Prince: A Portrait of the Artist in Memories & Memorabilia
Books that tell the history of something—or someone—through artifacts have become popular in the publishing industry. Paul Sexton’s coffee table book combines memories with memorabilia. He culls through years of Prince interviews and looks up friends, starting with junior high pal and future band member Andre Cymone, who tells secrets: teenage Prince listened to Seals and Crofts as well as Sly and The Family Stone. Prince’s engineer Susan Rogers adds that Prince was “well-schooled in music” well before his debut album. “If you’re going to be great at something, you have to study the history of the art that came before you,” she says.
A British critic whose career began at the same time as Prince, Sexton chronicles The Artist’s reception in the media on both sides of the Atlantic. The book is heavily illustrated with photographs of Prince and his collaborators (and even musicians he most influenced) alongside the memorabilia: guitar picks, personal letters, guitars and costumes. Perhaps most tantalizing is a black and white photo of Prince’s Paisley Park archive, its shelves filled with thousands of hours of unreleased music.
