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    Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince
    Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince
    Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince
    Audiobook9 hours

    Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince

    Written by Ben Greenman

    Narrated by Peter Berkrot

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Ben Greenman, New York Times bestselling author, contributing writer to the New Yorker, and owner of thousands of recordings of Prince and Prince-related songs, knows intimately that there has never been a rock star as vibrant, mercurial, willfully contrary, experimental, or prolific as Prince. Uniting a diverse audience while remaining singularly himself, Prince was a tireless artist, a musical virtuoso and chameleon, and a pop-culture prophet who shattered traditional ideas of race and gender, rewrote the rules of identity, and redefined the role of sex in pop music.

    A polymath in his own right who collaborated with George Clinton and Questlove on their celebrated memoirs, Greenman has been listening to and writing about Prince since the mid-eighties. Here, with the passion of an obsessive fan and the skills of a critic, journalist, and novelist, he mines his encyclopedic knowledge of Prince's music to tell both his story and the story of the paradigm-shifting ideas that he communicated to his millions of fans around the world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 11, 2017
    ISBN9781541472204
    Author

    Ben Greenman

    Ben Greenman is an editor at The New Yorker. He is the author of the story collections What He's Poised to Do; Superbad; and A Circle Is a Balloon and Compass Both: Stories About Human Love, and the novels Superworse and Please Step Back. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.

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    Reviews for Dig If You Will the Picture

