22 comments

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  DwDunphy

  1 year ago

  Same boat here.
  
  Look, where I grew up, you couldn't be a Rocker, Man!! and like Prince. Talented guy, plays a mean guitar, yeah, yeah, yeah... But there was something that an adolescent white kid looking to fit in just could abide by The Purple One.
  
  In retrospect, damn it, I was wrong. I guess you have to get older to get over some of those bugaboos of youth, just to hear what's really there.
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  Rob

  1 year ago

  Are the Popdose folks telepathically wired to me?
  
  The post earlier today on my blog – Play it And Be Damned (Thanks, Jeff, for the link on the left side) – talks about Prince's performance at the 2004 RnR Hall of Fame ceremony. I still think it is amazing.
  
  But then again, not entirely unexpected given the guitar playing Prince displayed on 1999, Purple Rain ("Let's Go Crazy," anyone?) and his first post-Revolution album Sign O The Times. Too often, his personal quirks and narcissism obscure the fact that he is an incredible musician
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  EightE1

  1 year ago

  That version of "Purple Rain" is absolutely transcendent.
  
  Rob
  EightE1
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  Bastard_Number_1

  1 year ago

  Prince - my favorite artist ever. Completely unique and constantly not only adapting his style to remain relevant but not giving a sh*t if you like it or not. Plus, the guy records non-stop and constantly tosses out new songs, albums etc...to those that like him enough to dig past the chain store rack.
  
  He's had his crap moments - like in the 90's when he was just tossing out records to get out of his contract (even those weren't that bad!) but to have 1999, The Love Symbol Album (His best album in my opinion) and 3121 - 3 great albums - 3 different decades. You don't get that very often these days.
  
  So talented and so good!
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  ken

  1 year ago

  It's all about who lights that fire the first time. Like a lot of teenagers who also liked 'rock', we were torn, I mean Prince just shredded the guitar, but then he wore all those frilly outfits, what's a hetero teen male to do?
  
  For me it was the older sister of my best friend Darren, Heather was her name. Heather was the embodiment of the perfect, blonde, hot seveteen year-old 'big' sister, the girl next door who wore a string bikini everyday in the summer I went over to Darren's house every day that summer, as he had a pool and both his parents worked and left Darren and his big sister alone. We'd sit around, eat Tombstone Pizzas and watch MTV. Heather was pretty cool about letting me and Darren listen to whatever music we wanted but she got to pick out stuff once in awhile. One day when she was tired of our Billy Idol, Van Halen and Def Leppard, she put on Purple Rain and proceeded to dance (in her bikini) to the entire album, including a sultry special dance for "Darling Nikki". I was hooked and can't hear any song off Purple Rain without thinking of Heather.
  
  Did that sound too much like Penthouse Forum Letter?
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  Bastard_Number_1

  1 year ago

  Pretty close to Penthouse Forum...but you would have needed to use something silly - like "supple love bumps" to make it authentic.
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  Old_Davy

  1 year ago

  Maybe I'd like Prince if he actually played the guitar more often. I'm only familiar with the hits, and so many of them sound like they are not much more than a drum machine and Casio (When Doves Cry, Little Red Corvette, 1999, Let's Go Crazy). However, I do remember the first Prince song I ever heard ("I Wanna Be Your Lover") and thought it was pretty good.
  
  My "huge-band-that-I-hated-until-much-later" had to be The Police. When they were big and selling tons of records and were on the radio constantly, I had no use for a bunch of white English boys trying to play ska and fake reggae. But once I heard Synchronicity II, I was hooked. Then, after the breakup, I started getting into their catalog. Now I regard them as the best rock band of the 80's.
  
  P.S. Def Leppard's debut "All Through The Night" is even better than "High n Dry". But yeah, your observation on DF was spot-on.
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  Francis

  1 year ago

  Wendy and Lisa's excellent "Eroica" album is a good fix for people who miss the Revolution sound -- they had a major hand in all the arrangements back in the Purple Rain/Parade era (including some cowriting credits). They make a reappearance on a couple tracks on "Planet Earth", most obviously to my ears in "The One U Wanna C", a great little number that would've fit right in back in the glory days.
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  JonCummings

  1 year ago

  Having foolishly missed the Prince/Time/Vanity 6 "1999" tour in '82 when it came to my hometown, I wasn't about to miss the "Purple Rain" tour when it came to Chicago in early '85. Tix went on sale in early December--right during finals week at Northwestern, and I had two exams on the on-sale date. Back in those days, buying tickets for a Prince concert was a line-up-at-the-box-office affair; they opened the b.o. at the Rosemont Horizon at 9 a.m., and by the time Ticketron outlets opened an hour later, all the tix would be gone.
  
