Prince - La Totale: Les 684 chansons exliquées

All The Songs

by Benoît Clerc

Après deux albums teintés de funk et de disco, Prince Rogers Nelson devient dès 1980 le maître du Minneapolis Sound avec son troisième opus, le sulfureux et bien nommé «  Dirty Mind  ».
 

Dès ses premiers disques pour Warner Bros. Records, celui qu’on surnommera bientôt le Kid de Minneapolis offre sa vie à une production musicale foisonnante et variée. Prince traverse alors les années 1980 avec une irrévérence et une audace qui le caractériseront. Après avoir enchaîné les succès (Little Red Corvette, Purple Rain, Kiss, Sign O’ The Times ou Batdance) et vendu plus de 100 millions d’albums, Prince a su se réinventer à chacun de ses disques, déjouant les pronostics de ceux qui le croyaient mort, renaissant sans cesse de ses cendres, et surprenant toujours au travers de nouvelles directions artistiques.

De Madonna à Miles Davis, de Michael Jackson à Kate Bush, tous les grands noms de la musique populaire ont souhaité un jour enregistrer à ses côtés. Depuis la mort inattendue du chanteur en 2016, The Prince Estate s’applique à exhumer de The Vault, son coffre-fort de Paisley Park, de précieux albums jusqu’alors demeurés inédits. Des milliers de chansons y sommeillent encore, et chacune de ces parutions est un événement mondial.
 

Ouvrage unique au monde, Prince, La Totale offre un regard inédit sur l’œuvre tentaculaire de l’artiste, et détaille avec minutie la genèse de chacune de ses 684 chansons, dévoilant un à un les secrets de fabrication d’une discographie spectaculaire, à la hauteur de cet artiste hors norme et immortel.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Reference, History

648 pages, Hardcover

Published November 9, 2022

Reviews

[Mike Walter]

Fantastic Revisit of Prince’s Music

It took me forever to read this book, mainly because I kept pausing to listen to Prince’s music while I read it.

I love that author Benoit Clerc doesn’t just catalogue every Prince song but also offer his opinion of some of them as well, even if I disagree with that opinion (example: I’ve always thought “3 Chains of Gold” off the Symbol album was a bit overdone and pretentious, but Clerc writes that it’s the highlight of the album and “ranks among Prince’s greatest songs. Rightly considered as Prince’s Bohemian Rhapsody or Stairway to Heaven.” Sorry but “Purple Rain” is clearly Prince’s Stairway to Heaven.”)

I also learned a few things from this book. Like I never knew Jon Bon Jovi asked Prince if he could record with his band, the New Power Generation (and that Prince turned him down.). I also discovered a few covers of Prince songs I’d missed through the years. In fact as I read it I made a Spotify playlist called “Overlooked Prince Songs.”

But the best part about this book was it felt like a walk through my entire life. I’ve been a huge Prince fan since my early teens and I’ve bought every one of his albums the day they were released, immersing myself in them for weeks on end. So revisiting something like Around The World In A Day brought me back to being 19 and wasting time in college. Or the epic Emancipation, which I listened to non-stop in early 1997 as I was trying to navigate the waters of being a solo entrepreneur. Prince’s music, more than any artists, has been the soundtrack to my life and this book was an awesome opportunity to relisten and reminisce.

[Stacey]

I’ll be reading this for years. It's a coffee table book, but it's a really good one.

[Janet Debouchard]

My heart lies with Prince Roger’s Nelson R.I.P❤️

[Theo]

Not the best book ever, but then again: if you can describe it, it ain’t funky!

[Gerrod Harris]

Benoît Clerc's extensive walkthrough of Prince's massive discography is truly a tome. Covering everything up to 2021's 'Welcome 2 America', including singles, B-Sides, collaborations, and other non-album rarities, Clerc has done a phenomenal job cataloguing recording dates and performance credits, along with insightful notes about each song. While not necessarily the most critical at all times, Prince: All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Track is essential reading for better understanding the significance of of the music and legacy of Prince.

[Judy Tarver]

The only reason I rate this book 4 stars instead of 5 is it is expensive. But for any Prince fan, which I have been for 38 years, it is worth it. I learned things in this book that I never knew and I thought I knew almost all there was to know about him since I have read everything I can get my hands on pertaining to this unique artist.

[Mark Hanner]

More like a textbook than anything else, this book is magic.

[Vlad Babei]

For someone who has taken the time to catalog the entirety of Prince’s released discography and to comment upon every one of his songs, the author’s approach is incredibly rushed, amateurish, and passionless, driven perhaps by the sole aim of making a quick buck. Gone are Per Nilsen’s inquisitive nature and engaging narration of the first ten years of Prince’s musical career, or Duane Tudahl’s almost maniacal study of very specific points in Prince’s output - this is the kind of book that would ultimately end up as a prop on a waiting room coffee table.

[Bill Fish]

Very extensive review of all his music, with information I didn't even know! An amazing reference, and a joy to read. I loved this book, which touched on his personal life but is mainly focused on my favorite subject, his music! This volume was published in 2022, so all the vault tracks from the Diamond & Pearl deluxe edition are missing. Something tells me this book could have a part 2 in another 50 years.

[Sheepysheep]

Literally ALL the songs (all released songs 😉)… It don’t just cover the popular stuff—there’s something on even the most obscure Prince song. A must-read for Prince superfans 💯💯

Also.. the way the titles, subtitles, and other headings is rendered is on-brand .. ‘👁️ Love U, But 👁️ Don’t Trust U Anymore’, etc.

[Alessia]

4✨️/5

Super intéressant, très enrichissant et très détaillé (voir trop détaillé ??) mais ça reste quand même un très bon livre qui balaie tous les albums de Prince (tout ceux officiellement publiés parce que sinon le livre ferait 10 000 pages 🥲) mais aussi toutes ces collaborations et concerts iconiques 🎤🎵

[Gigifris]

Some errors, BUT, most importantly, the author does not realize female fans love Prince's ballads. He knocked about half of them in his entries. I started laughing as I continued reading, his disdain ran so deep. Giving a Prince-y side eye.

[Vondell Clinkscale]

Great read and Awesome photos of some of Prince best moments.

Great book mega deluxe awesome read,excellent details nicely structured. Great detail of past time events band venues. I loved it great book for a Prince fan.😎

[ladycabdriver]

not as insightful as id wish but technical details r bountiful :)
also prince songs between about 2004 and 2014 r kinda whatever so that means a lot of the book is soso
but prince has enough good albums in his prime to make up for it

[Tiffany Rose]

What an incredible gift to the Purple Hippies, members of the Prince Army. This tome will never leave my bedside. It is now my bible.

[Tracy Turner-Bumberry]

It took me a year to read this book. It’s very detailed and thorough. I learned a lot about Prince and his music. I do believe you’d have to be a big fan to get through this though.

[Lillian Zajicek]

It's good, I mean you learn so much about your favorite songs but there is so much useless information. There pictures of random people. It was a bit annoying, I mean, all I want to read is about the man himself not about random people. It took less than a week to read so that's a bonus! I may have said negative things but this book was amazing ❤