Purple Rain 25th Anniversary

Read it and weep, people. This summer marks a quarter-century since the release of Purple Rain—both the seminal Prince album and the movie of the same name. While it’s hard to imagine today, this slight man in eyeliner and his nine songs—especially the dramatically explicit Darling Nikki—struck fear in the hearts of parents everywhere, as he managed to subversively educate a generation of teenagers about masturbation, grinding, and Minneapolis.

If you live in New York City, consider yourself lucky, as there are many anniversary showings of Purple Rain on the horizon, starting this very weekend at the venerable Lincoln Center. (What's more American than Purple Rain on 4th of July weekend?) And THE free musical event of the summer will happen in Prospect Park on August 6: the Purple Rain Singalong. If you don’t live here, why not plan your own party? Get out the eyeliner, scare up some purple food, rent the DVD, and invite your friends.

Rather than wax cinematic about the lasting impact of the film (directed by Albert Magnoli—who?), the rousing power of the music, or the mercurial appeal of the man himself, we’ve decided to let the original fans (now "of a certain age") speak for themselves.

to read more click HERE

Can't wait for this to come to my town!!

PRINCE is actually King pt 2

On my last post I wrote about my first encounter with the musician Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson. I wrote how my HOT baby-sitter and neighbor had introduced me to his music and how there's a correlation of my first memories of listening to Prince to her.

In this post I will touch on albums Dirty Mind and Controversy. Not much of a review on the albums and the music itself, albeit, not a bad idea to continue as a series, but more about how they helped open my mind and roughly expose me to relationship needs and what many may consider now-a-days as "unwanted sexual urges" to a young buck at the tender age of 9.

I remember Lorena and her family had moved from their apartment. It literally happened overnight. The building was old, dilapidated and their entire kitchen ceiling had caved in. We lived in a two-story apt complex and luckily no one was at home in neither apts, hers and the one above, when it happened. All I remember was never seeing her (them) again after.

We did not move out of the building til maybe a month after. I clearly remember it was 1979 because we welcomed 1980 in our new apt, which ironically I find myself back in...but that is whole other story.

I immediately befriended some of my neighbors. Specially my boy Douglas, whom I still keep in contact with until this day. And of course some others around the hood. Now everyone during this time was either into The Commodores , Kool and The Gang or Van Halen or bands like Devo who had come out with their Freedom of Choice album and other rock bands from the 80's or 70's that were still around.

So here's is this new kid in a new hood and a new school (Laurel Elementary) who liked Prince. Now, some of the kids already thought listening to Kool and The Gang and bands of the sort, whom I may add I liked also, was kinda "GAY". So imagine what they said when I told them I was into Prince. They wouldn't really look at me the same even though I told them I also liked bands such as: Queen, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Janis Joplin etc - stuff that I had grown up listening to also cuzz my moms would listen to it.

At this age you had to be cool. I even remember my good friend Sergio asking me while in our school lunch line what bands I liked. When I told him Prince he was like "Oh!" and staring at me asked "Who's that?"

Anyhow - fast forward. There was a small record shop a few blocks away from my house. I miss the days when record shops were like liquor stores, one on every corner. I walked into one one day and saw the Dirty Mind album and at first, when I saw the album cover, I was like ehhhh. I shrugged my shoulders and a few days later asked my mom if she would come with me to buy it for me. When she first saw the album she was like "ay mijo que es esto?" and I was like "Mom, just buy it."



I'd played the album whenever my dad was at work. When I first heard the album, I was not sure if liked it. It was not as catchy, and now in retrospect, as "discoy" as the other albums. It was totally different from what I've heard from Prince. Then as I listened to the song "When You Were Mine" and I was like - Lorena. Paying more attention to the lyrics:

"Oh girl, when you were mine
I used to let you wear all my clothes [which she would. she would play with my clothes when she would bathe me - and aumm long story here too]
You were so fine (So fine)
Maybe that's the reason that it hurt me so

I know (I know) that you're going with another guy
I don't care (don't care) cuz I love you, baby, that's no lie
I love you more than I did when you were mine"

I know one can argue that other bands during this time had similar lyrics and perhaps were a bit more overt on sexual content and relationships; but as I mentioned in my previous post, it was not until becoming in touch with my feelings towards Lorena that I began to listen to songs for their lyrics and content other than simply their sound and beat.

Well I was also going to talk about the album Controversy but I guess I would have to continue with it for my next post.

And I leave you with this video of Prince performing "When You Were Mine"

Prince - When You Were Mine
by halloaluile

Cheers!

Prince is actually King

Alright people...many are aware and many aren't - but I've been a PRINCE fan since I was a youngen. I remember when I first heard PRINCE, I was only 8 years old when my hot babysitter Lorena introduced me to his music. She'd play the song "Soft and Wet" over and over again and she would sing and dance to me all sexy and seductive as I watched and I was like "Hell Yeah". I didn't know what it was I felt as I watched her sing and dance but it was an immediate BAMN!!! - I'm a fan.

You should have seen her. A 16 yr old hot and beautiful Nicaraguan girl signing:

"All I wanna see is the love in your eyes
And all I wanna hear is your sweet love sighs
All I wanna feel is burning flames
Tell me, tell me, baby, that u feel the same
Tell me that u feel the same way I do
Tell me that u love me girl"

I still imagine her singing to me every time I hear that song. Oh mannnnn - the stories I can tell you about her too. pheeeeew!

She lived across from me and one day she knocked on my door and invited over to watch American Bandstand cause PRINCE was about to perform. Oh man - when I first saw the guy I was like WTH? this guy is kinda funny but the first song he sang "I Wanna be Your Lover" ...I was like yeaaaah. "I wanna be your brother, I wanna be your mother and your sister, too" those lyrics!! I may not have understood the entire lyrics of the song but I knew I wanted to be her brother. As we sat in front of the tube watching, I'd occasionally glance over at Lorena and she was there...singing to the music...looking angelic. I remember at one point she reached over and grabbed my hand tightly.


This is suppose to be PRINCE's first televised performance and interview. It was shortly after the release of his self-titled album Prince, released in 1979. He was only 19 and had already made some noise because at the age of 15, he had turned down offers from major record companies because he wanted to produce his own albums and they wouldn't let him.

In this interview it is also rumored that PRINCE seemed a bit indifferent to Dick Clark because of some of the comments Dick made when interviewing PRINCE. i.e. "You would never think music like this would come out of Minneapolis" - Dick Clark

anywho - so I became a fan and here I am to this day, 30 years later, still a huge fan of PRINCE.

This is just part one of my stories with the man and his music. The second part will be about albums Dirty Mind, Controversy and maybe 1999 and some of the stories tied in to his music and how I also bloomed at an early age because of it. yep yep

alright ya'll see you soon...