SoulSplash said:

I liked the idea of framing the memoir as a kind of handbook. It was a way to expand its remit, giving another layer of meaning to the title, “The Beautiful Ones,” which could denote an entire community of creators.

.

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Love the article in The New Yorker. Thanks to Bart for sharing. Prince had/has a great spirit.

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Another thing about Prince choosing the title The Beautiful Ones for his memoir...

.

Back in the mid to late 90s when many of us were on AOL (America Online) [even Compuserve and Prodigy before that, along with the "pre-internet" a.m.p. usenet group], Prince was working directly with fans (via online chatrooms, emails, and IMs) on the Love4OneAnother site, and there was a small group of us who Prince (and sometimes Mayte) checked in with (cf. "My Computer") to see how things were going, play ideas off of, talk spiritual, etc. The thought came up about what we should call ourselves, not just us but others like us who sort of bonded with each other and thought in similar waves.

.

We weren't just "The Collective" (as some called those who worked with him on the website) -- it went beyond that, to include artistic types ("we r all the rtist" as "The Artist" would say) or just others who enjoyed his spiritual wordplay and expanding on the ideas he would put forth, plus it was never meant to be exclusionary. In a way, this was an AOL precursor to what would eventually become The Holy River chatroom. On AOL, Prince would create a private room and invite people to chat with him there, or join in on the public chatrooms, one devoted to him, and other spiritual ones. And yes, it was almost always very late at night, usually around 2am MPLS time.

.
I can't remember if it was in a response to something Prince asked or just something we all started talking about, but I remember saying, "Why don't we call ourselves The Beautiful Ones?" (in reference to being spiritually connected, "beauty-filled," using, of course, the title to the Prince song). Remember at this time Prince was into a lot of spiritual books, The Celestine Prophecy being one of his biggest inspirations at the time; this was 2-3 years before he started getting into the Jehovah Witness religion.

.

Anway, it was Kathy aka opnmind (credited in the New Power Soul liner notes) who said something like "The Beautiful Ones" sounded too pretentious and exclusionary, making it look like we were separating ourselves as appearing better than others. I totally understood what she meant, not that any of us would think that of ourselves, but that the title could come across poorly to others. I forget what other things we came up with, but I'm pretty sure we didn't settle on any particular name before The Holy River chatroom was created on Prince's own L4OA site and eventually the NPGMC site, which too allowed for private IMs with "certain" people and the ability to create and invite people into private chatrooms, much like AOL.

.

So it's my belief, when Prince came up with the title The Beautiful Ones for his memoir, it's not so much in reference to his song of the same name, but it's because of how he saw all of you, his fans, all of us together, spiritually, artistically, and so on. We are The Beautiful Ones ("an entire of community of creators." i.e. "we r all the rtist").

.

By the way, "One Song" [aka "Uni-Verse"] (the whole 9 minute piece) is a culmination of that period, written "by" and "for" his fans. It's why he closed L4OA and left it there for months (nothing else) when NPGMC became the new site.

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Peace + much Love 2 all

~ keep the vibe alive ~

Marrk said:

ISaidLifeIsJustAGame said:

"As I read more about his last months, it was hard to reconcile the sunny, puckish, solicitous man I met with the one described in news stories and police reports, who could be unyielding, furtive, and willfully opaque. Prince had always embodied dualities. Here was one more: he had told me that he was O.K., and he was not O.K. There was nothing false in the way he spoke to me, and nothing false in the way he spoke during his darkest moments. I can’t think less of him for hiding his pain. He was living on his own terms. To expect anything more of him would have been to expect magic."


The last paragraph of Dan's article sums P up perfectly.

It does. 'Magic' is an interesting last word in the context of the article too. Magic ism't real. I wish it was.

Prince said he didn't like the word magic because funk has rules. I love that.

Dan took Prince telling him he was OK as if Prince knew he was not OK. Maybe Prince thought he was OK.

[Edited 9/28/19 11:34am]

poppys said:

^^ I dislike engaging with you. As usual you went way off-topic.

For the record, and the scope of THIS article thread, I am saying it is possible Prince thought he was OK when he told Dan he was OK. That is all.

poppys said:

purplethunder3121 said:

SoulSplash said:

.

.

Love the article in The New Yorker. Thanks to Bart for sharing. Prince had/has a great spirit.

.

Another thing about Prince choosing the title The Beautiful Ones for his memoir...

.

