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The Rise of Prince 1958-1988
The Rise of 1958-1988 will serve as the definitive account of the iconic artist's first 30 years. More so than any previous book, this 350-page volume provides a dramatic, page-turning narrative of Prince's rise to fame.
This book’s gripping, 50-page prologue provides a nearly day-to-day account of the events that unfolded between November 2015 and April 21, 2016, when Prince tragically died at Paisley Park. The great distance traveled by Prince during his final months – tours of Australia and New Zealand, a funeral in the Bay Area for former muse and lover Denise Matthews, a tour of Canada, and a final return home – in some ways mirrored on a grand scale Prince’s nomadic childhood, to which the book returns after detailing the events of 2016.
The Rise of 1958-1988 gives you a front-row seat to the dramatic events of iconic artist Prince Rogers Nelson’s dazzling rise to fame. The book opens with the gripping tale of Prince’s final months in 2016, and then transports you to the Minneapolis of his childhood to tell a story that is by turns tragic and triumphant.
Thanks to the many close friends and associates who shared their stories with the authors, The Rise of Prince will both enlighten and deeply move Prince’s legions of fans. What is ultimately revealed is the very human story of how a young man from a small Midwestern city overcame adversity to achieve one of the greatest runs of creativity in pop history, along the way creating an unparalleled universe of side projects, alter egos, and a musical legacy for the ages.
Alex Hahn, writing with co-author Laura Tiebert, brings his extraordinary experience to this book, which includes fully updated and expanded elements of his controversial 2003 biography Possessed, a sought-after collector's item that remains a classic of Prince literature.
The book is enhanced by exclusive photos from rock photographer Paul Natkin, one of the most renowned photographers of Prince. It includes newly unearthed information about early relationships and collaborations; a detailed account of the no-holds-barred competition with Rick James on the 1981 tour that set the course for Prince s meteoric rise; a vivid depiction of the recording of Prince’s first album, including a little-known encounter with Sly Stone; and much more.
This book’s gripping, 50-page prologue provides a nearly day-to-day account of the events that unfolded between November 2015 and April 21, 2016, when Prince tragically died at Paisley Park. The great distance traveled by Prince during his final months – tours of Australia and New Zealand, a funeral in the Bay Area for former muse and lover Denise Matthews, a tour of Canada, and a final return home – in some ways mirrored on a grand scale Prince’s nomadic childhood, to which the book returns after detailing the events of 2016.
The Rise of 1958-1988 gives you a front-row seat to the dramatic events of iconic artist Prince Rogers Nelson’s dazzling rise to fame. The book opens with the gripping tale of Prince’s final months in 2016, and then transports you to the Minneapolis of his childhood to tell a story that is by turns tragic and triumphant.
Thanks to the many close friends and associates who shared their stories with the authors, The Rise of Prince will both enlighten and deeply move Prince’s legions of fans. What is ultimately revealed is the very human story of how a young man from a small Midwestern city overcame adversity to achieve one of the greatest runs of creativity in pop history, along the way creating an unparalleled universe of side projects, alter egos, and a musical legacy for the ages.
Alex Hahn, writing with co-author Laura Tiebert, brings his extraordinary experience to this book, which includes fully updated and expanded elements of his controversial 2003 biography Possessed, a sought-after collector's item that remains a classic of Prince literature.
The book is enhanced by exclusive photos from rock photographer Paul Natkin, one of the most renowned photographers of Prince. It includes newly unearthed information about early relationships and collaborations; a detailed account of the no-holds-barred competition with Rick James on the 1981 tour that set the course for Prince s meteoric rise; a vivid depiction of the recording of Prince’s first album, including a little-known encounter with Sly Stone; and much more.
