Research Catalog

Title

This thing called life : Prince's odyssey, on and off the record / Neal Karlen.

Author

Karlen, Neal

Publication

• New York : St. Martin's Press, 2020.
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 337 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color); 25 cm

Summary

• "A warm and surprisingly real-life biography, featuring never-before-seen photos, of one of rock's greatest talents: Prince. Neal Karlen was the only journalist Prince granted in-depth press interviews to for over a dozen years, from before Purple Rain to when the artist changed his name to an unpronounceable glyph. Karlen interviewed Prince for three Rolling Stone cover stories, wrote '3 Chains o' Gold,' Prince's 'rock video opera,' as well as the star's last testament, which may be buried with Prince's will underneath Prince's vast and private compound, Paisley Park. According to Prince's former fiancée Susannah Melvoin, Karlen was 'the only reporter who made Prince sound like what he really sounded like.' Karlen quit writing about Prince a quarter-century before the mega-star died, but he never quit Prince, and the two remained friends for the last thirty-one years of the superstar's life. Well before they met as writer and subject, Prince and Karlen knew each other as two of the gang of kids who biked around Minneapolis's mostly-segregated Northside. (They played basketball at the Dairy Queen next door to Karlen's grandparents, two blocks from the budding musician.) He asserts that Prince can't be understood without first understanding '70s Minneapolis, and that even Prince's best friends knew only 15 percent of him: that was all he was willing and able to give, no matter how much he cared for them. Going back to Prince Rogers Nelson's roots, especially his contradictory, often tortured, and sometimes violent relationship with his father, This Thing Called Life profoundly changes what we know about Prince, and explains him as no biography has: a superstar who calls in the middle of the night to talk, who loved The Wire and could quote from every episode of The Office, who frequented libraries and jammed spontaneously for local crowds (and fed everyone pancakes afterward), who was lonely but craved being alone. Readers will drive around Minneapolis with Prince in a convertible, talk about movies and music and life, and watch as he tries not to curse, instead dishing a healthy dose of 'mamma jammas'"--
• Karlen was the only journalist Prince granted in-depth press interviews to for over a dozen years, from before Purple Rain to when the artist changed his name to an unpronounceable glyph. He quit writing about Prince a quarter-century before the mega-star died, but he never quit Prince, and the two remained friends for the last thirty-one years of the superstar's life. They first knew each other as two of the gang of kids who biked around Minneapolis's mostly-segregated Northside, and Karlen asserts that Prince can't be understood without first understanding '70s Minneapolis. Going back to Prince Rogers Nelson's roots, especially his contradictory, often tortured, and sometimes violent relationship with his father, Kaplan changes what we know about Prince. -- adapted from jacket

Alternative Title

Formerly known as : the 4-real life of Prince, on and off the record

Subjects

• Rock musicians
• Prince
• Rock musicians > United States > Biography
• Biographies
• United States

Genre/Form

Biographies.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Prelude -- Memoirs of an amnesiac -- Last call -- The power of the just-dead -- Kill 'em and leave 2.0 -- Daddy dearest I: the bad son -- Daddy dearest II: the good son -- "The problems for superheroes is what to do between phone booths" -- Baller -- High school -- The teenage auteur -- Purple Rain: "Dancin' in the dark" -- In this life, you're on your own -- The crack-up, Act 1 -- The crack-up, Act 2 -- The crack-up, Act 3: a has-been is born, 1998 -- The new millennium: you gotta serve somebody-- Jehovah and Bob Dylan's Rabbi -- "While my guitar gently weeps" -- Sonny Liston's grave -- Laughs, lies, and learning from others -- Minnesota mean -- Coda -- Postscript: PrinceLit.

Call Number

Sc E 20-141

ISBN

• 9781250135247
• 1250135249

LCCN

2020028414

OCLC

1159636455

Author

Karlen, Neal, author.

Title

This thing called life : Prince's odyssey, on and off the record / Neal Karlen.

Publisher

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2020.

Copyright Date

©2020

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Note

Schomburg copy with dust jacket.

Note

Pre-publication title: Formerly known as : the 4-real life of Prince, on and off the record

Research Call Number

Sc E 20-141