hurt my enjoyment of the music is not the net (actually I think the wealth of information, negative and positive, has only helped stoke the ever-burning purple fire for me), but the NPGMC. This year I became so disgusted with everything about that place that I would literally feel dirty when I listened to Prince...so I didn't for a few months. Now that I don't ever go to the club and I have a little better perspective, it's back to playing Prince music to give me the most incredible, exciting, reassuring feeling of joy I've ever known. You think I'm kidding?

Nothing ruins anything for me.It was me and his music in middle school and it's me and his music now.I think it's cool that so many are passionate about it and there is a lot of love and hate.I really dig all the opinions and I take them all in.I learn alot from you,guys and it's interesting.However,I am a man and I know what I believe.Prince's music is in my psyche and it's a good friend.That doesn't mean I don't have other "friends" or that sometimes,I am not a little less passionate,but I'm never dispassionate and never disheartened or disillusioned.I am no longer a child,even though I hold onto some of that and always will.I ,somehow
With the net or without the net?What's really the difference??I have more music,but nothing else changed.Cool is cool.

Excellent topic and commentary RD. I feel the same way as you do. However, my now tarnished view of Prince has brought him a bit more down to earth.

I also recall forking over major bucks for boots, especially Crucial, but I'm not gonna say how much! (shame on me!) The funny thing is, I never felt ripped off, and it's still one of my favorite items in my collection of Prince stuff.

With the access that the net gives Prince to express his views, it's really taken the mystery out of his personna. He's still my favorite songwriter/musician, and I don't see that changing, but some days I do miss the mystery.

In the song "Strange but True" he mentions a few things about this.

theblueangel said:

Rememeber a promise is a promise lol



I feel ya...the past few years on th e net and th e sites etc DID sour it b8ut yet it also took me higher..so its been a Gift and a Curse (effa Blueprint Jay-Z)...but I realize this is th eyear where I go back to basics and how I (things) used to be. Focus on the music etc. Dont get me wrong..I appreciate and am melancholy about the net aspect of it all but I let my guard down this year and let it distort my view...I'm getting better now.

rockwilder said:

[

copy..print...save



Sometimes my passion gets in the way



Copy...print..save



I have other friends i.e. passions etc...however I became disillusioned...sure it took me 5 plus years to become disillusioned but I fought it for so long I finally caved in..but Im back I'm better now lol...one gets tired of fighting the good fight all the time...it isn't easy



??




the world of the music and everyone engulfed in it



I'm not sure that's a good or bad thing..to not have been affected...as you claim.
[This message was edited Fri Jan 9 10:56:26 PST 2004 by rdhull]

prince, before the net:

i feel the same about

him now as i did before:

much respect

although, i'm a little more

realistic about prince the man

he's not perfect, niether am i

prince the musician kicks all ass

i do relate 2 the longing 4

the more mysterious age when

his business wasn't just a few

key strokes away

however, i'm still diggin the man

i'm still here, still caught up

in the purple wonderment of it all