...I've just got/read his book. I really enjoyed it...if the title page could have had embossed letters it would have been truly heavenly, as such I'll suffice by saying, "it was a real page turner".

The one aspect of the book I have a problem with is the mix and match commentary on the music. It appears that Alex Hahn was not expressing an opinion with regards the music created, simply regurgitating a lot of other people's thoughts. The reason I mention this is because he seems to miss out a lot whilst mentioning nearly everything...if you know what i mean...no? Well, I don't know, it ust felt like he wasn't saying what he thought but what his narrative required.

If he could have left out any, seemingly personal/original, critical comment on the music and reported just the facts as recorded by other critics/commentators then his book would have been a stronger whole.

That said, having now read the book, I really find it sensational.

The book is utter garbage, and Alex Hahn has ideas above his station thinking he can even string a piece together.
[This message was edited Tue Oct 28 9:22:52 PST 2003 by McD]

McD said:

Alex Hahn is an opportunistic hack who shouldn't quit his day job.

I just finished this book yesterday. I read it straight through! I thought it was really good, too. The best Prince book since Jon Bream's original and DMSR. Having lived in Minneapolis for 10 years (and Minnesota for most all of my life) I got alot of stories about Prince from various people who had worked for him. Alex Hahn's book was right in line with everything I had heard up to this point. Thre's a paragrph in the book about how Prince was partucularly abusive to his tech staff, I had to laugh.

Hahn's sorta 'thesis' that Prince has basically destroyed his own larger commercial viability by being a complete control freak and not taking advice from anyone, or not having loyalty to anyone who had helped him move forward in the past, rings true to me. As does the idea that Prince's deepest creativity while not'dead', remains dormant inside him.

Although, regarding the rift with Warner Bros, I felt he may have been a bit too sympathetic to the record label. It would have been more fair to talk about how many artists feel that the whole structure of the major label system fucks the artists. Instead, he portrayed Warner Bros as sort of 'different beast' of a major label that was willing to develop artists, rather than just churn out hitmakers and then dump them. That was definately true in Prince's case, but I feel there may have been a bit more dirt to dig up on Warner Bros. Then again, the part in the book where Michael Bland is qouted as saying "I just rolled my eyes." during Prince's 'slave' period is a pretty telling statement from someone who was right in the middle of all that.

I thougth the book was great. Was kind of concerned about the dark tone of it, but couldn't find much to disagree with except for certain reviews of music (such as the COMPLETE dismissal of COME, which I felt had a couple of Prince's better songs...etc).

Excellent book. Thank you Alex Hahn!

can someone please post a picture of Alex Hahn.

McD said:

You look crazy in that pic, McD. Wee bit of the Jack Nicholson.

IstenSzek said:

He talks in the "Prince's Millions" BBC special a bit. If you can get your hands on that, you'll get a look at him.

The best Prince book will come from someone who *really* knew him, who was actually in the inner circle. A book by Susannah Melvoin could cover the 80s, and a book by Mayte could cover the 90s Prince.

Batdance said:

I they signed CONfidentiality CONtracts.

McD said:

How many books have YOU written ?

At least Alex got off his arse and did something rather than whine about other peoples opinions.

If you don't like Alex's writing, don't buy his book - pretty simple really !

Number23 said:

It isn't me! And the bloke in question is far crazier than Nicholson ever was in anything!

Alex Hahn's picture can be seen on the inside cover of his *cough* book's dustjacket. Look at it in a bookstore - DO NOT BUY THIS SEMI-LITERATE TRASH! It really is a travesty in so many departments.

Fortuntately, I made a purchase for the grand sum of £17 in UK's Waterstones. After the thread on the subject on these here forums wound down (and I no longer needed to cite the book's numerous errors and howlers), I took it back to Waterstones for £17 in vouchers. After a considerable amount of time with vouchers unused, I noticed they were also valid in HMV - so I got Live at the Aladdin with them and some change. That felt about right to me.

Also, Mr Hahn was happy to promote the book on the Org, but didn't show face once to defend himself when it was obvious he'd made a spectacular pig's ear of it. Says it all.

