I didn’t start out a Prince fan. I think the first time I heard of him was a video of Little Red Corvette on MTv. (Remember when MTv played music videos? Now it’s a shitty reality TV channel.) I didn’t think much of Prince, just another pop song that was somewhat catchy and I secretly liked it.

Two years later, summer of 1984, out comes this movie called Purple Rain. It was all the rage on MTv and the news. I was in my second to last semester of college (graduate December 1984) and my girlfriend (now wife) had moved from Texas to Mississippi to live with me the final year. We decided to go see the movie because we had heard some of the songs on the radio. We stood in a long line to get into the theater, a theater that just happened to be where I saw my first indoor movie as a 2nd grader. the movie was Green Slime and it scared the shit out of me. I own the Blu-ray now and it is humorous re-watching it.

We watched the movie and it was good. I enjoyed it and surprisingly I enjoyed the music too. Purple Rain, the song, was a pretty powerful scene and song. I wanted to no more about Prince. I found out that he was a multi-instrumentalist and he could wail on the guitar. I became a Prince fan. And then I found out all these other hit songs he had written and given to other people (Sinéad O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U), and he created, was songwriter, produced and recorded all the instruments for The Time (Morris Day and the Time) albums. Amazing, the guy was a genius.

So I bought the Purple Rain album. It was released a month before the movie in June 1984 but I bought it later after seeing the movie. I want to say sometime in August. I believe the album won a couple of Grammy awards. Who can sit still when the song “Let’s Go Crazy” comes on. Does Purple Rain bring back memories to you? Every time I am back in the city where I went to school I point out to my kids the building where their Mom and Dad stood in line to see Purple Rain (and also the Green Slime movie). The building is a lazer tag place now.

I want to also recognize that the Greatest Super-Bowl Half-time Show has to be 2007 Prince performing Purple Rain in the rain. It was emotional. Simply amazing.

So, for bringing up some very wonderful memories from a simpler and uncomplicated time of my life, I wanted to share Purple Rain by Prince and the Revolution as Vinyl of the Month.