Prince - Purple Rain

Movie soundtracks in the 80's all together were just so good. I would say my brother Mike was THE biggest Prince fan. (Although when you're only 5, you don't know that many people.) I distinctly remember his Purple Rain poster hanging up in his room. I saw this movie on VHS when I was a kid, but I had no understanding of it at all. As an initiation ritual... to "Purify your body in the waters of Lake Minnetonka" was just a hilarious practical joke.

MORE PRANKS
Another antagonizing joke my brothers took from the movie was to drive away a little bit when someone riding along is trying to open the car door to get in. Prince did this to a girl with his motorcycle, and it was pretty funny. Unrelated to Prince, my brothers would beep the horn if you walked across the front of the car. I've gotten people with that joke, and it startles the living crap out of people. :)

IS PRINCE WEIRD?
Prince seemed like a weirdo, but he fit right in with other rockers like Kiss, Nugent, or Van Halen where they all put on some sort of "act." It's hard to explain unless you lived through it. The 80's seemed to be very accepting of musical artists that were "unique." In contrast, the 90's that followed were more about fitting specific mold. Prince was the embodiment of purple from then on. Guys and purple? Prince made it work. This was WAY before all the Prince drama. This was back when Prince was THE MAN. Women wanted to be with him and in effect guys wanted to BE him.

MOTORCYCLES
Despite Prince's superstar persona, there was only one thing about him that could have been cooler. Growing up, I noticed Prince drove a Kawasaki motorcycle. I grew up in a Harley family, and it seemed wrong that a big rock star would be on anything BUT a Harley. Kawasaki had this commercial with a theme song "Kawasaki - Let the good times roll" and my brothers (in Weird Al fashion) effectively changed the words to "Kawasaki makes the junkyards grow."

GUITARS & BASKETBALL
Prince is probably one of the most underrated guitarists of all time. The guy shreds. And according to Charlie Murphy (Eddie Murphy's brother) he's pretty good as basketball too. : )

In the mid-2000's, Eddie Murphy's brother was an actor/comedian on the Comedy Central's Chappelle Show. There was a really funny skit series they did called Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories... or something like that. Charlie Murphy would tell all these crazy stories about being in Eddie Murphy's entourage, and the friends / situations he got into. They were hilarious... almost too crazy to be true. But when you consider the people in these stories, they're probably not embellished at all. One of the funniest ones was his story about Prince.

Movies, TV Shows, and movie soundtracks of the early 80's

Movie soundtracks & TV Shows were big in the 80's, from what I could remember.

When I was very little, these were movies floating around our house: Mel Brooks' History of the World Pt. 1, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas starring Dolly Parton, Porky's, and Tom Hanks in Bachelor Party. This is a musical autobiography, but there is something to be said about movie soundtracks... they were really good for the time. With exception to music, my parents were pretty strict about TV & movies; but I ended up being exposed to some of it in small doses regardless because my older brothers played them. My family was strict on values, trust, and responsibilities

VHS rentals were on the cutting edge of technology and my family slowly embraced it. Eventually going to a Catholic grade school must have evened out any mind tainting I could have received from watching VHS tapes and/or my older brothers. I was a good kid. Plus, from what I've heard... the tighter the leash, the louder it snaps. I've seen it happen. Metaphorically, I was the youngest of four - so I don't think I had a proverbial "leash." My parents knew what was going on, I mean they already had three kids more than likely go through whatever I was at the time... so from my perspective, they let me slide because my older siblings broke them in. In my siblings' eyes, I just never got in trouble.

The Incredible Hulk TV Show

I used call him the "credible Hulk" ... which sort of make him sound like he would be a good witness in court. I used to REALLY like the show with exception to one part. When Lou Ferrigno turned from human to the incredible hulk, it TOTALLY freaked me out. I used to run up and down the hall screaming until it was over. Then I'd sit back down and watch the Hulk kick butt and take names! I remember having Incredible Hulk pajamas and whatnot.

Dukes of Hazzard TV Show

The "Good old Boys" from Hazzard County were ALL the rage when I was really little. So much to the point where I had tons of Dukes of Hazzard "General Lee" matchbox cars. I would lose them constantly, so my mom would just keep an extra in her pocket for when I'd freak out. Bo and Luke Duke were fun to watch, but why did they never opened their doors? I saw it had door knobs, so I thought they were just being cool. Story is they were welded shut because it's a racecar, but then why have door handles on it? I digress.

The characters on this show were priceless... a corrupt fatman running things that constantly eats, a long legged damsel named Daisy Duke who popularized very very short jean shorts. And a father figure in Uncle Jesse. Even the town mechanic Cooter was a great character on the show. Most memorably, the sheriff's name was Roscoe P Coletrane, and he weilded a revolver and a hound named Flash. We had a doberman named Flash.

The one thing that lives in our family to this day is a deviation of one of Roscoe's sayings... his laugh actually. Although it sounds like "goo-goo!" We heard it as "Q-Q." Whenever Roscoe did something sneaky, fun, or feels accomplished for whatever reason, he would say that. We took a cue from that and started saying "Q-Q!" whenever we did something worthy. Texters and bloggers of today would instead say FTW or "for the win." Same thing. :) Q-Q!