Prince: Chaos, Disorder, and Revolution: Chaos, Disorder and Revolution

by Jason Draper

(Book). Prince has cut a singular path through the heart of popular music for more than 30 years. After making some of the most inventive albums of the '80s including 1999 , Purple Rain and Sign of the Times he turned his attention to redefining his role in the music industry, changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol, declaring war on his record label, Warner Bros., and leading the internet revolution. His subsequent career has had many ups and downs, but he remains a major commercial and artistic force, as evidenced by his ability to sell out the O2 Arena in London for 21 nights in succession in 2007. In 2010 he announced that the internet was "over" and released his latest album, 20Ten , as a free cover-mounted CD with several European publications. Prince: Chaos, Disorder, and Revolution is an authoritative chronicle of one of popular music's true mavericks. Covering every album, every movie, and every tour, it includes profiles of various key collaborators, assesses the artist's various business dealings, and details his many and varied side projects on stage, on record, on screen, and beyond.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Draper rehashes old newspaper articles and repeats word for word what he wrote in his 2009 "Prince Chronicles." Although there are no profound insights since it is mostly culled from other people's research, Draper does a nice job of sticking to the facts.

Does an excellent job chronicling Prince's career and life from his early days through the release 20TEN. I don't think that I learned a single new thing, but I found it to be an exceptionally cathathric read as I cope with my grief. This is a good introduction for new fans. Hardcores will enjoy the trip down memorylane even if our knowledge is more expansive than Draper's

[Maciek Samul · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main problem of this biography is that, despite the fact that it is an attempt to describe the biography of a MUSICIAN, the author hardly devotes any space to the music itself, and if anything, he uses only vague terms and focuses more on the message of the composition than on the musical layer itself. For example, the description of the album "Rainbow Children" from 2001 is just a few sentences that tell about the message of the lyrics. We won't really find out how the recording sessions went, what inspired Prince to write individual songs, how he worked on the arrangements. The opinions expressed by the author sometimes sound funny, for example the sentence that the album "3121" was poorly received when the author writes that the album made its debut at the first place on the Billboard list. By the way, the author expresses opinions that do not really make sense - the release of "The Black Album" seven years later, according to the author, influenced the quality of the music. What is a listener who, for example, listens to this album in 2021 to say? And who has no idea in which year it was released? The release date of the album does not matter. More space is devoted to Prince's relationships than to his work, and the general impression is that the creator of this biography simply does not like the singer. If you are interested in a somewhat tabloid style of writing, with virtually no mention of Prince's recording sessions and creative process at all, then this biography is for you. However, I would not start my adventure with a musician with it, because many people who do not know the broader context may simply be discouraged.

[Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Randy Jackson used to say on American Idol..."it was just okay for me, dawg". That is my assessment of this book. It's pretty heavy on number detail (record sales, concert numbers etc) but there is not a lot of emotion. I know that is not always wanted in a biography but it's pretty hard to discuss such an emotional artist without that for me, personally. I will say there are some pretty common misconceptions repeated here (I will acknowledge it was damned hard to get much out of the enigma this man was) and was very light on personal details about some very important things in Prince's life, like his marriage to Mayte Garcia but some reasonably revealing stuff on some of his other relationships. Like most books on Prince, I don't like judgment on his music--I am never going to be unbiased about that and I think art is so subjective that it's just another person's opinion. I feel like unless you are as accomplished and creative a musician as Prince, your criticisms are not very valid. Just because you did not get something does not mean it was a failure or that it did not mean a ton to others. Anyway, in the end it was competent but not very satisfying for me.

[M Tremmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first bio I've read about Prince after listening to his records for years. I found it to be very interesting especially since it followed his recording career and added a lot of insight not in most interviews that I've read or watched on tv. The author who seemed to take a balanced approach represents Warners in a very good light. It appears that Warners actually were very supportive of him and often gave him what he wanted. It seems what he wanted simply changed frequently and was many times not very good business sense.

An unquestionable genius, it seems he went the way of Elvis when he fired three management companies in the early 90s and surrounded himself with "yes men". Sadly, he had no one to challenge him on quality control and his body of work suffered.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable read and presented a lot of insider information.

[Aaryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was different from books that I usually read. To me, this book wasn't very interesting because all it did was sum up his career and mainly give dates. I thought it was going to be different. I expected this book to tell more about his life and what he went through to get to where he was. This book should have included an interview with him, or maybe one of his family members. Overall this book was okay for the first time of me reading a biography.

[Krzysztof Podsiadło · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relatywnie mało informacji o samym muzyku, biografia napisana jest zdecydowanie "z zewnątrz", to zrobił, z tą wytwórnią walczył te kobiety go inspirowały, ale całość jest napisana dość sucho i zdecydowanie brakowało mi głębszych rozmów z ludźmi którzy z nim współpracowali.
Tłumaczenie jest marne, czasami wygląda jakby ktoś tłumaczył słowo w słowo, nie biorąc pod uwagę, że język polski ma jednak inny rytm i melodię niż angielski.
Polecam fanom.

