Prince

January ’07 – For $2, I bought Prince’s ‘Round The World In A Day’. I used to listen to it at a friend’s house when I was fourteen; ‘Raspberry Beret’ was a favourite, for the lines “and if it was warm she wouldn’t wear much more” and also, “the type you find in a second-hand store” (buying berets in second-hand shops was the sort of thing we would do, as was partial nudity). I have liked Prince since I got ‘Purple Rain’ for my twelfth birthday, but not very thoroughly…I loved Love Positions’ version of Kiss (again, the lyrics were so hippie and down-to-earth for someone who has kiss-curls like Michael Jackson) and there was that song about “If I was your girlfriend”. So I was very curious about my second Prince album. And it turned out to be amazing. ‘PAISLEY PARK’ quickly became my song of the moment – it’s so happy that it’s almost creepy! At about the same time I made this purchase, a Mr Whippy van had taken to visiting Arcadia Rd (one day I heard joyful cries as ‘Greensleeves’ approached, and spied two grown-up boy Goths from down the road run out and buy ice-creams), and I thought, “If everyone in the world were like me, in twenty years, all the Mr Whippy vans would shelve ‘Greensleeves’ in favour of ‘Paisley Park’.” Caution, children!