bsprout said:

Thanks, Penny, I'll comment on Ch 11 shortly. On another note, this essay came out today; I didn't know where else to post this but it's a fun read: Dear Book Club: It's You, Not Me https://www.nytimes.com/2...hone-share NYTimes: Dear Book Club: It’s You, Not Me[url]

Ha ha, good read, but I think this will be the last book club I host, but hopefully I will participate in other book club threads here on the org, that I'm not hosting.

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That is of course, if I'm not dead...as it seems other posters are wanting me dead.

gandorb said:

Definitely not impressed with Rick James, so it was fun to read how their career arcs went in different directions while on tour. I wonder if part of the change was that as his single was getting more popular their shows started drawing new Prince fans rather than just having to convert RJ fans.

I'm really not a fan of his either, and I'm never a fan of a no good, low down, draft dodger. I'm glad Prince showed him up. Very interesting though about the part where he skipped Roman Polanski's party, looks like a hangover saved him.

PennyPurple said:

kmama07 said:

PennyPurple said:

I'm really not a fan of his either, and I'm never a fan of a no good, low down, draft dodger. I'm glad Prince showed him up. Very interesting though about the part where he skipped Roman Polanski's party, looks like a hangover saved him.

Ya. That was creepy bout the party tie-in. I knew Rick was a parties but didn't realize he was kind of a sleaze ball on top of it. Glad Prince rocked the house. An aside...the awful post in other thread: Truly a horrible thing. No one should be spoken to in that manner just because of a difference of opinion. Big love to you.

Thanks. Everytime I eat a hamburger now, I'll have to give it the side eye.

PennyPurple said:

Rick James used to play in a band with Neil Young in the '60s in Toronto .I think I read they couldn't play in the USA because Rick dodged the draft,which I have no problem with .Ihaven't had time to read the book but I am enjoying the discussion.Thanks Penny

PennyPurple said:

NotACleverName said:

PennyPurple said:

Getting ready for Chapter 11. Chapter 11 ~ Battle Pgs 137-146 Rick James enters the picture. Prince was pegged to open for James and the Promoters pegged it as “The Battle of Funk’. 42 shows over 2 months.Rick James was a draft dodger, served time in the brig Was invited to the party at Roman Polanski’s where Charles Manson and his cult murdered James pointed a stage prop that looked like a gun at Andre James was making unwanted advances to Gayle Chapman Prince ordered Chapman to wear lingerie on stage Prince changed Finks outfit from the jailbird outfit to the Dr outfit Prince began to mimic James The tour was very lucrative to Prince

You forgot to note that Prince would perform "nude", on occasion, rather than wear his black undies (page 141)...... THAT would have been quite the show! There must be photos somewhere. Anyone...... Sidenote: I know we have moved past the Prince, Paul and Kim saga but what confirmed for me (before AH mentioned the interview w/Paul) that they, Prince and Kim, didn't date in HS was the fact that Prince made a point to phone Paul when he and Kim did start to date.....he, imo, would have definitely made a point of telling Paul in HS, had it happened then. No way would that have been kept a secret given Prince's competitive nature.

[Edited 5/12/17 17:20pm]

I would love to hear if a forum poster seen one of these concerts while he was in the nude.

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I'm glad the authors were able to speak to Paul Mitchell for this book. They heard it from the man himself, instead of a bunch of hear-say from people who weren't even around at the time.

80tomato said:

Rick James used to play in a band with Neil Young in the '60s in Toronto .I think I read they couldn't play in the USA because Rick dodged the draft,which I have no problem with .Ihaven't had time to read the book but I am enjoying the discussion.Thanks Penny

You're welcome!

PennyPurple said:

laurarichardson said:

PennyPurple said:

I would love to hear if a forum poster seen one of these concerts while he was in the nude.

,

I'm glad the authors were able to speak to Paul Mitchell for this book. They heard it from the man himself, instead of a bunch of hear-say from people who weren't even around at the time.