    3.5/5

    43 ratings16 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I received this book via LibraryThing.com Early Reviewers. This book did not meet my literary expectations. I wasn't a big fan of Prince and the artist formerly known as and I didn't understand the direction his music was leading me too. However, I like the cover art of the book and the forward by Questlove. I still viewed Prince as a musical genius in his own right. But, this biographical book by bestselling author, Ben Greenman is immensely focused on Greenman's knowledge of the instruments, lyrics, and Prince's sexuality. The book reads scientifically with Greenman dissecting Prince's video's movies, songs and relationships (musically and personally).I was looking for more biography of Prince, Time, Vanity 6, Apollonia and others than the cost of his instruments and whether Prince was a Svengali or Pygmalion tradition or he was more hermaphrodite or androgynous. A great deal of the material went over my head. I still give Greenman credit for his analytical insite into Prince and his influence on music, fashion and culture. There are biographical elements about Prince mixed in with the encyclopedic-like details. He touches on Princes associations with Larry Graham (Musical Group Graham Central Station), Miles Davis (Jazz trumpeter), Travis Smiley (Talk Show host and Author), Marva Collins (Educator and founder of Westside Preparatory School in Chicago) and Misty Copeland (Ballet Dancer for American Ballet Theatre).I look forward to reading the book by his ex-wife, Mayte Garcia; "The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince".
    • 4/5
      This was an okay read. Recommended for super fans and anyone with a passion for music. For the casual Prince fan who is interested in learning more about his life and career, I would suggest going with a traditional biography.
    • 4/5
      I received a free advanced reading copy of this book through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program (although I ended up listening to an audiobook from the library)Greenman's book is the story of Prince's career largely told through Prince's music with a focus on his role as a cultural icon and sometimes generous/sometimes rocky relationships with other musicians.  Prince's biography is in there too, but it's more of the details fall into place around the examination of his music.  Greenman is a devoted fan of Prince so his own experience as a Prince fan emerges several times in the book, but unlike Rob Sheffield who makes the fan's experience a window into a greater understanding of an artists, Greenman's personal reflections seem more an intrusion.  Nevertheless, it's overall a great attempt at understanding the life work of someone as mercurial and hard to define as Prince. 
    • 2/5
      I was disappointed in this book which reads more like a fanzine than a serious career study (obviously the author was not trying to write a biography which is fine with me). I felt Ben Greenman put himself into the story far too often and being the super-fan he is he's not impartial, admiring nearly all of Prince's work as well as seemingly condoning some of his less pleasant personality quirks like his excessively controlling attitude to some of his other super fans who have used created tribute sites and the like on the net. Prince's contemporaries like Michael Jackson are somewhat written off as lesser talents but Greenman doesn't acknowledge Jackson was able to stay a front-row pop star longer than Prince despite being considerably less prolific (nor does Greeman much dwell on the fact that somewhere in the late 90's Prince moved from being a widely popular mainstream star to more of a cult favorite.) I eagerly await a book on Prince that fully acknowledges his flaws as well as his genius, his lows as well as his highs. I suspect the real man is far more interesting than this disciple like spin.
    • 4/5
      This is an odd book for me - I don't normally read biographies, nor follow musician lives.... but its PRINCE, and PRINCE is amazing. Yes, every time I write PRINCE, its going to be in all caps.This a great biography - instead of the more normal chronological order, this book uses Prince's own music styles as background to his life. Its not exactly in chronological order, the chapters are set to themes, for example Religion, or his name - but it is written more deeply than that, with references going back and forth, expanding on an idea or theme.I am not the biggest PRINCE fan. I know his hits, but the b-sides and lesser known music, I am completely clueless on. The combining of PRINCE's music with his biography, while amazing, at the same time left me a bit clueless, especially when a song I didn't know was discussed. But that's okay - Ben Greenman wrote an amazing biography of PRINCE that actually captures PRINCE's genius and eccentricity. The book is also quite balanced, not skimping on PRINCE's faults, but rather explaining why they were there. Also, this is great tribute - the Author is a huge fan, and manages to get in a few bits about just how important PRINCE is to him. These moments add immensely to the book, turning it from a well written biography to something more poignant.
    • 3/5
      Greenman is a free-lance journalist, a critic, a man who has helped others write their story (Questlove, George Clinton, and Brian Wilson), and has written both fiction and non-fiction works. He is also the biggest Prince fan ever and owns nearly every Prince song there is to be had. I mention this in order to show that he is qualified to examine Prince's music and making determinations about it.Prince was an extraordinary artist who was quite prolific, destroyed the notions of race and gender, and "redefined the role of sex in pop music". Prince was like a machine who never stopped making music often staying up all night then waking up early the next morning. He was obsessed with it. He had side projects where he mentored others and produced their records, writing the songs on the albums.Most of these groups or solo acts were made up of women. He also offered help to those who were already established, such as Stevie Nicks (who actually asked him), Paula Abdul, Bonnie Rait, and more. His female groups really begin with Vanity 6. They had very minor success even though Vanity wasn't the greatest singer. Vanity would be replaced with the woman who played the female lead in Purple Rain, Apollonia, and the band would be renamed Apollonia 6. While she had a better singing voice, the songs were too good and lacked the "punkish insistence" of Vanity 6. Some of the songs that were meant for Apollonia 6 ended up going to others, such as the Bangles ("Manic Monday"), Shelia E. ("Glamours Life") and Prince himself ("17 Days"). Shelia E. and Sheena Easton, both protegees of Prince, benefitted greatly from working with him. But that was not always the case with the protegees who worked with him. Ingrid Chavez was no winner and neither was Carmen Electra, Tamar Davis or Bria Valente and let's please forget Kim Basinger. Jill Jones was another exception of a protegee that worked out. He worked with her on and off throughout the 1980s and finally released her album in 1987 which "offers a nearly perfectly disillusion of the Minneapolis aesthetic synth-heavy funk loaded with double entendre, heartfelt ballads, and layered vocal arrangements." He was a Svengali, however, his connection with his own female identity meant he was just as caught in the web as they were.On all of Prince's albums, he always gave thanks to God. He had a faith in God that came out in his music. On the song "Let's Go Crazy" it starts off with a church organ and a sermonesque talking bit about the afterworld. He recorded a song called "God" that was subtitled "Love Theme From Purple Rain" that was put on a B side. In America and Britain it was instrumental, but elsewhere there were words that described the end times and how you should dance in response to it. The song "Temptation" describes how Prince let his carnal desires keep him from the divine. "Sometimes It Snows In April" shows Christopher Tracy as a Christ figure waiting for resurrection. "The Cross" couldn't have been more plainly faith-based.The book also covers sex in his music, race and politics in his music, why he changed his name and the chaos that ensued, his frustration with his fans and the internet, what he was like on stage, and how he was able to produce so much for so long. This book was an odd if somewhat interesting read. The author reminds you of the English major who sees symbolism everywhere when sometimes a lyric is just a lyric so to speak. He does love the music but is not too blind to admit when a song sucks. I also have to say his knowledge of the music is unparalleled. One thing I really enjoyed was the list of albums and songs at the end with his pick of one song from the album and a brief description of why it was so good. Overall this wasn't such a bad book. It was highly informative and gave this Prince fan some songs to hunt down.
