My two favourites: A Pop Life and Slave to the Rhythm.

Fun, factual (largely) and neither written by sycophants.

BEST book, obv... God, I'm crap at typing sometimes.

BoySimon said:

I just ordered Slave to the Rhythm and DanceMusicSexRomance yesterday. Would you happen to know any other books that have been released on Prince? I bought Purple Reign years ago and it was not a good book. The author should have done her research prior to writing a book.

DMSR as a biography, and The Vault as an information source.

Top it off with Possessed if you want something more gossipy, and you're not a cry-baby.
[Edited 9/10/06 5:50am]

NouveauDance said:

Thanks - I just came across a link on this site for the Vault which I would love to have but it doesn't appear that they're selling it anymore. The last update on the site says a new edition was in the works for 2006 but no specific date. I also noticed they have magazines which are no longer available for sale. Any suggestions on where to find the stuff on uptown's site? I wish I would have known about their site sooner.

You might be able to find 'The Vault' on eBay... The last I read, Uptown were working on a new edition of the book, but they're notorious for pushing back deadlines and release dates (that's OK, they're worth it )

Uptown, the magazine, stopped a few years back now, but it was the greatest source of published Prince info, they were really the only people doing proper research, trying to document his career. Per Nilsen, the author of DMSR is part of the Uptown team BTW.

They have some excerpts on the Uptown website, and Housequake.com has a forum of selected articles, reprinted with permission.

I am probably going to get flack for this but I thought "Possessed" was a good read. No fluffy hero worship there.

Whether or not some of that stuff is true, I can't say. But it sure as hell was believable. Again there are some "fact checking" issues that I really found to be of no real consequence. Most Prince bios miss the mark there, though.This one I think makes fewer mistakes than the others.

alwayslate said:

I agree. I even use this book occasionaly as a reference. Has a good time line.
[Edited 9/12/06 17:16pm]

xplnyrslf said:

Alan leeds has confirmed the book is accurate; let's face it Prince is not a nice person!

mikek1 said:

I was trying not go there.

mikek1 said:

Prince is a dickhead. You wouldn't wanna hang out with him.

alwayslate said:

That was a great way to "go there"

I have 'Possessed' by Alex Hahn and 'Prince " a life in music by matthew Carcieri. They're basically all the same: Prince is a short, whacked out workaholic tyrant who nobody likes and caused the death of his kid.

BoySimon said:

"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.

Btw - I know this to be true because I have the bulk of the original articles and bios her "book" is culled from in my collection.


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

wlcm2thdwn said:

I've never read that in ANY book.

I don't need no stinkin book!

Per Nilsen needs to get off his arse and write a follow up to DMSR

NouveauDance said:

Thanks for the info. It looks like I'm going to have to wait for Uptown to release the new version of the Vault. As for the magazines that are no longer in print. Ebay has a few and they are too expensive. I love Prince but I can't afford to spend over a hundred bucks on each magazine that is no longer available for sale on uptown's website. Especially seeing that they are selling in the in print copies on their site for $10.00 each.

aikam said:

The Vault is great for info, but is no page turner

NouveauDance said:

Prince had his baby's life support machine CUT OFF AFTER ONLY A WEEK!

The baby might have lived; who knows?

I thought religious people are against this? shows just what hypocrites they are!

mikek1 said:

I'm not sure it was the best, but DMSR is my favorite. Of course, I don't read his books from start to finish though. Alot of information in them I don't care about.

sermwanderer said:

Indeed! DMSR is my favorite Prince book,but unfortunately,it stops in 1988.I'd like to see a follow-up that covers the years 1989 to the present.

Slave to the Rhythm may have used a lot of source material, but it put the story together well. A Pop Life is awesome.

I've yet to read DMSR, perhaps you can help... Is it an expanded version of the Prince A Documentary books that Per Nilsen put out in the 80s/90s?

The Alex Hahn book is funny.

SoulAlive said:

Make that three.

BoySimon said:

Not really. A Documentary was mainly about the music, DMSR is more about the man who made the music.

What was Dez's book about? was it good?? details plz!!

does anyone know a place where we can buy it

since everyone is talking about books on Prince. you should check out this suspense novel called--charming, alarming, disarming. it's about a sexy guy named Oz who looks exactly like prince. it's good. it's my favorite book of the year. when you read it, you'd think the character is prince. check out the cover on www.juputer2books.com

BoySimon said:

Not really because a number of the quotes were taken out of context of the original articles.

DMSR is a good book but more about the music and how it was created and so forth with personal info thrown in here and there to make it interesting.

The Alex Hahn book, while having a very negative slant on damn near everything was just an extension of the Per Nilsen book - DMSR.

mikek1 said:

wwwwwow. Do you know anything about Pfeiffer Syndrome? the type that kid had was basically a death sentence. the worst 'version' (i ain't no doctor, m'kay?) of it (type II?). he was being kept alive only by machines. They (mayte AND prince) did him a favor.
Now enough of that.