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Prince: A Sign 'o' the Times
There are pop stars, and then there is Prince. In this kaleidoscopic, freewheeling biography, John McKie examines the remarkable life and career of one of the most mysterious figures in music through the prism of the record most widely considered his masterpiece, 1987's Sign o' the Times.
Drawing on more than 200 interviews with friends, ex-girlfriends, bandmates, recording engineers, bodyguards, personal assistants, wardrobe designers and hairdressers, accomplished music writer John McKie examines the life of this musical polymath with the help of many of the people who knew him best.
Family members and friends discuss his childhood when he learned to master several instruments, there is new information on how he made the soundtrack to Purple Rain, the full story about why he decided to stop using his name, the now legendary Super Bowl half-time show and that guitar solo at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame which has been viewed on YouTube 100 million times.
McKie also dives into the personality of the what made him laugh, the way he hired and fired colleagues, what he was like to live with, how his relentless drive to make music led to him recording for hours without sleep, how he changed his car stereo to road test his new hits and even booked his guitar and album sleeves their own seats on flights.
A Sign o' the Times is the most comprehensive book ever written about one of the most enigmatic and talented pop stars of all time.
Drawing on more than 200 interviews with friends, ex-girlfriends, bandmates, recording engineers, bodyguards, personal assistants, wardrobe designers and hairdressers, accomplished music writer John McKie examines the life of this musical polymath with the help of many of the people who knew him best.
Family members and friends discuss his childhood when he learned to master several instruments, there is new information on how he made the soundtrack to Purple Rain, the full story about why he decided to stop using his name, the now legendary Super Bowl half-time show and that guitar solo at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame which has been viewed on YouTube 100 million times.
McKie also dives into the personality of the what made him laugh, the way he hired and fired colleagues, what he was like to live with, how his relentless drive to make music led to him recording for hours without sleep, how he changed his car stereo to road test his new hits and even booked his guitar and album sleeves their own seats on flights.
A Sign o' the Times is the most comprehensive book ever written about one of the most enigmatic and talented pop stars of all time.
- GenresMusic
544 pages, Paperback
First published September 18, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 8, 2025
had mixed feelings about this book felt it was too long could of been shorter
October 16, 2025
This is for anyone who is a Prince fan. John has done a great job in going through the life of Prince. There’s great memorabilia in here, literally everything from his wives, the relationships between him, Micheal Jackson and Madonna, his guitars, his ‘vault’, the details of the shows and working in the studios. He’s painted a great picture of Prince and his work ethic and the costs of some of the bold and flamboyant choices he’d made. I really enjoyed going back to when music really was a way of life and it truly being led by himself and his rivals. Well worth the read if you’re wanting to feel a bit of nostalgia about simpler times and follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest and creative musicians we’ve ever had.
April 17, 2026
I came to this book because my mother knew the writer a few years ago (my mother passed in 2021), and a sibling told me about it. And, of course, I'm a Prince fan, have been since I was 14 years old. Utterly devoted, all my life. Since Prince's death I have read several books, some I have liked, some less so. This sort of fits a bit in the middle.
There is some new content in this book, lots of anecodes, lots of name dropping and comparison to other artists, but also some really cool stories about meet ups and collaboration, lots of things I've not heard before. It gets very technical about music in places, and the last chapter is devoted to the people he worked with saying he was a great musician. As with many of the books about him, the focus is on his success in the 80s and events and anecdotes from that time, much less about his albums, tours, events in the next three decades. There was a touch here and there, but it's a shame as I would have liked to have known more about those eras.
But the downfall of this book is in the structure and editing, or the lack thereof.
McKie tried to use Sign of the Times album as a sort of structure, putting the chapters around the songs from the album, after making the somewhat arbitrary statement that this album was Prince's masterpiece and everything paled against it. I am in completely disagreement, as Parade was far more fluid, as was The Gold Experience, Art Official Age, even Hit N Run Phase one. But another fan might mention any other album too. Mostly because all of Prince's albums had a different feel and spoke to people in different ways. Sign of the Times always felt disjointed to me, a mish-mash of songs. Some were superb, and some were less so.
But the problem for me, as an editor and proofreader is how badly it was all put together. It should have had a developmental editor, and then a copy editor and then a proofreader. It is overly wordy, sentence flow is ruined by a side mention or comment on whoever the author is about to quote, and paragraphs aren't put together cohesively. I appreciate to put topics together can be difficult with so many stories, but it needed serious reschuffling and also honing down significantly. And then comes the errors.
