I was born in 1972, and I am 35 years old now.

My first memory of a Prince song was "Delirious." I recall hearing it on the radio. I was about 11 years old at the time. I can also recall early memories of seeing Prince performing 1999 and Little Red Corvette on MTV.

When Prince released Purple Rain, his most commercially-successful musical output, I paid him even greater attention - and loved Lets Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, Take Me With U and Purple Rain the song, itself. In fact, when I reflect to the past - I loved that entire album, which I only purchased a year after its official release when I was 13 years old in 1985.

I bought Purple Rain, the album, for my younger sister at a small 2nd hand record shop in Princeton, New Jersey, but ended up listening to it more than she did. PR was my first Prince purchase...but that was not when I really became hooked.

I got into Prince's music on a serious level, around 1986 when the song Kiss came out. Kiss was on the 'Parade' release. Prince is quoted as saying that Parade is not one of his best, but I loved it. In 1986, I was going through a transition of predominantly listening to rap or hip hop music, to a stage of listening 2 other genres. I remember starting to dig Hall and Oats, Mr. Mister and Level 42; bands that weren't that played in the ghettoes.

Prince crossed all boundaries though. The first song on Parade, Christopher Tracey is beyond description. How does one describe that pulsating beat combined with strings, as well as angelic voices?

I do not have a favorite song as far as "Parade" is concerned. I used to dig the video for ANOTHERLOVERHOLEINYOHEAD, and thought that yellow suit Prince wore was funky. "Kiss" itself was the funk, and I wonder if the bass line was excluded from it, the same way he did with When Doves Cry. I would be glad if some one would clarify that.

When Under the Cherry Moom was released, I was in 8th grade. To me, Prince was cool in the role he played. I remember watching the way he kissed in the groove *blushing* Sign of the Times which came out in 1987 saw me approaching Prince from a more serious angle.

Sign of the Times was deep; as in its message and its emotion, not to forget the raw musicianship exploring FUNK and her family of genres. Sign of the Times spoke to the challenge of HIV-AIDS, while Prince pondered whether sending rockets to the moon was more important than some of the ills on earth.

I lived in the USA when Sign of the Times came out as a movie on the big screen. I saw it at Quaker Bridge Mall in Mercer County of New Jersey. I saw it with a close friend named Dietrich McFarlane. While the film was about to start, Khari Simmons, who is now a respected bass player (involved with India Arie) and band leader walked into the theatre. He sat with us and I remember Khari sharing his pop corn with us. I was blown away by the movie. In 1987, I was 15 years old.

If I had 2 choose, my favorite tracks on Sign of the Times would be "Housequake" "It" "Play in the Sunshine" "Adore" "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and "Starfish and Coffee" even though I don't "understand."

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