This book was given to me by the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Prince is known as a brilliant recording artist. They are recognized as a brilliant live performer and as a sexual transgressive. But, their political, and moral, views hardly ever get a mention. This Thing Called Life Prince, Race, Sex, Religion, and Music seeks to fill this hole in existing writing around Prince. The work explores the artists' view of various politicians. The author deconstructs princes’ view of race and highlights his views on gender equality in his band and in everyday life. The work highlights the importance of spirituality on his art and life. It is well worth a read

I am a huge fan of Prince and was very excited to read this book.

This book is set up more like a research type paper than a regular book. The author splits this book into seven themes based on Prince's favorite number: each going into detail about aspects in his life that paved his way and how they effected the music and community from the 80s-onward. It jumps back and forth through times so unlike average biographies, this does not have a concrete timeline to follow.

The book was very informative and gave me a lot of new information. I appreciated the author’s attention to detail but it was a little dry for me.

As a one time owner of over 30 prince albums on cassette tape, which was his entire collection at the time I was thrilled to get this book on netgalley.
I really enjoyed this book, and found it fascinating and well researched.
Thank you to the author and publisher for giving me the chance to go back in time and relive my youth just for a little while.

I remember as a little girl watching Prince's "Purple Rain" and listening to "When Doves Cry" in the car on my way to school. Even though I was a 90s child, there was something about Prince that caught my attention then and even now at twenty - six. As I'm sitting here, writing this before getting ready for a photo shoot, I'm blaring "Rasberry Beret" in the background, nodding my head to the beat and swaying.

The intensity this one man brought to the world of music and entertainment, period in my opinion, will never be over-shadowed. He didn't put himself only into his own music but instead inspired and brought other artists into the limelight and taught us that no matter who you are - we always have a song within us needed to be sung and experienced. The ability to read this book, gave me a deeper insight to who Prince was.

Most biographies I've read were about various artists (Pat Benatar, Eric Clapton, etc.) and co-written by the individuals themselves. Prince was well-known as being a very private person and in his own right. He held strict beliefs and standards most musicians would not hold in place. I'm not going into major details about this book because you need to read it for yourself.

The author splits this book into seven themes based on Prince's favorite number: each going into detail about aspects in his life that paved his way and how they effected the music and community from the 80s-onward. It jumps back and forth through times so unlike average biographies, this does not have a concrete timeline to follow. That can be frustrating for some readers but it didn't really bother me that much.

The author backs up his findings and insights with citing his sources and listed them all in the back for our reference which backs up his opinions. The more I read, the more I wanted to look into the other references he listed to get more information. To understand a mysterious man such as Prince, you have too.

I am thankful to have read this and despite Prince being gone, his voice, life, and legacy continue to live on through his music and the lives he has touched.

This Thing Called Life is a retrospective biography by Joseph Vogel on the life and music of Prince. The author is a well known author, critic, and popular culture expert.

Published by Bloomsbury Academic press, released 19th April 2018, it's 240 pages and available in ebook and hardcover formats.

As a nonfiction book and biography, it's full of verifiable facts. Anyone could just find those online. What this author brings to the table is a genuine expertise in assessing and explaining the cultural impact of Prince's music and style in his time and after his death. The book has an interesting layout. Instead of being written around a chronological timeline, it's written thematically. There are discussions about Prince and his feelings about and impact on: politics, music, race, gender, sex, religion, and death. This format leads to some overlap and repetition. I found myself searching through the book backwards sometimes to re-read something from an earlier chapter. While the historical research is precise, the larger takeaway from the book is Mr. Vogel's knowledge of modern music and culture.

I did learn a lot about the artist and his legacy to music and culture but I think I learned more about the culture and music of the 80s than I did about Prince himself. The book is extensively footnoted and the exhaustive bibliography at the end is worth the price of admission.

I could see this being a good book club selection for music/bio/culture book clubs. This would also make a remarkably good support textbook for a lot of courses such as modern American culture, pop music, possibly gender studies, etc... Good book, well written.

Five stars.

