I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became An Icon (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
This book was disappointing. I'm a diehard Prince fan from way back, but even so I think Toure goes a little overboard on the analysis of Prince's songs and his place/role in American culture. I Would Die 4 U puts several of Prince's songs--"1999," "Let's Go Crazy," "Controversy," "Purple Rain"--under a microscope over and over again. The dissection of the lyrics and their meaning becomes repetitious and monotonous. The book is based on Toure's DuBois Lectures at Harvard, and that's kind of what it reads like: an over-analytical lecture; or maybe a thesis. I mention the latter because Toure draws on many, many footnoted sources for information. (Toure's last actual interview with Prince was way back in 1998.)I was also surprised at the number of typos and instances of missing words I encountered in this book. Did anyone proofread this thing? I would only recommend this book to the most diehard of Prince fans. And even then, it's just "meh." "'That's authentically using the tech […]. He's completely fluent in it. He's knowing how the tech works and using it to amplify himself. That's loving the machines, that's loving the tech, and I think there's a very intrinsic gen X thing of the computers are ours to use. Computers had not been microcomputers until the eighties and the radical change of having a personal computer was you own it, you control it, you program it. It's gen Xish to take control of the computers. It's the gen X birthright to see technology as something you'll control as opposed to something you'll ask permission to use. Take these tools and bend them to your will and it's disruptive to society, and to industries and to culture. I'll take these things and make them mine and that's all over the gen X moment'" (Anil Dash in Touré, pg. #75).
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