What was the best thing you read about Prince?

I remember when i was younger I devoured Dave Hill's Prince book only to discover later that he hardly knew what the fuck he was talking about.

I preferred Per Nilsen's "the First Decade" book. is there a better book out there? Or maybe a better article - maybe it was by an orger - if so could you point me to the thread. Nowadays i love reading new features on Prince more than listening to his new albums.

BZ&TR
[Edited 12/23/09 17:27pm]

Per Nilsen is the authority and "DMSR" is the only book worth reading.

Hopefully one of these days he'll get around to putting out "The Second Decade".

I own the large Life and Times photo book that just came out recently. As far as I can see, it seems pretty accurate and well written. I don’t know much about the author’s knowledge about Prince. It’s worth checking out, several great photos from the beginning of his career till about 2008ish

sferdin said:

It's a coffee table book, but not really as informative, detailed, and comprehensive as Per Nilsen's book, or The Vault.

Anything written by his peers, bandmates, fellow artists...etc. ANYone except E.S.

Per Nilsen I'd say.

Per Nilsen

Oh I have been very very impressed by some of the orgers wonderful knowledge of every thing Prince, damn some of these orgers no more about music than Prince himself and about HIS music 2, so here at the org reside the best writers on Prince..





NOT NOT NOT.

Per Nilsen definitely, but Dave Hill came close in 1989 with his book "Prince - A pop life" it is surprisingly good, written b4 Prince fired Steve Fargnoli, and hes asking him on the 1988 tour of Europe to buy him a windmill.

BobbyZandtheRevolution said:

Could you elaborate a bit on the "hardly knew what the fuck he was talking about" part?
I think both books are a great read but of course Per Nielsen´s books are by far more informative than any other book out there. What is it that you didn´t like about A Pop Life?

KoolEaze said:

I disagree w/ the "hardly knew" thing. We have to remember, that it was written probably 1987 or 1988, shortly before it was actually released. We didn't have the internet back then. We didn't have the type of streaming information that we have now. Although I'm not sure how many sources Mr. Hill tapped, I would imagine there was some limitation to what he was able to wrangle up, but he had enough to write a good book.

As time went on, and information became more available, the biographies written about Prince, and even other stars, became more detailed, more comprehensive, and more invasive. That's why things like Pop Life were good at the time, but DMSR was even better.