‘He Took My Girl’: Your Memories Of The Artist Forever Known As Prince
“August 14th, 2004: MCI Center in Washington DC. It was the Prince Musicology Tour. I went with my wife (then girlfriend) and her sister. They both had specially made t-shirts with Prince’s face airbrushed on them. I thought they were nuts. We were seated on the floor in the second row from the front. We were then treated to what became THEE greatest concert I’ve ever seen. A little over halfway through the show, I think it was ‘U Got the Look,’ Prince starts to point out a handful of ladies in the crowd to get on stage and dance with him. Then…. .in SLOW MOTION… he turns our way…. with both index fingers, he points out my wife and her sister. I said to myself, ‘it’s been a wonderful 2 years with this woman, but i’ll never see here again.’ It was those DUMB SHIRTS. ONLY through the grace of God, she came back. I can always say that for a few short minutes, Prince took my girl….. with PRIDE.” – Robert Carter
I was a late bloomer. The DJ at my junior prom played Kiss while I was on the dance floor and it stopped me dead in my tracks. What was this? At that time, I was listening to Cat Power and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Modest Mouse and the White Stripes, none of whom sounded like this.
I spent the next year listening to Prince (and Al Green) incessantly. I’d go for long walks in the woods with my portable CD player tucked into the back pocket of my Dickies, the headphone cord running under my shirt.
I was gay, but not out, and here was a man singing in a way that made me feel like my sexuality both mattered and mattered not at all. The way his voice shifted between Prince and Camille, his music from guitar to falsetto… it was a revelation.
Along with Nikka Costa’s Everybody Got Their Something, Prince’s Musicology changed the trajectory of my life. I would not be who I am today without those two — I can’t imagine my life without those albums, without them.
Prince died nine years ago today.