Comments   Summary

Summary: Prince is a music legend. Rolling Stone declared him one of the five most important artists of the last twenty-five years, and USA Today has hailed him as one of the most daring and brilliant artists ever. Since the explosive success of Purple Rain (the album, the single, and the film) more than twenty years ago, he has scored top-ten hits, won Grammys and an Oscar, and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Prince: A Thief in the Temple is a look behind the scenes and into the studio with the innovative, fearless, and iconic artist. Prince: A Thief in the Temple is explosive and controversial--alleging that all along Prince has been aiming for a biracial music, one that fuses the white boy rock he loved as a kid with the R&B and blues his family relished. Investigating his many feuds with old friends over songwriting credits and royalties owed, Brian Morton reveals the shrewd and sometimes cunning businessman within the artist who once changed his name to a whimsical and unprounceable symbol. Over the years, Prince has inspired protest and devotion, and provoked as many questions as he has commendations. Morton mines Prince's oeuvre, unmatched for breadth and excellence, to figure out just what Prince has created. With his numerous alter egos (Camille, Jamie Starr, Alexander Nevermind, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince), Prince Rogers Nelson has toyed with his audience for years, daring his listeners to think differently about sexuality, love, recording contracts, and assless chaps. His raunchy album covers, his prurient hits sandwiched between hymns of religious ecstasy, and his much publicized break with traditional recording deals have signaled the way forward forartists as diverse as Justin Timberlake, Rufus Wainwright, and Peaches.