Back in the mid to late 90s when many of us were on AOL (America Online) [even Compuserve and Prodigy before that, along with the "pre-internet" a.m.p. usenet group], Prince was working directly with fans (via online chatrooms, emails, and IMs) on the Love4OneAnother site, and there was a small group of us who Prince (and sometimes Mayte) checked in with (cf. "My Computer") to see how things were going, play ideas off of, talk spiritual, etc. The thought came up about what we should call ourselves, not just us but others like us who sort of bonded with each other and thought in similar waves.

.

We weren't just "The Collective" (as some called those who worked with him on the website) -- it went beyond that, to include artistic types ("we r all the rtist" as "The Artist" would say) or just others who enjoyed his spiritual wordplay and expanding on the ideas he would put forth, plus it was never meant to be exclusionary. In a way, this was an AOL precursor to what would eventually become The Holy River chatroom. On AOL, Prince would create a private room and invite people to chat with him there, or join in on the public chatrooms, one devoted to him, and other spiritual ones. And yes, it was almost always very late at night, usually around 2am MPLS time.

.
I can't remember if it was in a response to something Prince asked or just something we all started talking about, but I remember saying, "Why don't we call ourselves The Beautiful Ones?" (in reference to being spiritually connected, "beauty-filled," using, of course, the title to the Prince song). Remember at this time Prince was into a lot of spiritual books, The Celestine Prophecy being one of his biggest inspirations at the time; this was 2-3 years before he started getting into the Jehovah Witness religion.

.

Anway, it was Kathy aka opnmind (credited in the New Power Soul liner notes) who said something like "The Beautiful Ones" sounded too pretentious and exclusionary, making it look like we were separating ourselves as appearing better than others. I totally understood what she meant, not that any of us would think that of ourselves, but that the title could come across poorly to others. I forget what other things we came up with, but I'm pretty sure we didn't settle on any particular name before The Holy River chatroom was created on Prince's own L4OA site and eventually the NPGMC site, which too allowed for private IMs with "certain" people and the ability to create and invite people into private chatrooms, much like AOL.

.

So it's my belief, when Prince came up with the title The Beautiful Ones for his memoir, it's not so much in reference to his song of the same name, but it's because of how he saw all of you, his fans, all of us together, spiritually, artistically, and so on. We are The Beautiful Ones ("an entire of community of creators." i.e. "we r all the rtist").

.

By the way, "One Song" [aka "Uni-Verse"] (the whole 9 minute piece) is a culmination of that period, written "by" and "for" his fans. It's why he closed L4OA and left it there for months (nothing else) when NPGMC became the new site.

.

Peace + much Love 2 all

~ keep the vibe alive ~

Actually, they were going to close The Holy River. In fact, Prince wanted it all taken down when he moved on to the next site, but StarMaiden took over The Holy River, and maintained it. Eventually, even moving it to a new server. Star had to do some convincing Paisley Park to allow us to keep The Holy River, but eventually they relented.

When he had The Lotus Flow3r website, I had emailed (don't know who the support people were) but asked them about putting a chat on that website. They said that it had been in discussion, but that Prince had nixed it because he felt the chatrooms became too negative over time, and he just didn't want to mess with them any more because of that. Just too much drama in the chats.

[Edited 9/28/19 20:40pm]

AP article: https://www.arkansasonlin...-for-trut/

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Music lovers again can look forward to a new round of memoirs, including Elton John's Me (Oct. 15), Debbie Harry's Face It (Tuesday), Flea's Acid for the Children (Nov. 5) and Andrew Ridgeley's Wham!: George Michael and Me (Oct. 8). Prince's The Beautiful Ones (Oct. 29) is built around a manuscript he and co-author Dan Piepenbring were working on at the time of his death. A former Prince collaborator, Morris Day, tells his story in On Time: A Princely Life in Funk (Oct. 8).

.

Liz Phair's Horror Stories (Oct. 8) is less a rock star memoir than a memoir that happens to be written by a rock star. It's a collection of personal essays reflecting on everything from divorce to the birth of her son to climbing trees on her grandparents' property. The singer-songwriter known for her classic Exile in Guyville album told The Associated Press that Prince's death was one reason she decided to write the book.

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"When these great music legends die, you realize how much they meant to you and how much they shaped your career. ... And it gets you thinking about your own legacy," she said, adding that her book also was a way of confronting the "horror" of the daily headlines.

.

"I believe there's a power to being open and connected to your emotions, acknowledging what's happened to you. I don't think it shows weakness. I think it fortifies you against a whole lot of hot air."

.

BartVanHemelen said:

AP article: https://www.arkansasonlin...-for-trut/

.

