wlcm2thdwn said:

OK. I have to do this. Pfeiffer syndrome is a genetic disorder. There are 3 types. Type 1 has mild abnormalities and most in this category have a normal life span. Types 2 and 3 have severe deformities and the infants generally do not survive.The latter must have been the case with Prince's child,Gregory. There are deformities involving the nervous system, There are anomolies in the skull, limbs,and cardiovascular manifestations. The most humane approach, and, at the recommendation of the physician, is to cease life support.
Under no uncertain terms should a painful decision like this be blamed on the parents.

Addendum: I'm not trying to lecture anyone (sorry if it sounds that way) Even if the decision to undergo painful corrective surgeries is made, the result is still the same. The infants don't survive. The GOOD news is, it's unlikely the parents will have another child with this mutation, according to statistics. I researched the syndrome in the medical library I have access to.
[Edited 9/12/06 17:54pm]
[Edited 9/12/06 17:55pm]
[Edited 9/12/06 17:59pm]

xplnyrslf said:

I agree with ya both. I do think 90% of what was written did happen. Who is to say what was true or not, but it does sound believable to me.

"Slave To The Rhythm" is just a bunch of articles from various sources over the years (magazines, newspaper & excerpts from bios written by other people) pulled together in book format. Liz whatever her name is, wrote maybe ten original pages of the whole book.

Yes, I couldnt even read through the book,it is horribly written.
as well.
I found Posessed to be a much better read and organized
quite well.
I would not recommend Slave2theRhythm.




.
[Edited 9/10/06 15:42pm]
[/quote]

Satisfy my curiosity. Why is Slave to the Rhythm such a horribly written book? And, where does it use quotes out of context? I remember being quite heavily into Prince at the time and reading this book didn't jar. In fact, I applauded it for exposing some of the truths about the man.

I'm just about finised reading "Prince: A Life in Music" by Matthew Carcieri. He certainly isn't a fan to be sure. He's very acerbic and downright mean at times, but I guess he was writing from a critic's point of view. Anyway, what he writes is more of a review of Prince's work than an autobiography; however, he does include some tasty tidbits.

BoySimon said:

It's horribly written because the writer (and I use that term loosely) takes articles and such written by other people and adds her own little tid-bits to them to make it seem like she actually spoke with the people being quoted or researched the info. There were passeges where she would use a quote but it wasn't clear who was being quoted. Thus, the comments were out of context.

There was nothing to expose because the majority of the book had already been published elsewhere.

ElectricBlue said:

I didn't even know Dez had a book out . Well thanks to you I found his website and he is selling the book "My Time With Prince: Confessions of a Former Revolutionary" on there. Check out the link http://www.dezdickerson.com/