    • 5/5
      While I don't claim to be a Prince fan, I did love his music. I have read no other books about Prince, so nothing to compare it to. Having said that, I do think this was full of information about Prince, his life, his friends and family and most of all his music. I appreciated the tidbits about what shaped him into the man he was. And, although he was surrounded by people, it stills strikes me that he was a very lonely man. A difficult childhood, teaching himself all these instruments -- just inspiring and amazing.The fact that he taught himself so much about the music business, and was very much in control of his music and image, especially towards the end, goes to the very core of the brilliance of Prince. He was the real deal. He knew his stuff and he gave to the world.It makes me wonder what he would have given us had he lived to be an old man.
    • 2/5
      I received this book via LibraryThing.com Early Reviewers. This book did not meet my literary expectations. I wasn't a big fan of Prince and the artist formerly known as and I didn't understand the direction his music was leading me too. However, I like the cover art of the book and the forward by Questlove. I still viewed Prince as a musical genius in his own right. But, this biographical book by bestselling author, Ben Greenman is immensely focused on Greenman's knowledge of the instruments, lyrics, and Prince's sexuality. The book reads scientifically with Greenman dissecting Prince's video's movies, songs and relationships (musically and personally).I was looking for more biography of Prince, Time, Vanity 6, Apollonia and others than the cost of his instruments and whether Prince was a Svengali or Pygmalion tradition or he was more hermaphrodite or androgynous. A great deal of the material went over my head. I still give Greenman credit for his analytical insite into Prince and his influence on music, fashion and culture. There are biographical elements about Prince mixed in with the encyclopedic-like details. He touches on Princes associations with Larry Graham (Musical Group Graham Central Station), Miles Davis (Jazz trumpeter), Travis Smiley (Talk Show host and Author), Marva Collins (Educator and founder of Westside Preparatory School in Chicago) and Misty Copeland (Ballet Dancer for American Ballet Theatre).I look forward to reading the book by his ex-wife, Mayte Garcia; "The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince".
    • 4/5
      A timely book about Prince doing a deep analysis of the massive archive of his songs. If you are looking for a lot of information on his personal life there is not too much there. But, if you want to learn about his music it is all there. There are pieces of information that I learned like his connection to the Jehovah Witnesses and his relationships and inspirations from other musicians over the years.Nice book if you are interested in the music of this shy genius.
    • 4/5
      If you're interested in learning more about Prince, this is a great place to start. This book covers his early beginnings and examines the influences on the different stages of his career, including the influence of Prince on his home town of Minneapolis (and vice versa). Greenman takes an honest look at Prince's artistry and openly discusses the highs as well as the lows across the decades. The book brings out the things that helped fans idolize and connect to the artist, as he struggled with the side effects of success.
    • 3/5
      Received this book via Library Thing Early Reviewers. I always liked Prince' s music and thought he seemed unique and interesting. I had hoped to learn more about his life from this book. But instead the primary focus was on individual songs, specific lyrics, who played on which albums, who sang, who wrote, and musical techniques. Extremely detailed on the songs. I wanted more on the man behind the music.
    • 4/5
      Ben Greenman’s Dig if You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God, & Genius in the Music of Prince critically examines Prince Roger Nelson’s music, including music he released under his own name or symbol, music he produced for other groups, and unreleased or limited-release songs. The result is a book that will appeal primarily to fans of the Artist as well as critical theorists. Using a variety of analytical frameworks, including the work of Michel Foucault, Plato, the character Pygmalion, and Svengali from George du Maurier’s 1895 novel, Trilby, Greenman presents what will likely stand as the definitive examination of Prince’s music for years to come. His gender analysis is the most interesting aspect of this examination for non-musicologists and the strongest part of his writing. Those looking to read a more standard biography or retrospective of the Artist following his death in 2016 will find some of what they seek here, but Greenman writes for an academic audience and the most ardent Prince fanatics.
    • 4/5
      A really interesting view into the life of Prince. I certainly gained a further appreciation for his music after reading this book.
    • 2/5
      This is a hagiograpic work by a music critic, that tells its tale via the _hundreds_ of songs and dozens of albums Prince left us. I am only a casual fan, so much was lost on me. A more straight forward biography would have been more helpful, but would have likely required access the author did not enjoy.
    • 5/5
      Ben Greenman's well-researched, informative book on the life and music of Prince is worth picking up for both casual fan of the musician as well as devotees. Greenman, a long-time fan, tracks Prince's entire life and also does some deep-dives on the music itself. Fantastic book that I finished on the one-year anniversary of Prince's death.
    • 5/5
      A reminiscence on the musician Prince by a lifelong fan who also happens to be a professional writer. It is very well written. This is not a biography in the usual sense with the facts and dates of the subject's life. Although it follows Prince's career in roughly chronological order, each chapter tends to focus on different aspects of his music and his life, e.g. his interaction with the music industry, his fans (and fame), recurring themes (sex, God), his musical side projects, the internet.Almost every page references a song or an album. So, it's worthwhile to have access to Prince's music to listen along as you read. I think the casual fans will come to know Prince much better after reading this book. The author knows the subject well, and can be very passionate about it:“When Prince made art about sex, he explored the signs and signifiers of sex. When he made art about the self, he explored the signs and signifiers of self. The same was true of God, of race, of language, of freedom. He crammed substance into every nook and cranny, both musically and lyrically.”In the back, is an appendix listing all of Prince's albums with their songs, and an extended comment on one song per album.I am certain that diehard fans will like this book. But also it's an opportunity for readers like me, who mainly have been greatest-hits fans, to gain to deeper appreciation of his music.