namepeace said:

Mr Leeds was quite candid on here. The SOTT book was fascinating, you're right. I forgot about that one. I'd also love a book on Parade, another hugely ambitious album so ahead of its time no one bothered trying to catch up with it until Outkast released The Love Below (which, for all its strengths ain't Parade).

Shapeshifter said:

You matched my sentiments on Parade precisely.

TWENTY YEARS LATER, people are still catching up to it.

namepeace said:

Theres a very good book on albums called Prince by Geoff Brown published in 1995, which covers every song on all the albums from For You to Come and includes the Black album. He reviews every song and discusses each album at the start. The author is a big British fan and he went to the Dirty Mind show and took heaps of photos which are illustarted thruout the volume. Hardly deep but its quite good and his comments are as original as they come eg "For You is a satisfactory if touch lightweight introduction to his raw talent" Dirty Mind, "Warners wanted a consolidating follow up to a pop Million seller, instead they got some guy in his sisters clothese running around town singing about sex in as many places and permutations as possible" It may still be possible to get it.

never red a prince book

Did anybody read that 33 and a third book about Sign O The Times?

sacredwarrior said:

They come in yellow too.

I'm reading, Prince a pop life again. Its like everytime I read it, its like I have never read it before and want to know more, thats the signs a book is good

"A Pop Life" is the one that reads like a full book to me, it's just a good read. "Slave 2 The Rhythm", "DMSR" or "Possessed" weren't written by people I'd consider that interesting authors, but Dave Hill is a proper author to me - instead of a bibliographer or a columnist type of a writer.

I was really impressed by Per Nielsen's "Dance-Music-Sex-Romance" book,which I just found about 1.5 years ago. I picked it up in a discount bin at a point where I hadn't listened to Prince's music much for about 10 years. It totally got me back into him, taught me A LOT that I didn't know, and impressed me with it's well-documented, historically accurate, account.

I thought it was a brilliant idea to focus on the first 10 years of Prince's recording career, in order to limit the focus and establish this important period in a definable context. Nielsen's thesis is that the For You to SOTT period is essentially the initial inspiration of Prince's career, after which he was never as creative intuitively.

Of course, the book is very "bare-bones" and has zero secret revelations or controversial points to make, but I respect that. It's written with a respect (but not sycophantic reverance) for Prince. I also tend to favor any biographer who comes from a long history of involvement with the subject. Nielsen worked on the Prince magazine (was it a fanzine?) for 10 years or something before doing the bio which means he's really an expect with his own perspective.

This is why I can't believe some people are recommended the "Possessed" book, which I thumbed through at a bookstore last year. It seemed to be a piece of gossipy-trash, intending to make Prince look as bad as possible. Didn't seem well informed at all. Lacked sources. I'm not interested in this kind of book.

As far as Prince telling his own story, either in autobiography or talking to an official biographer, I can't see that really working. Of course, it would be interesting, but I really think that Prince's ego in the public realm is too large for us to get at the real, regular guy underneath. That's not a knock on Prince, but some performers live behind a persona which is the projection of their ego, and Prince is one of them. I've never, ever, felt like I've seen the real guy from interviews (written or filmed). So I just don't think he would magically remove the veil to talk about himself in frank terms in an autobiography.

i liked and learned from:

Prince: A Pop Life
DMSR
Possessed

go get 'em!

Krystal666 said:

Im sorry I dont buy this mystical persona bullshit anymore anymore, perhaps at a certain age but not now. Prince is a Gemini (multi personality) and creative person I imagine he is probably quite a camelian when he wants to be and can adopt different personas...like an actor/actress. The thing is Prince is a human being just like all of us, yes he is very talented, yes he is very driven,yes he is a workaholic, yes he has had an amazing career , he is a somewhat interesting individual i agree but besides from that he is human like the rest of us, he has the same fears, and insecurities most people have and no i dont think there is some super hidden mystical thing about him or that he is so different to most people on a emotional and mental level. He is very into what he does and he does what he thinks/feels he needs to do for whatever reasons in terms of his music etc, but what is there to know, Prince is human.

OskarKristio said:

Ofcourse he is human...I don't like everything about him...I just think there are some people on this earth that inspire and bring out really great things in others and I feel like he is one of these people. He just has a special charisma and other people find him very facinating and enjoy being around him. Do I think there is something mysical about him? Not necessarily...but I do think he is very aware and can tap into his feelings and talents that where others might have trouble doing that in themselves or don't have the confidence to do that as he does. He just is a very dynamic person that I look up to, I wish I had the confidence to be myself as he does.

OskarKristio said:

I think it's speaking more to his ability use psychological manipulation on people who were close to him than proclaiming him to be a telepathic mind reader.

I learned a lot from the The Sacrifice of Victor picture book

2freaky4church1 said:

Yeah. On my way down to London on the train. Excellent read. Pity there wasn't more stuff. Well written!