On page 43 Prince's date of birth is wrong! It says the 7 April 1958 - everyone knows it's 7th of June. It's even stated earlier in the book. And then the array of brackets that aren't either opened or closed, speech marks that are in the wrong place, and a litany of other errors that make this an arduous read. There are also factual errors too about smaller things, which should have been fact checked. It's like no one actually bothered. Maybe they were in a rush to get it out, or maybe they just didn't want to pay someone. But it is totally unprofessional. I feel badly for the author as it's not strictly their responsibility. I would recommend the publisher get it proofread properly and update it. As an author myself, I know it's not hard to do.
This could have been something quite special, but in the end it felt like a money-grab book. We are awash with them since Prince's death. I personally recommend either Mayte's book, or Morris Day's. They have been my favourites so far. People that actually loved him and aren't just trying to make money off his name.
There is some new content in this book, lots of anecodes, lots of name dropping and comparison to other artists, but also some really cool stories about meet ups and collaboration, lots of things I've not heard before. It gets very technical about music in places, and the last chapter is devoted to the people he worked with saying he was a great musician. As with many of the books about him, the focus is on his success in the 80s and events and anecdotes from that time, much less about his albums, tours, events in the next three decades. There was a touch here and there, but it's a shame as I would have liked to have known more about those eras.
But the downfall of this book is in the structure and editing, or the lack thereof.
McKie tried to use Sign of the Times album as a sort of structure, putting the chapters around the songs from the album, after making the somewhat arbitrary statement that this album was Prince's masterpiece and everything paled against it. I am in completely disagreement, as Parade was far more fluid, as was The Gold Experience, Art Official Age, even Hit N Run Phase one. But another fan might mention any other album too. Mostly because all of Prince's albums had a different feel and spoke to people in different ways. Sign of the Times always felt disjointed to me, a mish-mash of songs. Some were superb, and some were less so.
But the problem for me, as an editor and proofreader is how badly it was all put together. It should have had a developmental editor, and then a copy editor and then a proofreader. It is overly wordy, sentence flow is ruined by a side mention or comment on whoever the author is about to quote, and paragraphs aren't put together cohesively. I appreciate to put topics together can be difficult with so many stories, but it needed serious reschuffling and also honing down significantly. And then comes the errors.
On page 43 Prince's date of birth is wrong! It says the 7 April 1958 - everyone knows it's 7th of June. It's even stated earlier in the book. And then the array of brackets that aren't either opened or closed, speech marks that are in the wrong place, and a litany of other errors that make this an arduous read. There are also factual errors too about smaller things, which should have been fact checked. It's like no one actually bothered. Maybe they were in a rush to get it out, or maybe they just didn't want to pay someone. But it is totally unprofessional. I feel badly for the author as it's not strictly their responsibility. I would recommend the publisher get it proofread properly and update it. As an author myself, I know it's not hard to do.
This could have been something quite special, but in the end it felt like a money-grab book. We are awash with them since Prince's death. I personally recommend either Mayte's book, or Morris Day's. They have been my favourites so far. People that actually loved him and aren't just trying to make money off his name.
November 8, 2025
Regarding, ‘Prince: A Sign O’ the Times’ by John McKie, it’s easier to state what it’s not. It’s not an autobiography, biography, memoir, life story, or personal account. And yet it admirably traces the life of musical genius, Prince. This 500+ page tome is an intensive sketch of an artist, as told by friends, colleagues, and journalists - an oral history parlayed into anecdotes based around Prince’s 1987 ‘Sign o’ the Times’ album. The writing is dense, sometimes repetitive, but always enthusiastic. The focus is exclusively on Prince as a dedicated musician and comes with the realisation that Prince was only a musician, in that, he was obsessive and his life was his work and his work was his life - his relationships, interests, and foibles were all part of his work, because work was his entire identity. Regardless of definition, if the goal of the author is to provide a detailed sense of a musician (mostly) named Prince, then this book actually succeeds.
March 14, 2026
Very full on detail, but very repetitive, and with no feeling of narrative. This is more of an historical record. And although it might be accurate it isn't a very enjoyable read. How many times do we have to hear about the time the Revolution were jettisoned?
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
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the hanif abdurraqib at home:
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the hanif abdurraqib at home:
January 18, 2026
Much like the man himself, this book is a force of nature! I loved it. It's absolutely full of fascinating insights into a notoriously reticent musical superstar, who claimed you could know everything about him by just listening to his music. I loved how the chapters were focussed on songs from Prince's classic album Sign o the Times, whilst also featuring a chunk of his biography and musicography in each chapter. It's studiously researched (with over 200 interviews), vibrant, gripping, energetically paced, and thoroughly entertaining. It's a must for fans of Prince, but it's also a great read for those who just love music.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews