I've just bought this book, and before he's gotten beyond the acknowledgements at the front of the book, the author has made reference to 'unpronounable squiggle', 'SLAVE/squiggle days' and thanked Prince as someone who 'I met once semi-officially and from whom I got not one word of sense'.

The introduction follows with a discription of Prince in the '90's as 'a laughting stock, paranoid, conspiratorial, creatively burned out (!), broke'.

Personally, I find it very hard to understand how anyone, let alone a respected journalist, could devote the time and energy required to write a book about Prince, and yet hold these views.

Anyone here read it? Is there any point in my continuing to?

petergaynor said:

-- It sounds like another cheap book thrown together to cash in on his death.

laurarichardson said:

petergaynor said:

I've just bought this book, and before he's gotten beyond the acknowledgements at the front of the book, the author has made reference to 'unpronounable squiggle', 'SLAVE/squiggle days' and thanked Prince as someone who 'I met once semi-officially and from whom I got not one word of sense'.

The introduction follows with a discription of Prince in the '90's as 'a laughting stock, paranoid, conspiratorial, creatively burned out (!), broke'.

Personally, I find it very hard to understand how anyone, let alone a respected journalist, could devote the time and energy required to write a book about Prince, and yet hold these views.

Anyone here read it? Is there any point in my continuing to?

-- It sounds like another cheap book thrown together to cash in on his death.

The re-issue, certainly. But it was written in about 2007, i think.

It is up there as the worse book ever written about prince.I bought this back when it came out. Wish I could have got my money back. It's NOTHING new at all. And full of stuff we have heard a thousand times before. Avoid.

antonb said:

It is up there as the worse book ever written about prince.I bought this back when it came out. Wish I could have got my money back. It's NOTHING new at all. And full of stuff we have heard a thousand times before. Avoid.

what would be the best two, in everyone's opinion?

Its been around since the late 2000s, unless Morton has updated the shit by tacking on another chapter to cash in on Prince's death. Very turgid by the numbers biography. It is close to one of the very worst books ever written. The guy is not even much of a fan and the post 1992 era is dismissed in a few pages. One of the books I reuse to buy along with Toure's garbage.

.

There a bazillion Prince book threads and search will dredge them up and my opinions are there for all to see. This book is not recommended at all and I thinkI gave it a 2/10 or something.

MMJas said:

antonb said:

It is up there as the worse book ever written about prince.I bought this back when it came out. Wish I could have got my money back. It's NOTHING new at all. And full of stuff we have heard a thousand times before. Avoid.

what would be the best two, in everyone's opinion?

My opinion

- Anything by Per Nilsen - DMSR the first decade, A documentary and The Vault/Days of Wild, all of these are hard to get and the last 2 are impossible.

- Prince by Matt Thorne is a great book too, but very dry and mostly about his music. It is stille xcellent.

- One you can't go wrong with, but way out of date is A pop life by Dave Hill from 1989 - essential for his pre 1989 life.

- I like it, but many here don't, but Ronin's Ro book - Behind the masks is also good and quite current (2010), there are a coupleof glaring mistakes some orgers can not move past, but this is a very staisfying read.

- Possessed by Alex Hahn (2003) is also good with interviews and some good facts and stories, but very negative and this author dismisses most of Princes post 1988 work and has some angry interviews with ex employees. Hahn is updating this book and it has the misfortune to stop before his mid 2000s renaissance, leaving us in the TRC/ONA/NEWS era.

.

Finally Lets Go Crazy by Alan Light is good too, but really focusses on the 1983 - 1985 period around the Purple Rain project.

Adorecream said:

MMJas said:

what would be the best two, in everyone's opinion?

My opinion

- Anything by Per Nilsen - DMSR the first decade, A documentary and The Vault/Days of Wild, all of these are hard to get and the last 2 are impossible.

- Prince by Matt Thorne is a great book too, but very dry and mostly about his music. It is stille xcellent.

- One you can't go wrong with, but way out of date is A pop life by Dave Hill from 1989 - essential for his pre 1989 life.

- I like it, but many here don't, but Ronin's Ro book - Behind the masks is also good and quite current (2010), there are a coupleof glaring mistakes some orgers can not move past, but this is a very staisfying read.

- Possessed by Alex Hahn (2003) is also good with interviews and some good facts and stories, but very negative and this author dismisses most of Princes post 1988 work and has some angry interviews with ex employees. Hahn is updating this book and it has the misfortune to stop before his mid 2000s renaissance, leaving us in the TRC/ONA/NEWS era.

.

Finally Lets Go Crazy by Alan Light is good too, but really focusses on the 1983 - 1985 period around the Purple Rain project.

Thank you.