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Thread started 09/10/24 4:49am

endlessstarlig
ht

Why did Prince wrote in his memoir as nothing ever really happened?

Aside from the fights between mom and dad.

Like "I choose to live with my dad'' and ''The space was too small with my dad so I got to live somewhere else''

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Reply #1 posted 09/10/24 6:23am

lurker316

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I don't understand your question? What was Prince pretending didn't happen?

Also, keep in mind he only got to write a draft of the first few chapters before he passed. He obviously planned to write a lot more. Had he lived and continue to write, it's entirely possibly he would have addressed whatever issues you believe are missing.


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Reply #2 posted 09/10/24 7:17am

RODSERLING

Him alive, I think this project would have never come to fruition, as always.
Or else it would have evolved in something completely different, not rue memoirs by the letter.
Maybe it would have turned into an album.
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Reply #3 posted 09/10/24 7:30am

bozojones

I can't really blame Prince for glossing over the more traumatic parts of his childhood in his own memoir, nor am I surprised that he did considering how guarded he was through his whole life as a public figure.

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Reply #4 posted 09/10/24 7:52am

Purpleone4Eva

Your mistake is believing what Prince wrote in his memoir to be true. Prince protected himself and his privacy largely by lying about himself, his past, etc. I'm not saying that he lied to be a big ol' liar, but why would he want to divulge his personal traumas to strangers, fans or not, when he wouldn't even share deeply personal things with friends? He kept a lot of people at a surface level, even if they were with him for years, didn't like to talk about his past.

So yeah, just maybe don't assume the memoir is an actual autobiography and accept it for the Prince penned fantasy it is?

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Reply #5 posted 09/10/24 10:46am

funkbabyandthe
babysitters

He was a self mythologiser
Also a denier
And a storyteller
Also prone to hiding his history
He was never going to divulge everything
Partly as he liked being mysterious but also cos he didnt know how to talk or write about his difficulties
Honesty was not his forte or in his abilities
[Edited 9/10/24 10:47am]
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Reply #6 posted 09/10/24 2:10pm

TheTruth123

RODSERLING said:

Him alive, I think this project would have never come to fruition, as always. Or else it would have evolved in something completely different, not rue memoirs by the letter. Maybe it would have turned into an album.

They were paying him big bucks.

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Reply #7 posted 09/10/24 2:11pm

TheTruth123

bozojones said:

I can't really blame Prince for glossing over the more traumatic parts of his childhood in his own memoir, nor am I surprised that he did considering how guarded he was through his whole life as a public figure.

I don't think he wanted to hurt people.

Especially fans, his young proteges, or Tyka/family. he wasnt into doing that.

[Edited 9/10/24 14:12pm]

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Reply #8 posted 09/11/24 5:58am

Vannormal

Clearly, Prince was very suspicious of some form of healthy self-reflection.

That's what's more and more clear to me.

This is probably why he fled all his life into all kinds of (weird) religions, embarrassed himself publicly with whining about the truth, etc.

We all know that the only truth (about ourselves and how we deal with others) is within ourselves.

(You just have to dare to undergo it, and be open to the hard and fair facts of what you are and what you do. Anyways...)

Prince was always trying to figure out how to be a good person, without having to dig deep within himself, to be able to clean up his problems with others, for instance.

As it turned out, most of his friendships remained rather superficial after his fame, as he apparently always lived aloofly behind a curtain of distrust. Well... but for sure he had a good hear, no doubt about that. Generous as well on many many levels.

-

Of course, he translated many of his imperfections and unresolved problems with others into his lyrics. But just as often that was either particularly cryptic, or very unclear, and relatively frankly superficially named. Let's be honest about that.
Just as often he expressed sense dissatisfaction cryptically that people misunderstood him.

He also often sang about those who allegedly hurt, abandoned, or misunderstood his good intentions. Actually, it seems that Prince rarely sang or wrote with a clear word of self-insight, or self-knowledge.

That's what I think.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. And wiser people so full of doubts" (Bertrand Russell 1872-1972)
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Reply #9 posted 09/11/24 9:39am

databank

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funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

He was a self mythologiser

My experience is most artists are. Hell, most everyone is to an extent (one always wishes to project a certain image), but becoming a public figure takes it to another level because of exposure and, most importantly, the fact that your persona becomes an extension of your work and affects how the audience perceives it. Sometimes your persona even becomes a literal part of your work.

.

It's not necessarily always planned and deliberate. Sometimes you come up with a self-agrandizing or thought provoking strategy because it pops-up in your mind and sounds fun or like a good marketing idea, but most of the times it's initially reactions, things you reflect from others: you realize they tend to react to, or interpret things you do or make or say in a certain way that's convenient to your narrative or image, so you start encouraging it more or less consciously, or sometimes it's counterstrategy: you realize people attack you or your image, or react to things in a way that's the opposite of what you hoped, so you adjust your narrative to counteract or distract.