361 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 28, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 25, 2017
(Sigh)... What can I say about this book that I haven't already said in the original version... Nothing really, there wasn't much updating done. Some false info still remained. i.e., Who inspired "The Beautiful Ones." We now know It wasn't who the engineer Susan Rogers said it was. Prince told us it was inspired by Denise Matthews AKA Vanity, as well as a scene in the movie Purple Rain before he past, but the speculation by SR wasn't corrected. Left to continue the false assumption that Prince went out of his way to clear up. First example of the many false claims about Prince in this supposedly "updated book". Instead of updates, the author elaborates with speculations and opinions with a few mere sentences added to paragraphs. And even worst, the bash fest continues on our beloved Prince. Hahn seemed to go out of his way to gather an unflattering view from everyone out there, and didn't even have the decency to honor Prince's later work after the 80's. Barely a mention about the many wonderful charities he supported and never told a sole. Nothing about the band members he'd helped in his later years. Nothing forthcoming about the better man he'd become. This book isn't worthy of the genius that was Prince. It's sad seeing so many rave reviews from "fans" from a book that still tears him down. Side eye to them all...
July 9, 2017
The first imprint of this book was called, "Possessed: The Rise and Fall Prince" It is notorious in the Prince fan community. Not really sure how any one can love a portrayal of Prince that is so negative that he is pretty much portrayed as the devil incarnate that is responsible for the misery and unhappiness of all his bandmates and girlfriends.
In this updated book, it becomes obvious that there never was a fall! Prince hit some rough commercial patches in career but there never was a fall! Hahn starts the book by looking at the last year of Prince's life. He excels here at being thorough and acknowledging Prince's later-life accomplishments. It is unfortunate that he tarnished well-substantiated facts with hearsay, gossip and speculation about drug-use. The inclusion of Jill Jones' comments hurt the credibility of the story he was portraying. It made me want to stop reading then.
But, I continued through the his prologue and onto the heart of the book, which is an updated version Possessed. He added more genealogical details, which were fascinating. But the actual heart of the book is tabloid quality with too many unnamed sources to be taken seriously. This book is speculation and gossip just like the original.
There are other fine Prince biographies out there. Skip this one!
In this updated book, it becomes obvious that there never was a fall! Prince hit some rough commercial patches in career but there never was a fall! Hahn starts the book by looking at the last year of Prince's life. He excels here at being thorough and acknowledging Prince's later-life accomplishments. It is unfortunate that he tarnished well-substantiated facts with hearsay, gossip and speculation about drug-use. The inclusion of Jill Jones' comments hurt the credibility of the story he was portraying. It made me want to stop reading then.
But, I continued through the his prologue and onto the heart of the book, which is an updated version Possessed. He added more genealogical details, which were fascinating. But the actual heart of the book is tabloid quality with too many unnamed sources to be taken seriously. This book is speculation and gossip just like the original.
There are other fine Prince biographies out there. Skip this one!
May 20, 2017
Written with love and respect yet brutally honest.
Easy to read, well told, knowledgeable. Very personal too, at times, which makes easier to relate too. Written by a true fan for true fans (not sheep).
Easy to read, well told, knowledgeable. Very personal too, at times, which makes easier to relate too. Written by a true fan for true fans (not sheep).
April 28, 2017
It's hard to know how much of the minutia is true, but Prince is consistently portrayed as difficult, mercurial, and insensitive to others, which, to be fair, is how he's portrayed in Mayte Garcia's book. Hahn and Tiebert do an excellent job of chronicling Prince's troubled childhood and rise to fame, but better than that is the prologue — a play-by-play of Prince's last months. For an artist so mysterious and guarded, this book is likely a version of the truth, often raising more questions than it answers.
November 5, 2017
An independently published updating of a larger, out-of-print book published in 2000 (which I haven't read.) Apparently this one contains much new information of Prince's early years. Not too interested in the earlier version.
Despite a few inaccuracies regarding the music that are apparent to even slightly-more-than-casual fans like myself find, the portrait of the young Prince Rogers Nelson is pretty gripping, presenting Prince as a complex genius full of insecurities; hyper-competitive; a man who constantly created painful drama for those around him, who would come emotionally close to lovers or musical collaborators, only to hurt them badly enough that they eventually left him -- which was, of course, the point.
