Hey hey hey! I'm a relatively new kid on the block here and though I've been posting fairly frequently in the Non-Prince forum, this is my first ever post in the site's namesake forum with an inquiry in tow, no less...

Being a huge MJ fan, I own his book Man in the Music which covers all of his core albums (OTW-Invincible) and does an excellent job of doing so. While I am familiar with Prince, I wasn't raised on his music like I was MJ's and was mostly unaware of who he was as a person up till about middle school. I want to learn more about him and his music so my question is are there any books on Prince's similar to Man in the Music? Also, what would be the best book to pick up on Prince/ his career in general? Being the shady enigma he's known for, has he written any autobiographies?

[Edited 6/26/14 7:15am]

Probably a decent place to start is the Per Nilsen book:

http://www.amazon.com/Prince-A-Documentary-Per-Nilsen/dp/0711931798

Alright, any other recommendations?

It depends on what you´re looking for. I´m not very familiar with the latest books that came out in the past four or five years, and I´ve heard some of them are quite good.

But like I said, it depends on what you´re looking for.

Per Nielsen´s DMSR is a must-have. His "Prince- A documentary" is also a classic, albeit a bit dated and maybe obsolete due to the Princevault website.

One of my personal favorites right after Nielsen´s DMSR will always be Dave Hill´s "Prince-A Pop Life" because it is an amazing read, very well written and it is interesting to read interviews with Prince collaborators such as Sonny T. before he even was in the NPG. Rumor has it that Prince liked this book so much that he sent Dave Hill a Christmas card.

If you´re more interested in a critical book then Alex Hahn´s Possessed- The Rise and Fall of Prince is probably the book you should get. Lots of interviews with insiders but some inaccurate info in it. And you can tell that he´s quite critical of Prince. Keep in mind he used to work pro-bono as a lawyer for Uptown magazine when Prince sued them, so of course he´s a little bit biased. Some fans call it a horrible book but I have read it (thanks, Giotto, wherever you are ) and I like it as far as Prince biograpies go.

Then there´s also Jon Breams Inside the Purple Reign, pretty good, but old and out of print (since Prince bought the rights and all).

I´d love to know if any of the newer books are worth buying for an old school fan like me. Most of the newer books don´t contain a lot of info that I don´t already know but I´m willing to give the newer books a try but don´t know where to start.

Hands down, The Vault by Per Nilsen .

gold31 said:

MotownSubdivision said:

I want to learn more about him and his music so my question is are there any books on Prince's similar to Man in the Music? Also, what would be the best book to pick up on Prince/ his career in general?

This gets asked every bloody month. Just search for "best book" (top right corner, see?) and read the kazillion threads that are available.

Give up on The Vault. You won't find a copy.

Instead, look for Per's "DanceMusicSexRomance : The First Decade".

It's miles above any other Prince book out there.

Oh, and avoid "Thief In The Temple" and "Possessed" like the fucking plague, they suck ass.

BartVanHemelen said:

And bookmark princevault.com