callimnate said:

Thizz said:

Upon furthering my search it appears that there's more books about Prince than Tupac . . growing up I read every single published book on Tupac. A more recent one came out that I didn't read but browsing through it, I felt like I could've done a better job of writing it - it seemed like a reiteration

What do you guys think of Inside the Music and the Masks? By Ronin Ro

I would like to get my hands on that Vault book . . at 700 pages I have a lot of stuff to read before I can get to it but I would like to secure it for my collection

[Edited 10/14/15 14:52pm]

HUH!!?

Why would THAT be a surprise (or a comparison) to you???

There's a lot of books about Tupac . . a lot

I haven't investigated Michael Jackson but it looks like there's more books about Prince than Michael Jackson

thebiscuit said:

'Prince- In The Studio' by Jake Brown. Explains some of his recording processes. I lapped it up.

I read his book about Tupac in the studio . . he also has a book about Dr. Dre in the studio

Which leads me to wonder . . what makes this guy the foremost authority on ALL of these guy's studio processes?

The information has to be reiterated from somewhere. Can you share any details about the book?

callimnate said:

Militant said:

"DanceMusicSexRomance" by Per Nilsen is the only one worth bothering with.

I agree.This book is excellent.

KoolEaze said:

Those are some great recommendations. But, just out of curiousity...why didn´t you mention Dave Hill´s "Prince-A Pop Life" ?

Is it because it´s a bit dated or do you have issues with it? I still find it a very enjoyable read. Maybe a bit dated but very well written and with quite a lot of information for its time. And I like the fact that he interviewed Sonny Thompson before he became part of the NPG and was still doing Prince cover shows in the Twin Cities.

I still have my copy of this book bought it in 1988 or 89.A very good book!!

Militant said:

"DanceMusicSexRomance" by Per Nilsen is the only one worth bothering with. Ronin Ro's book is OK, but nothing new in there.

Ones to avoid:

Prince by Matt Thorne

Possessed : The Rise and Fall of Prince by Alex Hahn

A Thief In The Temple by Brian Morton

All of the above are fairly terrible,IMO.

I just started Matt Thorne's book and like it so far...

RJOrion said:

Havent read A Documentary, and i have been trying for years to get a copy of Dez Dickerson's book without getting ripped off

A group of fans here in Kentucky arranged for Dez to do Q&A/signing back in July. He had the book cheaper than he sells it on Amazon. Plus, I sold other fans at the event a bunch of my vinyl doubles and that paid for my copy of the book, so Yay! The book is pretty good. Not much I didn't already know, but an interesting read nonetheless.

KoolEaze said:

Those are some great recommendations. But, just out of curiousity...why didn´t you mention Dave Hill´s "Prince-A Pop Life" ?

.

Haven't read it in a long time, but IIRC a lot of the info is outdated and the book itself is good but not great. A good document of its time, though.

Militant said:

For the record - Alex Hahn admitted himself, in an org post, that his book "relied heavily on Per Nilsen's work"..... so why not go straight for the facts, without all the conjecture and tabloid crap in Hahn's book, by simply reading Per's own books.

.

Hahn had access to Uptown's research, plus to a lot of additional research that wasn't yet published. He was also less timid than Per, and included stories where Per didn't think they had enough sources.

.

So yes, in places it is a bit too "gossippy", but I don't recall there being ludicrous stories. Hahn's book for instance pointed out how Prince didn't just get homophobic in the late 1990s, but that he was already so back in the 1980s.

.

Hahn also covers the post-1980s years far better than any other book out there except for The Vault.

Thizz said:

One of you said Possessed is a must read and the other said Possessed is one to avoid

That's a stark contrast . . what's your reasoning?

.

One of us required fans to like AOA, and said we weren't good fans if we didn't. Hint: it wasn't me.

Thizz said:

What do you guys think of Inside the Music and the Masks? By Ronin Ro

.

See my review I posted in reply to oen of your earlier posts.

thebiscuit said:

'Prince- In The Studio' by Jake Brown. Explains some of his recording processes. I lapped it up.

.

But it is in dire need of an editor.

Thizz said:

thebiscuit said:

'Prince- In The Studio' by Jake Brown. Explains some of his recording processes. I lapped it up.

I read his book about Tupac in the studio . . he also has a book about Dr. Dre in the studio

Which leads me to wonder . . what makes this guy the foremost authority on ALL of these guy's studio processes?

The information has to be reiterated from somewhere. Can you share any details about the book?

.

Most of his Prince book is stuff copy-pasted from articles, books, online q&a, etc. This Prince one is a really rough draft.

.

