I have been a fan for sooo so long and have been reluctant to buy any of these biographies on him. Feeling like, I know his music and therefore, I know him well enough. And, that said, I am a love struck Prince groupie and love knowing the deeper aspects of who he is. So, Possessed...it's great if you like liner note type stuff. This book is full of embelishments and falsities, but I think they are easy to spot and ignore. You can pretty much intuite what is more plausible and what isn't. I think it is safe to say that stuff like"this song was written about this girlfriend" or "he did this because of that", "he felt this about this member of the Revolution", is arbitrary and not fact. But, in terms of finding out bits and pieces of how and where things were recorded, the vibe of different Prince eras, the vibe of different tours, etc., it feels pretty authentic. It's like eating candy, and I love it.
Esp. the parts about how intense it was for the revolution to be confronted by people dressing like them, reaching out to them, wanting to know them. My god, that was me as a teen. I did the whole lace gloves, high heels, hair swept over to the side thing. I related to their whole image. I loved reading about the whole evolution of Prince, the empire. And the whole bend on the book supposedly being really anti-Prince, really negative, I don't think it is far from the truth to assume that he wasn't on this path to be nice. He had a mission, and to become who he wanted to be, to follow his vision entirely, meant that things had to change ALL THE TIME. People, in terms of his musical vision, his path, were and still are disposable. That is how he is where he is. So, I think this book is great for the long time, hard core P fan. Someone who knows enough to pull out the more on track points, otherwise, you might walk away with a bunch of perceptions that just aren't reality. What 'yall think?

When I bought the book about 5 years ago, i was hungry to find some things i did not know about Prince, but I found that book to be dissappointing and not very flattering. The truth is after all these years, the only book i would EVER read on Prince and his career would be the one he writes himself and I doubt that will happen.

Dayclear said:

Absolutly. That would be the best choice, for sure.

I have not read the book, I was just gonna comment on being a teen in the eighties. I remember wearing the plastic bracelets like Madonna, and Hair was a big thing before going out...I also wore my hair on the side and used a lot of hairspray. It is possible that the, "When doves cry video." had a lot to do with the way that some Prince fans were...however, I remember the Flock of Seagulls Video, and Duran Duran...and several other bands, doing the same thing...The eighties style of dress had a creative, uniqueness 2 it..it was kind of punk.

I never read Possessed, since I heard about the book on the org, and it seemed nothing new, and lots of mistakes. I have read Per Nilsen's books, accurate, no-nonsense, they're great!

>>>I do think that any discussion of Prince books should include a nod to Per Nilsen for his tireless efforts to document the raw statistics of Prince's recordings, tours and day-to-day chronology. Nilsen's books will live forever as THE references on those subjects.<<< Alan Leeds:
http://prince.org/msg/7/171968?&pg=1

I think he said some really rough, and uncalled for things about Prince and his personal life and the death of he and Mayte's child, how Prince was partially to blame and was being investigated by the police for the babies death, and other things that just turned me off.

I brought the book over 2 years ago and I still haven't made it past the 1st or 2nd chapter. I want to read more but it just hasn't interested me enough to read it cause I know enough about Prince to know that he's not an angel but then again who is? I'll read more of it eventually but untill then, I'm in no rush.

I read it and thought it was great because it wasn't a book that kissed Prince's ass. It mentioned his bad side as well as his good side. A book with no dirt in it would have been boring as hell.

I read the book and liked it. It doesn't paint Prince as his Purple Royalness would like. My biggest issue with the book are the blatent errors and evn misspellings. Clearly the book should have been double proofed. But that said, I think it paints a little more realistic picture of the world Prince is and how he has sabotaged himself in many aspects. At least it puts Prince in perspective. I also think that this book paired with another book like Purple Reign gives an overall perspective of what was and wasn't going on. At least you get Yin and Yang.

And for those of you who think that you're going to get an honest account of how things really were if Prince were to write a book...think again.

superspaceboy said:

Seriously!

Dayclear said:

Yeah, that was totally out of order

Dayclear said:

Damn....I haven't got that far. That will also turn me off, I'm sure. I want to check out the Per nielson books. I know pretty much everything I need to know about Prince, but it's fun to read about him. Important to not take it too seriously and to remember, unless you know him, it could quite likly be untrue.

Dayclear said:

...The fuck?


I don't really want to be all up in his business anyway...so I'll just stay away.

this has all been covered before until we are collectively blue in the face. The bottom line is that most of it is accurate, and despite the spelling errors, most of those who were actually behind the scenes agree with the points made by Hahn.

It is a whole lot more accurate than Prince would ever allow. That is probably why there are so many people who don't want to know about the behind the scenes stories. They don't always show Prince in the best light.

madhouseman said:

QFT.

And regarding the police investigating Prince, you could've read about that in any tabloid newspaper at the time, it's not exclusive to this book.

It's funny, people turning their noses up at salacious stories in a biography, when one look at the first page of this forum shows a whole lot of discussion about Prince's personal life:

Why do you think Prince is single?
Mayte/Mani/Prince pics part II
Wow! I Don't Believe It, Prince Dating Both Twins?
Prince's family/syblings


[Edited 4/15/08 1:12am]

I bought it a few years ago. Fascinating bio about an amazing artist. Probably the fastest I ever read any book. Two days. Really thorough and detailed. I'd have to say I believe most of what's in the book though some things seem a little exaggerated. My only complaint is that Hahn seems to be biased in favor of the Revolution era and is very critical of the NPG stuff.

madhouseman said:"this has all been covered before until we are collectively "blue in the face....."

Collectively? There are still some true fans, like myself, who might NOT have read it...until now. Sorry if it has been covered before and if you are BLUE in your face, but whom else should I talk to about this book? Non-orgers? Apologies for not being part of your collective.

diana7777 said:

don't worry about it. Just pointing it out that this has been a huge topic about a week or so ago to many of the orgers that read these sort of forums. You don't have to apologize about not seeing forums like:

http://prince.org/msg/7/263768
http://prince.org/msg/7/171968
http://prince.org/msg/5/183810
http://prince.org/msg/7/2...mp=15&pg=1
prince.org/msg/7/136261

I’m getting old and creeky! Lol. It is just that there are certain topics that are brought up a lot. Such as:

Where is Cat? (she has now been found!)
Was UTCM filmed in Color?
Is there going to be the 2nd half of the DMSR book?
When/what is the next UPTOWN release?
Does Prince like his fans?

And those sorts of things. So you don’t need to apologize for not seeing them. That is why the org is so great… there are always great sources of information out there. Enjoy the book. A lot of us have. Take care.