April 21 marked the third anniversary of Prince’s death. Before he died, he was working on a memoir called “The Beautiful Ones.”  We finally will be able to read it when it arrives October 29th. Before he passed away, he completed 50 pages of the memoir. The book will start off during Prince’s childhood, will go into his early years as a musician and will have Prince lyrics, scrapbooks and pictures that we have never seen before.

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New musical ideas were pouring out of Prince at a feverish rate in 1986, and he was clearly restless and hungry for a fresh approach to making art. Within the span of a few months he began working on a new album with the Revolution, Dream Factory; disbanded that influential group; recorded tracks for an unrelated album under his alter-ego, Camille, and a triple album, Crystal Ball; and started dabbling with a jazz side project known as Madhouse. • It’s no wonder that Sign o’ the Times, released on Warner Bros. in 1987, ended up as a double album with 16 radically different tracks; it captured Prince in a moment of peak productivity, his creative tap flowing at full blast. • As the title suggests, Sign o’ the Times is deeply rooted in a cultural and social moment, and the lyrics on the album veer into apocalyptic territory, contemplating the ongoing threat of AIDS, nuclear war, poverty, and the drug epidemic on a country that seemed to be living under an ominous cloud. • And yet the dark undertones are balanced with moments of levity — the irresistible hooks of “Housequake,” the pure innocence of “Starfish and Coffee” — reminding listeners that even the most oppressive times should be confronted with dancing and laughter.

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