Since we have had 3 serious books in the past 2 years, we seem to have a glut of them now and we are gearing up for the next one by Toure.

I am almost feel like I a tired of reading about Prince, although Matt Thorne's long one was refreshing, good to hear the musings of a hardcore devoted fan. What is the worst book (Not magazine article or entry in an encyclopaedia about themes etc). You have read?

The worst for me is Steven Ivory's 1985 paperback on Prince, theres little detail and it was a tacky cash in on the Purple Rain Buzz, its pretty terribly written and the facts don't really scratch the surface.

Of the recent ones, it would have to be Thief in the Temple, highly forgettable, and so bad I can't remember any of it or even the authors name.

Whats the worst Prince book in your opinion, from it being inaccurrate or badly written (Rather than distatsteful), hoping not to get a flurry of answers, saying Possessed by Alex Hahn, which is at least funny and quite well written, plus he did some fresh interviews at least.

a thief in the temple

i love steve ivorys book only cos i was 11 at the time and i remeber how uber fascinating it was

but took me years to realise that SLY STONE was not not SYLVESTER STALLONE

i rememebr thinking"oh i guess prince has a few muscles"

The Prince In The Studio book was interesting, but profoundly TERRIBLY written. The Liz Jones Purple Reign book was just a banquet of crap.

21 Nights!

jonylawson said:

i love steve ivorys book only cos i was 11 at the time and i remeber how uber fascinating it was

but took me years to realise that SLY STONE was not not SYLVESTER STALLONE

i rememebr thinking"oh i guess prince has a few muscles"

jonylawson said:

i love steve ivorys book only cos i was 11 at the time and i remeber how uber fascinating it was

but took me years to realise that SLY STONE was not not SYLVESTER STALLONE

i rememebr thinking"oh i guess prince has a few muscles"

Okay--that was your 11-year-old self that got that wrong, right? Not Ivory? I remember reading that book, but only vaguely.

errant said:

I have a feeling this thing by Toure that's coming out soon os going to give them all a run for their money.

For worst? I really don't know what to expect from it. I just read the Ronin Ro book a few weeks ago, and it wasn't good.

I have never read a Prince book

Any recommendations for a good bio book?

iaminparties said:

I have never read a Prince book

Any recommendations for a good bio book?

I wanna know too.

EddieC said:

jonylawson said:

i love steve ivorys book only cos i was 11 at the time and i remeber how uber fascinating it was

but took me years to realise that SLY STONE was not not SYLVESTER STALLONE

i rememebr thinking"oh i guess prince has a few muscles"

Okay--that was your 11-year-old self that got that wrong, right? Not Ivory? I remember reading that book, but only vaguely.

I remember Steve Ivory's book It was the first Prince book I ever read

purplemajesty23 said:

iaminparties said:

I have never read a Prince book

Any recommendations for a good bio book?

I wanna know too.

Per Nielsen: Dance Music Sex The First Decade

Alex Hahn: Possesed

Jake Brown: Prince In The Studio

If you've got time it's worth checking out

Matt Thorne: Prince

chopingard said:

Slave To The Rhythm by Liz Jones gets my vote for most pointless book ever written about Prince.

Normally, when reading a book about Prince you might expect to know quite a bit of the factual info already, you probably even expect to encounter a few 'facts' that you know aren't true, but you might also expect to learn a thing or two that you didn't know before.

The only thing you're likely to learn from this book is to never again waste your time and/or money on a Liz Jones book. It isn't even worth the expenditure of energy it takes to pick the stupid thing off the shelf.

Has anyone read Chaos, Disorder and Revolution by Jason Draper?

I saw it recently and was wonderiing if it's worth picking up?

(although it would need to be pretty damn good - it's got a €19 price tag on it)

I felt that "Possessed" was fairly terrible.

KeithyT said:

SuperSoulFighter said:

The John Duffy book apparently was a visual cash in on the 1990 edition of Per Nilsen's a documentary, the pictures were okay, but it was a cheep ass looking book, still blows Steven Ivory out of the water "Prince's god may be a tree in the woods for all we know" one of the nuggets from that noble tome.

I know nothing about Toure, who is he and what is he like. The only Toure I know of is Sekou Toure, 1st president of Guinea.

AsylumUtopia said:

Slave To The Rhythm by Liz Jones gets my vote for most pointless book ever written about Prince.

Normally, when reading a book about Prince you might expect to know quite a bit of the factual info already, you probably even expect to encounter a few 'facts' that you know aren't true, but you might also expect to learn a thing or two that you didn't know before.

The only thing you're likely to learn from this book is to never again waste your time and/or money on a Liz Jones book. It isn't even worth the expenditure of energy it takes to pick the stupid thing off the shelf.

I agree,that book is terrible.After reading it,I got rid of my copy.It's a lousy book with alot of wrong information

iaminparties said:

Any recommendations for a good bio book?