  So my friends and I decided, screw studying, and trekked to Rosemont at 3 a.m. to get in line. We weren't even close to the front, and this was DECEMBER IN CHICAGO, but we bundled up and stuck it out. I got back to campus by 11:30--only to discover that instead of having finals at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., as I had thought, I had missed a 10 a.m. final. I raced to my prof and threw myself on his mercy; incredibly, I told him the truth about where I had been, and his first response was "did you get good seats?"
  
  He let me take the final in his office later that day. I didn't do very well, but that's fitting; the class was "Dostoevsky," and the exam essay was all about Crime and Punishment.
  
  The show was great, though. BTW, Dirty Mind is an insanely good album, and filthy as all get-out; I actually prefer it to 1999.
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  Assclown

  1 year ago

  Wombosi here from the Rope:
  
  I used to hate on Huey Lewis until I heard "Do You Believe in Love" with fresh ears and realized that (a) the harmonies kick ass, and (b) Mutt Lange knows how to put together a killer song.
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  SteveC

  1 year ago

  I am a very recent convert to the purple one. I can remember really liking his poppier stuff like "Little Red Corvette" back then, but his funk side was totally lost on me. Besides, I was too busy listening to punk back then to be sidetracked by anything else.
  
  But, as I've aged and grown wiser (maybe), I've seen the light. His R&B/Funk songs are excellent.
  
  Thanks for the tracks (Eight E1 below is right, Purple Rain is a knockout!)
  
  One good turn deserves another. In an amazing coincidence, I've just posted a link to a concert by The Time.
  
  So, you can stop by and take a listen
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  SteveC

  1 year ago

  Is "Do Me Baby" correct? The one posted seems to be cut off at the end.
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  rahulgupta

  1 year ago

  I, too, in the last few years have just started to appreciate Prince... I think the first half of 3121 is great.
  
  It's kind of silly, but when I was a kid (9 in '85), I felt like there was this Prince vs. Michael Jackson rivalry going on... Prince didn't have a chance with me. I was Michael all the way.
  
  (Did I just admit that on Popdose?)
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  Elaine

  1 year ago

  rahulgupta, I remember reading a quote sometime in the 90's where Prince said basically, 'so you thought *I* was the pervert back then, did you?' Can't always completely judge a person by their looks or their art, eh?
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  rahulgupta

  1 year ago

  That's pretty funny...
  
  And, no, you can't judge a person by their looks or art -- I'm actually a very talented white painter.
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  Elaine

  1 year ago

  Oh, I really do look like Emma Peel and run around with a fake movie pistol. Avatars never lie.
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  Jay

  1 year ago

  Darren, thanks so much for posting these! I’ve wanted these for ages!! I had a couple of the songs from this concert which I recorded onto tape about 28 years ago; recently I tried turning them into .mp3s; as you can guess the quality was a bit dubious no matter what I did to clean them up :c). Don't suppose you could post 'Irresistible Bitch’ & ‘Possessed’ which come in between ‘Do Me Baby’ & ‘How come U don’t Call’. Also, ‘International Lover’ which comes after ‘Let’s pretend we’re married’ & ‘God’; if you could that would be brilliant; and welcome to the purple side!!!
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  Jay

  1 year ago

  of course that should be "‘International Lover’ which comes after ‘Let’s pretend we’re married’ & BEFORE ‘God’!
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  ringo starr

  1 year ago

  what a pretentious little fuck you are
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  Justin

  1 year ago

  Thanks for the post.
  Be careful that His Purple Majesty's attorneys don't find this blog.
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  clariss hullana lopez

  8 months ago

  He was my first and last love.....
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  clarissa

  1 month ago

  Prince...my first love.. years when my mom and dad thought i am going crazy..yes i was crazily inlove with him and his music then..have thought of saving myself and my heart but another prince came and stole me away from him...hmmm so nice to remember the feeling of being inlove with my purple prince... yet really i love his music til now..and loving him still..
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