Name: The Beautiful Ones
Brand: Prince

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

9780399589652

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Colour

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format Books US

Hardback

Format detail

Hardcover

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Limited edition

Release date

2019-10-29

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Rando­m Hou­se

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

1 / Extended format: No / Hardback / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Prince

Genre US

R&B / Neo-Soul

Label US

spiegel & grau

Books of the Year - 2019

Prince was an iconic American musician and songwriter known for his innovative blend of funk, rock, R&B, and pop. Born in 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince began his musical career at a young age and quickly gained recognition for his exceptional talent as a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and performer.
Throughout his career, Prince released numerous critically acclaimed albums that showcased his unique style and boundary-pushing creativity. His music explored themes of love, sexuality, spirituality, and social issues with a fearless honesty that resonated with audiences worldwide.
Beyond his musical accomplishments, Prince was also recognized for his flamboyant stage presence and distinctive fashion sense. He captivated audiences with electrifying live performances that showcased not only his incredible musicianship but also his dynamic showmanship.

The brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all time, in his own words—featuring never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death Prince was a musical genius, one of the most beloved, accomplished, and acclaimed musicians of our time. He was a startlingly original visionary with an imagination deep enough to whip up whole worlds, from the sexy, gritty funk paradise of “Uptown” to the mythical landscape of Purple Rain to the psychedelia of “Paisley Park.” But his most ambitious creative act was turning Prince Rogers Nelson, born in Minnesota, into Prince, one of the greatest pop stars of any era. The Beautiful Ones is the story of how Prince became Prince—a first-person account of a kid absorbing the world around him and then creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and fame that would come to define him. The book is told in four parts. The first is the memoir Prince was writing before his tragic death, pages that bring us into his childhood world through his own lyrical prose. The second part takes us through Prince’s early years as a musician, before his first album was released, via an evocative scrapbook of writing and photos. The third section shows us Prince’s evolution through candid images that go up to the cusp of his greatest achievement, which we see in the book’s fourth section: his original handwritten treatment for Purple Rain—the final stage in Prince’s self-creation, where he retells the autobiography of the first three parts as a heroic journey. The book is framed by editor Dan Piepenbring’s riveting and moving introduction about his profound collaboration with Prince in his final months—a time when Prince was thinking deeply about how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world, while retaining the mystery and mystique he’d so carefully cultivated—and annotations that provide context to the book’s images. This work is not just a tribute to an icon, but an original and energizing literary work in its own right, full of Prince’s ideas and vision, his voice and image—his undying gift to the world.

The Beautiful Ones

Books US