In 1988,I read this book which I thought was very good and in-depth

I would also recommend any of the books written by Per Nilsen,such as these two....

D.M.S.R. :The First Decade by Per Nilsen

Prince: A Documentary by Per Nilsen

purplemajesty23 said:

iaminparties said:

I have never read a Prince book

Any recommendations for a good bio book?

I wanna know too.

PRINCE by Matt Thorne

SoulAlive said:

I would also recommend any of the books written by Per Nilsen,such as these two....

D.M.S.R. :The First Decade by Per Nilsen

Prince: A Documentary by Per Nilsen

I wouldn't bother with A Documentary. It's way out of date and has been updated a few times. Just get yourself the PDF copy of "The Vault" that's floating around.

D.M.S.R. is still relevant though and probably the best as a biography, at least of a certain period, because it's got the same info as the other Uptown books, but puts it into a narrative.

SoulAlive said:

SoulAlive said:

iaminparties said:

Any recommendations for a good bio book?

In 1988,I read this book which I thought was very good and in-depth

I would also recommend any of the books written by Per Nilsen,such as these two....

D.M.S.R. :The First Decade by Per Nilsen

Prince: A Documentary by Per Nilsen

yeah i would say thats the best

these days with the net its impossible to write a book that we dont all know every fact

jonylawson said:

SoulAlive said:

In 1988,I read this book which I thought was very good and in-depth

I would also recommend any of the books written by Per Nilsen,such as these two....

D.M.S.R. :The First Decade by Per Nilsen

Prince: A Documentary by Per Nilsen

yeah i would say thats the best

these days with the net its impossible to write a book that we dont all know every fact

Totally agree, its the very best of all the 80s books and probably in the Top 3. The author focuses a lot on his early days and its very accurate. Yet what so funny is there is no sign of the rupture between Prince and Fargnoli in 1988, that book makes it all look really harmonious between them, even on the Lovesexy tour.

My copy has a slightly different cover with a Parade era photograph of Prince facing away from us waving and says it was published in 1989 by Faber and Faber and it is a 1990 reprint. The narrative goes up to reviewing Lovesexy, like us his jury is out on whether Lovesexy is the most brilliant thing he's made to date or the first hiccup in his career.

The discography lists Glam Slam as the last single released and I wish u heaven is not listed. This to me dates it to between late July 1988 and October 1988 it was completed.

I bought my second hand copy in 1993, when I was just becoming a fan, it survived the flood of 2002 and is in a slightly ragged and foxed consition, otherwise its okay. It may be my oldest Prince book.

Adorecream said:

jonylawson said:

yeah i would say thats the best

these days with the net its impossible to write a book that we dont all know every fact

Totally agree, its the very best of all the 80s books and probably in the Top 3. The author focuses a lot on his early days and its very accurate. Yet what so funny is there is no sign of the rupture between Prince and Fargnoli in 1988, that book makes it all look really harmonious between them, even on the Lovesexy tour.

My copy has a slightly different cover with a Parade era photograph of Prince facing away from us waving and says it was published in 1989 by Faber and Faber and it is a 1990 reprint. The narrative goes up to reviewing Lovesexy, like us his jury is out on whether Lovesexy is the most brilliant thing he's made to date or the first hiccup in his career.

The discography lists Glam Slam as the last single released and I wish u heaven is not listed. This to me dates it to between late July 1988 and October 1988 it was completed.

I bought my second hand copy in 1993, when I was just becoming a fan, it survived the flood of 2002 and is in a slightly ragged and foxed consition, otherwise its okay. It may be my oldest Prince book.

Totally agree with you on this book being the best of the 1980s books, maybe even top 3 of all Prince bios. It is very well written and back in the days I read somewhere that Dave Hill received a Christmas greeting card from Prince because he obviously liked the book, but I don´t know if that´s true.

I have several copies and one of them looks like the one you mentioned (Parade era picture with Prince turning his back to the photographer), and another one that uses the Purple Rain album cover picture.

It is out of print and a in my opinion a must-have for any serious Prince fan.

It´s also interesting that he´s included Sonny Thompson in this book even though Sonny joined the NPG years after this book was released. I like how many pages Hill dedicates to Sonny and how he talks about Sonny doing Prince covers in the Twin City area and how Prince told him to lose weight if he wanted to join his band during the Dirty Mind era and then when he did, Prince chose Brownmark instead and wouldn´t even tell Sonny.

I often wonder whether making Sonny part of the 1990/91 NPG was remotely influenced by this book and that chapter about Sonny.

Sonny and Brownmark are my all time favorite Prince bass guitar players.

How many books about Prince do we need? And, when will one of them dig deep on the post WB years?

I have approx 10 different Bios and have read them all. For the most part, they all run together and it's hard for me to remember what was in which book.

There's even a couple I missed and a new one on the way...

The worst is by far Ivory's book. The best to me is The Vault, if only for all the info that practically makes it a bible to Prince collecting...