lazy lazy - Rated 
this just over hipped pile o pishy things...no incite into prince what so ever just Google to find out so much more ....
Amusing and entertaining appraisal of the music of Prince - Rated 
Having read the two reviews below I fear we must have been reading different books. I thought it was informative and well written. I should add I'm a Prince fan but not a Prince anorak so whether there was a sax or strings on the original recording of a song or it was added later doesn't really bother me. It's interesting that both the previous reviewers accuse Morton of concentrating on one album almost to the exclusion of anything else,but both cite different albums - (Black Album and for-you). It's all a matter of taste after all. Anyway - it's a well known fact that anyone who has worked with Prince isn't allowed to talk to journalists, so given that handicap, I presume that Brian Morton was only ever intending to write a critical appraisal of the music. Which he does admirably. I read the (positive) press reviews before I bought this book and I'm glad I did rather than these online ones. Unlike the other two reviews I would recommend this book if you are interested in Prince's music and want something amusing to read.
I agree with the previous review- poorly researched and written - Rated
Brian Morton's book is so shockingly bad it is criminal that he is allowed to profit from it. All of the previous criticisms are accurate but here are some more.
*He spends half the book referring back to "for-you" as if it was some form of career benchmark. It was just lazy to describe the art-work and give opinionated comments about prince.
* There are no interviews at all within this book. How did he do his research and how can he justify claims that prince collaborated with his father, or even comment on their relationship without having a connection with Prince.
*It is a collection of prince's album and film reviews but without any creative insight or knowledge. It is simply hyperbole, and any album post 1989 is forgotten. The only 3 analysed with any depth are Symbol, the black album and for you, which are three of the most average albums.
*It appears emancipation only recieves a mention because he found it in a bargain bin for £0.99 and thought "oh well, may as well review this one too".
*It is not a biography, it is a collection of thoughtless opinion and old magazine cuttings. A total waste of cash
A complete waste of time and money - Rated
Things that are wrong with this book:
- It's barely 200 pages, it uses a huge font and there's plenty of whitespace. It's barely a book.
- It seems to have been written years ago, and then updated every now and then. By page 150 he's still stuck in the 1980s. Virtually the only "recent" album that gets some attention is Emancipation -- which was released in 1996...
- Just about every page contains an error, some small, and some so ridiculous that you wonder why you bother reading.
- It completely lacks balance. Judging from this book you'd think that The Black Album was a crucial and pivotal album in Prince's career, whereas in reality it was a throwaway collection of songs. He also manages to list just about every reason ever mention on why The Black Album was withdrawn (including some he seems to have invented himself) yet completely fails to mention the real story, as Per Nilsen has uncovered in "DanceMusicSexRomance".
- Brian Morton seems to not have listened to some of the music he describes. He claims there's a "buried" backwards vocal on "Darling Nikki" (there isn't, the backwards vocal was an a cappella coda to the song), that Parade is the first album to feature a saxophone (ATWIAD's "Temptation" also featured a sax), he misquotes lyrics ("When I want sax I send for Candy" -- it's "I CALL Candy"), he claims Parade is the first album to feature strings (both Purple Rain and ATWIAD contain plenty of strings),...
- The discography is beyond hopeless.
- The cover blurb suggests that the author has talked to former band members or other Prince associates. Yet there's nothing in this book that shows that if he did so, he gained any valuable information.
I gave this book one star, and that's because it's the lowest score available.
If you want to spend money on a Prince biography, buy "DanceMusicSexRomance - Prince: The First Decade" by Per Nilsen and "Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince" by Alex Hahn. Or invest in the books published by Uptown.
|
