bobbyperu said:

Good point, Tremolina. Prince was bombarded with crticism at that time, but what everybody seemed to forget was that his so-called crazy and childish behavior got him what he wanted. And it speaks volumes about his talent that he was able to overcome that and regain his reputation as a great artist.

Yes it does. And of course he could also still ride on the wings of his massive 80's successes.

Therefore, the third and last option was ALSO an option for Prince, but not an attractive one the least.

It thus also speaks volumes of Prince's personality that he did this and get out of it pretty good.

Most other artists wouldn't have gotten away with it the way he did.

It's sad tho'. There are so many talented musicans tight to these kind of contracts, whose music never sees the light of day, or who are not promoted, don't make any money, but are STILL under contract.

muleFunk said:

DSMR is the best book out there.

The only book that I want to read is the one that Prince writes. It's known that Prince is bad with business and worst with friends. I don't need to hear that again to know it's true. I want to hear Prince's defense.

rap said:

muleFunk said:

DSMR is the best book out there.

The only book that I want to read is the one that Prince writes. It's known that Prince is bad with business and worst with friends. I don't need to hear that again to know it's true. I want to hear Prince's defense.

Yes, but it ends around 1987. Hence my post.

I understood your post . Everything post DSMR is tabloid fodder. The book you may want is Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince by Alex Hahn. This book was written after the Uptown uprising.

Tremolina said:

Timmy84 said:

Yeah I read it in that sense too. He's not dumb at all. You gotta be shrewd to do what he was doing then. Though I don't particularly agree with the way he DID it

Yeah, his methods left a lot to desire. Style especially I feel.

However, I can still understand why Prince did the things he did (the name change, "prince is dead", the slave thing, the alternative ways to get his music out, the notorious overspending, the public blackballing of wb, the petitions, giving wb more and more mediocre music to release etc.).

If he hadn't done that. If he hadn't been such a "bad boy", but if Prince had played nice and did all they expected him to do, he would have probably been under contract with WB for 10 more years. Releasing a new album only every two years or so, with every new album another failed attempt of following the commercial trends, instead of setting them himself. Possibly even longer than 10 years, depending on the options to continue the contracts.

In the meantime he WOULD have gotten a LOT of money in advances from them, but the recorded music would not be his intellectual property, nor would his name and likeness. He would have to do what WB would would want him to do and thus that also means: promote the hell out of your shit, go on every stupid TV show we want you too and do no more (kooky) side projects, nor find any other (new or alternative) ways to get your music out. In other words: Be a very rich "slave". As in slave to WB, but also to the money and fame.

It's clear Prince saw this and that it didn't make him happy, at all. Prince has always been a freedom fighter, but paradoxically, at the same time also an enormous control freak, especially when it comes to his music and money. Thus he always had discussions and problems with WB already about what he could and could not release (CB), who owned what, who (got) paid for this etc.

Now, if an artist wants to get out of a recording and music publishing contract, plus in Prince's case also a sort of a joint venture agreement concerning the Paisley park label, that can be extremely difficult, but there are several ways to do it.

You could come to a termination agreement with your record company/publisher, but in Prince's case that was obviously not an option for WB, not at first at least. He was much too big of a cash cow for them, to let him go just like that.

Then second, you could go to court over it, but you would need a case to be able to win. It was doubtfull Prince would have a case regarding the contract. Moreover, the more he did WB wrong, the less chance of succes in court. Risky option.

Third and last option is: make sure your record company doesn't want you anymore and lets you go. In other words: if needed, commit carreer suicide. And that's exactly what Prince ultimately did. Hence the slave thing, the notorious overspending, the public blackballing of wb, the petitions, giving wb more and more mediocre music to release, "prince is dead" and the "re-birth" as

And what do you know...? They let him go.

[Edited 10/22/11 4:45am]

Yeah exactly.

TheDigitalGardener said:

scififilmnerd said:

That was Mayte, he had filmed in Egypt.

I think the text is a bit confused as to when things happened. It would have been better to keep things chronologically.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

jonylawson said:

scififilmnerd said:

That was Mayte, he had filmed in Egypt.

I think the text is a bit confused as to when things happened. It would have been better to keep things chronologically.

wrong

it was carmen electra

check out the video trailer for her lp

perhaps you should check your confusion?

I haven't seen the video trailer for Carmen Electra's CD, but seem to recall reading that Prince sent a video crew to film Mayte in Egypt. Didn't that footage end up in the 3 Chains Of Gold home video? (It's been a while since I've seen it, but I think there's a scene where she's dancing among Egyptian locals?)

But maybe you're right and it was Carmen who got to go to Egypt.

We have all these books about Prince written by other people, so I think it would be a good idea if Prince himself wrote a book in a not too distant future. It would give unique insight and it could set the record straight.

And about the Vanity Fair article, I agree with the fans that complained that Girls & Boys was not on The Hits/The B-Sides.

peter430044 said:

We have all these books about Prince written by other people, so I think it would be a good idea if Prince himself wrote a book in a not too distant future. It would give unique insight and it could set the record straight.

And about the Vanity Fair article, I agree with the fans that complained that Girls & Boys was not on The Hits/The B-Sides.

I don't think Prince can be relied upon to tell the truth.

muleFunk said:

rap said:

Yes, but it ends around 1987. Hence my post.

I understood your post . Everything post DSMR is tabloid fodder. The book you may want is Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince by Alex Hahn. This book was written after the Uptown uprising.

Worth buying or, just 'borrowing'?

Tremolina, thanks for explaining it. I've never looked at it that way. Great points.

MadamGoodnight said:

Tremolina, thanks for explaining it. I've never looked at it that way. Great points.

You are welcome madam

It's only PART of the explanation tho'for all the kooky side projects he did. Prince also really loves investing outrages amounts of money in not so talented artists and silly ideas that will never deliver a dime in profit.

I am not sure of course, because I do not know him personally, but that seems like a sort of a "hobby" he has.

rap said:

muleFunk said:

I understood your post . Everything post DSMR is tabloid fodder. The book you may want is Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince by Alex Hahn. This book was written after the Uptown uprising.

Worth buying or, just 'borrowing'?

I bought Possessed and if you have a Prince "collection" I think you need to have this book in it. However there are other books like A Pop Life and Purple Reign that I found interesting and they are in their as well. I have a Geoff Brown Complete Guide to the Music of Prince. Most books are stopping in the early 1990s.

As far as Possessed,Hahn had a ax to grind with Prince as he was a lawyer with Uptown(or working with Uptown) when they were having their wars with Prince. Hahn used to troll here looking for information and hit me up thinking that I was a Prince "insider".

He lost all credibility from that moment on however he did redeem himself somewhat but it's tabloid IMHO.

muleFunk said:

rap said:

Worth buying or, just 'borrowing'?

I bought Possessed and if you have a Prince "collection" I think you need to have this book in it. However there are other books like A Pop Life and Purple Reign that I found interesting and they are in their as well. I have a Geoff Brown Complete Guide to the Music of Prince. Most books are stopping in the early 1990s.

As far as Possessed,Hahn had a ax to grind with Prince as he was a lawyer with Uptown(or working with Uptown) when they were having their wars with Prince. Hahn used to troll here looking for information and hit me up thinking that I was a Prince "insider".

He lost all credibility from that moment on however he did redeem himself somewhat but it's tabloid IMHO.

Ha! I knew it lol

muleFunk said:

As far as Possessed,Hahn had a ax to grind with Prince as he was a lawyer with Uptown(or working with Uptown) when they were having their wars with Prince. Hahn used to troll here looking for information and hit me up thinking that I was a Prince "insider".

He lost all credibility from that moment on however he did redeem himself somewhat but it's tabloid IMHO.

i never knew that he tried to communicate w/you. interesting.

i don't think hahn was grinding axes. my fav part was the howard bloom stuff- there's a book i'd love to read! and didn't agree with his assements of some things, but thats to be expected.

ive had the purple reign and pop life books since the 80's. i like them.

i wouldn't pay money for the liz jones book- rubbish,imo. badly written, no new info.

DMSR is the most complete info and objective,imo.

i still don't know about thisbook- i havent read any of ro's otherstuff.

My guess is that a lot of the research for this was done by the team from UPTOWN. Most books seem to take a lot of their research from DMSR, The Vault and Uptown Magazine. I am not really that excited about this book.

I noticed that the debate about Alex Hahn's book is still active. I would recommend it simply because it covers more time than DMSR and he was able to use a lot of the research we did for UPTOWN. It was an honest, but flawed book. There were some serious errors about other artists, etc. but for the most part POSSESSED was a pretty good read and worth having on your shelf.