I took a look at the new book Possessed:
The Rise And Fall Of Prince.
It is divided into two parts --
The Rise (up to 1988) and The Fall (after 1988). There are some good pictures of him performing and of some of the people he worked with. There is a picture of him arriving at the Purple Rain premier. I like the one of him performing with Mayte.

OuzoPower said:

Hmm. Sounds interesting. Anyone heard of this?

i received my book 4 days ago. it does contain nice pictures. prince had women coming out of his @#$%&*.the book is very interesting, it's just hard to determine the truth and the lies.regardless of how the book ends,Prince will always be the man!

Today during the slow periods at work i completed Possessed.
My opinions is very addictive book. Since i've read most of
the previous books on P (the best ones DSMR,POp life by DAvid Hill...dAYS of wild etc...) i felt i had a solid
background before i read one page.

my view to fams: if you're the type who has a unrealistic
view of PrINCE -DON'T READ this book. however,if you're like
i am...i'm a long-time fan from the beginning who admires
the Man as an artist and musician but can separate what he
IS and the things he does personally-then you'll be able
to enjoy the book.
yes there are some factual errors (you'll know what they
are when you read them) but overall i'd say much of what is
in the book i'd say is basically accurate.

prince is a fascinating complex...very flawed guy-not the worst musical star i've read about...what he is probably
makes him as brilliant as he is MUSICAlly...so for people who read this and think he's being Assasinated as character..i'd say not really.

the revelations that i found between the pages did make me
sit up and say...DAMMnnn!

without telling too much the highlights (in my view)
are his complex relationship with the Girls bros. (and
susannah) wendy M comes off pretty interesting in the mix.
princes's compulsions with music and women.

rosie gaines take on the NPG (the guys) and pRINCE were
honest and revealing.

and Hahn's view of Larry G is pretty accurate too.

ahhh i forgot who wrote the thread "who did p pork.."
but the answers are here in this book.
the girls he did deal with-most we KNow...but one surprise
to me was his seeing sheila,jill,susannah all around the
same time! Mannn ...

yes there is a tabloid quality to some of this but not
enough to turn me off.

again i KNow p hasn't been that nice to many people so my
opinion of him hasn't changed. and i know if you think
Alex Hahn has an axe to grind with P then you shouldn't
read the book.

there's more i could say but i'll save that for later.

i give it 3 and half stars...(if he had gotten andre,morris
or sheila to talk i would have given it 4 stars!

Prince is still BAD...you and me just wouldn't want to be in
a band with him!!!

youngca

i'm a bout half way through the book and I mostly agree with
you,but don't you find it a bit suspect that Hahn did little research of his own and interviewed few if none of the people he writes about?

I doubt P would have agreed to an interview but Hahn could have at least asked for one don't you think?

youngca said:

what do you mean by "wendy comes off interesting in the mix"? just wondering.
[This message was edited Tue Apr 15 18:44:31 PDT 2003 by lovebizzare]

Sweeny79 said:

good points Sweeny79. believe me,these thoughts did cross my
mind after i read the beginning of the book where Hahn told
us whom he talked to and who his sources were.
However,i've read quite a ton of books on music stars over
the years and i have learned that just because an author
does interviews (one on one) with people doesn't necessarily
mean much. if you have the right sources,people are honest..
etc...that's more important to me.

again,like i said i DO take into account several factors here. The author previous history with P might give him a
bias view of P (believe me i thought about this real hard)
while i read the book!) and because of Prince's history
of mistreating his associates (its in most of the books on
the guy...not everybody can be wrong about our hero!)
there was no surprise that so many people would either tell
the author & his "investigated team" the real deal (from their viewpoint of course!) people are human-if they feel
they have been "dogged"-they're gonna spill the dirt.

the anonymous sources definitely don't surprise me. its a
good bet some of these folk still have ties with P.

on your point about him interviewing P...like you i would
have liked for this to happen but i'm realistic about this
subject. Prince has almost always tried to control the media
and what we should know about him...and he's lied and
contradicted himself so much-i doubt he would tell Hahn
anything in an one on one talk. If he tried to silence
Uptown-i can't see him endorsing any book that could be
considered damaging to him. on the other hand he might not
give a DAmn about this at all. the way he is now-being
into his new phase as a Jw...who to say he would look at
Possessed as "ancient history"..old news...that was ME then
this is me now!!!