It's a fairly recent book and searching the Org will undoubtedly reveal a couple of threads where the book is discussed. Ditto for "Let's Go Crazy".

.

[Edited 10/15/15 7:22am]

djThunderfunk said:

I just started Matt Thorne's book and like it so far...

.

He rushes through the 1980s, and then spends a ridiculous amount of time on Prince's "21 Nights" run in London, at which point the book is just Thorne copy-pasting from his diary.

.

The only real surprising eye witness is Hans-Martin Buff, an engineer who worked with Prince during the 1990s. He provides insight into a period that so far has remained somewhat under-reported, but Thorne is too eager to extrapolate Buff's testimony to the whole of Prince's career, when it should be clear that Prince's working habits have shifted somewhat.

.
There are some jarring theories in the book. Thorne seems eager to dismiss the tracklists of unreleased projects as merely snapshots, when his is already clear to any Prince-fan who cares to use his head: if there are half a dozen known tracklists for a single project, it stands to reason that perhaps we should not regard these as set in stone.

.
The book also wildly hops throughout time, and fails to tell a linear and consistent story. One moment you're reading about a late-1990s Prince album, and the next Thorne is discussing Carmen Electra's album from years earlier. I can understand the urge to group side projects into separate chapters, but in the end it just doesn't work.

Thizz said:

What books about Prince have you read and what books would you recommend?

Per Nielsen's DMSR, Alex Hahn's Possessed, liz Jones' Slave 2 The Rythm and Dez' autobiography, all great reads. Un4tunately I haven't read any others yet but there are a few others I'd like to read.

BartVanHemelen said:

djThunderfunk said:

I just started Matt Thorne's book and like it so far...

.

He rushes through the 1980s, and then spends a ridiculous amount of time on Prince's "21 Nights" run in London, at which point the book is just Thorne copy-pasting from his diary.

.

The only real surprising eye witness is Hans-Martin Buff, an engineer who worked with Prince during the 1990s. He provides insight into a period that so far has remained somewhat under-reported, but Thorne is too eager to extrapolate Buff's testimony to the whole of Prince's career, when it should be clear that Prince's working habits have shifted somewhat.

.
There are some jarring theories in the book. Thorne seems eager to dismiss the tracklists of unreleased projects as merely snapshots, when his is already clear to any Prince-fan who cares to use his head: if there are half a dozen known tracklists for a single project, it stands to reason that perhaps we should not regard these as set in stone.

.
The book also wildly hops throughout time, and fails to tell a linear and consistent story. One moment you're reading about a late-1990s Prince album, and the next Thorne is discussing Carmen Electra's album from years earlier. I can understand the urge to group side projects into separate chapters, but in the end it just doesn't work.

I haven't read that book but I'm a bit tired of reading the same stories from the 80's while so much is still unknown about later decades. I know by heart about the genesis of The Family but I don't know much about the genesis of most post-1990 albums while I'm just as interested in it. I wish Per Nilsen would have kept writing 88-97 and 98-07, because I'd love to have such a detailed account of later years. Hopefully at some point those will be covered in more detail.

Need a book on his 90's to 2014 work.

NorthC said:

Maybe I've read a different version of Thorne's book than Bart. Because there is really only a few pages about the 21 Nights in London. The great thing about Thorne's book is that he discusses Prince's music up to the 3rdEyeGirl era, making it the most up to date book about the man. Not as thorough as Per Nilsen, but then again, it would take years of research and thousands of hours of interviews to research a recording carreer that lasted 35 years with the attention to detail that Per had. Thorne's book is well written and informative and even includes the NPG Music Club CDs. If you want to know about Prince's music in the later years then yes, it's worth reading. And of course the reader doesn't have to agree with everything the writer says. Oh and I have the Dutch translation from last year. [Edited 10/15/15 9:28am] [Edited 10/15/15 9:31am]

Thanks for the info , will look out for Matt Thorne's book.

After reading this thread I would like to get my hands on this Vault book

Which one of you has it?

Thizz said:

After reading this thread I would like to get my hands on this Vault book

Which one of you has it?

The thing to bear in mind is that The Vault is not a bio, it's a book of facts, lists etc. I had a couple of copies of this, I sold one on ebay but kept the one I was lucky enough to buy from Per directly. Nice thing to have.

.

Nilsens DMSR is also a must have and reads more like a bio. It's probably easier to find too. There is one on ebay right now at a reasonable price.

[Edited 10/15/15 13:12pm]

databank said:

Thizz said:

What books about Prince have you read and what books would you recommend?

liz Jones' Slave 2 The Rythm

If my memory is correct, this book is a chronological mess, it's been a long time though. I may read it again.