A man whose natural in-born talent was honed to perfection by thousands of hours of jamming and working, who would regularly record for 24 hours himself, buidling entire album's worth of material in a few days. A man so prolifically creative that he compulsively and effortlessly released up to three albums a year(albeit not always under his own moniker) -- I had been aware that he had released a few albums by different artists(Vanity 6, the Time) but absolutely unaware of several other of the albums that he recorded and released in the 80s. He did this for much of his decades long career, and yet still left thousands of unreleased songs, hours of jamming and whole albums in his vaults.
Most interesting (to me) was the opening prologue, a day-by-day, nearly hour-by-hour reconstruction of Prince's last days. His losing battle against long-term addiction to prescription painkillers, which began as the otherwise anti-drug/anti-alcohol Prince sought to combat the agony that his extremely physical performing style wrought on his body in the mid-80s. Here it finally comes to the fore as he OD's once and cancela tourdates and almost desperately triea to cover up the horrid physical state he was in with...frenetic activity of course.
I also really enjoyed the story of his initial climb to fame: especially the early stuff concerning his childhood and his teen years working in the heady R'n'B scene of Minneapolis of the mid-seventies, when Prince cut his teeth in a variety of bands and invented the "synth-funk" sound that would come to dominate 80's airwaves. Also the tales of his early solo career, pre-super-stardom was interesting to me, perhaps because it was the last time he was still able to interact in a human way with the people around him.
In the end, you are left with a picture of a man whose creative urges stem from a sense of loneliness: and who consistently chooses that loneliness over human emotional closeness, who chooses music over contentment.
I hope that Alex Hahn and his co-writer publishes a sequel...because the story ends quite abruptly, in 1988, just as Prince's star as starting to fade. Something tells me the downward journey through the nineties and slight artistic renaissance of the 21st century may make for even more gripping reading.
Despite a few inaccuracies regarding the music that are apparent to even slightly-more-than-casual fans like myself find, the portrait of the young Prince Rogers Nelson is pretty gripping, presenting Prince as a complex genius full of insecurities; hyper-competitive; a man who constantly created painful drama for those around him, who would come emotionally close to lovers or musical collaborators, only to hurt them badly enough that they eventually left him -- which was, of course, the point.
A man whose natural in-born talent was honed to perfection by thousands of hours of jamming and working, who would regularly record for 24 hours himself, buidling entire album's worth of material in a few days. A man so prolifically creative that he compulsively and effortlessly released up to three albums a year(albeit not always under his own moniker) -- I had been aware that he had released a few albums by different artists(Vanity 6, the Time) but absolutely unaware of several other of the albums that he recorded and released in the 80s. He did this for much of his decades long career, and yet still left thousands of unreleased songs, hours of jamming and whole albums in his vaults.
Most interesting (to me) was the opening prologue, a day-by-day, nearly hour-by-hour reconstruction of Prince's last days. His losing battle against long-term addiction to prescription painkillers, which began as the otherwise anti-drug/anti-alcohol Prince sought to combat the agony that his extremely physical performing style wrought on his body in the mid-80s. Here it finally comes to the fore as he OD's once and cancela tourdates and almost desperately triea to cover up the horrid physical state he was in with...frenetic activity of course.
I also really enjoyed the story of his initial climb to fame: especially the early stuff concerning his childhood and his teen years working in the heady R'n'B scene of Minneapolis of the mid-seventies, when Prince cut his teeth in a variety of bands and invented the "synth-funk" sound that would come to dominate 80's airwaves. Also the tales of his early solo career, pre-super-stardom was interesting to me, perhaps because it was the last time he was still able to interact in a human way with the people around him.
In the end, you are left with a picture of a man whose creative urges stem from a sense of loneliness: and who consistently chooses that loneliness over human emotional closeness, who chooses music over contentment.
I hope that Alex Hahn and his co-writer publishes a sequel...because the story ends quite abruptly, in 1988, just as Prince's star as starting to fade. Something tells me the downward journey through the nineties and slight artistic renaissance of the 21st century may make for even more gripping reading.
