Prince & LDR..."I Wonder U"

An installment in the "I Remember When" series

The memories, moments, and icons I'll never forget...

I might be a little bias, but I grew up in the best two decades of music after the birth of rock n'roll. I'm only open to debate it if you're talking about Motown in its prime, bebop, or the prolific Bluenote, Miles and Coltrane years. Otherwise, I'm not about to be Sammy Sosa/Mark McGwire/Barry Bonds in the equation, there will be no asterisk.

Seriously though, nothing topped growing up in the 80's and 90's with the emergence of hip-hop, and the dominance of the single name artists: Michael, Madonna, Whitney, and Prince. I loved all four but not equally. If you told me that I could only take music from one of 'em to an island, I'd choose Prince everyday and twice on Sunday.

His Royal Badness, Mr. Prince Rogers Nelson (yes, mister 'cuz you need to "put some respek on his name" ) gave you EVERYTHING you musically desired, you didn't need to go nowhere. He was Target of the music game. I know you are like "really LDR, Target?" Yeah, but think about it...

He rocked you like a reincarnated Hendrix; submerge you in the waters of Lake Minnetonka like he was the Son of Funk baptized by George Clinton & the Mothership, with a nod from Soul Brother #1 James Brown; then have you sweatin', hollerin' & shoutin' like you were at a church revival. Once you were good & full on Jesus vowing to sin no mo', he'd creep into your bedroom taking you through every emotion romantic love had to offer, plus a few you never contemplated; but not before he lyrically pulled your panties to the side...let me stop, some of ya'll might be sanctified, saved, and holy. And THEN on top of all that, he'd have you spending way more money than you intended 'cause of how often he dropped albums, plus the singles you had to cop since the B-side was always a song you couldn't get anywhere else.

Prince helped shape a generation of inquisitive minds including mine. My "I wonder u" (all I wondered and questioned) whether religion, sexuality, humanity, and everything in between, he taught me through his music. The stuff I couldn't talk about with my parents, (they were the "children should be seen and not heard" believers) he helped me out.

It didn't matter whether you were an outsider, a jock, a nerd, or fell somewhere in between, Prince helped you find yourself. He was our generation's original misfit and encouraged each of us to embrace the parts of us that just don't fit conventional standards.

A Prince "I remember when" would not be complete without music. I've included a list of songs for the quintessential "The Purple One" playlist. You might want to add these to the rotation if you haven't already. These aren't the Billboard hits, the obvious choices, and two songs weren't initially recorded by him, but each one played a part in my formative "I need to be alone with my music" years . ENJOY!

1) "Head"- Dirty Mind

2) "Let's Work"- Controversy

3) "Free"- 1999

4) "Erotic City"- "Let's Go Crazy" B-Side Single

5) "The Beautiful Ones"- Purple Rain

6) "America"- Around The World In A Day

7) "Condition Of The Heart"- Around The World In A Day

8) "The Ladder"- Around The World In A Day

9) "Boys and Girls"- Parade

10) ANYTHING from Sign O'The Times

11) "Anna Stesia"- Lovesexy

12) "When 2 R In Love"- Lovesexy