Music lovers again can look forward to a new round of memoirs, including Elton John's Me (Oct. 15), Debbie Harry's Face It (Tuesday), Flea's Acid for the Children (Nov. 5) and Andrew Ridgeley's Wham!: George Michael and Me (Oct. 8). Prince's The Beautiful Ones (Oct. 29) is built around a manuscript he and co-author Dan Piepenbring were working on at the time of his death. A former Prince collaborator, Morris Day, tells his story in On Time: A Princely Life in Funk (Oct. 8).

.

Liz Phair's Horror Stories (Oct. 8) is less a rock star memoir than a memoir that happens to be written by a rock star. It's a collection of personal essays reflecting on everything from divorce to the birth of her son to climbing trees on her grandparents' property. The singer-songwriter known for her classic Exile in Guyville album told The Associated Press that Prince's death was one reason she decided to write the book.

.

"When these great music legends die, you realize how much they meant to you and how much they shaped your career. ... And it gets you thinking about your own legacy," she said, adding that her book also was a way of confronting the "horror" of the daily headlines.

.

"I believe there's a power to being open and connected to your emotions, acknowledging what's happened to you. I don't think it shows weakness. I think it fortifies you against a whole lot of hot air."

.

Looks like many good reads coming soon. I SO wish Prince had had more time to finish what he started. Thanks for the link.

https://time.com/5684268/...ober-2019/

[Posting any of the books contents is not allowed. Copy right infringement snip - luv4u]

^^ Awww MOM

It's been two weeks since I received the book, and.... all I can say for now is WOW. This is a labour of love, it really is. The highlight, of course, is his own words. You can almost hear his voice, his words leap off the page in a stream of consciousness, raw and unedited. Although there's not much of it, what is there is a side of Prince we have never heard from him before. It's real, it's moving, and it's inspirational.


The rest of the book contains some very cool photos, notes, scribbles, drawings, quotes, and the original "Dreams" treatment idea that he wrote, that later evolved into Purple Rain.


If you've not pre-ordered yet, link here.

As you might expect, a lot of the book is heavily embargoed for now, but what I can say is that there are some huge press pieces coming out in major magazines over the next couple of weeks that should serve as a good teaser.

If anyone's on the fence, it's definitely worth the buy. It's not the memoir that we all wanted, but even what he did complete is worth the price. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will feel very close to him from his own words.

Thanks for posting! Great photo of y'all.

BartVanHemelen said:

------------------------------------------------------

Update 2 September: New Yorker article by Dan Piepenbring, the editor of the book: https://www.newyorker.com...-of-prince . This seems to be (a version of) the introduction to the book. Scroll down for my post where I quote from the blurb on the official website; the description of the book's introduction accurately describes this article.

.

[Edited 9/2/19 8:20am]

[Edited 9/3/19 8:47am]

A very interesting article - Im interested in a little clarification if anyone knows ..Was the event with 150 people an event to celebrate the signing of a contract with Random House ? - the article does not make it clear whether a contract was signed or not (was it an event without a contract having being signed ?).

*

The article seems to say Prince had not (yet) signed a contract with Dan or with the publisher Random House (?) and that Prince had a preference for someone connected to his music rather than a publishing house writer. If thats the case and as Prince has passed on (R.I.P) I'm curious (and with all due respect to Dan and RH who no doubt are very professional) - do we know that Prince had 100% decided that it was the correct fit and fully decided to cowrite the memoir with Dan and to publish with RH? Im guessing a contract must have been signed with that event taking place - but if a contract had not been signed - why not?

[Edited 10/4/19 11:16am]

mk456 said:

BartVanHemelen said:

------------------------------------------------------

Update 2 September: New Yorker article by Dan Piepenbring, the editor of the book: https://www.newyorker.com...-of-prince . This seems to be (a version of) the introduction to the book. Scroll down for my post where I quote from the blurb on the official website; the description of the book's introduction accurately describes this article.

.

[Edited 9/2/19 8:20am]

[Edited 9/3/19 8:47am]

A very interesting article - Im interested in a little clarification if anyone knows ..Was the event with 150 people an event to celebrate the signing of a contract with Random House ? - the article does not make it clear whether a contract was signed or not (was it an event without a contract having being signed ?).

