Per Nilsen

If you only read one Prince bio, make it this one. Granted, it only covers Prince's life and career up to 1988 and sums up the remainder of his career in a few pages, but quite honestly, you don't need much more. This book deals with the best years of Prince's career and shows you how amazing those were.

Reading how Prince walked into a recording studio mere days after coming off the exhausting Purple Rain Tour, sat down at a drum kit, told the engineer to press "record", and then played the first half a dozen songs of Parade in one go just blew me away -- and that is just one of many stories in this book.

Per Nilsen also must receive credit for finally revealing what really happened on the evening Prince decided to cancel The Black Album. But where he really deserves praise is for meticulously documenting Prince's career, something he started in [b:Prince a Documentary|2151218|Prince a Documentary|Per Nilsen|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|2156715] and continued to do so for over a decade as part of the Swedish (!) fan publication Uptown.

Not that Dancemusicsexromance is without flaws; for his [b:Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince|331476|Possessed The Rise and Fall of Prince|Alex Hahn|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1173813902s/331476.jpg|923201], [a:Alex Hahn|190205|Alex Hahn|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg] had access to information that Per decided to leave out for various reasons, information which sheds a less flattering light on Prince. Which doesn't mean this book is a hagiography: Prince's behavior is often enough shown to be less than honorable, not only when dealing with fellow musicians, but also on a personal level.… (meer)

Not so much a book as a diary of events in Prince's life, the book is an astonishing look at the life and work of a workaholic pop superstar. I had read a few Prince bios before, but none conveyed how much time and effort Prince has put into his music like this collection of concerts, studio sessions, rehearsals, etc., all chronicled according to date.

The book is illustrated with photographs of numerous concert announcements, ads, etc. and ends with pages of lists, lists, lists. (The one thing it is sadly lacking is an index.)… (meer)