Prince “1999″ 1982. RIP Prince. His music shaped much of the soundtrack to my 80′s childhood, beginning with this record when I was 11 (his music was, um, mostly inappropriate for me before that time). MTV was just being introduced into our Midwestern market and I probably watched “1999″ and “Little Red Corvette” about a million times.

Then the summer of ‘84′s soundtrack was dominated by Duran Duran and Prince’s Purple Rain. I spent a significant amount of each summer at camp and that particular summer involved a canoe trip down the Menomonee River which borders Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. My friend Allyson and I were passionate Duranies and sang “The Reflex” over and over over. My other friend on the trip, Stephanie, was a rabid Prince fan (I liked him fine – just not as much as Simon LeBon – even making up gymnastic routines to “Let’s Go Crazy”) and countered us with an inexhaustible repetition of “When Doves Cry.”