*

The article seems to say Prince had not (yet) signed a contract with Dan or with the publisher Random House (?) and that Prince had a preference for someone connected to his music rather than a publishing house writer. If thats the case and as Prince has passed on (R.I.P) I'm curious (and with all due respect to Dan and RH who no doubt are very professional) - do we know that Prince had 100% decided that it was the correct fit and fully decided to cowrite the memoir with Dan and to publish with RH? If a contract had not been signed - why not ?

ummm, what? How would the publisher have rights to the book if not legalized? The article states Prince had specific requests and got what he wanted.

poppys said:

mk456 said:

A very interesting article - Im interested in a little clarification if anyone knows ..Was the event with 150 people an event to celebrate the signing of a contract with Random House ? - the article does not make it clear whether a contract was signed or not (was it an event without a contract having being signed ?).

ummm, what? How would the publisher have rights to the book if not legalized? The article states Prince had specific requests and got what he wanted.

That is exactly what I was thinking poppys - that's why I found it a bit confusing when it said near the end of the article " a contract had'nt even been signed yet". I guess it would have to have been signed - but why does he say it had'nt been signed?

(Its a minor point but its a bit confusing to me)

mk456 said:

poppys said:

ummm, what? How would the publisher have rights to the book if not legalized? The article states Prince had specific requests and got what he wanted.

That is exactly what I was thinking poppys - that's why I found it a bit confusing when it said near the end of the article " a contract had'nt even been signed yet". I guess it would have to have been signed - but why does he say it had'nt been signed?

(Its a minor point but its a bit confusing to me)

The contract had been signed by Prince because in the court documents it is stated the contract had to be re-negotiated due to P's passing. Obviously, P wasnt able to fufill his contract obligation.

ISaidLifeIsJustAGame said:

mk456 said:

That is exactly what I was thinking poppys - that's why I found it a bit confusing when it said near the end of the article " a contract had'nt even been signed yet". I guess it would have to have been signed - but why does he say it had'nt been signed?

(Its a minor point but its a bit confusing to me)

The contract had been signed by Prince because in the court documents it is stated the contract had to be re-negotiated due to P's passing. Obviously, P wasnt able to fufill his contract obligation.

Thank you for that information and for clarifying this.

mk456 said:

ISaidLifeIsJustAGame said:

The contract had been signed by Prince because in the court documents it is stated the contract had to be re-negotiated due to P's passing. Obviously, P wasnt able to fufill his contract obligation.

Thank you for that information and for clarifying this.

So it was both. Thank you ISLIJAG!

mk456 said:

ISaidLifeIsJustAGame said:

The contract had been signed by Prince because in the court documents it is stated the contract had to be re-negotiated due to P's passing. Obviously, P wasnt able to fufill his contract obligation.

Thank you for that information and for clarifying this.

ISLIJAG thank you again for the information - are the court documents publicly available online? or you must be connected with the Estate? Kind regards to you.

mk456 said:

mk456 said:

Thank you for that information and for clarifying this.

ISLIJAG thank you again for the information - are the court documents publicly available online? or you must be connected with the Estate? Kind regards to you.

http://www.mncourts.gov/I...elson.aspx

[Edited 10/5/19 0:21am]

Militant said:

Event in London on 4 November to promote the book's release: https://prince.org/msg/7/460979

BTW some photos from the book have leaked in the past week. The legality of these embargo-breaching leaks is questionable, so please do not post/link them here.

I also have an early copy of the book, I won't spoil anything, but as others who have the book early have posted on Twitter, it's a mix of an uncomplete memoir with a lot of never before seen handwritten images...

It's less of a "memoir" by Prince but more like a mix and a collage of anything or everything personal.

To be honest I wasn't that impressed with this at all. You can see they tried there best to fill in the missing pieces that Prince couldn't finish before his passing.

feeluupp said:

I also have an early copy of the book, I won't spoil anything, but as others who have the book early have posted on Twitter, it's a mix of an uncomplete memoir with a lot of never before seen handwritten images...

It's less of a "memoir" by Prince but more like a mix and a collage of anything or everything personal.

To be honest I wasn't that impressed with this at all. You can see they tried there best to fill in the missing pieces that Prince couldn't finish before his passing.

Yeah, some don't use their brains and spoil it for those that don't have the book yet. Shame on them.

feeluupp said:

violetcrush said:

feeluupp said:

I also have an early copy of the book, I won't spoil anything, but as others who have the book early have posted on Twitter, it's a mix of an uncomplete memoir with a lot of never before seen handwritten images...

It's less of a "memoir" by Prince but more like a mix and a collage of anything or everything personal.

To be honest I wasn't that impressed with this at all. You can see they tried there best to fill in the missing pieces that Prince couldn't finish before his passing.

Expected as much all along. He had just begun writing and planning the book, and was only two months into it. The new pictures and handwritten pieces will be nice to see, but I knew the rest would be someone else’s perspective.

I am looking to reading this book.

feeluupp said: