Prince released 39 albums and wrote countless songs for others before his early death at age 57. Yet despite his prolific production he remained largely inscrutable, as perhaps a great artist should be. Ultimately Prince was as impossible to pin down as the music he played. Was it funk, jazz, rock, new wave? It was Prince — that’s what it was. A genre unto itself. A consummate musician whose songwriting craft and musicianship were outdone only by his extraordinary performance style, Prince died with plans afoot to clear up his story. To make himself understood.
A month before his death Prince announced that he would deliver a memoir telling his life story. The Prince memoir had a working title — The Beautiful Ones — and Random House was to publish the book in 2017. Music fans took news of the Prince book the way archaeologists might receive word that the Sphinx was giving a press conference. When he announced the book Prince revealed that it would start “right at the beginning, my first memory.” Now Prince will take his secrets — except those revealed in his music — to his grave.
Long Live The King.
— Questlove Gomez (@questlove) April 21, 2016
