Book
Blue Cloudz: Prince Unauthorized explores the childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood of American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, philanthropist, and record producer Prince Rogers Nelson (1958-2016). The author paints an intimate, balanced, and uncommon portrait of the icon. The book is written in short scenes and is designed to be both prequel to the Oscar-winning film Purple Rain and a rosetta stone to decoding the psyche of one of music’s greatest legends.
As Alan Leeds (Prince’s former tour manager and hand-picked choice for President of Paisley Park) once shared: “Somewhere there’s a book to be written about the DNA of guys like Prince or James Brown or Miles Davis, all of whom had mother issues, all of whom had abandonment issues in various ways, and all of whom could be extremely judgmental and difficult to get along with. There’s a pattern there. It’s not a coincidence.”
This is that book.
From a frigid metropolis, a shy Gemini named Prince toils alone. He burns the midnight oil in musical study. Many underestimate him — but he’s as rare as blue clouds. His story is complex yet simple.
This book explores the fortunate and difficult developmental aspects Prince faces. He’s born into a musical household with prodigious abilities (1958). But he must overcome epilepsy, parental feuds, abandonment, bullies, and racism during the US Civil Rights Movement.
Despite all he endures, Prince moves mountains. Resilience is the narrative of his formative years. Travel back to humble beginnings. Live on his street. Be a fly on the wall as his circle forms.
This book won’t pass judgment or seek resolution. It won’t feed fascination about his death. Points plot, lines form, but most remains open. Some may object to the mercurial icon given frank treatment — but this book isn’t false idolatry. It’s Prince at human scale.
Perhaps this book can achieve something more important. Maybe it nudges families with a gifted child to more closely examine parenting. Maybe it convinces the next Prince to seek balance earlier in life.
— Eric S. Townsend, author
The following are but four of the more than 200 excerpts in the book.
1958
John sits back on his stool. The fall board slips through his fingers and slams over the piano keys. His hands are shaking again. Mattie calls his name alarmingly from the kitchen. Something in the water does not compute, and they rush to Mount Sinai Hospital. Prince Rogers Nelson is born. She passes their son to hold. John has reached for the stars many times and missed. The baby squeezes his finger. A smile slips through his tears.
1970
The rain falls heavily. Prince slouches in a phone booth and cries. He’s cold. Things have gone from great to awful. John catches his son with a girlfriend in his house and sends him packing. Prince begs for his forgiveness. He’s denied. He asks his sister to broker peace. Tyka speaks with their father and claims all Prince has to do is call one last time and apologize. She’s wrong. The episode later inspires his biggest hit, “When Doves Cry.”
1980
The American Bandstand set is small. There’s duct tape holding together parts of it. The band is escorted to their dressing rooms. Shortly thereafter, the host knocks at the door. Dick is shorter than they’d imagined. He has a fantastic tan. He’s the most cordial person Dez has ever met. Prince has that look on his face again. When Dick leaves, he calls a band meeting. He says it would be cool to avoid answering questions during the interview.
1981
Prince wants to see how The Time perform with a test audience. He schedules a gig at 20 Grand, the most celebrated night club in Detroit. Everyone who’s anyone has graced this stage. The flyers feature Morris’ name spelled backwards, Yad Sirrom. Prince mixes the show from the back of the venue. No one recognizes him in dark glasses and a thick, stuck-on beard. The trench coat should’ve blown his cover. The Time is a big hit.
1982
Prince likes to borrow Lisa’s car. It’s a pink and white ’64 Mercury Montclair. One night, he and Vanity mess around in the backseat. He tries to drive under the influence of afterglow. Because the car is unwieldy, he struggles to handle it. He backs Into a pole and dents it. Prince confesses, but Lisa is annoyed. She finds a wad of Vanity’s hair wrapped around the door handle. Prince romanticizes the experience in “Little Red Corvette.”
1983
Vanity and Prince fight regularly. One minute, they collaborate on a movie script together. She muses on her life story. He sits at the piano and rehearses a song for the soundtrack. Next, she’s on top of him, pounding his chest and screaming. Their chemistry is unpredictable and explosive. She wants to be the only one. He worries about her drug abuse and mood swings. Despite his concerns and their subsequent breakup, the imprint is permanent.
This first edition of the book was 197 pages in length. The second edition is now 368 pages. It is a “super book” — meaning it incorporates all the stories of the other books written on Prince from this time period, or written by members of his inner circle. It includes over 300+ short, accessible scenes or sketches. Each is about 80 words. Episodes are organized chronologically (1956-1983) — that’s two years before Prince’s birth until the announcement that his band The Revolution will be featured in the motion picture Purple Rain. The book closes with more than 100 photos of items from the author’s private Prince-themed collection. Available in PDF ebook as well as paperback, and coming soon as an audio series.
Eric S. Townsend brings a unique sensitivity to the study of Prince’s life, psyche, and accomplishments.
Like Prince, Eric S. Townsend grows up in a disjointed family. His father fights in the Vietnam War and comes home a different man. His parents divorce when Eric is less than a year old. His first experience with Prince was spinning the 45 for “I Wanna Be Your Lover” on his Mickey Mouse record player at age 6. He’s raised by his mother, an educator (Prince’s mother worked in the Minneapolis school system), and his grandmother, a retired machinist (Prince’s dad worked at a Honeywell plant). Like Prince, Eric spends long hours in musical study and rehearsal in his basement.
Prince and Eric belong to an exclusive club. Both train to become multi-instrumentalists who write, arrange, compose, produce, perform, and record entire albums of music. Both also fail miserably on the same instrument (saxophone). Each comes to value independence and self publishing. Both leverage crowdfunding to launch projects. Both win a Webby (award). Both give time and money to early childhood education and the AIDS fight.
Today, Townsend lives in the greater Seattle area with his wife Gwen, their bullmastiff Marlowe, and their two snakes, Libby and Terrence. He writes small books (20+ since 2012). Tabula Raisa, his adventure series for children ages 6+, is the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign (2016).
Learn more at the author’s writing portfolio.