Hey

I thought about, if any one on this site knew about a good Prince biography? - A book, I mean?

My local library has only got one but it's old :/ I live in a very small town in Denmark so I wasn't surprised - we haven't got a good book store either, so.. I've searched a bit on Google, but I couldn't find anything.

Here is a few.

ttp://www.amazon.com/s/re...rince+musi

Slave To The Rythm by Liz Jones

DMSR by Per Nilsen

[Edited 7/13/10 13:20pm]

There are quite a few:

An old one is Prince: A Pop Life by Dave Hill. A few screwy factoids in there, but it was a popular read back then.

DMSR Prince The First Decade by Per Nilsen. A near-Bible of 1978-1988, with tons of recording dates, tour dates, tour sets, and a lot of behind the scene notes in general.

Possessed: The Rise And Fall of Prince by Alex Hahn. Some think it's a negative look at Prince, but I found it to be more balanced than DMSR (not that DMSR was leaning to the right - this one is just different). I liked this one because it covers past the 1988 period that DMSR cut off on. I learned a few things from Posssessed that I never knew; just pieces of the puzzle that I had missed or didn't know about.

The Vault by Uptown magazine. Hard to get, and very expensive (overtly so I think). I've not read it but it's worth a look-see.

Any of those can be found on Amazon.com used and relatively cheap (except The Vault). They're worth the effort to find.

I'd have to discredit Purple Reign (also known as Slave To The Rhythm) by Liz Jones. She did nothing but pull most of her book from the Oprah interview, and NEVER once gave Oprah credit. Much of the other stuff is lifted from other published sources too, with no credit whatsoever. It's more of an editorial piece than a true look at Prince. Do not spend your money on it, or waste your time reading it. It's all ridiculous. Possessed by Hahn truly fills in the gaps that Liz Jones left out (because she didnt do any homework).

Ernest has already mentioned the best ones but, if you can find it, you may want to have Inside the Purple Reign by Jon Bream ( not to be confused with that awful Purple Reign book by Liz Jones).

Jon Bream´s book is out of print though ( so are Dave Hill´s Pop Life, a very enjoyable read..supposedly even Prince himself liked, and The Vault) but Bream´s book is even rarer than those two because Prince found it too personal and bought the rights to it right after it came out. But you can still find it in second hand stores sometimes.

[Edited 7/13/10 13:44pm]

The best Prince biography is still unwritten. I will eventually write this book.

It will be called one of two things...Either, "Simply Rose Throwing." Or...

"It will take 4ever to show Prince how much I love him."

KoolEaze said:

Ernest has already mentioned the best ones but, if you can find it, you may want to have Inside the Purple Reign by Jon Bream ( not to be confused with that awful Purple Reign book by Liz Jones).

Jon Bream´s book is out of print though ( so are Dave Hill´s Pop Life, a very enjoyable read..supposedly even Prince himself liked, and The Vault) but Bream´s book is even rarer than those two because Prince found it too personal and bought the rights to it right after it came out. But you can still find it in second hand stores sometimes.

[Edited 7/13/10 13:44pm]

YES!

ernestsewell said:

Possessed: The Rise And Fall of Prince by Alex Hahn. Some think it's a negative look at Prince, but I found it to be more balanced than DMSR (not that DMSR was leaning to the right - this one is just different). I liked this one because it covers past the 1988 period that DMSR cut off on. I learned a few things from Posssessed that I never knew; just pieces of the puzzle that I had missed or didn't know about.

THIS.

In 1994, I brought Prince: A Documentary by Per Nilsen

read his autobiography instead: his lyrics.

SweetLady74 said:

In 1994, I brought Prince: A Documentary by Per Nilsen

My first Prince bio to read........ Prince: A Documentary by Per Nilsen,

[img:$uid]http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8760/princepernilsen.jpg[/img:$uid]

it's great but incomplete. Last album is the Love Symbol album from 1992,

The Vault released by Uptown is more complete,

[img:$uid]http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3677/princethevault.jpg[/img:$uid]

last year mentioned is: 2004, BUT THIS BOOK is impossible to read, one extremely small font is used.

[Edited 7/14/10 11:00am]

Tame said:

robinhood said:

read his autobiography instead: his lyrics.

Sister

Tame said:

The best Prince biography is still unwritten. I will eventually write this book.

It will be called one of two things...Either, "Simply Rose Throwing." Or...

"It will take 4ever to show Prince how much I love him."

mods, this deserves at least a temp ban.

The Vault by Per Nilsen, as mentioned by Ernest, is a fantastic book.

However, it does not read like a story as such. The 1st part of the book, which deals with the day to day life of Prince from his birth right up to the end of 2003, reads more like a diary, and its purpose is to be very fact based.

The rest of the book covers a breathtaking index of the songs that Prince recorded up to and including 2003. It then goes on to detail recording sessions, albums, non album tracks, internet songs, songs written for other artists, alternate versions of songs, radio and internet shows, unreleased songs, concert tours, one off concerts, tv appearances, radio appearances, press conferences, motion pictures, tv films, officially released home video's, video clips to songs, unreleased film and video, tv and radio interviews and much much more.

All of this is described in very fine detail, so as a result, this book is more of a reference book than an outright biography.

But if you want to know the nuts and bolts of Prince's work and working methods, then this is the book to have, it's just a pity about the price.

^ [img:$uid]http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3677/princethevault.jpg[/img:$uid]

Yes: The Vault is fact based, = the true Prince bible..... cool,

but very SMALL font used... you need THIS to read it.....

[img:$uid]http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/8543/kikkert.jpg[/img:$uid]

.... not so cool.

[Edited 7/14/10 11:24am]

thedance said:

^ [img:$uid]http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3677/princethevault.jpg[/img:$uid]

Yes: The Vault is fact based, = the true Prince bible..... cool,

but very SMALL font used... you need THIS to read it.....

[img:$uid]http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/8543/kikkert.jpg[/img:$uid]

.... not so cool.

[Edited 7/14/10 11:24am]

Very good.

But c'mon, it's not that bad, or i must have very good eyesight.

And however small the text is does not take away the fact that this is an excellent book.

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related/Prince%20record%20and%20mag%20covers/69a92764f3.jpg[/img:$uid]

........ahem.

I am reading this now, and I think it is very interesting

[img:$uid]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/brocklynn76/index_r2_c2.gif[/img:$uid]

http://www.dezdickerson.com/

thanks guys!