Being a *secret* Prince fan in the 80s

I suppose I first got into Prince in the Purple Rain era, when it was nothing to be ashamed of. Come Lovesexy, I guess it was a bit of an embarrassment, but my love of Prince had been overtaken at that point by other acts - not Led Zep, but college-radio kind of stuff. Come Come, though, I was well back in Prince fandom and didn't give a good goddam what anyone else thought.

 

There definitely was an anti-Prince thing living in a blue-collar town sprung on Springsteen and heavy metal. Prince for the most part was considered too effeminate and weird to be embraced by most people I knew, and so I listened to Prince for the most part alone.

 

No one I knew had to keep their love for Prince secret, though small town Canada, you didn't really see any Prince t-shirts (did they exist?) more Judas
Priest and Cinderella. I got the Purple Rain tape Xmas '85, when I was 8. Listened to it all the time. By the time Batman came out, everybody was listening to Prince as well as their current metal bands.

I clearly remember seeing the Lovesexy lp cover as a kid, and being a bit weirded out, but everything sexual weirded me out at that age (11). I never started diving further into his catalogue until my 20s, but always loved the singles throughout my teens.

 

My question is, why were you still with that crowd?

 

I also felt a bit of an anti-Prince attitude in the early 80s, but that went away with "Little Red Corvette".

 

The problem with this thread and forum is that we have to talk around this huge elephant in the room.

 

I remember Prince albums, mostly in the 90s, in the bargain bin on the regular. Crystal Ball set for $5.00, Emancipation for .99 cents!

They couldn't give those things away. That was as recent as Target not able to sell Lotusflower set. Now everyone swears they loved him. lol

 

Every artist's death seems to spark fans coming out of the closet in admiration. Talk about peer pressure, huh?

 

I was born in 1979 so I knew of Prince when I was in diapers, but when I was school age, he was something nobody admitted to liking, same with Madonna and Michael Jackson. Not next to gangsta rap, grunge and other trends

 

I've never thought about it until now, but I think I was the opposite. I grew up white (now that I think about it, I still am) in a predominantly non-white area / school. I openly loved Prince. I didn't come out of the closet with Led Zeppelin and rock until highschool when '90s "alternative" scene was hitting the mainstream.
I also never really realized there was so much crossover in LZ / Prince fandom until I found this place.

 

I came on board with Prince when Purple Rain was released (I was 14 in '84), though I had heard and liked his earlier hits (Delirious, Little Red Corvette) on the radio. My recollection is that Prince was perceived back then as an extraordinary talent, well liked by both rock and jazz enthusiasts, which was far more than could be said of Michael Jackson, who was widely regarded as a joke even at the height of his fame.

In other words, sure you might get the occasional snide remarks for listening to Prince, and I don't actually recall seeing anyone wearing his T-shirts much even after he toured my area (Seattle - which Michael Jackson had famously snubbed!), but certainly that whole Purple Rain phenomenon was an event that couldn't be ignored. If anything, I was probably more of a "secret" Prince fan after his 80's heyday, though I mostly stopped buying his albums with "Graffiti Bridge" (I returned that one!), and have relatively recently been exploring his latter-day material, but there is no denying the enduring strength of those early years.

For those who haven't heard it, KEXP 90.3 FM ran an excellent retrospective program on Prince, which can be heard here:
Nothing Compares 2 U: A Celebration of the Life and Music of Prince

Not sure how long this will be available for streaming (2 weeks I think), so listen while you can. Prince is missed!

 

My experience was after initially being a fan from the beginning, I had to hide listening to 'Purple Rain'.

 

For those that don't know/remember:

Prince was booed a lot at 1st!
Famously when opening for the 'Stones'.
[various venues]
At Winterland SF CA too!!

 

I was at Waterloo University and I remember seeing commercials on Buffalo tv for an upcoming Prince show - Controversy tour I'd say. That's where I first saw the bikini briefs and all that but I could tell he was the real deal. Got 1999 when it came out. I was never a secret fan. Prince was cool in my book and whoever could not handle that, it was their problem.

 

In high school I was not a Prince fan. I heard the singles and that was about it. In 1991 I started college and met a huge Prince fan. He really introduced me to Prince and I became a huge fan rather quickly. Diamonds & Pearls was the first album of his I got as it was the most recently released. Then I went backwards and discovered worlds of Prince music, some released some not. O(+> was the first album I got on release day. Ever since then, I got his albums on the day of release.

So I was never in the closet on my Purple Paisley fandom. So much so that friends from all different eras and places reached out the day Prince died to see how I was doing.

 

Discovered his music on MTV way back.
Usually if I was around a few friends that were stone cold heavy metal devotees I wouldn't play stuff like Prince but most people I knew liked at least some of his songs.

 

I got much more flack for being an unabashed ABBA fan.

 

I think so. 2 different genres as far as I'm concerned.

 

I was never in the closet.

 

Never, always a proud Prince fan since 1980. I even played 'Sister' out loud to annoy my mom and sis (and my neighbors).

 

I was probably one of these. Being a bit of a guitarist/metal fan, there was both link to and a resistance against Prince's music. But I always liked a large portion of it. I was put off (both then and now) by the sense of a "cult" of Prince fans, the hero-worship they displayed, and the all-around awful fashion used during the Revolution years. (Yes, I realize that take is a bit absurd coming from someone who loved Van Halen & David Lee Roth. Live and learn).

 

I was hooked the day I heard "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" on the soul station in Dallas. I would regularly surprise my black friends with my knowledge of who he was and that I could sing along to all the songs. A few of my white friends started catching up around 1999 and we're starting to understand my obsession. By the time Purple Rain came around everyone was on board. A few friends worked at the local theater and would let me sneak in every day to watch PR. I was even a die hard fan during the rough "slave" years. I got a job with a company headquartered about a half mile from Paisley Park and made any excuse I could to travel there. I was on hand for 2 of the Celebrations in addition to other shows and parties he hosted there. I got to meet and talk to him on numerous occasions. Hearing him call me by name was a dream come true. Although closeted in other ways, I was never in the closet as a Prince fan.

 

When I first bought "Emancipation" I thought it was terrible. I can't explain what I was thinking at the time, but I recently re-bought it and now I think it is easily some of his best work!

I definately believe that growing up in a racially diverse environment helps. I grew up as a military brat, and the military, the army, at least, was always more integrated.

 

I was more of a casual fan.

I went to a high school where everyone seemed to be a rabid Prince fan but many were secret Led Zeppelin fans.

 

I'd say the '1999' album in 1982 was his big breakthrough. I remember being amazed later that there had been four albums before that. The 1999 tracks seemed to turn up everywhere but I'd never heard anything from the earlier four.