Just finished it there. Revelatory, if true. But a lot of my suspicions over the years were confirmed. Certainly looks like that skanky street dealer the Daily Mail dug up the day after he died was telling the truth. Addicted to painkillers since Purple Rain. Bipolar traits. Serious cognitive dissonance. Body was absolutely fucked since Parade. Double hip transplant. Kept on swearing til the end. Hated Miles Davis (!). Unceasingly cynical and hateful. Despised most people, only saw weakness. Loathed brownnosing. Used friends as extension of self for personal gain. Could only empathise with Mozart. Major working class chip on his shoulder. Lied about his mother continually because she didn’t protect him from John‘s bestings. Extreme childhood trauma. Lied about ... everything. Constantly. Mainly to himself. ‘Our family exists’. Never recovered from the death of his child. Believed it was his God’s punishment for so-called explicit lyrics and behaviour. Wrapped himself in so many layers of that he had no idea who he was anymore. Viewed his gift as a curse, his genius his daemon. Got rid of anyone who got too close. Was losing feeling in his arms and legs. Talked of suicide often. Died alone. I feel sick, actually. | |
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newsflash : Neal really doesn't care if you love him or hate him, or if you like or hate his book.
he's already got your money suckers, a very familiar position i've noticed from many people since April 2016 | |
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fragglerock said: newsflash : Neal really doesn't care if you love him or hate him, or if you like or hate his book.
he's already got your money suckers, a very familiar position i've noticed from many people since April 2016 Won't buy it. From what I read people say on the internet, the picture he paints about prince makes him look like he hated prince. We know prince could be a dick, but it seems neal painted prince as a totally unlikable character and even has the damn nerve to claim that he lied about his own mother. | |
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People like you and me are speculating. | |
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He don't have my money. | |
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Exactly how I feel. My first reaction to hearing some of these things was, "holy shit" but then followed by, wait a minute... I find it impossible to believe that Prince, who did not trust journalists At ALL, at the height of his career, would give a journalist he just met, some of the juiciest , national enquire worthy, sound bites ever recorded! He may have said those things during the history of their "friendship" but the when, where , and who, presented in the book is bs. And he definetly did not say it when he was knowingly being recorded. I agree, lies sprinkled with a little truth, is the genius of the book. It cleverly covers his ass too. Touche Neal. You might be my favorite douche bag.
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JudasLChrist said:
If you'd read the whole thread closely, you'd see that the main complaint is not about the book, it's about neal himself and what he did and said. I think people only find him credible because he wrote for rolling stone. If he'd be from the daily mail no one would give him their time of the day. Don't know how much you've seen from me on here, but I've nothing against prince being criticized if he was a legit asshole, but from what I've heard other people say who have the book, Prince comes off as totally unlikable person who didn't care about people. Yeah, the guy who paid hospital bills among other stuff for his employees. | |
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Prince was fairly unlikable from what I heard growing up in Minneapolis. He could and did charm people, but he also was a jerk in a lot of ways. These stories have been told by other folks who aren't Neal. Ask the guys in The Time! Morris Day. If you Mayte's book she is very forgiving of him, but he's an incredible asshole to her. I knew multilpe people who worked for him, and knew OF many who worked for him in Minneapolis, and he did not have the greatest reputation personally. [Edited 10/8/20 17:01pm] | |
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rednblue said:
It's aight,I didn't take it as criticism | |
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Out of curiosity from people who liked the book what is your overall impression of Prince? I ask because I don't feel he painted a truly negative picture of him given what's been said for all these years. Yes he said many negative things but then countered them with explanations. Maybe my meter is off. [Edited 10/8/20 17:35pm] Time keeps on slipping into the future...
