https://www.kickstarter.c...ised-and-e

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My first ABBA book, ABBA – The Complete Recording Sessions, will be issued in a completely revised, updated and expanded edition. Originally published in 1994, this new edition will feature more details on exactly how ABBA wrote and recorded their music, including classic hits such as ‘Waterloo’, ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ and ‘The Winner Takes It All’. I've been authorised by Polar Music International/Universal Music (the group’s record company) and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson to listen to more unreleased music. The scope of the book has also been expanded to feature a lot more information about ABBA and their music: how it was packaged, received by the critics, and much more.

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Just imagine: updated versions of Uptown's book, plus available as ebooks... And Prince not standing in the way by forbidding people to talk to them, and even opening his vault, etc.

I'm sure Prince is game. He just needs a check for 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars or so, and Larry Graham gets final approval of the finished products. He's probably got Funkenberry and LoveSexIsMyJAYAM chick working on it as we speak.

funksterr said:

BartVanHemelen said:

https://www.kickstarter.c...ised-and-e

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My first ABBA book, ABBA – The Complete Recording Sessions, will be issued in a completely revised, updated and expanded edition. Originally published in 1994, this new edition will feature more details on exactly how ABBA wrote and recorded their music, including classic hits such as ‘Waterloo’, ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ and ‘The Winner Takes It All’. I've been authorised by Polar Music International/Universal Music (the group’s record company) and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson to listen to more unreleased music. The scope of the book has also been expanded to feature a lot more information about ABBA and their music: how it was packaged, received by the critics, and much more.

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Just imagine: updated versions of Uptown's book, plus available as ebooks... And Prince not standing in the way by forbidding people to talk to them, and even opening his vault, etc.

That's the dream. However, ABBA is a former group, Prince is an active recording artist still doing great work, unloading all that music would take the focus away from the music he's creating now for some time, banishing his present with his past. With his massive recording output, literally opening the vault would musically be a retirement announcement for Prince, so he's not doing it just yet.

On the plus side, you and I will have something to dream about in purple solidarity for the foreseeable future.

Still doing great work?? What planet are u living on?? Are your ears different than mine???

PurpleSpirit319 said:

Aerogram said:

PurpleSpirit319 said:

Still doing great work?? What planet are u living on?? Are your ears different than mine???

My ears are exremely different from yours, trust me, but didn't AOA get many great reviews? Even those that were not so positive had at least great things to say about some tracks, sometimes just on AOA, sometimes on PLEL. More importantly I would not base whatever we're supposed to think about his new songs on the reception they got on a site full f dogmatic know-it-all longtime fans or ex-fans who sometimes have all of Prince's personality flaws but none of his talent.

Well, how come neither AOA and/or PE are not even nominated for any Grammys then???

Great idea. I would so support an Uptown kickstarter project. I had a copy of "The Vault" made into in ebook and pdf. I'm glad i did it but I still tend to grab the hard copy to reference.

PurpleSpirit319 said:

Aerogram said:

PurpleSpirit319 said: My ears are exremely different from yours, trust me, but didn't AOA get many great reviews? Even those that were not so positive had at least great things to say about some tracks, sometimes just on AOA, sometimes on PLEL. More importantly I would not base whatever we're supposed to think about his new songs on the reception they got on a site full f dogmatic know-it-all longtime fans or ex-fans who sometimes have all of Prince's personality flaws but none of his talent.

Well, how come neither AOA and/or PE are not even nominated for any Grammys then???

They were released right before the deadline, next to zero promotion was done by Prince personally.

Besides, you're probably too young to base your tastes on the Grammys.

KingSausage said:

Even if you don't like AOA, there's still plenty of shit Uptown could write about how Prince creates his music. Critical analysis doesn't need to end just because Prince isn't hitting home runs every time anymore. For the record, I love AOA. I think PLECTRUMELECTRUM is mostly shit.

It would be nice if Uptown would document all of the vault, but maybe he's not entirely proud of what is in it, including musically.

If he released Life of the Party, imagine what lurks in there.

[Edited 2/6/15 21:15pm]

Aerogram said:

PurpleSpirit319 said:

Well, how come neither AOA and/or PE are not even nominated for any Grammys then???

They were released right before the deadline, next to zero promotion was done by Prince personally.

Besides, you're probably too young to base your tastes on the Grammys.

Excuse me!!! I happen to be turning 57 next week, thank u very much!!

PurpleSpirit319 said:

Aerogram said:

They were released right before the deadline, next to zero promotion was done by Prince personally.

Besides, you're probably too young to base your tastes on the Grammys.

Excuse me!!! I happen to be turning 57 next week, thank u very much!!

Yet, you troll by using dumb ass smileys.

Aerogram said:

PurpleSpirit319 said:

Well, how come neither AOA and/or PE are not even nominated for any Grammys then???

They were released right before the deadline, next to zero promotion was done by Prince personally.

Besides, you're probably too young to base your tastes on the Grammys.

Nah.... that's not it. "FutureBabyMoma" got no promotion and won a Grammy, on the strengh of R&B radio stations playing it on their own.

There's some 'recording session' research very much in the works which is promising.

funksterr said:

Aerogram said:

They were released right before the deadline, next to zero promotion was done by Prince personally.

Besides, you're probably too young to base your tastes on the Grammys.

Nah.... that's not it. "FutureBabyMoma" got no promotion and won a Grammy, on the strengh of R&B radio stations playing it on their own.

FBM was out for a while before the nominations, had time to percolate. AOA /PLEL were not released with much view to earning Grammy nominations, only the Beyoncés of this world get multiple nods releasing an album this close to the deadline. Either that or the label is actively campaigning on behalf of the artist, which I don't see happening with Prince's apparently nominal ties to WB as a label.

AOA is full of superb songs, PLEL has its shining moments, best year musically for Prince in a decade or two. Instead of sounding weaker with time as most overhyped material ends up sounding like, AOA and PLEL sound even better than they did initially. PLEL's weak spots can be chalked to the teacher trying to let the pupils shine, but when the professor takes over it's pretty much guitar heaven.

Prince is both a prick and a genius, might as well be used to it by now.

Prince certainly made it difficult foir them but there was also the problem that the work involved was so much that it couldn't be profitable in any possible way. Per Nilsen and friends devoted 10+ years of their lives to this project... how long can people work for free? It's a pity they called it a day but who can blame them? They've done so much already.

But yeah as said above there may be new research paying-off soon, hopefully...

langebleu said:

There's some 'recording session' research very much in the works which is promising.

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That's what we've been hearing for years, yes. And the few snippets we got were very promising.

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But how many will be willing to pay for it? Just look at how book threads become stale in this forum. How many people bought and read Alan Light's book? Oh sure, the free excerpts got some traction, but even those threads were superficial at best. It's got a 112 ratings on Goodreads at the moment, not exactly spectacular.

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Better than Jason Draper's book, though (30 ratings). Touré's book has 320 ratings, Ronin Ro's book has 80. Jake Brown's book (the trainwreck one about studio sessions) has got 11. Eleven! Hell, Per Nilsen's DMSR has got 68.

Aerogram said:

AOA is full of superb songs

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That's why Prince is promoting the shit out of that album, and playing its songs live at any occasion.

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Oh wait...

There was a local indy record store here in the Detroit area that carried Uptown. I had them all up to a certain point when I stopped collecting them.

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My favorite one of all was the bootleg issue, because up to that point I think I only had 1 or 2 bootlegs. I was blown away by just how many there were out there to be had.

BartVanHemelen said:

The way things are going, it doesn't look as if the ABBA book is going to get the minimum funding it wants to get started.