What is the best Prince biography to read? I care more about his personal experiences, life and details about what was happening in his life, during each era to inspire the given music. As opposed to just chart positions.

What is the book for me?

JasonStar said:

Possessed is the only one I've read. I like it. It kinda paints him as an insecure song stealer, but it's still a good read. I don't know how true the personal accounts are but they are believable.

SirPsycho said:

Yup, this seems like the most realistic one I've read.

SirPsycho said:

I've read so far:
Prince, the first decade
A pop life
Purple Reign
Slave to the rhythm

Prince, his story in words and pictures
Possessed-The rise and fall of Prince

I liked possessed by Alex Hahn the best. This book really goes behind the scenes and talks about Prince's good side as well as his bad side. He is portrait as a somewhat disturbed character especially when it comes to personal relationships.

Possessed is a good read, but I prefered DMSR the First Decade. Just bought the new one Thief In The Temple yesterday which looks really cheap and in just the first few chapters is full of erros. Should be intersting to read the latter parts though i.e. the comeback. (Hahn's book was poorly timed in that respect).

vivid said:

It'd be good to see Hahn do a new edition with an extra chapter or two.

If you want to read about the early years, Prince: A Pop Life is the best one, published in 1989. Most books written after relied pretty heavily on stuff that was in that book.
DMSR is also very good.

The newest one, Thieves in the Temple, was a major disappointment IMO. The author pretty much gave up around the Emancipation period, and there is an obvious lack of editing.

united1878 said:

Tell me about it. That is the only Prince bio I read, and I really enjoyed it. I wondered how honest it's views on Prince were. However, it seems from everyone's thoughts about it, it was pretty much on the mark.
[Edited 5/24/07 11:54am]

I also read DMSR
I believe that it's fair to him and written at least with a dignified criticism

I like the ones that focus on his music. I guess because I don't give a rat's patoot about much of his personal life. Or him for that matter.



The Vault is indespnsible in that regard. But D.M.S.R. is a more in-depth narrative covering the same stuff, but only the first decade of his career.


Love these books. They are the called the Prince Bible for good reason.

Raze said:

What's the Vault?

GiGi319 said:

It's put out by Uptwon. It came out on the eve of Musicology's release in 2004. It combines the Documentary/Days Of Wild and Turn It Up books they published previously. They promised updates, in lieu of contining to publish the fanzine, but I don't think any have materialized.