AlexHahn said:

surprisingly
no
lyrical
response
to
the
book
in
Musicology

I wrote a book that stirs up opinions, and that's fine...I'm used to getting slammed on prince.org, but just to add a little balance, let's recall that the Chicago Sun-Times praised it as the best Prince biography yet....The Village Voice said "An up-to-the-minute biography superior to Dave Hill's 1989 Prince: A Pop Life for its eyewitness accounts."

And as far as how fans have greeted it, here's a post on amazon.com:

"As a hardcore Prince fanatic I was ready to see a halfbaked hatchet job with this book (as other titles have been), but it is EXCELLENT. It is thorough, fact driven, and a pageturner, and NOT a National Enquirer bull**** gossip book."

And another one: "This is a great book for music/entertainment junkies and manages to be truthful, a bit gossipy but never sinks to the level of tabloid trash. A Good Read for the diehard fan or the casual admirer."

And another: "If you're a devoted, got-everything, member-of-npg-online Prince fanatic, skip this book. It paints Prince as a fallible human being, and you don't want to hear that."

And this, from a Prince insider:

"This book hits things right on the nail. From someone who has personally been around the Prince Camp (1994-2001) as a fan and supporter with the hope that Prince would pull out of his self destructive pattern, this is the book to get."

This full-scale biography of Prince created quite a stir on the org and among Prince fans when it was released in hardcover, and it's just been released in paperback. I've also made changes to my website, www.princepossessed.com, including comments about what Prince's 2004 comeback means for Possessed. The book is now in stores and also available on amazon.com and bn.com.

I wrote a book that stirs up opinions, and that's fine...I'm used to getting slammed on prince.org, but just to add a little balance, let's recall that the Chicago Sun-Times praised it as the best Prince biography yet....The Village Voice said "An up-to-the-minute biography superior to Dave Hill's 1989 Prince: A Pop Life for its eyewitness accounts."

And as far as how fans have greeted it, here's a post on amazon.com:

"As a hardcore Prince fanatic I was ready to see a halfbaked hatchet job with this book (as other titles have been), but it is EXCELLENT. It is thorough, fact driven, and a pageturner, and NOT a National Enquirer bull**** gossip book."

And another one: "This is a great book for music/entertainment junkies and manages to be truthful, a bit gossipy but never sinks to the level of tabloid trash. A Good Read for the diehard fan or the casual admirer."

And another: "If you're a devoted, got-everything, member-of-npg-online Prince fanatic, skip this book. It paints Prince as a fallible human being, and you don't want to hear that."

And this, from a Prince insider:

"This book hits things right on the nail. From someone who has personally been around the Prince Camp (1994-2001) as a fan and supporter with the hope that Prince would pull out of his self destructive pattern, this is the book to get."

A most ironic fact emerges : Alex Hahn's a biographer who doesn't expect his subject to grow and change.

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.

Aerogram said:

Aerogram, Muffin. The book obviously encompasses a specific period of time.

Famboozled said:

Why?

Possessed was a sucky bio by a first-time biographer who had worked pro bono against his subject. Just the fact the book needs an epilogue a couple of months after its publication -- not to mention a title change -- should be warning enough to prospective buyers.

. If you want to defend your book by posting good reviews, .

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

If Prince's 'return' 'comeback' 'resurface' (whatever you wanna call it) was predicted by the author. I believe it would have totally changed the dynamics of the text extensively, even down to the very title of the book. To call it "The Rise and Fall..." surely implies a decline in his career (which has been debated here). Because of Prince's 'commercial' return, it kinda ruins the credibility of the text down to the title of it.

I guess what I'm saying is; Prince is getting the last laugh, all while doing such incredible things in the media nowadays that kinda says "Fuck you!" to all the critics, haters, supposed victims, and bitter ex-associates.

just my couple of cents

JC said:

[color=olive:a8c33f6f20]Please! Prince is not thinking about Hahn or that short stack of ground up trees with typing on it, he had the audacity to call a book. In this world, drama sells! Always has, always will! Hahn is trying to capitalize on that fact at Prince's expense.(Especially NOW! With all that's going on in Prince's world.) I'm sure Prince is aware of it, and feels as I do, that it's not even worth his energy to acknowledge!
Let Hahn keep peddling his wares like he is now!
[/color]

Interesting after a two years of silence.. Prince had nothing to say on News, Xpectation, Cnote.. and no I can't find anything yet on Musicology in defense of the things that the book finally exposed.

TheBluePrince said:

i completley disagree. every review of musicology CD and tour has mentioned princes absence from the mainstream / decline in popular appeal / albums that came out and the general public didn't give a fuck about. all the interviews are talking about prince 'coming back'. coming back from what..? his ever present popularity with the mainstreambuying public...? err. no...

i think the title alone is going to perfectly piggy back the recent growth in media profile....

Aerogram said:

Aerogram, Muffin. The book obviously encompasses a specific period of time.

BinaryJustin said:

And it also contained very pessimistic predictions regarding Prince's future, not to mention the fact that the expression "Rse and Fall" is generally used to describe a permanent decline. I said Alex Hahn was a biographer who didn't seem to expect his subject to evolve because he could not envision Prince doing what he is doing now with Musicology and because his assessment of Prince's music is fixated on pre-88 standards. I didn't find him to be deeply interested in Prince's personality. Instead, he seemed more interested in explaining why he thinks what he thinks about Prince than in Prince himself and what he might have up his sleeve. There are interesting pages and the criticism is often valid, but it's still a prematurely outdated book and that says tons about its real value as a biography. If Prince ampliy mertis some of the flak he's taking in Possessed, he is also worthy of a much better bio.

Savannah said:

LOL, I'm sorry, but did we read the same book? Please, by all means...enlighten me. What did this book finally expose that Prince needs to defend?

half way through the book and I can't put it down. what R the new changes to the paperback that are not in the hardcover? The website doesnt explain it clearly

Any book about Prince's rise and fall is trivial. It's in his past and should be left there. You don't need to know if he did drugs, who he slept with, who he fired etc in order to enjoy or dislike the music, all you have to do is listen. Anyway Prince has never said anything about COMEBACK! This is ridiculous! Just because there are people around here who don't like to talk negatively about Prince doesn't mean they are asskissers, it just means they don't like to talk about things they have no first account information on. Some of these so called writers are muthaf*ckin liars and if you don't believe that than I'm sorry for you.

Leave all that other bullsh@t in the past and get on with your own business Hahn! The rise and fall that title in itself lets me know you aren't being objective. The title is wrong in suggesting that everyone had assumed Prince had fallen. One more thing I am a member of the NPGMC and proud of it!
There's nothing wrong with showing love and appreciation to Prince. If loving Prince is wrong, I don't want to be right!

Any book about Prince's rise and fall is trivial. It's in his past and should be left there. You don't need to know if he did drugs, who he slept with, who he fired etc in order to enjoy or dislike the music, all you have to do is listen. Anyway Prince has never said anything about COMEBACK! This is ridiculous! Just because there are people around here who don't like to talk negatively about Prince doesn't mean they are asskissers, it just means they don't like to talk about things they have no first account information on. Some of these so called writers are muthaf*ckin liars and if you don't believe that than I'm sorry for you. Leave all that other bullsh@t in the past and get on with your own business Hahn! The rise and fall that title in itself lets me know you aren't being objective. The title is wrong in suggesting that everyone had assumed Prince had fallen. One more thing I am a member of the NPGMC and proud of it!
There's nothing wrong with showing love and appreciation to Prince. If loving Prince is wrong, I don't want to be right!

...stuff...