Alex is such a lawyer when it comes to writing books.

lezenith said:

This wins Funniest Post of the Year Award!!!!!

Now that's a rather dumb comment if you ask me.


And I say it again, I just don't understand why one would write a book about the personal, private life and mistakes of someone else.

All you half-baked ding-dongs that support everything prince does and chastise anyone that says anything critical, like its sacraligic.
Grow up. Listen, if the stuff from the 90's was so good why is he playing like, none of it in concert, cause no one wants to hear it, other than org ding-dongs.
Prince is the greatest musican around in my opinion, but HE DID FALL.
acept it.and please quit being the poison coolaid drinking Jim Jones style fams. its pretty scary.

homeandmantel said:

You mean like Question of U, The One, Joy in Repetition, Shhh and Cream? Yeah, he's staying far away from songs like that on this tour, because people go running for the doors as soon as he starts 'em.

homeandmantel said:

what's "sacraligic"? some sorta medicinal thing?

I do appreciate the many constructive comments about Possessed. I thought that many posters offered observations that, while in some respects critical, were respectful, interesting, and insightful. And I do appreciate the kind and supportive comments of posters like Goat2004.

People have raised legitimate questions about whether Possessed seems to have too much of a critical agenda. True enough, the title of the book, and much of the content, indicates the book has a thesis and a point of view. As such, it’s fair for people to question whether I might have tried to slant the facts in a way that supports my views.

While the book does indeed take a position on certain issues and does not purport to be the classic “neutral” biography, I can say with confidence that I tried to be fair in my portrayal of Prince. I tried to write a book that would be reasonably entertaining for the general reader, but I did not include anything I thought to be factually shaky. I tried to address difficult topics, like the post-Emancipation period, with sensitivity. No, I wasn’t trying to write a book that would make Prince my best friend. Nor, however, did I set out to attack him. I set out to write a fair, tough, book that had adopted a thesis about his career. I don’t see that as character assassination.

People have noted typos and factual inaccuracies, such as the notorious example of referring to U2’s the Edge as Bono. As a result of people on the org. pointing these out, most have been corrected for the paperback edition. While I wasn’t pleased by such errors, which do appear silly and which can undermine the credibility of a project, I do think it’s fair to say, as JonSnow noted, that few books completely avoid such errors. That one, and others, got past me as well as skillful editors who know something about music.

Of all the charges that have been leveled against me, the one I challenge the most is that I have tried to use Possessed to “cash in” on the Uptown lawsuit or on Prince’s decline. Simply put, I have netted very little money from Possessed, a book that has sold only modestly well in hardcover. Even if the paperback version does well, I will see little money from this, since an author’s royalty rate on paperbacks is in the range of 6.5 percent. (Prince’s complaints about the anemic royalty rates paid by major corporations have resonated with me, needless to say…As he said, “those are the wages of a fool.”) I wanted to write a book about Prince because of my fascination with his music and story. Needless to say, if I had had more time to spend on this project – three years, perhaps, rather than one – it would have been even better and avoided some of the mistakes. In any case, I did the best I could, and I’m pleased that some major critical outlets took notice of the book and gave it good reviews.

Indeed, in all ways I’m glad that I undertook the project. It was very satisfying, and surely benefited me in many non-financial ways. But the reason I come out here on the org. to talk about the book is because I feel some obligation to help Billboard Books promote it. I’ve been ridiculed and attacked in some instances, and I’m certainly not doing it either for fun or because I’m making money off it.

AlexHahn said:

When do you plan to do this?

SENSHY said:

You took the words out of my mouth.

Great Book Alex. I think the primary interest in reading this book is the angle you took in creating a "first of its kind" fact finding mission about a musical genius who ever so sadly continues to try to keep the mouths of his business associates nailed shut.

Prince's unique artistry has such tremendous depth, that I have read few outside of uptown who have been able to fairly encapsule colorful reviews of such powerful creative projects.

Your job was much more tricky, as I can see you took the MILD APPROACH to addressing some topics that have been on Prince Music Lovers minds for a long time.

As Prince has taken the business road least travelled in life, "the fall" is a testament to his bravery, arrogance and unquestionable talent for keeping control of his environment.

Rejoice forumites that this *cough* 'book' is now in paperback form. Aside from the fact that you will now waste considerably less of your money by buying this poorly written shit, you will find a paperback much easier to wipe your arse with.

Taureau said:

OH THANX, WHERE' S MY AWARD?

The text/content is much better than the one-sided fluff tossed out by Jon Bream, Dave Hill & Jim Walsh. Its so typical of Prince's less than level-headed followers to attack the style of the way the truth was delivered instead of engaging in the world of human understanding.

Savannah said:

gimme per nilsen. hell, i still want a book done by BorisFishpaw, NuPwrSoul and langebleu. those cats could wipe the deck with possessed and still show the whole story.

gtfoohwtbs!!!!

Something else i can't find in the UK!

Marrk said:

lucky you.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

i'll proofread it

Marrk said:

Hang on! Now 've just read this thread in full, THANK FUCK FOR THAT!

No, i was wrong, toilet roll is in short supply in my local shop, I'll take 10 please Mr Hahn!

Anxiety said:

Marrk said:

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

um....
hello

Nilson
supplied
all
the
research
for
Possessed

JC said:

not all of it.

SENSHY said:

Furreal!?!?!?

I think it's interesting that Hahn considers posting on fansite message boards to be a form of dutiful publicity. I understand if Billboard is a small press that relies on its authors to be a little DIY with the promotion of its titles, but what about appearing at bookstores? What about print and radio interviews? With all the hype surrounding Prince this year, it's a great time to be creative. I'd think that there are certainly more successful ways to go about it than to squabble with a bunch of folks on an unauthorized fan site.

This isn't to say that it's not admirable or interesting that Hahn comes on here from time to time to discuss his book - but to consider such an act to be 'publicity work' just seems kind of, I dunno, ODD to me....

I'm still amazed at how rude some people on this thread were.

Without him, there might not even be an Uptown now. Don't you think he deserves some respect for that?

BinaryJustin said:

jive folks don't deserve anything.

BinaryJustin said:

I think Per is great and all, but what does Hahn's representation of Uptown have to do with the quality of "Possessed"?

Hmm...

How bizarre. About half an hour ago I logged in to Amazon to do two things: Order a book on gemstones, and order 'Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince.'

I put 'Possessed' in my basket, and went back to searching for a gemstones book. During that time I logged in to Prince.org and saw this thread, read it in its entirety and am just this very minute going to cancel my order for the Prince book.



Interesting huh?

I did enjoy reading this book, the same as I enjoy reading nearly all things concerning Prince no matter what it is.

Its then really up to yourself what you believe, what you don't, what bits you enjoy, what entertains you, what angers and frustrates you, blah, blah, blah.

But remember, its only an opinion, point of view, or even if its true to the mark, its someones story about someone elses life. Not yours. Calm down.

The issues I have with this book are,

1. To follow suit with the title the first half is written with such a positive bias that it dabbles lightly in any negativity to the point that not could he only do no wrong but he practically did no wrong. Where the second half of the book concentrates on the negative so much that it totally fails to give justice and credit to the better parts of this time that people like to damn. Diamonds and Pearls, Symbol, Beautiful Experience short film, Gold experience, Emancipation! Can this work really be associated to a 'fallen' artist? I think not!

2. If you read the list of the associates who Didn't contribute to the book, compared to those that did, it seems that most of the information, although good, didn't really come from the key people that were more closely involved with his life!


So, Fact? Fiction? Who knows! Enjoyable reading.