anyway,i dig your points. a lot.

one thing i wish. that one day Prince will come clean and
seriously write his own bio..one that explains himself.
i think it would be great for us fans and make us understand
some of his motivations into his tunes and actions.

peace & much love...

youngca,

I think that you hit the nail on the head when you said Prince might not give a damn. I think he does feel that was then this is now, but as far as him writing a truthful auto biography, I don't think he ever will. He might write a book himself but I don't think it's possible for people to change that much. If Prince is any less of a control freak then he was at the height of his career it's because he no longer receives the attention he once did and he no longer has the amount of money or people willing to do his bidding.

If you watch the Kevin smith dvd, the story the smith tells about Prince shows no drastic change from how he behaved during the purple rain era.

Basically, it seems that if he was once an asshole he will always be always an asshole. I still love the man but it seems to be the truth.

Sweeny79 said:

I think his religious conversion has changed him quite a bit
but i basically i think he's the same person as far as how he treats people. again that cool with me-i love him as
an Artist. i don't have to like him as a human being.

religion doesn't always make a person a better person.

I just finished the book last night. My opinion is that it is pretty good. I have read DMSR, the Liz Smith one and the other by Per Nielson. What makes "Possessed" different from the others is the gossipy stuff. And to be honest I believe almost everything in here. If you haven't read the book and you don't want any of the details, STOP READING THIS POST NOW!

The arguments and fights with Wendy, Miko, and other band members are all very believable. His womanizing and need to be in control is also very believable. There is only one piece of gossip/rumor that Alex Hahn put in here that I don't believe and that was Prince's use of cocaine for a while. I'm glad Alan Leeds refuted that and stated that he doubts seriously that Prince ever used it.

Another tidbit that I had never read before was Prince's and Lisa's sexual relations when Lisa first came aboard. All in all I agree with most others that have posted about the book. It's good reading, and delves into a lot of Prince's personal life. There are a lot of you that think Prince can do no wrong and can't handle a negative slant when it comes to Prince, if that's the case this book is definately not for you.

is the book in stores yet and does anyone know when it will b?

joelmarable said:

I picked it up at Bookstar.

I went to the local bookstore here in Canada last week and asked them about it. They said its not available through Canadian wholesalers yet. They ordered it for me through an American wholesaler saying it'll be about a week and there's no returns. $40 Canadian + 15% tax. It sounds interesting

the book is very so so and i use that term loosely
there r some facts , i agree but the shit about Prince
doin lines of coke - thats complete bullshit im sorry.
in my opinion, any1 who comes away viewing Prince any
differently after reading this book is a fucking asshole... sorry!!!

i just finished the book and it hasn't changed the way i feel about the man and his music. i knew P was an asshole before i read the book but i still dig lil man. i did suspect him and mani eyeing each other while mayte was still in the picture.

I got the question. If i go to the book store to find this book, where do u think it would be, what category?

I'm about half way through and must say I can't put it down. It brings me right back to the 80's when every Prince release was a major event. Everyone was waiting to see what he would do next, and he never let you down. I'll let you know more when I finish it.

Some highlights so far-

Prince and Jesse's fights

Inside Prince's recording sessions with commentary from Susan Rogers

And the fact that Prince didn't want to be the "Purple Rain Guy" and how he rebelled against the mainstream afterward.

(I still miss those funky synth lines from the 1999 era though. Bring em back!)

Taurus said:

---
Nobody thinks that Prince cannot do any wrong. He is human and makes mistakes like all humans. It is just not beliveable that dude is the devil 24 hours a day and 365 days of the year. I think he has done something good in his life and Mr.Hahn just knew that would not sell books.

As far as Lisa is concerned he did write a song about her so I don't think it is that shocking that they had an affair. A real fun game would be who he did not sleep with.

As

Taurus said:

wha? Prince and Lisa? But I thought lisa--huh?

a prince book? is it some sort of tie in with the new EP?

rio said:

i bet it is

Jem said:

uhhh, it'd be in the music section...

Prince and Lisa had an affair?? Damn,I can't wait to read this book!

Alex is having a boo signing in Boston May 22. Should be cool to talk to him.