Following is an excerpt from the book

CHAPTER 1-THROWDOWN AT DEL'S
On a bitterly cold January day in Minneapolis, I pulled into the parking lot of Del's TireMart on the West Bank of the Mississippi River, near the U of M campus. I knew when I responded to the ad ("Warner Bros. recording artist seeks guitarist and keyboard player...") that it could only be one person-this Prince kid that I had heard rumors of. There was no one else within 600 miles of my hometown that had a major label deal. I'd never met him-I had been playing guitar in rock bands and power trios for 9 years, travelling all over the Midwest doing clubs, ballrooms, high schools, and anywhere else we could set up. Since Prince had played very few gigs, and we were from opposite sides of the river (he lived in North Minneapolis, and I lived in St. Paul), our paths had never crossed. Like him, I began making music at an early age. I formed my first band at age 14, two weeks after starting guitar lessons. We played our first gig after being together less than a month (a dance at our junior high school- not only did we play for free, but we paid to get in!). By our sophomore year, we had a booking agent, and we were getting out of school early most Fridays to travel to exotic locales like Fairmont, MN, and Storm Lake, IA and play our favorite cover music (Hendrix, Grand Funk Railroad, Cream, etc.). Word started to spread amongst the musician grapevine about this high school kid from St. Paul who played guitar like Jimi. One night, a guy named Bill Lordan, a Minneapolis drummer who had landed a gig with then-huge English Hendrix knock-off Robin Trower, came to one of our shows in a church basement, just to check it out for himself. Over the next 9 years, I started, fronted, and led 8 or 9 bands before I even heard Prince's name. Then the rumors started. There was this 17 year old kid in town who was the next Stevie Wonder. He could play 15 instruments, and wrote incredible songs. It was almost like an urban legend-I never saw him, just heard about him. One day, my younger sister came home with a new album by this kid named Prince. I asked her if I could borrow it from her and check it out. Upon listening, in typical youthful musician arrogance, I thought to myself, "It's OK, but they should have signed me-I could have done a much better record...". Looking back, I'm embarrassed at how full of myself I was, and how much I had to learn. When I rolled into Del's, there were several cars in the parking lot, engines running, folks in their cars trying to keep warm. When I had called about the ad and spoken to Prince's manager, Owen Husney, I got the sense they had already auditioned a lot of folks. I would find out later that I had no idea just how many. I sat in my lime-green Plymouth Sebring, the latest in a series of wanna-be muscle cars that I had owned since age 16. I loved loud things-loud cars, loud music, loud places. The car was kind of an extension of who I was at the time-it screamed to be noticed. And, I guess that's what brought me to Del's-the hunger to be noticed. We all sat for quite a while, when someone (I don't remember who) started going around to all the cars and gathering everyone up to sit in the same car. It was a great idea, since we were all starving musicians who could ill afford to waste gas idling in the parking lot. We all ended up in the same car, chatting and trading stories. I remember sizing people up, determining who I thought 'had it' and who didn't. I was nothing back then if not sickeningly confident. I was one of the few, it seemed, that had already reached fulltime status with playing music. In fact, I would be leaving Del's that day and heading straight out for a gig we were doing in Wisconsin that night. All of us were very curious as to what was about to happen, and annoyed at the fact we were being kept waiting. I couldn't help thinking how angry the rest of my band would be when I showed up late, but couldn't say why... Finally, a full two and one-half hours past the scheduled time, the Entourage showed up. I didn't know any of them-little did I realize that I would end up sharing the experience of a lifetime with a couple of them. Most notably, there was Andre Anderson (Prince's childhood friend, musical partner, and bass player), and Bobby Rivkin (friend and drummer), and manager Owen Husney. Bobby had known Owen for a long time, in that Bobby's older brother David had played in a band with Owen in their teen years. The band had some regional success, and even some national radio exposure, but Owen ended up in the advertising business, and David ended up a recording engineer. Through Bobby's relationship with Owen, he got connected with Prince. Andre was another story entirely. They had been friends since they were kids, and really more like brothers. Andre's mom, Bernadette, had taken Prince in when there were problems with his own family, and he and Andre shared a room. Andre had been with Prince as the Wild Ride of the deal and the recording had begun. It didn't take long to figure out that the quiet, almost painfully shy, diminutive figure at the center of the rush of people was Prince. It was eeiry-no one said a word (no apologies or explainations for the tardiness-which I would find later to be a way of life), but they just opened the door and we all filed in. There were some quick introductions, and then Prince just went over, sat behind a keyboard, and started playing. We kind of determined among ourselves who would go first, and Owen graciously allowed me to go to bat right away, since I had that gig I had to get to. Prince started a riff on the Oberheim polyphonic synth and Hohner Clavinette, and Andre and Bobby soon fell in behind him with a rock-solid groove. I just observed for a few minutes, and fell in playing rhythm. After a bit, without saying a word, Prince nodded to me. At that point, I took a solo. I had been at it long enough to know that less is more, so rather than try to impress him and the room with every note I knew, I played what made sense, ended it, and flowed back into rhythm. After about 15 minute of following this pattern, I apologetically reminded them that I really did need to get going. Prince finally spoke, and said he'd walk me out. Back out in the winter air, Prince asked me lots of question-I remember being struck with how incisive they were for such a young guy (I was 3 years older). He asked about my aspirations (I told him I still desired a solo career someday), my musical tastes, my work ethic. After 10 minutes or so of conversation, we shook hands, he disappeared back into the Tire Mart, and I sped off toward I-94 and the Wisconsin border. I had NO idea how fateful the last few hours would end up being...
[Edited 9/13/06 12:54pm]

DMSR - The First 10 years.

