Customer Reviews
Being richer than God does have it's problems. - By: Mr. M. A. Reed, 30 Nov 2008 
After all, once you've got your own boat, your own country, & surrounded yourself with several hundred employees - all of whom won't tell you you're anything less than the perfect & immaculate reincarnation of Jesus H Christ herself because you pay them to be your friends - what else do you do? Nobody tells you you'll ever have a bad idea, & everything you do will be crafted, pure gold.
This is the world Prince livesin : a world insulated from anything but a rarified reality, replete with a world of obscene luxury, limos, impossibly perfect tailoring & styling, & a world of indulgence. I suppose the most obvious thing about "21 Nights" - this enormous, indulgent release - is not just what it has, but what it hasn't. Being the first official Prince printed release, there's nothing of an internal monologue. Across 200 glossy pages, Prince is 'captured', if you call that, always striking a pose. Having spent so longin the viewfinder of fame (of varying degrees), the person that Prince was has been replaced by an instictual imposter who is aware at almost every second of the perception & image & never lets the guard down :in effect, having worn a mask of image so long it has grown into himself & eaten whomever Prince really was originally. Operating exclusively on your own terms is a rare state of affairs & one where it is very easy to forget where you came from & the world you used to be in.
As a supposed chronicle of what many see as the pinnacle of Prince concert performance career - a record breaking 21 nights & at least 420,000 ticketsin London - there is little here that can recommend it as anything other than affluence pornography : an airbrushed portrayl of what life is like when you are incredibly rich, a view of a world where nothing matters, food is always on the table, stability is assured, & one obsesses over irrelevant minutae instead of the big picture of life. Every page of this indulgence screams an almost offensive affluence. Prince reclines on balconies, sits on expensive chairs made solely from the skin of virgin rhinos, no hair out of place, every pose practicedin a mirror, & there's no sense of any revelation or anything honestin this, but a versimilitude, an illusion of access. The world Prince inhabitsin 21 Nights is rarified & elite : only a handful of pages reflect the main thrust of these 21 Nights, the performances themselves, & most show an assortment of opulent hotel rooms, limosuines, & pampered backstage areas as Prince strikes a pose amongst his employees. Fundamentally, there's no heartin these images. No sense of context, or the universe where Prince is the prinicpal employee & driving engine of a massive machine that generates enormous amounts of money.
The text that sits against it, occasional verse, follows Princes usual & strange grammar where its up 2 u what u do with me & eye existin ur mind like a butterfly. The text is divorced from the world outside the window of indulgence, & to be honest, doesn't seem to communicate anything, be about anything but general principles, or demonstrate any insight into anything people who aren't stupendously rich can relate to. Certainly, it's a reflection of the rare environment Prince exists within, a self-made universe that is the envy of many creative forces. But also, it's alienating. There's no insight into any understanding that Prince's life has any internal dialogue, anything other than comfort & a self imposed musical exile.
"There was a time when I used to be like you - nobody wanted a picture of me & now I can't walk down the street without everyone wanting a picture of me. There was a time when I used to be like you & could go to the supermarket" he philosophises on 'Delirious'. "I can't even go outside anymore, you think I don't miss it? I miss it. Some crazy fool comes up to me with a camera, & says can I just get a picture of you & Michael Jackson? I could retire Prince, I could retire. But inside I'm still the same". If that's the case, the person inside Prince was weird right from the start, as his default setting. You don't see other superstars of his similar size & stature - such as Michael Stipe or Chris Martin - playing a reclusive role of self-imposed exile & refusing to interact with the rest of the universe. You are a prisoner of your own definition of reality.
This is reflectedin the accompanying CD. In effect, "21 Nights" is a lavishly packaged live CD with 75 minutes of material on it. The CD meanwhile, is an interesting listen, but again, fails to reflect the 21 Nights themselves : taken from the Aftershow Parties at the Venues satellite hall (Indigo) where some nights Prince would play for two hours, & other nights not at all, Indigo Nights is a brilliant record on it's own terms. Here Prince is recast from a slick hit-making crowd pleasing machine, & the music itself is excellent, insomuch as it reflects an organic, often improvised, set of musical points featuring Prince as ringleader of a tight, well-oiled telepathic musical entity that lives, breathes, & improvisesin the style of jazz greats : "3121" features "D.M.S.R.", & melds near invisibly into the next six songsin a half-hour, jazz/prog rock style odyessy. To the Prince enthusiast it is probably further evidence of his unyielding talent & abilities. The rest of the music is of equally high quality : albeit it floats over the rest of the package as both an afterthought & the prime draw. You can easily lose yourselfin this work as a trance, an epic of form & exploration. Great & exciting it is, but not exactly the definitive concert recording of Prince at his peak.