This moment is all there is... | |
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JudasLChrist said:
Prince was fairly unlikable from what I heard growing up in Minneapolis. He could and did charm people, but he also was a jerk in a lot of ways. These stories have been told by other folks who aren't Neal. Ask the guys in The Time! Morris Day. If you Mayte's book she is very forgiving of him, but he's an incredible asshole to her. I knew multilpe people who worked for him, and knew OF many who worked for him in Minneapolis, and he did not have the greatest reputation personally. [Edited 10/8/20 17:01pm] Okay,he was an asshole most of the time,hence,he was fairly unlikable, but he's still good enouhg for everyone to make money with his name. If he would've been such a dick to me,I wouldn't to be associated with him in any way. I just feel like its trendy to paint this highly negative picture of him since he died. People can tell anything they want now that hes dead. | |
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I just have to say this: I've not read any book written about Prince after he died, except Duane's on the Purple Rain Sessions, and Mayte's book. I mean, she married ol' dude. Hers is exactly the story I wanted to hear first. (Even Manuela would get a nod from me. Susannah would. Wendy & Lisa would. I think the Revolution should write a book the way the original MTV VJs did for I Want My MTV or Motley Crue did for The Dirt where everyone has a few paragraphs for their version or take on a subject or story. Kinda shoots 5 birds with one stone.) I didn't buy all the magazines etc that people pushed out to capitalize on his death. It's not a collector or completist's goal to buy all that shit anyway. I swear sometimes a person could slap Prince on a box of tampons or nail polish remover, and some Prince fans would lose their shit and a large part of their bank account. Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking. | |
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JudasLChrist said:
Again, the first thing that was critized wasn't the damn book. It was the author of it, neal. He was joking about prince's death a few weeks before he died and only backtracked after he got dragged on Twitter for it. This should be strike one. He lied about the last time he spoke to prince, strike 2. He called prince's father names, because he personally dislikes him after meeting him once. Strike 3. He claims that prince popped pills right infront of him, not even Mayte went that far and she married the guy and lived with him. Strike 4. He literally claims that prince popped pills since 85,does he have even a shred of evidence for that? I could go on. Not all people who. Disklike this book are ass kissing prince fanatics. | |
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Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking. | |
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https://www.youtube.com/@PurpleKnightsPodcast | |
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JudasLChrist said:
And you just believe that prince just took his percocet? Yeah? And btw, I can respond to every post on here, since this is an open discussion. There's org nothes if you want to have a chat with a specific person on here. I also never said he had to like john. But it's not his place to talk about this man, especially in the manner he did it. | |
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JudasLChrist said:
Talking like that about a supposed friends father kinda makes you look like a shitty person. I doubt that P would've appreciated it. I highly doubt it. | |
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You must be the publicist... "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
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Well I'm not sure why he would have reached out to Miles Davis if he hated him. Or invited him to Paisley Park to perform in 1987 -- trust you've seen the concert (benefit concert which helped the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless)? Here - https://www.youtube.com/w...amp;t=238s . "Prince wrote me a letter and along with the letter he enclosed a tape of instrumental tracks he'd recorded by himself in the studio. And in this letter he wrote, "Miles even though we have never met, I can tell just from listening to your music that you and I are so exactly alike that I know whatever you play would be what I'd do. So if this tape is of any use to you, please go ahead and play whatever you feel over it. Because I trust what you hear and play." (Miles on Miles, Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis) . From Michelle Streitz who made Prince's canes: "That wouldn’t be the last time Prince looked to Michelle and Tom. He later asked for one more cane to give to his close friend Miles Davis who’d recently been hospitalized in Los Angeles." "In the article, Jason Miles, a longtime bandmate of Davis was quoted as saying,"When Miles was in the hospital… Prince had sent him this cane that had all kinds of glitter… He really