This started out to be a short blog, actually more of a list. My psyche gums it up on the way out and it gets longer as it goes.
I wanted to jot down what shirts I have related to the Prince collection. I have at least 2 for Ben Folds Five, 3 or more Indigo Girls shirts, and not just bc I knew a guy who bought out the stock of a store that folded once, either.
I bought The Gold Experience t-shirt on release day at the NPG store in Uptown. Midnight sale for the superfans night before release day. A line stretching down the block when we got there, the store not yet open. The security guard at the door hustles us in along a velvet rope. No other purchases possible, just the Gold Bag with the album on cassette or CD, a t-shirt, a gold experience branded phone card ?!?! and I don't recall anything else. Not even a poster. And it was like $50 back in 1995.
And then? Ta-very much for a lovely night, then. No, you're not going back out the front door. Follow the line of refridgerator-sized mild-tempered brothers in immaculate suits as they usher you out the side door into the alley. Thank you for your purchase, please come again, goodnight!
I digress.
The Beautiful Experience t-shirt bought from merch table at the Park one night that summer or early fall, during the Gold Experience tour rehearsal shows (not under the Love 4 One Another banner, probably even before that...) and this was for the semi-private concert back on valentine's day that I had a tape recording of from another European trader. The one with the Salt N Pepa cover. None Of Your Bizness. "Bud Lite" tries to play guitar and gets laughed off the stage...that one. See the "bootleg" called TUBE. The Ultimate Beautiful Experience, remastered by 4DF - 4 Da Funk, the miraculous fan-to-fan never-for-sale "label."
I bought a black shirt with yellow graphic text on it at the NPG store. It said "Pussy Control" and I put it over the driver's seat of my car. Sadly it got sunbleached and stretched to hell when forced to serve in such a manner. I have it in a box of memorabilia somewhere. There's a guy selling one on ebay. For $300!?!? (the shameful manner in which I treated this $20 purchase is another reason for my alternate title, dumb dave.)
The 2004ever purple musicology shirt I bought when StuArt got us FRONT ROW seats at the Xcel Energy Center and StuArt grabbed a drumstick from John Blackwell afterwards.
The black shirt with O(+> in a top hat with the gold symbol guitar leaning backwards. Was that Habibi or was the black one Habibi?!?
I bought a NPG jersey from ebay over a year ago. The blue one, worn but in great shape. The literal NEXT DAY after that I saw a purple one, UNworn, for no more than $20 above what I bought the first one for, so I sucked it up in my post-college-loans-somehow adulthood and bought both. The unworn one will continue to be unworn.
I bought a Free Urself t from the website but can't bring myself to wear it. It's absolutely gorgeous. The only t-shirt I ever bought from the official source that I could ever have imagined Prince actually wearing. It's just a stunning piece of art. (Pics or gtfo!! I hear U shout...and yes. This won't be half the blog without photos of the evidence. I'm well aware of that and already working on it...)
I bought a Piano and a Microphone shirt after the show in Oakland a month or so ago.
I won an ebay auction for a NPG Music Club shirt this morning.
Minutes after placing that bid, my phone rang.
Mom told me my cousin Cheri died when they took her off the machines keeping her alive. Turns out you can't drink your life away without consequences. Like going before your mother and too soon to be remembered by your grandkids?!?! Ain't nothing right about any of that... buck fooze!!
So I'm a little scatterbrained, I find it easy to be moved to tears, and I'm watching "public piano" videos on youtube because I don't play very well and mom isn't here to do it for me.
Life seems to be choosing 2016 to try and convince me it's a fleeting thing, friends. Try and make the most of it...
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