--You just keep living in your own world. There is a pic of Prince with underwear pulled down during that tour. Also Jill Jones said Teena Marie had to leave the Rick James tour after Prince left because the tour was losing money. [Edited 5/12/17 20:13pm]

Chapter 12 ~ Rough Mix Pgs 147-154

• Prince was living in a rented house at Lake Minnetonka

• Starting on his 3^rd Album

• Collaborated with Matt Fink on Dirty Mind

• Announced Dirty Mind would be the title track on the next album

• Princes new songs included sexuality, politics & social issues

• Gayle Chapman quit the band

• Prince perceived Andre as a threat

• Morris Day is back in the picture

• Lisa Coleman was hired

The song Sister which explores incest was inspired in part by his ½ sister Sharon, actually as a homage to her sophisticated beauty as opposed to incest.

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Gayle Chapman quit because of lack of control and Prince’s dictatorship which included her clothing options.

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Andre started having resentment towards Prince and was getting tired of playing a subordinate role. Andre wanted to set up his own studio to work on songs and Prince told him just to use his stuff, which allowed Prince to keep physical custody of Andre’s music, Prince didn’t want Andre to succeed and would ‘accidentally’ erase tapes.

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Morris Day comes back in the picture as an errand boy. Prince took a liking to one of Day’s riff’s and offered Day $10,000 or Prince would build a side project around Day at a later date, which is what day choose. That song became Party Up which was political and brought about by re instituting the draft by President Jimmy Carter.

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Prince hired Lisa Coleman and they shared a house together.

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Prince decided to show up to the WB meetings in bikini briefs and fishnet stockings. I bet that set WB’s heads spinning. LOL

I love the descriptions of how Prince felt abput Rick James and how Rick James felt about Prince. I love how Prince stole Rick James's chants...very clever and a little mean. But if RJ had been paying more attention to P's performances, maybe RJ could have nipped this in the bud.

PennyPurple said:

<SNIP>

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Prince decided to show up to the WB meetings in bikini briefs and fishnet stockings. I bet that set WB’s heads spinning. LOL

Hey, at least he was wearing underwear!

206Michelle said:

I love the descriptions of how Prince felt abput Rick James and how Rick James felt about Prince. I love how Prince stole Rick James's chants...very clever and a little mean. But if RJ had been paying more attention to P's performances, maybe RJ could have nipped this in the bud.

Yeah, that cracked me up. Prince showed him up good!

LBrent said:

PennyPurple said:

<SNIP>

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Prince decided to show up to the WB meetings in bikini briefs and fishnet stockings. I bet that set WB’s heads spinning. LOL

Hey, at least he was wearing underwear!

What I'm wondering is, why did Prince decide to dress like that, and especially with the fishnet stockings? Was it shock value to make him stand out more? ... not that I was complaining at the time.

LBrent said:

LBrent said:

laurarichardson said:

sonshine said:

laurarichardson said:

His junk is hanging out and once someone on this board said they saw him flash the crowd at one of the shows. It might be in the search engine.

I need to go to my safe place now...anybody else?

LBrent said:

sonshine said:

laurarichardson said:

I need to go to my safe place now...anybody else?

Thank you guys for the comments. I believe we are off Rick James now, but I did want to mention that if I had to choose a favorite chapter for the book from a writing perspective this was it. Laura Tiebert was absolutely instrumental in the drafting of this chapter. However, it was also, perhaps even more so than any other chapter, a product of editing and collaboration. I think we probably exchanged this chapter back and forth about 20 times, adding and editing throughout. I would say this chapter took about 300 hours of editing and drafting between the two of us, although Laura could better say whether I am exaggerating. Point being it was the most fun you can have as a writer, and the topic of Rick James and this rivalry fascinated us, particularly because it was such a pivotal point in Prince's career.