March 21, 2020
I don't really like Prince. I have heard his popular songs and they have never really called out to me. I have never heard any deep tracks or even album tracks that did not receive major airplay. So, i am not the target audience for this book.
It was an audiobook, not terribly long, so I gave it a chance. The foreword about Prince's death was intriguing but misleading. I thought the book was out of order. I plunged on and got the childhood and adolescence and young adulthood. Nothing too out of the ordinary - except for his talent. I respect the talent.
But this book starts getting technical with different bands and recording styles and I am tuning most of it out. I don't finish it during the week and have to wait a weekend and then get back into it. Okay, Monday March 16th, 2020. I listen to my few podcasts and then get on with this book I should be able to finish it today. But, you know, the world is a bit chaotic this week.
So, I trudge and see that I am not going to make it to the finish. Too much chatter in the workplace. Tuesday March 17th. More podcasts, but I carve out enough time at the end of the day to finish the book. But, the chaos. COVID-19. My workplace is abuzz with what will happen, half of the workforce has stayed home and I am refreshing CNN constantly. Not paying any attention to the book and I see that I am not going to finish it on Tuesday...unless I go to double speed.
So, the last hour of the day I put the book on double speed, really retaining nothing and mostly just using it as a tool to drown out the chatter and remain some semblance of sane. A half hour to go and if I just keep the earbuds in it will finish with my workday. Then the email from the Director.
WORK IS CANCELLED.
At the end of the workday everyone goes home and does not come back the next day. The coronavirus is in our county and while we are essential we are also at risk. My workplace is all action everyone wanting answers. I do not get to finish the book.
Now I am on calamity leave and it is 4 days later. I have been self-isolating with my two young kids and my wife is working from home. Life is crazy and we aren't really leaving the house except for groceries. And our grocery bill is much higher than usual. The two kids give me no time to listen to my podcasts, let alone a book I am just trying to finish for the sake of finishing.
My leave is indefinite as we await an order from the government for quarantine. Or until the schools are back in session, next year next month? Who knows. Crazy times. Prince probably would of loved the meaningful self-isolation and made a record out of it. Probably not a good one though.
It was an audiobook, not terribly long, so I gave it a chance. The foreword about Prince's death was intriguing but misleading. I thought the book was out of order. I plunged on and got the childhood and adolescence and young adulthood. Nothing too out of the ordinary - except for his talent. I respect the talent.
But this book starts getting technical with different bands and recording styles and I am tuning most of it out. I don't finish it during the week and have to wait a weekend and then get back into it. Okay, Monday March 16th, 2020. I listen to my few podcasts and then get on with this book I should be able to finish it today. But, you know, the world is a bit chaotic this week.
So, I trudge and see that I am not going to make it to the finish. Too much chatter in the workplace. Tuesday March 17th. More podcasts, but I carve out enough time at the end of the day to finish the book. But, the chaos. COVID-19. My workplace is abuzz with what will happen, half of the workforce has stayed home and I am refreshing CNN constantly. Not paying any attention to the book and I see that I am not going to finish it on Tuesday...unless I go to double speed.
So, the last hour of the day I put the book on double speed, really retaining nothing and mostly just using it as a tool to drown out the chatter and remain some semblance of sane. A half hour to go and if I just keep the earbuds in it will finish with my workday. Then the email from the Director.
WORK IS CANCELLED.
At the end of the workday everyone goes home and does not come back the next day. The coronavirus is in our county and while we are essential we are also at risk. My workplace is all action everyone wanting answers. I do not get to finish the book.
Now I am on calamity leave and it is 4 days later. I have been self-isolating with my two young kids and my wife is working from home. Life is crazy and we aren't really leaving the house except for groceries. And our grocery bill is much higher than usual. The two kids give me no time to listen to my podcasts, let alone a book I am just trying to finish for the sake of finishing.
My leave is indefinite as we await an order from the government for quarantine. Or until the schools are back in session, next year next month? Who knows. Crazy times. Prince probably would of loved the meaningful self-isolation and made a record out of it. Probably not a good one though.
