Post by The Curmudgeon on Apr 22, 2016 1:37:24 GMT 2
Sorry if this is a little bit self-serving, but I just hammered this out and thought I'd put it here for, you know, posterity or something.
It was my brother who got me into Prince, and he didn’t even like him.
Remember those “buy five CD’s for 99p, get one FREE” membership things you used to get, stuffed inside magazines? He had signed up for one of those, and the FREE CD was Prince’s “Diamonds and Pearls” album. A friend of mine’s big, cooler brother played Prince in his bedroom, and hey, I was cool too, right? So I “borrowed” my brothers Prince album. I’ve still got it, and I’m pretty sure he’s accepted he’s not getting it back.
That was officially My First Prince Album, but the first Prince album, and indeed the first ever album I bought myself was a few months later, when I realised that this Prince guy was actually pretty good, but the Diamonds and Pearls album didn’t have some of the songs I knew, namely “Kiss” and the gloriously filthy “Sexy MF” (gasp! He says motherfucker in it!!) But “Prince – The Hits 2” did, which I bought with birthday money when I was 14. The liner notes told you what albums these singles came from, and I knew I was going to get those albums. Albums were easy to come by, a quick trip into Hamilton and a new Prince album every couple of weeks, looking through the lyric book on the bus on the way back home imagining what the songs would sound like. And it wasn't just the music I loved, it was the whole package. The look, the "4U" writing that existed before text-speak, the fact he insisted on a mixed race group, the fact every album was written, produced and performed by him. The whole thing. Loved it.
I was never really “into” music before Prince. My main love was my Sega Megadrive so the Sonic the Hedgehog music was probably the most played tune in my bedroom at that point. It was Prince that not only got me into music, but also got me into buying albums and not just relying on hit singles, because I soon realised my favourite Prince songs weren’t hits. I had never been to a live concert before either, and even though Prince was playing in Glasgow I didn’t even think of going, especially as I had no-one to go with. My mum and dad bought me tickets for my 15th birthday. And that, friends, is when shit got REAL.
I’ve been to literally hundreds of gigs since but I can say the three times I’ve seen Prince play are the best shows I’ve ever seen. Not taking anything away from any of the other bands and artists I’ve seen live, but no-one can touch Prince. No-one. The third and final time at the Hydro, being a stones throw away from the man himself as he played Purple Rain and purple confetti rained down on me is something I will always remember and be thankful for.
Anyway, it was after the live gig in 1995 where I became OBSESSED with Prince. Not just into, not just a fan.. nuts about him. My room was a shrine to him. And after he changed his name to the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, I went around school calling myself The Artist Formerly Known As Chris. I would hand in homework with the Prince symbol written underneath it..and the teachers just ended up kind of accepting it. I remember a teacher reading aloud votes that we had handed in for a new prefect, “That’s one for Elaine, one for John, one for Elaine…. ‘I Do Not Vote, Voting is Not Part of the New Power Generation, Peace and B Wild.’ Oh, no prizes for who wrote THAT.” For some school talent show thing I even dressed up and lip-synched a Prince song, wearing high heels, a raspberry beret and make-up. How did I even survive high-school?
I had a Prince necklace that I bought at the live concert that I wore everyday, even though the cheap metal gave me a rash. I lost it on a night out once a few years later and I was devastated, so the only solution was to have the symbol tattooed onto my arm. That way I couldn’t lose it (unless I was REALLY unlucky). I was told I was mad, it was something I would look back on and regret and what about when I was 70 etc etc. Don’t regret it at all, obviously, and actually got the ink touched up and re-coloured when I was in my late twenties.
With the rise of the internet, you could be forgiven for thinking that I’d spend all my time lurking on Prince discussion boards and obsessing over Prince’s every move. With celebrity culture the way it is now, we know everything about every famous person, and I’ve never been like that with Prince. I’ve always held him on some holier than thou platform, like he’s some extra terrestrial sky-being who comes to earth to release albums and tour, and so I know almost nothing about his private life. Prince was never a tabloid magnet, and was a very private person, and I liked him that way.
I’ve obviously got into music more than anything else over the last twenty years, and I love hundreds of albums and loads of bands, but no-one has ever come close to Prince. That will never change. It’s a cliché to say “they may be gone, but we’ll always have their music”, but in a way that’s true.
It used to be I would come home and listen to Prince albums, locked away in my room flicking through the lyric books and memerising the small print inside. Now with iTunes I’m experiencing all those albums again, and so I’ve got Prince in my head on the way to work or on the bus back home, and there’s just so much of it that I never get bored. It’s true that we’ll never have an album of all new Prince material again, and that’s very sad, but his legendary vault of thousands of unreleased songs will keep me going when they eventually get released, and my fanboy obsession will continue. And I've converted Rowey to him as well, not on the same level obviously, but my wife now listens to Prince and even has a Prince t-shirt. Job done.
So, Prince is dead. But he’s left behind an iron willed determination to go by his own rules, regardless of charts or sales. He never once compromised or sold out, and with Prince you either kept up or just got out of the way. And if that’s not every bit what a hero should be, I don’t know what else qualifies. And so it’s enormously sad that he’s gone, but I’m just happy he’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.
