What do you think of Possessed The Rise and Fall Of Prince? So far I am enjoying the read, however, unlike other Prince biographys, this seems to have a slant on it. Its filled with somewhat negative testimonials from former band members that touch on what seems to be Prince's obsession with control. However it neglects to( or so far I haven't read anything about) the various charitys that Prince has given to over the years, if anything positive outside of musical success.

For those that have read it, what do you think?

BTW

Im not one of those fans that think P is perfect, the book just seems a bit bias, and I also realize that the book is a few years old.
[Edited 1/27/05 19:16pm]

i hope he's a better lawyer than a writer, and i think his publisher needs to hire an editor next time around - or at least a proofreader.

A lot of fans threw a hissy fit over it when it first came out (even though some of them had never even read it, by their own admissions).

Personally, I enjoyed the salacious tone, I like celebrity dirt and it was fun to hear some juicy stuff about Prince.

Whether you take it seriously or not is an entirely different matter.

If you want a serious, detailed biography, get D.M.S.R. by Per Nilsen (who's work and research was available to Hahn I believe, who represented Uptown in their case with Prince). It only goes upto 1987, but it's the best one there is.

.....i feel its the best it can B considering the vast majority of individuals with a qualified perspective or opinion has been subjected 2 the 'perpertual confidentiality' program...brotha man had a long range reason 4 starting that long B4 the 'rain' came down...the slant seems 2 B from frustration, i.e. folks u can actually quote, facts u can actually verify....sadly the control drama is quite real & through time its taken on a life of its own...this will B an interesting year 2 reflect on the previously unspoken/unpublicized aspects of his world...
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....an element/aspect Prince has taken great effort 2 conceal will B revealed this year...may we all look with the eyes of love on what shall B shown...

theoriginalQueenB said:

NouveauDance said:

Share some of the "juicy stuff" for some of us who haven't read the book...pleassssse!!!

It was garbage, even the title. When Prince got white hot last year the writer came on here trying to advertise the release of the paperback version. We all ran the sucker off. It was just a shoddy book with a clear purpose and that was to write about Prince like the enquierer would. Take a look at the author, I told him his picture looked fruity and that was enough for us to never hear from him again.

Fall? What fall?

NouveauDance said:

ALOT OF FANS DONT WANNA KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT PRINCE. They wanna think he is a little angel.

"The truth" was not the problem with this book, lots of books detail Prince's shortcomings and this one revealed nothing new. My problem with it was it was an unprofessional shoddy piece of shit. If you are going to take on a subject like Prince at least have your shit together.

mozfonky said:

that, and it's all fine and well to take a critical tone about the subject of a biography, but this book was just a little bit too "nanny nanny boo boo" for my tastes.

jus got both books back from the library 2day..on ch 9 in the book of question (rise and fall) so far...its ok...nothing special...i did learn a helluva lot and he did have a way of praising p's work and then in the same breath slandering him -- which i think was a tad over the top
im actually kinda getting bored with the author's shinanigans

NouveauDance said:

I have read most of D.M.S.R Prince the first decade, it helped color in a few things I didn't know about Prince, Rise and Fall comes off like D.M.S.R *Now With Slander! We can see how some of his decisions affected his career, but this book fails to paint a human portrait of the man and his work in my opinion like Prince the first decade does.
[Edited 1/27/05 19:26pm]

My mother told me that if I don't have anything good to say don't say anything at all. I've read it... and that's what I think of it!

example

Susannah had to informed Prince that Dorothy Parker was a renowned American poet, whoope Doo who cares?

Meloh9 said:

I do. She wasn't a poet, first and foremost, she was a renowned critic. Very scathing and witty at it too.


"Susannah had to informed Prince "

it's 'inform', btw

williammelvinhicks said:

Is that how the writer wrote it??

purplesmoke said:

Yeah! Its still a great tell all book all about Prince from 1958 to 02, and not just about the music for the die hard fans like DMSR by Par Nilsen is.

A fun read, especially if you're not too precious a fan.

pretty boring piece of shite

purplesmoke said:

erm, no, that's how i wrote it.

vivid said:

Yeah, that's how I approached it. It was entertaining despite the occasional error.

purplesmoke said:

No thats not how it was written, I made a grammatical error, although the editing is kind of bad

It was fun to read. Learned a lil more about this awesome man.

It has a lot of detail (although not all accurate), but the author does not offer a balanced, objective portrait of his subject. In the end, it is a slam job. The author goes to extremes to try and prove that Prince is a failure as a business person and musician. It makes me wonder why the author had a personal vendetta against Prince.

It makes me wonder why the author had a personal vendetta against Prince.[/quote]





maybe because the author was the lawyer that represented Uptown Magazine in the lawsuit against the publication from what I understand. That may be the reason there seems to be a vendetta or a slant on the whole thing.

Meloh9 said:

Dance Music Sex Romance was way better than that Prince-hating novel.

I Enjoy This Book It Has Also Helped Me 2 Learn About Thingz I Never Knew About Before

I enjoyed it because nobody's perfect, including Prince, and I'm glad to see some dirt was in it. I'm tired of ass kissing books that only tell the good in someone. Hell, give me some dirt.