[Thomas Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

great book abour prince.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been listening to Prince since before I can remember. With my mum being a huge fan with an extensive back-catalogue, not a day went by that his music wasn't heard in our household. By the time I was old enough to really listen to music, instead of it simply being background noise, I soon realised that Mum's Prince records were music in a way that Dad's collection of Mariah Carey, Kenny G and Phil Collins could never hope to be, and my life-long love affair with His Purple Highness really started to get underway.

Whether writing songs so sexy they can knock you up just by listening to them, spiritual introspective grooves, songs with a social conscience or floor-stomping funk, Prince has been hugely important to music with his influence still obvious now (TV On The Radio's Dear Science is one of my favourite albums of recent years, and definitely owes him a large debt). His battles with Warner (the record label who, when first presented with the Purple Rain album, apparently reacted with: "What kind of fucking record is this, with a bunch of strange sounds?", the fuckwits) may have made him something of a joke in the media but his fight for artists' rights and ownership of their own music, as well as innovation when it came to other methods of distribution, have left a lasting impact on the recording industry (who are only now coming round to the fact that they can no longer force music fans through an outdated business model and are struggling to change the model to suit the new landscape).

An extensive overview of the Sexy MF's career, there's nothing really new in here except for the most casual of fans, though it's still an enjoyable read with a refreshing lack of 'everything he does is fantastic' reverence which sometimes mars star biographies (Crazily creative and prolific, it's undeniable that there have been lows as well as highs in his musical career, although I'm of the opinion that even his most mediocre work still kicks the living daylights out of 99% of what we're subjected to in the charts these days. I'd rather listen to Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic than any amount of American Idol/X Factor finalists, or Coldplay) although if you're looking for anything particularly insightful, you'd do just as well trawling the internet for the old interviews that this was stitched together from.

[Piotr · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[suzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

*spoiler alert* The book sums up Prince's career very succinctly in the final paragraph: "He can continue to turn out albums with one-off licensing deals as long as he can still fill live venues: the album proves he's still capable of writing songs, the tour makes money and reminds everyone why they still care. In this respect, Prince might just be the most successful artist ever to walk the planet. He hasn't self-destructed or died, and he hasn't allowed himself to age disgracefully or descend into self-parody. Despite not having a genuine hit record in years, Prince can always claim that he's Number One at the bank. He shows no sign of stopping. Having changed the way music sounds and the industry operates, he can rightly claim to be the most prolific and inventive artist of modern times, without having lost sight of his first passion After more than 30 years in the business he still maintains the 'music to me is a life force. It's not what I do. It's what I am.'" (pg. 230)

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a severe disappointment. There really was very few new tidbits that haven't been a part of previous bios and one is left to wonder about the accuracy of what little new info it did have to offer. I realize it might be nitpicking, but the author makes too many geographical errors when describing the Twin Cities and various place names, that I worry about the research and fact finding of other anecdotes.

One last point...the book spent far too little time talking about what I consider the "good years" (80' - about 88' or so) and only scratched the surface of any relevant side projects.

All in all, I would most definitely NOT recommend this book.

[Alona Perlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best biography I read up to date about Prince! It is pleasant and easy to read, gives insights and explanations into Prince's career moves and personality and is detailed and thorough. I honestly feel like I could understand the man, all parts of him, the good and the questionable; the whole package!

After reading this book, I'm not sure I will need to read any other biographies unless I want to. Great job! Thank you for bringing Prince into the fans ' worldview so clearly and beatifully!

[Oogish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book, but it has a flaw: there is virtually no interview with Prince himself. It must be acknowledged, that to get an interview with His Purpleness is notoriously difficult. But its an important matter if one is to do a biography. It also feels as though Prince is silent in the book, as though all of the information is from others. Worth a read though.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

No real new information here; the author based the book on existing research and didn't conduct any new interviews. A decent read, and fairly engaging, but I picked up some factual errors (mostly related to Minneapolis landmarks) that could have been solved with a simple Google search.

[Shandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just couldn't finish, I think the print is too small for me! However I did mark it as a re-read some time after I get a magnifying glass :)

[Birgitta · Rating 4 out of 5]

For being a book based on research and no real interviews it's an ok read.
Plus one star beacause I like Prince and therefor I'm easy to please.

[Emily Smoak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the book, but disagree a lot with the writer and his interpretation of how good a particular song was. I love Prince, so I'm not objective I guess.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was about 80 pages from finishing this book when I lost it at work. Dangit! At least I know how the story ends. Pretty standard stuff here. Not much I hadn't known before.

[stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much Prince, so little time...

[Randy Grayson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Prince. What I didn't realize was how much of a dick he was before converting to the Jehovah witness faith.