McD said:

Utter bollocks, he's been on here loads of times since it was published.
[This message was edited Wed Oct 29 0:41:54 PST 2003 by freakyfeet]

freakyfeet said:

Where do I start with you?

OK, I have written a grand total of 0 books.

As this was Alex's debut effort as a writer, then I had no way to see the book was garbage without buying/reading it. Are you following this?

As for not quoting an opinion on something having written no books myself... I take it this means you have never made a negative comment on a single musical track given that you (probably) have never released your own album? And I take it this means you think no one should slate a piece of music/book/film without having written/recorded/directed one themself?

As for opinions... am I to take it that you sounded off here having never read Hahn's book? Is that not worse - stating an opinion of someone's opinion when you have no idea of the 'quality' of work they're on about?

Or, even worse, you HAVE read the book and find it so indefensable that you're only course of action is to attack my post - and not stick up for Hahn because the latter option is so obviously going to end in disaster?

freakyfeet said:

Yeah? On the 'What's your favourite colour for custard' threads?

Please LOOK at the quote you are responding to! After a few months of promoting himself and his 'book' on the Org, he DIDN'T contribute once to the handful of 'My God, is this book a Guinness record holder for horrid mistakes?' threads, or News items that quickly went the same way within a month of the book coming out! Certainly not the ones I read. Feel free to provide a link though and I'll see how he handled himself (and wonder why he avoided the other threads)!

McD said:

Princer`s life is spectacular. You are whining about this book, but you have nothing to hold against it, and you still make a lot of noise. As a journalist myself, I think its an okay-book. Its not the best biography I have ever written, but one need to consider the difficulty of getting information from the Prince camp. I happen to have some tight contacts to the inner circles, and from there I heard that book pretty much reflects how Prince truly used to be. However, what people around him say is that he has changed significantly since he has converted to the witnesses. His new religion seemed to have made a more humble person out of him, and still everybody whines about it because they still worship the illusion that Prince once was a cool dude who doesnt do drugs, is respectful with women and overall a nice person to be around with. Thats a wrong perception, and for people to whom Prince is the main focus in their lives (which is sad in itself) I understand that this book is a painful read.
But so far, my contacts in the camp have not claimed that anything in the bokk wasnt true.

So get over it dude. Or at least put some proof on the table that the book is full of lies.

McD said:

Actually no, in this forum on the threads concerning his book



I'm afraid he did

Nice to see you show a touch of humility. Unfortunately due to the search engine being unavailable I can't provide links to the old news stories that Alex did contribute to many times however he has stated many times that he'd welcome comments by org note to "Alexhahn" on here.



Jeez, do you also expect Prince to add a comment on every thread about his music ?

Anyway, as you're so insistent, I put the 60 seconds of effort required to pull up Alex's profile and then list out the posts where he's mentioned the book in this forum.

http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_880590

http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_877978

http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_862303

http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_852507

http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_671364

http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_671215

http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_671190

I read the book and I think it was okay.Yes,it had some errors,but it was still an interesting read.

McD said:

Well actually I've had two records in the top 40 years back but that's got f**k all to do with the point.

If I buy a record and dislike it I give my opinions maybe but ultimately give respect to the artist for putting in the effort for their work. Before you ask, yes I've criticised Prince for some of his previous work however I have never told anyone to not buy it and have never questioned his effort.



Have a copy sitting right here. OK its not the most well written book and it contains some opinions that I personally dissagree with, however that doesn't mean that I will make personal judgements about Alex. As I said before, he put in the effort to write this book and everyone has a choice. You chose to return the book and got a refund but ultimately none of us have the right to judge his abilities when we haven't done the same and written about Prince. At the end of the day, Alex is a fan just like the rest of us that thought this worthwhile. Not like Liz Jones who thought it would be a good opportunity to make money.



I have read the book, do not find it indefensable, however do find your post ignorant and arrogant.

Thanx for posting those links, freakyfeet.

McD said:

McD - I'm a little confused. I thought you read the book in May and actually made a constructive post on the subject?

http://www.prince.org/msg...msg_763161

Was this not you ? A lot of your posts in this thread seem to contradict what you've written previously ?