loved that gift." https://prnalumni.org/mem...e-streitz/ . Here is Miles' son Erin speaking on how much Miles adored Prince: https://www.youtube.com/w...yFVdBTmqAc . Tamron Hall was an actual friend who says the only person she spoke to more was her mother. Here is her interview -- https://www.youtube.com/w...s&t=3s . A bit about Tamron: https://en.wikipedia.org/...amron_Hall "an Emmy-winning, American broadcast journalist, executive producer and television talk show host. In September 2019, Hall debuted her self-titled award-winning syndicated daytime talk show. Hall was formerly a national news correspondent for NBC News, daytime anchor for MSNBC, host of the program MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall, and a co-host of Today's Take, the third hour of Today. She currently hosts Deadline: Crime on Investigation Discovery channel. In summer 2016, Investigation Discovery premiered a new special, Guns on Campus: Tamron Hall Investigates, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the tower shooting at the University of Texas at Austin. . Here is some truth from Duff McKagan - https://www.seattleweekly...lumn-on-3/ . He no doubt read the Daily Mail article (Daily Mail is the equivalent of the National Enquirer), and cites Questlove's article on how Prince was Hip Hop, and Morris Hayes' interview with CJ to comment on Prince's multiple personalities. But why not interview Morris directly? Or Sonny Thompson, one of Prince's longest and dearest friends -- a childhood mentor, a great musician, and someone who worked with Prince during his difficult Warners years? So we should read an article about hip hop to know Prince, but ignore his own memoir words about his mother? . He throws in Micky Mantle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lyndon Johnson... etc. for good measure. Prince fans with decades of albums, concerts and memories... how many of Karlen's books have you read?
[Edited 10/8/20 23:35pm] | |
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Time keeps on slipping into the future...
This moment is all there is... | |
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No doubt everyone on the thread has already read this book, but just in case I link to Neal's 'Shanda: The Making and Breaking of a Self-Loathing Jew.' - https://www.goodreads.com...107.Shanda "At midlife Karlen discovers that he belongs nowhere and that the Jew he really hates is himself. He is a "shanda" -- a shame." ""Shanda" is Karlen's story of finding his way back to Judaism -- and the Jewish community." . At the end of his book, Neal claims Prince was spiritually dead. At the Piano and Microphone concert I attended, Prince got on his knees on the stage floor and prayed in front of the audience before he started the concert. What if Prince had written the same on Neal (after he passed), calling him a part-time jew, and 'spiritually dead', as Neal writes in his book. What would be the reaction? . Many have spoken about Prince's religious beliefs -- Larry Graham moved from Jamaica to be his spiritual mentor, Kevin Smith's piece was hilarious as he describes recording 4 hours of Prince's sermon at Paisley and ran out of tape... Here is Prince's family speaking about George Lopez who was helping them financially after Prince's passing; and George talking about how Prince wanted to be his bible teacher... and stop swearing -- https://www.etonline.com/...gers_death . Larry Graham was a bit closer to Prince than Neal. We lost a spiritual brother in Prince: https://theiconicprince.w...in-prince/ "Prince was particularly drawn to biblical messages of a hopeful future, he said. One of his favorite passages was Revelations 21:3-4, which states that God ultimately will dwell with his people and that “death will be no more.” “The resurrection and the hope for the future — and many more [passages] — we discussed many weeks and many months and years,” Graham said. "One thing Prince learned was to be “a positive person,” Graham said. He ate and drank in moderation. He stopped cursing. And he stopped writing the raunchy lyrics that characterized some of his early work.
“A lot of people will remember Prince for his music,” he added. “But he’d also want people to know what he learned from the Bible. We lost a really good friend and a spiritual brother.” . Here are Prince's own words about his religion: https://www.youtube.com/w...NCLZBixxYw . "(Maceo) Parker is rigorously even-handed with his praise, but out of all his collaborators, there is one who appears to have made a monumental impression. "Prince was really a sweetheart. When the heavens open up, the first think you are gonna see is Prince. That's the way I feel. Oh man, I'm telling you, I almost can't put it into words how that felt, just being that close to him, walking around Paisley Park, coming up with new stuff..." Parker's voice trails off. He worked with Prince on seven albums, and it is clear he still misses his dear friend." https://www.forbes.com/si...fd93ee2ca5
[Edited 10/8/20 23:54pm] | |
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