Nasalhair said:

FYI It isn't a hardback.

Oh yeah, cheers. I read something about it not being a real 'hardback' here somewhere. Gaurdian said on the site it was a hardcover or something? No worries.

[Edited 11/4/12 6:13am]

Nasalhair said:

I may be in the minority but I thought it was terrible - not just the worst Prince biography I've read but one of the worst biographies I've read full-stop. For me there was too much of Matt Thorne in the book, presenting his opinion as fact (as others have said) and many of those opinions are frankly bizarre and questionable to say the least. Huge swathes of Prince's life are glossed over - his childhood for example, and the book doesn't even reveal his full name or date of birth (hardly the "authoritative" book on the subject as the flyleaf claims it is) - and people are mentioned without being introduced or their role explained (Anna Garcia, Gilbert Davidson, Clive Davis for example). Most of the book also seems to be dominated by interviews with HM Buff and Steve Parke, neither of whom are exactly key players in the Prince story. The other interviews do reveal some interesting snippets, but time and time again Thorne seems to step back when he should push forwards. For example, when Wendy says "Roadhouse Garden" was scrapped because of her & Lisa's sexuality I wanted Thorne to ask how Prince had reacted to that previously but he seems to end the interview there - and this happens a few times. The book is also a mass of contradictions. He says one of Prince's bands is his best line-up, then a few pages later says they are weak; he says Prince's aftershows are actually rather dull more often than not, then a while later says they are the best things he does; he says Prince is an amazing live performer, then says he's boring live... And so on. Some have said it is more of a book about the songs than Prince. Yes, Thorne gives his opinion on every album track and many B-sides (often bizarre opinions, so "17 Days" hardly gets a mention but "La La La, He He Hee" is described as being one of his best songs - the story behind the song is incidentally not explained) but there is nothing about recurring musical or lyrical themes, instrumentation etc, just whether or not Thorne thinks it is any good. Stick with Per's books, or - despite its faults - Ronin Ro's, or Jason Draper's, or Dave Hill's. This one is, in my opinion, a dreadful biography.

He says right at the start that this is not going to be a full on biography, and that it contains much about his own journey as a Prince fan than it does about his career in general - so you were foretold before the rest of the book, but I do agree with you. The lengthy run through of every 21 Nights show he attended (all but two) I skipped after the third show because it wasn't interesting at all for me - Obviously you had to be there, literally.

His opinions on various tracks are just that opinions - I might disagree with some of them and agree with others, but this isn't a clinical studio log, it's his evaulation - so fair enough on that. I did think he was trying to readress the balance on the opinion the general audience and critics have that everything after Diamonds & Pearls, or Lovesexy, is worth zip - so we get a lot of stuff about his fondness for some of the post-WB albums, but also entirely too long discussing Carmen Electra's album, when Ingrid Chavez's album gets barely a mention.

I'm very close to finishing the book, and found the latter half more interesting. Maybe the first half of Prince's career is covered so well already by Per Nilsen and Uptown that it's difficult to find too much that hasn't been said already (although the book does manage a few new interesting tidbits from his own interviews).

I found the information gleaned from H M Buff and also Steve Parke to be the most interesting the book had to offer, and this added to his lyrical descriptions of the 97-2000 material made me want to go back and listen to this era and onwards, which I intend to do since it was the music and production values I found so distasteful during this era, I remember very little of the lyrical content of things like 2045 Radical Man or Props N Pounds.

There are things he gets out of H M Buff that shed new light on NPS, Emancipation, Rave, The Truth and they might only be snippets of new info, but they're new and give at least some shape to such a sketchy era.

So, are physical copies of the book available in the U.S. yet?

Never bought it but had a look at the pictures love the wendy and lisa pic by the swimming pool and of course vainity's nipple in the vainity 6 picture.

Just started reading this book and really enjoying it, but then again, it is the first in-depth PRINCE book I have read. Matt Thorne's opinions are quite strange at times, but then again they're just his opinions. Tambourine is a classic future funk track in my eyes! (or ears). Hadn't heard anything like it at the time and probably since...Anyway, it's a good book for people who have followed PRINCE since year dot. I am personally interested in each song beind dissected too.(especially from his heyday). I'm just getting to the end of the PARADE/UNDER THE CHERRY MOON chapters so onwards!

I'm sure Thorne is a huge Prince fan but his book is badly in need of an editor to help him structure his material and keep focused - it's all over the place. I was looking forward to the book but actually reading it was a bit of a struggle. An important artist like Prince deserves a much better book.

Cleverly chosen cover picture. It actually suggests that Prince has deliberately sat down to have an open intimate honest talk with someone, a predisposition we are used not to expect from him, or at leat from his public persona.

[Edited 11/12/12 21:44pm]

tis' on my Christmas list. Especially pleased that he has got hold of C.Moon [was under the cherry moon a nod to him?] - hope he got a good interview with him.