May 7, 2019
Alex Hahn and Laura Tiebert’s The Rise of Prince is a well-structured book concerning the first 30 years of Prince’s life, with an added Prologue covering the last weeks of his life before his death of an accidental overdose of an opioid. Readers should be warned, however, that the book is quite critical of its subject, and when I say quite critical, I mean that they make a conscious effort to make Prince look like the devil incarnate on Earth. This is not to say that the events recounted in the book are all untrue: most of the history was sourced from both new and already published interviews with Prince’s associates. But if you want to read about every possible petty slight that Prince handed out to every person he ever met, every food theft, every food fight, every band member change, and every single argument he had by the time he was thirty, this is a book for you. Prince’s own voice, his own side of things, rarely gets quoted, and his massive accomplishments of the 1980s are buried in this book under reams and reams of pettiness. My mother used to always try to get me to say something nice: so the analysis of the lyrics to the song “Papa,” do make sense in the context of the abuses Prince suffered as a youth in the early 1970s under the domination of his stepfather. And I guess Prince’s infamous work ethic is evidenced here, but then again, we did not need Hahn and Tiebert to give us any evidence for it. The music is the evidence that no matter what Prince suffered, he made sure he did the work to the best of his ability. Every great genius has to be hard on others to force others to see his vision. Prince didn’t owe the world a single thing. The fact that he gave the world almost 40 years of incredible music means that we all owe him. If you are a Prince scholar I guess you have to read this book, but if you are a casual fan, I would advise giving it a pass.
June 23, 2017
The early biographical stuff was interesting and there was a lot of information I hadn't heard before. Initially I liked the descriptions of the very early career as again there was a lot of information which was new to me but as the timeline progressed the same pattern emerged - opinions put together based on interviews with people who had not been associated with Prince for decades, most of whom seemed to have an axe to grind.
It's well known that Prince was not an easy person to live or work with but that's the case for most great artists. It can be seen from all the former associates and bandmates who have come out since his death and said the same thing but they have also said that they appreciate that that is how he was and they accept that even though it may have been difficult for them at the time. By the end of this book Prince comes across as a total asshole who cared nothing for anyone in his life. Opinionated tabloid stuff for the most part.
The book finishes in 1988 as I guess the authors couldn't find anyone past that date who was willing to talk to them who was involved with Prince in any way. I think that probably speaks volumes.
It's well known that Prince was not an easy person to live or work with but that's the case for most great artists. It can be seen from all the former associates and bandmates who have come out since his death and said the same thing but they have also said that they appreciate that that is how he was and they accept that even though it may have been difficult for them at the time. By the end of this book Prince comes across as a total asshole who cared nothing for anyone in his life. Opinionated tabloid stuff for the most part.
The book finishes in 1988 as I guess the authors couldn't find anyone past that date who was willing to talk to them who was involved with Prince in any way. I think that probably speaks volumes.
March 9, 2018
I didn't grew up with Prince. My family were obsessed with Michael Jackson, and so while I knew all of MJ's songs from primary school, I had no idea who Prince was. That's a bit of a shame for me - but the upside is, I am now discovering his music. I have the good fortune of listening to a lot of his work for the first time. And I love it. I think that's why I liked this book - I didn't have that emotional connection to him, and yet I am fascinated by him, and his deep-rooted character flaws made him endearing to me (maybe not the treatment of women...). It was a compulsive read - I had to put it down for a couple of days after I stayed up til 1 am. I thought it showed Prince's genius and I particularly liked the early parts about his upbringing, including his family history. It really sounded like he was one of those people who was born to do this. There would never be another option than to play and write music. I was also interested in the background to many of the songs, particularly because I'm currently listening to a lot of his work from this period.
July 13, 2025
Biography of Prince’s early years.
October 26, 2017
Now available as an audio-book on Audible. Sign up today using AUDIBLE TRIAL to get this book absolutely free! If you choose to cancel your trial within the 30 days allotted, you get to keep your book at no charge!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews