One summer back in 1983 or 84, I was on the church bus - part of a youth group to the lake. "The lake" was Lake Eufaula, about 45 minutes north of my hometown. I had my own seat on the bus, and I remember waiting for everybody to load up. I was already there, sitting down. Back then, all the boys carried around duffel bags. I had mine; it was on my lap. Inside was a Walkman. The headphones were plugged in, and I was playing 1999. Not sure where I got the cassette. I don't recall ever buying a Prince album back then. Might have been a friend's. Might have been my sister's. My sister was a huge Prince fan, as was a cousin. I actually had very mixed feelings about Prince in the early '80s. He was considered Michael Jackson's big rival. And MJ was my idol. Unquestioned. And, to me, in my child's mind, you couldn't really love them both - certainly not equally. Like with football teams! But, of course, I listened to Prince - on the radio mostly - and enjoyed his music. The songs 1999 and Let's Go Crazy were amazing to me. Still love them. Another difference - and it was big - between the two music stars was that Michael Jackson, in those early years, was somebody parents didn't worry about. No explicit lyrics. Clean-cut. Wholesome. And that's how he was billed. Prince, of course, was the opposite. Listening to Prince, especially if you were a Southern Baptist, made you feel like you were doing something wrong, and that God wouldn't approve of it, and that parents would be upset. So on that bus that day, I was trying to hide the fact that I was listening to 1999. As the youth leader went around to check how we were doing, I had the headphones on, but the player was down in the duffel bag, out of sight.
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