And just like that, we're in the presence of greatness. All the hippies dance together. Straight out of the blocks this is an absolute monster that seems to have supercharged everything that has gone before, synthesised each perfect sound taking only the best of everything, stripping off the fat and leaving only lean, muscular, raw energy. It is purple. It is funky.

And yet, I have got so much of it wrong. I was sure that When Doves Cry was the first Prince song I really knew but that must have been a lot later. And this is 1982, way earlier than I would have remembered. At the time of course - 17 years hence! - the year 1999 seemed like a fairytale, just like 2000AD and all the rest of it. It didn't take long to come round though. By then I was working at Borders surrounded by "what you want to do is..." smart alecs. The song didn't actually do that well around the millennium, as memory serves.

This is the start of - and I'm sure you knew this was coming - a purple patch that would define the eighties. This week it's five years since Prince died, and the world seems a more drab, monotone world without him, as difficulty, contrary and hyperactive as it seems he could be.