From Publishers Weekly
The alien androgyny, the spiritual eroticism, the royal conceit: the outsized persona of the artist currently known as Prince fascinates on numerous levels. In this detailed biography by journalist and attorney Hahn, anecdotes of a personal nature mix with close readings of Prince's musical output, producing few big secrets but plenty of insight. Prince's early days are recounted as a frenzy of musical education, with influences ranging from the funky dexterity of Sly Stone, to the tight perfectionism of James Brown, to the spiritual yearning of Stevie Wonder. (Hahn also names a less obvious influence in Joni Mitchell, whose lyrics Prince apparently purloined sometimes whole cloth.) The young Prince also absorbs the mechanics of the studio like a sponge. When the child prodigy meets with early success, signing to Warner Brothers at age 19, he blossoms into the personality of flamboyant and controlling self-absorption that fans have now watched mutate for over two decades. Constructed from interviews with producers, sound engineers, journalists and publicists, though not as frequently with Prince's inner circle, the book portrays Prince as a kind of outsider artist, eccentric and self-centered to the extreme, rarely leaving the enchanted, Minneapolis garden of his childhood, where he has managed to build himself into a living, protean god. This is a truly American story of cranky self-invention. B&w photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In the late 1970s, Minnesotan Prince Rogers Nelson began releasing funk-fortified albums on which he was the only musician and singer. First as an underground phenomenon, then as a much-hyped purveyor of a new kind of excruciatingly danceable, sexy music, he became a pop phenomenon. He shed two-thirds of his name, formed a series of bands, made some movies, and eventually dropped his name entirely, preferring to identify himself with an unpronounceable symbol. Then he feuded with his record company, inaugurating a series of negative career moves that rivaled Mike Tyson's in self-destructiveness and rendered him little more than fodder for late-night TV wisecracks. Hahn covers this ascent and descent in gritty detail, thanks to sources that include many Prince collaborators, though not the incredibly funky Apollonia, Morris Day, or George Clinton (whose career Prince restarted in the 1990s). Considering the longevity of rock careers these days, Prince might rebound yet. Still, he has left his mark on rock style as well as music, and Hahn has given us the arc of that mark.
Mike TribbyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
