Possessed – The Rise and Fall of Prince

I once read a fascinating essay by Kurt Vonnegut in which he detailed people’s fascination with story shapes. Nothing captures our attention so much as a story where an “average” person becomes a success, then falls to a point lower than where he or she started and ultimately achieves even greater success than the first time. Think of Cinderella, going from no one to meeting the Prince at the ball to falling even lower when the clock strikes twelve to finally becoming a Princess.

Perhaps this is why we’re enthralled by the celebrity status of “artists,” whether musicians, actors or athletes. Heaven knows this is the formula behind any VH1 “Behind The Music.”

If not for the quality of his writing and the questions that he raises, it would be easy to lump Alex Hahn’s engrossing biography, Possessed – The Rise and Fall of Prince, in the same category. Hahn manages to do a great job of presenting the facts and letting the reader make his or her own conclusions.

There’s a lot of material here. Much time is spent covering the usual things: dealings with the record industry, life on the road, personal and professional jealousies.

But there’s a lot underneath as well. The period of Prince’s meteoric rise also ushered in a huge change in the music business. Hahn does an excellent job of keeping all the threads together so that you do not lose sight of the overall picture, the way his subject did.

Most important, great attention is given to the actual music and its creation. Some of the most telling moments are quotes from Susan Rogers, Prince’s primary studio engineer. There is a stunning passage in which Prince composes what Rogers considered to be his most honest, heart-felt song, and then, in the same state of melancholy which inspired it, he systematically ruins and finally erases the master tape.

Hahn presents an excellent portrait of a musician and a human being. His writing style is wonderful to read and I liked the little things about it – after pointing out on numerous occasions Prince’s tendency to use lines from Joni Mitchell in his songs (he saw one of her concerts when he was around ten), Hahn himself sprinkles a few into his prose.

All in all, this is a fascinating read and will give both Prince fans and those who are simply curious a lot to think about.

Check out our full bio of Prince for further reading.