Always cry for love, never cry for pain.
Thanks, Prince.
It was my brother who got me into Prince, and he didn’t even like him.
Remember those “buy five CD’s for 99p, get one FREE” membership things you used to get, stuffed inside magazines? He had signed up for one of those, and the FREE CD was Prince’s “Diamonds and Pearls” album. A friend of mine’s big, cooler brother played Prince in his bedroom, and hey, I was cool too, right? So I “borrowed” my brothers Prince album. I’ve still got it, and I’m pretty sure he’s accepted he’s not getting it back.
That was officially My First Prince Album, but the first Prince album, and indeed the first ever album I bought myself was a few months later, when I realised that this Prince guy was actually pretty good, but the Diamonds and Pearls album didn’t have some of the songs I knew, namely “Kiss” and the gloriously filthy “Sexy MF” (gasp! He says motherfucker in it!!) But “Prince – The Hits 2” did, which I bought with birthday money when I was 14. The liner notes told you what albums these singles came from, and I knew I was going to get those albums. Albums were easy to come by, a quick trip into Hamilton and a new Prince album every couple of weeks, looking through the lyric book on the bus on the way back home imagining what the songs would sound like. And it wasn't just the music I loved, it was the whole package. The look, the "4U" writing that existed before text-speak, the fact he insisted on a mixed race group, the fact every album was written, produced and performed by him. The whole thing. Loved it.
I was never really “into” music before Prince. My main love was my Sega Megadrive so the Sonic the Hedgehog music was probably the most played tune in my bedroom at that point. It was Prince that not only got me into music, but also got me into buying albums and not just relying on hit singles, because I soon realised my favourite Prince songs weren’t hits. I had never been to a live concert before either, and even though Prince was playing in Glasgow I didn’t even think of going, especially as I had no-one to go with. My mum and dad bought me tickets for my 15th birthday. And that, friends, is when shit got REAL.
I’ve been to literally hundreds of gigs since but I can say the three times I’ve seen Prince play are the best shows I’ve ever seen. Not taking anything away from any of the other bands and artists I’ve seen live, but no-one can touch Prince. No-one. The third and final time at the Hydro, being a stones throw away from the man himself as he played Purple Rain and purple confetti rained down on me is something I will always remember and be thankful for.
Anyway, it was after the live gig in 1995 where I became OBSESSED with Prince. Not just into, not just a fan.. nuts about him. My room was a shrine to him. And after he changed his name to the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, I went around school calling myself The Artist Formerly Known As Chris. I would hand in homework with the Prince symbol written underneath it..and the teachers just ended up kind of accepting it. I remember a teacher reading aloud votes that we had handed in for a new prefect, “That’s one for Elaine, one for John, one for Elaine…. ‘I Do Not Vote, Voting is Not Part of the New Power Generation, Peace and B Wild.’ Oh, no prizes for who wrote THAT.” For some school talent show thing I even dressed up and lip-synched a Prince song, wearing high heels, a raspberry beret and make-up. How did I even survive high-school?
I had a Prince necklace that I bought at the live concert that I wore everyday, even though the cheap metal gave me a rash. I lost it on a night out once a few years later and I was devastated, so the only solution was to have the symbol tattooed onto my arm. That way I couldn’t lose it (unless I was REALLY unlucky). I was told I was mad, it was something I would look back on and regret and what about when I was 70 etc etc. Don’t regret it at all, obviously, and actually got the ink touched up and re-coloured when I was in my late twenties.
With the rise of the internet, you could be forgiven for thinking that I’d spend all my time lurking on Prince discussion boards and obsessing over Prince’s every move. With celebrity culture the way it is now, we know everything about every famous person, and I’ve never been like that with Prince. I’ve always held him on some holier than thou platform, like he’s some extra terrestrial sky-being who comes to earth to release albums and tour, and so I know almost nothing about his private life. Prince was never a tabloid magnet, and was a very private person, and I liked him that way.
I’ve obviously got into music more than anything else over the last twenty years, and I love hundreds of albums and loads of bands, but no-one has ever come close to Prince. That will never change. It’s a cliché to say “they may be gone, but we’ll always have their music”, but in a way that’s true.
It used to be I would come home and listen to Prince albums, locked away in my room flicking through the lyric books and memerising the small print inside. Now with iTunes I’m experiencing all those albums again, and so I’ve got Prince in my head on the way to work or on the bus back home, and there’s just so much of it that I never get bored. It’s true that we’ll never have an album of all new Prince material again, and that’s very sad, but his legendary vault of thousands of unreleased songs will keep me going when they eventually get released, and my fanboy obsession will continue. And I've converted Rowey to him as well, not on the same level obviously, but my wife now listens to Prince and even has a Prince t-shirt. Job done.
So, Prince is dead. But he’s left behind an iron willed determination to go by his own rules, regardless of charts or sales. He never once compromised or sold out, and with Prince you either kept up or just got out of the way. And if that’s not every bit what a hero should be, I don’t know what else qualifies. And so it’s enormously sad that he’s gone, but I’m just happy he’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.
Always cry for love, never cry for pain.
Thanks, Prince.