.

I've often wondered how it would be if artists were anonymous, if we had no way of perceiving them beyond their work itself. How much bullshit could artists spare themselves if they didn't have to worry about how their person is perceived, just their work.

.

It's happened that I've heard people say "I don't like such or such musician or filmmaker or author" (in context, clearly formulated in the sense of "I don't like their work"), then asked them what they'd listened to, watched or read by said artist, and it turned our they were not familiar with their work at all, but they were upset by their image, behavior or political opinions, so they condemned their work without knowing it. Oppositely, I've met people who had a completely distorted perception of an artist because of their work, who assumed such or such artist must be a really unhealthy person because they created upsetting, disturbing pieces of work, but when you know them a little, said artists actually seem to be the sanest people ever, just artists with an interest in the morbid.

A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/
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Reply #10 posted 09/11/24 10:25am

Kares

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databank said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

He was a self mythologiser

.

It's happened that I've heard people say "I don't like such or such musician or filmmaker or author" (in context, clearly formulated in the sense of "I don't like their work"), then asked them what they'd listened to, watched or read by said artist, and it turned our they were not familiar with their work at all, but they were upset by their image, behavior or political opinions, so they condemned their work without knowing it.

.

Oh my, how many times I've been told by various people (including professional musicians) that they don't like Prince simply because they didn't like P's image! (And of course the only image of Prince they remembered was from the Purple Rain era, with heavy makeup and lace shirts.) No amount of suit and tie photos of Prince could change their minds – for them "he's gay" forever so they don't even give his music a chance.
Oddly enough, the same people can be far more forgiving when it comes to white artists who once performed in makeup and sexy clothes...

Friends don't let friends clap on 1 and 3.

The Paisley Park Vault spreadsheet: https://goo.gl/zzWHrU
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Reply #11 posted 09/11/24 10:44am

funkbabyandthe
babysitters

Most of those who dislike him for seeming gay do so more for sounding gay (whatever that means) than how he looked, in my experience. Bowie, new york dolls etc, only looked and acted effeminate, but sung in pretty masculine voices (ie normal registers).
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Reply #12 posted 09/11/24 10:49am

funkbabyandthe
babysitters

Vannormal said:

Clearly, Prince was very suspicious of some form of healthy self-reflection.


That's what's more and more clear to me.


This is probably why he fled all his life into all kinds of (weird) religions, embarrassed himself publicly with whining about the truth, etc.


We all know that the only truth (about ourselves and how we deal with others) is within ourselves.


(You just have to dare to undergo it, and be open to the hard and fair facts of what you are and what you do. Anyways...)


Prince was always trying to figure out how to be a good person, without having to dig deep within himself, to be able to clean up his problems with others, for instance.


As it turned out, most of his friendships remained rather superficial after his fame, as he apparently always lived aloofly behind a curtain of distrust. Well... but for sure he had a good hear, no doubt about that. Generous as well on many many levels.


-


Of course, he translated many of his imperfections and unresolved problems with others into his lyrics. But just as often that was either particularly cryptic, or very unclear, and relatively frankly superficially named. Let's be honest about that.
Just as often he expressed sense dissatisfaction cryptically that people misunderstood him.


He also often sang about those who allegedly hurt, abandoned, or misunderstood his good intentions. Actually, it seems that Prince rarely sang or wrote with a clear word of self-insight, or self-knowledge.


That's what I think.



I mostly agree.
But naked introspection is not for all artists (he had other stuff going for him). His guard always had to be up. He was always protecting himself.
Prince could do victim sentiments but rarely/never admit being the aggressor.
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Reply #13 posted 09/18/24 5:52pm

laytonian

I found it interesting that he sipped wiring before meeting Moin, Husney or any others in his musical arena.
Did anyone else notice, in his memoir the enoty spot in his photo album where he had earlier removed the photo of Owen Husney?

It's like he would have to start writing about people who (in his view) had abandoned him. Like in the memoir pages with the photo album -- did anyone else notice the missing photo of Husney?

In Dan Piepenbring's intro, he mentions how Prince is kinda wandering his attention. Wants to solve racism, different directions. Still thinking of what the book will be. ONE CLUE? The song lyrics, obviously newly-written out, found in his travel bag. Was he thinking of writing about the inspiration of certain songs?
[Edited 9/18/24 18:08pm]
Welcome to "the org", laytonian… come bathe with me.
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Reply #14 posted 09/18/24 6:11pm

laytonian

Purpleone4Eva said:

Your mistake is believing what Prince wrote in his memoir to be true. Prince protected himself and his privacy largely by lying about himself, his past, etc. I'm not saying that he lied to be a big ol' liar, but why would he want to divulge his personal traumas to strangers, fans or not, when he wouldn't even share deeply personal things with friends? He kept a lot of people at a surface level, even if they were with him for years, didn't like to talk about his past.

