My Husband and I just had this discussion a couple of weeks ago as we were spent a little quality time away from parenthood ( you know good drugs and good lovin) any way he asked how coming from my background, how in the world could I have adored Prince's music? I was born in Flint, Mi. 1965 I know this is where I first heard Prince, My family is not into music like I was, so I spent a lot of time in my room scanning Flint radio stations with my little cassette player trying to tape things off the radio. When I was 12 my parents moved us 40 miles away in the country, They did not want me to go to school with all those "big black kids" I continued to listen to all the Prince I could even though the farm kids thought this little "Flint Toy" was wild. I bought all my own records,But Once when I was a teen I challenged my Mom to buy my sister an album by a "black" artist. She got her the Purple rain album and at Christmas dinner I enjoyed bringing up a conversation about music and lyrics. When I told my Dad my little sis had an album which talked about masterbating. Well, you can imagine, then he made us all go listen to darling nikki masterbating with a magazine. He really should of believed me huh? Any way, I protested the parents taking away the album since, they had bought it for her, Me? I've always listened and our two oldest will trll every one they were raised on it. My Husband (the former lumberjack) first really experienced Prince as we were experiementing with ecstacy one nite,,,Now he feels the Purple tunes as much as I. We'll call this reply confessions of a white girl gone bad...LOL

1st time eye saw Him was when He did 'contoversy' on american bandstand. eye enjoyed it, but thought it was a band named PRINCE. a few years later billboard mag had an upside down advert 4 the single 'delirious' on the back cover made up 2 look like a mag called 'delirious kool eye thought. then eye saw PURPLE RAIN & the music hooked me. since then PRINCE has been one my favs.....

I had heard Controversy, Delirious, LRC on the radio, and each had made its mark as something distinct from all the other crap. I LOVED 1999. But the 1st album I owned was Purple Rain. One ofmy best friends was the most popular guy in our grade (I was 12, and this mattered then). He had 1999 and used to play us the dirty bits of LPWM. That was SOOO cool (I think it represented our sexual awakening for most of us). We all bought Purple Rain as soon as it came out, mainly just to impress him. From the first listen I was gone. I bought all the previous records, and all succeeding albums on the day of their release (until TGE that is). I went to see the Purple Rain movie with this same friend, and that night I j-ed off for the first time. In 2000, I met this same friend in MPLS for the Celebration (we now live in different countries, he's no longer a fan). During our stay, he became the first childhood friend whom I told that I'm bisexual. Wild.

I'm one of the 'old' mofo's as someone put it

I think it was back in 1980...i was in the 8th grade i think...I had heard "I wanna be your lover" on the radio and dug it...then I heard "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" and really dug it...then I Heard "Sexy Dancer" and i think that was it...I went out and bought the second Prince album with my own paper route money.

I remember being mad because at the time my Mom worked at a Country radio staion... and sometimes when record companyies would accidentally send them promo copies of soul artists the radio station would let my mom bring them home...she'd come home with stacks and stacks of records...(I'm talking the real thing...WAX records not the cds you yongins are used to;)

I was mad because AFTER buying the Prince cd with my hard earned cash, I was browsing through one of her many record stacks and found a promo copy of the same record!

DOAH!!!

now that i think about it...this may have been in 1979...not 80 as i originally thought.

i don't know...it gets so hard to remember when you're old like me

Eye'vve been thinking now longer about this question "when and why" and I can only find an answer: it's grown!

Ok. Now I'm really feelin' old. I know it was 1979-80. It was my first year in college and a girl on the floor from SC named Chris was in the room next to mine with the wrecka playa turned up on high. All the doors were open and through the door I hear someone (prince) screamin' about his sister. "MF can't you understand" That's it. I've been there ever since and will be.