I have "DMSR", "Possessed" and Dez's book.

In my opinion, both DMSR and Possessed are excellent and I would highly recommend both.

Dez's book is entertaining but you won't find anything new or "gossip" type stuff in his book, just basically his point of view of his time with Prince. One cool thing though is that he autographs each book, just tell him your name and he'll personalize the autograph. And his solo cd "One Man" is really good. I wasn't expecting much from it but I found myself loving it. Very catchy stuff.

emilio319 said:

Cool I'm going to buy the book and CD today. I was hoping there would be some on the road type stories. Is the book hardcover or paperback?

Dez's book is paperback.

emilio319 said:

wow $30 bucks

How many pages is it???

Is it worth it. wow?

mellow1 said:

I agree as well.
I found the end pretty funny...talking about how Prince was wallowing in obscurity and would never be successful again...and then the next year Prince made his 'comeback'.

aikam said:

Just so you know, Dez's book usually takes a while to ship out....so don't be surprised if it takes about a month or two. It may not but that happened to a lot of people, but in the end it was all good. I'm glad I bought it.

ElectricBlue said:

Well Dez is selling it more or less on his own as far as I can tell so you're not gonna find it at Barnes and Noble. Also he autographs it. Yeah it's still expensive but it's up to you to decide if that makes it worth it to you. To me it was.
[Edited 9/14/06 13:47pm]

emilio319 said:

Thanks

emilio319 said:

Thanks for the information. I also ordered DMSR and Possessed earlier this week. I can't wait to receive all of them.

ElectricBlue said:

I reacted the same way when I saw the price. I'm curious as to how many pages are in the book too. I think it's an extra added bonus to receive a personalized autograph from Dez so that's worth it to me.

emilio319 said:

You're right about that. I checked a few sites for a better price and could'nt find one to save my life.

so anyone that has the book, how many pages is it??? Is it one of those 150 page books, double spaced?

anyone that has it give us all some details.

ElectricBlue said:

emilio319...anyone???

The Dez book is 240 pages but it's a pretty quick read.


DMSR and Possessed will have you dying to get through the whole thing cuz they are real page turners!

emilio319 said:

Thanks .

okay, since you guys are talking about books about Prince. I'm going to say this one more time because I think it's important. you like reading about Prince? Read Charming, Alarming, Disarming by Ann Lee. It puts Prince in a fictional setting. I read it, and can't wait to read it again. The main character isn't Prince, but he looks and acts just like him. I'm telling you people, if you like suspense and is a Prince fan--get it! You won't be sorry! There's been nothing but praise about it, that's how I found it. This book is on its way to the bestseller list. Mark my word!

I'm sorry, but when I read a good book--and it has a Prince influence in it--I just have to tell everyone.

When you say it Prince in a fictional setting, is the character that looks and acts like him a fan that uses Prince as a role-model, or is this a character that 'behaves' like Prince and we witness what happens around them, in their world, as they do this?

BoySimon said:

Oz, the character, looks exactly like Prince, and is just as sexy too, but he hates the constant comparisons. He doesn't try to act like him, but can't get away from it. As you read the storyline, it's as if you're reading about a fictional Prince. Women are constantly throwing themselves at him because of his prince-like looks. I can't tell you what he's really about without giving away the surprising twists and turns in the book. The blurb on the author's website says it all. I think she's a big Prince fan. Women would be most interested in it, I believe. Would you read a women's suspense novel? Check out her site at www.juputer2books.com

bjork said:

I just visited the website and I think I'm going to order the book. I love reading and the story sounds interesting. How many pages are in the book and is it a hardcover or paperback? Thanks in advance

Sounds cool. I'll look it up.

To me the only book worth reading on Prince will be the one he writes about HIMSELF and I doubt that will ever happen!

aikam said:

it's paperback-304 exciting pages and the author will sign it if you ask.