PennyPurple said:

kmama07 said:

PennyPurple said: Ya. That was creepy bout the party tie-in. I knew Rick was a parties but didn't realize he was kind of a sleaze ball on top of it. Glad Prince rocked the house. An aside...the awful post in other thread: Truly a horrible thing. No one should be spoken to in that manner just because of a difference of opinion. Big love to you.

Thanks. Everytime I eat a hamburger now, I'll have to give it the side eye.

I didn't see the post about you, Penny, but thanks so much for doing this club and for taking the heat that has come here or anywhere else. It's so unfortunate that we all can't just try to have fun with this stuff, and words do hurt. Anyway, best wishes for a good Sunday and Mother's Day.

Alex

AlexHahn said:

Thank you guys for the comments. I believe we are off Rick James now, but I did want to mention that if I had to choose a favorite chapter for the book from a writing perspective this was it. Laura Tiebert was absolutely instrumental in the drafting of this chapter. However, it was also, perhaps even more so than any other chapter, a product of editing and collaboration. I think we probably exchanged this chapter back and forth about 20 times, adding and editing throughout. I would say this chapter took about 300 hours of editing and drafting between the two of us, although Laura could better say whether I am exaggerating. Point being it was the most fun you can have as a writer, and the topic of Rick James and this rivalry fascinated us, particularly because it was such a pivotal point in Prince's career.

You know Prince rocked it. He was before his time. He took someone like Rick James and smashed him to smithereens. LOL

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Pretty good for being as young as he was.

AlexHahn said:

PennyPurple said:

Thanks. Everytime I eat a hamburger now, I'll have to give it the side eye.

I didn't see the post about you, Penny, but thanks so much for doing this club and for taking the heat that has come here or anywhere else. It's so unfortunate that we all can't just try to have fun with this stuff, and words do hurt. Anyway, best wishes for a good Sunday and Mother's Day.

Alex

Thank you Alex for you and Laura T for participating. I've really enjoyed your book. Things will probably heat up when we start dicussing the chapter that involves Vanity. Yeah I got the curse of death put upon me, but I'm good.

At this point in the book, what are everyone's feelings about the treatment Andre is starting to get?

PennyPurple said:

At this point in the book, what are everyone's feelings about the treatment Andre is starting to get?

I know there are folks who will argue that P was being overly controlling in the case of many of his former associates...and I'm not saying that his decisions were right, but I'd like to give another perspective...

Imagine that you're not P, but you're a gifted chef.

You have a burning desire to cook and a incredible talent for creating new flavours that entice and tantalize the palate. You grew up with others who also were excellent cooks and you care about them, you might even be a bit jealous of a few of their random one off recipes...but you persue what you feel is your higher calling as a world class chef.

You are driven and as you see yourself gaining more and more success and traction in the industry, you have already decided to bring along your talented freinds...but they also have dreams and aspirations. And they are talented. But not as talented as you are. So you try to get them to wait. To not persue their talent further...yet.

Because you know that of the group, although each of the others has one or two qualities of success, you are the one who possesses all of the needed qualities to propel yourself into the stratosphere. And you intend on taking care of them and making sure you bring them with you, but they think they can do it faster without you.

I think P was toiling under the belief not that he WAS better than the rest, but that he KNEW better than the rest. I think if it had been possible to get everyone to stfu and simply blindly follow him like soldiers that would've been his dream.

Is that fair and reasonable?

Humans deserve to like their own destiny and the freedom of free will to decide for themselves.

But what if you look at your life today and crossroads where you went left and going right would've saved time, energy and heartache? And what if someone had tried to direct you in what now you know would've been a better direction, would you go back and do it all differently given the opportunity?

I think P didn't like acknowledging that sometimes folks would rather fail by their own hand than succeed under the hand of someone else. He felt betrayed by wasted potential and the idea that they didn't trust him to take them singlehandedly through the parted Red Sea like Moses to the Promised Land.

He had a bit of a Messiah Complex.

Heck, he even is known for doing the classic "messiah pose"; arms outstretched as it to say "It's me, I'm here, I'm the one!"

[Edited 5/15/17 7:59am]