What is fairly surprising is, given that each of the 21 Nights at this groundbreaking & historic residency were recorded & filmed, is that the music is taken from the organic & improvisational post-show jamming & not the main shows themselves : the main shows at the much larger o2 Arena were brilliant, daring, & thrilling works, evolving & revolving overviews of Prince's career as a whole, performed by a unit of rare cohesion & strength, visually exciting & musically vital. These shows are overlookedin favour of what the uncharitable might call boring noodling. The aftershow jams are interesting to listen to, enjoyable to bein the presence of, but possibly not worth immortalising as the definitive musical record of these epochal shows. (Incidentally, I don't think I can see any picturesin the book from the aftershow appearances). A live CD & / or DVD set of the 'main' shows would more accurately reflect the experience shared by half a million people over these 21 Nights. And at £30, the pricetag should contain a little more than a glossy book of photos & a CD of sometimes formless jamming (with a couple of songs overlapping from 2002's "It Ain't Over Til It's Over!" set of similar aftershow jamming).
21 Nights is an interesting but flawed experiment, an unsatisfactory whole that neglects to encompass the whole experience of the o2 residency, packages it up with staged & often-airbrushed, insincere photographs, & fails to capture the career-defining live highpoint of Princes recent career these 21 shows were. I can only hope the main body of these nights is issuedin another form as the definitive Prince concert release shortly. But Prince has rarely been an artist who has looked back, & spent most of his career boldly going forward with new ideas & new music, which is admirable. A not wholly successful experiment that stands testament to the perverse individuality & validity of Prince's vision.
The Live CD that comes FREE with this book is EXCELLENT! - By: Dodger, 15 Nov 2008 
A great piece of Live music taken from the small night clubin the 02 Arena call Indigo. It's amazing this dude plays a two hour plus set then starts all over again later the same night, Sound Quality is Perfect! Oh I nearly forgot about the book....It's O.K.
luton airport here we come - By: andrew, 07 Nov 2008 beautifully shot pictures, a treat for prince fans of his quest for perfectionin life & music. Also great for the widespread availability & affordability of the book which has led previous releases to be talked about rather than held & seen. The accompanying cd is also great for the adrenaline the listening initates, can you imagine the playing! The mind of this musican also drips into the background choices, with the bedroom maids featured & also the guitar "babes" bringing much remebered "cream" days to mind again. Thank you for the excellent trip you have given us Mr.Nelson of the 21 nights London experiencedin the summer of 2007.
PRINCE< THE MAN AND THE MUSIC. - By: P. Clack, 27 Oct 2008 You never quite get what you expect from Prince,but it's always worth it.This is a heavy tome,a big book full of quite fabulous photographs (as you would expect)not too many at the O2, because it covers every angle of those amazing 21 nights.Over 250 very large pages,absolutely beautifully presentedin a pink slip case as well.Then we get something very special indeed,the CD & this is no ordinary Price set,no it's all 77 minutes of it from the late night setsin the O2 indigo,and oh boy it's about as funky & brilliant as Prince can get.He is along with his totally awesome bandin top gear here,as good a funky dance party disc as you will ever hear & worth the price of the book itself. The book/CD is priced at £30 cover price & Amazons is fantastic for an absolutely fantastic present for a Prince fan or just indulge yourself.While talking of this set may I totally recommend Amazon's imported 'One Night Alive' Prince box set,not cheap but the pleasure is tremendous,the full live gig & again the after show gig,get the two here & you'll experience one of the greatest entertainers on the planet,Prince live has few equals,in fact only Springsteen comes into this league.So get the book the live set & get funky right through to the new year & beyond.
The true musician - By: M. Rauber, 26 Oct 2008 I've been a Prince fan all my life. And I am grateful that I was able to attend one of his shows at the O2in London. I love the book, but most of all, I am crazy about the live cd. What an artist! What a groove! This is a true musician. And his name is Prince!