IstenSzek said:

soft focus and low lighting can do wonders for somepeople

freakyfeet said:

---

Bart... is that you?

MartyMcFly said:

Ha ha, you know when I read that back after posting, I thought "shit, I sound like BVH" !!

Now I can see why Bart gets so frustrated at times


[This message was edited Wed Oct 29 3:28:33 PST 2003 by freakyfeet]

freakyfeet said:

If your opinion is that it's an excuse for a record, in other words something like the latest pre-programmed boyband nonsense - then you have every right to say it to whomever you please. And I personally put Hahn's book in that category. It's a travesty in a dustjacket. And Hahn's pre-release hype of the book makes it almost funny!

And if you've never left a film thinking it was way below par and not worth your money then that's either easy-pleased syndrome to the max, or luck like I've never heard. Although I'm sure if you did have a bad movie experience, you'd not tell a soul. And if the subject of the film came up in conversation, you'd deny ever having seen it rather than say a bad word (given the fact that you can't judge not being a filmmaker).

Happy Days!

freakyfeet said:

How dare you judge Liz Jones when you haven't written a book about Prince? As I mentioned previously, Hahn had more resources at his disposal but lacks the basic writing skills that Jones had obviously developed. His book isn't in the same league as a piece of writing.

Alex is writing a book for money, which he may claim is to recover legal time or whatever. But, I think it's naive if you think he wrote the book out of love or fandom. Infact, if you believe that Hahn has any agenda at all to be at all unfavourable to his subject, then he deserves all the criticisms he gets if he often falls flat on his face in this endeavor. And, as I said at the time, the book features more errors behind a dustjacket than any other book I've come across. The fact that he promotes his book on here, and it appears with a pricetag of £17 gives me every right to come on here and tell folk to avoid it like the plague. After all, as I have already mentioned, if I had a similar warning prior to purchase I could have saved myself the bother.

The fact that you think I have no right to judge his book is insulting! I can judge what I like, in whatever field I like. And the fact that the book has his name on it does not mean he deserves my immediate respect. He gets an 'E' for effort, that's all!

As for his big 'money' moment, Prince's overdose... this story which he adopts as a main selling point (it's excerpted on the back cover if I recall) also appears in full about five years previously in the Liz Jones book. It's all in there! Maybe Miss Jones is one of his protected sources. Just a pity she couldn't have given him a rewrite as well as an interview then!

freakyfeet said:

...as is your original post saying I should not have an opinion when I haven't written a book on Prince myself! That's ignorance and arrogance (not that the latter is always a bad thing)!

freakyfeet said:

Why? I've went in a little harder, and in less detail. But the thrust is the same. Let me know exactly what's confusing you and I'll try to clear it up.

I just thought it was funny how he kept repeating the same things over and over again, like, "Susannah Melvoin, Wendy's twin sister, was also along for the tour..." etc. I swear, he always called her by her full name, Susannah Melvoin, and then had to add that she was Wendy's sister too many times to count. As if we couldn't remember who she was or something.

minneapolisgenius said:

This book is not exclusively written for the hardcore-fans. Most casual listeners or simple biography-lovers need to be reminded 5 times who Susannah is.

soulpower said:

"that aint no excuse"

rdhull said:

Exactly. There aint no need for an excuse. Its natural to give a discription of the person you are writing about.

freakyfeet said:

1. I haven't written any books...I'm nearly finishing my first novel and starting a second one next month...but I've written a three-act play and several one-acts (some of which were produced in NYC), and I've had numerous articles published. Does that count?

2. Alex took advantage of a situation in which he was representing a magazine in court, by using the research and notes that THEY had compiled and gluing them together with his own extreme bias against a performer he'd battled in court. He did a LOT of whining in that book, on several levels. His objectivity was nil as a writer, and his attempts at sensationalism were laughable and desperate.

3. "If you don't like his writing, don't buy his book"??? This has to be the most ludicrous statement of all. It was his first stab at authoring (that I'm aware of, anyway). How are we supposed to KNOW what his writing is like unless we READ the book?