So yeah, just maybe don't assume the memoir is an actual autobiography and accept it for the Prince penned fantasy it is?


He wrote about obvious trauma. Did you read it?
His mother stole his babysitting money.
His mother dumped him on his father's doorstep hours before she was supposed to.
How he saw religion as "so complicated" in the marriage of an aunt and suffering uncle.
What he didn't write about was the two men (father and stepfather) who physically abused him. He portrayed his father, a taker from the start, as his "hero". It doesn't make sense knowing what we know now.

Welcome to "the org", laytonian… come bathe with me.
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Reply #15 posted 09/19/24 8:12am

RODSERLING

laytonian said:



Purpleone4Eva said:


Your mistake is believing what Prince wrote in his memoir to be true. Prince protected himself and his privacy largely by lying about himself, his past, etc. I'm not saying that he lied to be a big ol' liar, but why would he want to divulge his personal traumas to strangers, fans or not, when he wouldn't even share deeply personal things with friends? He kept a lot of people at a surface level, even if they were with him for years, didn't like to talk about his past.



So yeah, just maybe don't assume the memoir is an actual autobiography and accept it for the Prince penned fantasy it is?




He wrote about obvious trauma. Did you read it?
His mother stole his babysitting money.
His mother dumped him on his father's doorstep hours before she was supposed to.
How he saw religion as "so complicated" in the marriage of an aunt and suffering uncle.
What he didn't write about was the two men (father and stepfather) who physically abused him. He portrayed his father, a taker from the start, as his "hero". It doesn't make sense knowing what we know now.


The song Papa wasn't addressed to his father?
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Reply #16 posted 09/19/24 9:55pm

Gooddoctor23

Prince was a master of fantasy and Truth-lusion

Depending on 1s perspective

u either buy n2 the reality

or u chew on the illusion

His whole life became an exercise n perception

As every single relationship became an extention of manipulation

centered around control, his control

U either bought into what he was selling.......

or u had 2 go.

His memoir is not any different than any other aspect of his life.

A world he manifested, where the only truth is what he wanted u 2 believe.

As he once said both publicly & privately:

Life is no fun without fantasy.

Fantasy became his way of life

As the truth was alway just a reflection in the rearview mirror.

Welcome 2 the dawn

Graycap23 was ME!
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Reply #17 posted 09/21/24 4:31pm

laytonian

RODSERLING said:

laytonian said:


He wrote about obvious trauma. Did you read it?
His mother stole his babysitting money.
His mother dumped him on his father's doorstep hours before she was supposed to.
How he saw religion as "so complicated" in the marriage of an aunt and suffering uncle.
What he didn't write about was the two men (father and stepfather) who physically abused him. He portrayed his father, a taker from the start, as his "hero". It doesn't make sense knowing what we know now.

The song Papa wasn't addressed to his father?


Likely a melange of both abusers.

Welcome to "the org", laytonian… come bathe with me.
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Reply #18 posted 09/22/24 11:49am

rockford

For one thing, Prince was a bad writer. For another thing, he had barely started writing before it passed.

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Reply #19 posted 09/22/24 8:31pm

paisleyparkgir
l

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rockford said:

For one thing, Prince was a bad writer. For another thing, he had barely started writing before it passed.

Why do you think that he was a bad writer ?
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Reply #20 posted 09/23/24 12:35am

Herepid

You should choose a space that makes you feel most comfortable.

geometry dash meltdown

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Reply #21 posted 09/23/24 5:18am

muleFunk

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laytonian said:



Purpleone4Eva said:


Your mistake is believing what Prince wrote in his memoir to be true. Prince protected himself and his privacy largely by lying about himself, his past, etc. I'm not saying that he lied to be a big ol' liar, but why would he want to divulge his personal traumas to strangers, fans or not, when he wouldn't even share deeply personal things with friends? He kept a lot of people at a surface level, even if they were with him for years, didn't like to talk about his past.



So yeah, just maybe don't assume the memoir is an actual autobiography and accept it for the Prince penned fantasy it is?




He wrote about obvious trauma. Did you read it?
His mother stole his babysitting money.
His mother dumped him on his father's doorstep hours before she was supposed to.
How he saw religion as "so complicated" in the marriage of an aunt and suffering uncle.
What he didn't write about was the two men (father and stepfather) who physically abused him. He portrayed his father, a taker from the start, as his "hero". It doesn't make sense knowing what we know now.


What do you know now?
Someone's recollection about something that happened 55 years ago.
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