This is a useful ist of books http://www.princevault.co...bliography

TheDigitalGardener said:

databank said:

liz Jones' Slave 2 The Rythm

If my memory is correct, this book is a chronological mess, it's been a long time though. I may read it again.

Yeah,that book is garbage.Alot of mistakes in it.I gave my copy away to another fan.

TheDigitalGardener said:

Thizz said:

After reading this thread I would like to get my hands on this Vault book

Which one of you has it?

The thing to bear in mind is that The Vault is not a bio, it's a book of facts, lists etc. I had a couple of copies of this, I sold one on ebay but kept the one I was lucky enough to buy from Per directly. Nice thing to have.

.

Nilsens DMSR is also a must have and reads more like a bio. It's probably easier to find too. There is one on ebay right now at a reasonable price.

[Edited 10/15/15 13:12pm]

So the book just features a list of a bunch of facts?

I've always found Prince facts to be very interested, it's actually safe to say that Prince facts are what led me to being a fan of his music

Thank you for the list by the way

BartVanHemelen said:

djThunderfunk said:

I just started Matt Thorne's book and like it so far...

.

He rushes through the 1980s, and then spends a ridiculous amount of time on Prince's "21 Nights" run in London, at which point the book is just Thorne copy-pasting from his diary.

.

The only real surprising eye witness is Hans-Martin Buff, an engineer who worked with Prince during the 1990s. He provides insight into a period that so far has remained somewhat under-reported, but Thorne is too eager to extrapolate Buff's testimony to the whole of Prince's career, when it should be clear that Prince's working habits have shifted somewhat.

.
There are some jarring theories in the book. Thorne seems eager to dismiss the tracklists of unreleased projects as merely snapshots, when his is already clear to any Prince-fan who cares to use his head: if there are half a dozen known tracklists for a single project, it stands to reason that perhaps we should not regard these as set in stone.

.
The book also wildly hops throughout time, and fails to tell a linear and consistent story. One moment you're reading about a late-1990s Prince album, and the next Thorne is discussing Carmen Electra's album from years earlier. I can understand the urge to group side projects into separate chapters, but in the end it just doesn't work.

Thanks for the review. I'm only about 50 pages in at this point and the book is so dense, I expect I'm going to take my time with this one. I wouldn't be surprised if I spread it out over about 6 months.

Thorne seems to at least done his homework. The amount of footnotes and references is impressive.

TheDigitalGardener said:

This is a useful ist of books http://www.princevault.co...bliography

Holy WOW!! I've got about 20 of these but had no idea there were so many I still don't have...

Thizz said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

The thing to bear in mind is that The Vault is not a bio, it's a book of facts, lists etc. I had a couple of copies of this, I sold one on ebay but kept the one I was lucky enough to buy from Per directly. Nice thing to have.

.

Nilsens DMSR is also a must have and reads more like a bio. It's probably easier to find too. There is one on ebay right now at a reasonable price.

[Edited 10/15/15 13:12pm]

So the book just features a list of a bunch of facts?

I've always found Prince facts to be very interested, it's actually safe to say that Prince facts are what led me to being a fan of his music

Thank you for the list by the way

It's much more than just lists, here is a better description http://www.princevault.co..._The_Vault

BartVanHemelen said:

djThunderfunk said:

I just started Matt Thorne's book and like it so far...

.

He rushes through the 1980s, and then spends a ridiculous amount of time on Prince's "21 Nights" run in London, at which point the book is just Thorne copy-pasting from his diary.

.

The only real surprising eye witness is Hans-Martin Buff, an engineer who worked with Prince during the 1990s. He provides insight into a period that so far has remained somewhat under-reported, but Thorne is too eager to extrapolate Buff's testimony to the whole of Prince's career, when it should be clear that Prince's working habits have shifted somewhat.

.
There are some jarring theories in the book. Thorne seems eager to dismiss the tracklists of unreleased projects as merely snapshots, when his is already clear to any Prince-fan who cares to use his head: if there are half a dozen known tracklists for a single project, it stands to reason that perhaps we should not regard these as set in stone.

.
The book also wildly hops throughout time, and fails to tell a linear and consistent story. One moment you're reading about a late-1990s Prince album, and the next Thorne is discussing Carmen Electra's album from years earlier. I can understand the urge to group side projects into separate chapters, but in the end it just doesn't work.

All of this is true - and there was very little that I hadn't read before - but I still found this to be a pretty enjoyable read. In fact, I think I might recommend it to a newbie before Per's stuff. It's certainly easier to find, and could well lead to a desire to dig deeper.