Joseph Vogel’s extensive book on Prince is very well-researched, based on the extensive bibliography and citations included in this book. As a matter of fact, the last 24% of the book is bibliography and footnotes! This book is well-written, and deals with everything you might want to know about Prince, including his feelings about politics, sex, religion, race, gender, and death. It also goes into depth about Prince’s musical style and how it changed through the years and why. It details each of his works, explaining what was going on in Prince’s life at the time. The author explained Prince’s quirks very well, and I came to understand him better. It even talked about how Prince died. This is the definitive book about Prince. I would highly recommend this book to those who want to learn more about this amazingly-talented man.

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Some artist I almost feel like you are born knowing. I can’t describe a time when I didn’t know who Prince was. My aunt was a huge fan and would constantly play his music. I often heard his songs on the radio. As I grew older I began to appreciate him as musician, song writer and performer. There simply isn’t a time when I didn’t know about Prince. I remember his passing came as a shock. So young, at only 57. Prince always seemed like he was magic to me. I didn’t expect the magician to die. Now years later I’ve finally read this
biography, so reflective of the man, and this goes beyond anything I ever thought I knew.

Vogel doesn’t tell the story of Prince chronologically. Instead he focuses on certain themes that resonate with who Prince was throughout his life and as an artist. Vogel discusses Princes relationship with politics or lack thereof, his sound which took on a life of its own, his race and gender, his sexual relationships and how he expressed that through music, his religious observations and Vogel ends with his death. This is a unique experience. Isolating these different topics and really focusing on them allowed Vogel to delve deeper into these different aspects and really reflect on Prince’s relationship with each. He peeled back each layer of Prince and explained each in an extremely intimate and informative way. The only problem that I had with this theme-based method was that it got a repetitive at times. There are some moments in Prince’s career that cross into more than one theme and revisiting those got a little monotonous at times.

Overall though I feel like this was a really well-done biography. I found it really enjoyable and informative. I loved Vogel’s descriptive language. There were many times after he would describe a song, or a video or a performance and I would find myself looking for that particular moment online so I could experience it. I would read the pages and hear Prince’s music in my head. He is a legend and will forever be. I think any Prince fan would enjoy reading this book and learning more about the specific things that went in to making him a legend.

I’m a big fan of prince. I found this book to be a wonderful read. I did find out some interesting facts that I didn’t know before.

I'm a fan of Prince and I found this book wonderful. It gives a better hindsight and it's full of interesting information and ideas.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

Thank you to the publisher and author for giving me a digital copy of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

My husband is a huge fan of Prince and we've enjoyed learning more about Prince and his music through my husband. We were lucky to have been able to see him perform live together before his passing. There was no question that Prince is a supremely talented musician, song-writer, and performer. Many of his songs are among our favorites. I was excited to be able to read a book about him and quite enjoyed the format of this title. It is a thematic approach to Prince rather then a chronological story of his life and work. The book is divided into 7 themes, a number with special meaning to Prince and one of my favorite of his songs. I was more interested in some of the themes then others, but enjoyed the overall look that it gave into Prince's life, his inspiration, and motivation in life and in his work. It was interesting to see how Prince's beliefs changed and varied throughout the years based on experiences, politics, and his study of religion and how those beliefs were evident in his music and performances.

I'm a huge Prince fan, and I had high hopes for this book. While some information was new and interesting, a lot of the book felt like I was being told random facts I'd heard many times and places before. The author basically spits out facts, which makes it hard to truly engage with the book.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley, but I wasn't required to leave a positive review.

I’m a fan of Prince and hoped to find out more about his life but this book had too many references to other books and was almost like an encyclopaedia. Not what I expected I’m afraid.

This book is a great resource for everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about Prince. I’ve been a fan of his for as long as I can remember, and I found myself having a hard time getting through this book. It’s well written but it is very factual and reads a bit like a textbook. If you’re looking for a Prince 101 type read, this is perfect for you. It’s well done, but it was a bit tedious for me.

As a true Prince fan since his first recording, I was very excited to read this book. There have been many books written about Prince and I have read many, and this book is in my top 5. Very well written and informative. If you are a Prince fan, you need to read this book. Get your favorite beverage and/or snack and settle in for a ride. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review. Highly recommended.

This was a slightly odd book. It claimed to be academic but was often vague with it's conclusions. I liked that his sources were primarily lyrics and interviews, rather than a focus on fans and "the phenomenon". As an analysis it was a different approach, but a lot of chapters seemed either squeezed (sex) or over expanded (politics) as if forcing a round peg into the square hold of publishing.