About the Series Creator & Co-Host
De Angela L. Duff is an Associate Vice Provost at New York University and Industry Professor in Integrated Design & Media (IDM) at NYU Tandon. She also curates music symposia as polished solid, including the upcoming Prince #TripleThreat40 Symposium (2023) celebrating 40 years of Prince’s 1999, The Time’s What Time Is It? and Vanity 6’s eponymous debut and Prince #Come30 Virtual Symposium (2024) celebrating 30 years of Prince’s Come; presents about music, design, and technology, internationally, at numerous conferences including Black Portraiture[s] VII (2022), Pop Conference 2021, Prince 78-88: An Interdisciplinary Conference (2021) and 2nd Dayton Funk Symposium (2021), writes about music most recently in AMP: American Music Perspectives (2022), Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture (2022), and the edited book volume Prince and Popular Music: Critical Perspectives on an Interdisciplinary Life (2020); and speaks about music on WNYC, Minnesota Public Radio radio, and BBC Manchester radio shows. You can view her past and present work at polishedsolid.com or subscribe to her newsletter at polishedsolid.substack.com.
About the Series Co-Host
In 1995, Michael Dean started to blog about Prince on the internet. Michael, along with a few others, was invited to a private online chat with Prince to discuss involvement in creating a website for the musical icon. (Love4oneanother) Michael respectfully declined but was so honored to be considered that he was inspired to start a new website called ‘FreedomTrainOnline,’ which would morph into The Prince Podcast. For over 15 years, The Prince Podcast, now called Podcast On Prince, has done in-depth interviews with band members and associates. Featured in the Huffington Press and Forbes, Michael recently moderated the event “Prince: From Minneapolis to the World” for the Minnesota Historical Society.
Michael has since released three albums, Stroke The Mind B4 The Behind, Rainydayjams Vol.1, and Lake Minnetonka aka What I Learned From Prince, and has also added author to his list of talents. His first science fiction novel, Truths Destiny (The Destiny Saga, Volume 1), was released in 2014.
About Prince: The Complete Studio Sessions Book Series by Duane Tudhal
“PRINCE: The Complete Studio Sessions” is a project by Duane Tudahl to create a daily diary of Prince’s time in the recording studio. Similar in scope to The Beatles Recording Sessions, Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984 is a historical overview about the music that was recorded by Prince during his time at Sunset Sound in 1983 and 1984.
Over the last 20 years, Duane has interviewed about 50 different band members, singers, studio engineers, and others about their private stories surrounding his biggest successes, including “Purple Rain,” “When Doves Cry,” “Raspberry Beret,” and dozens of others, but this isn’t just about his hits. There are exclusive details revealed about many unreleased outtakes hidden from the public in Prince’s vault.
Because Duane never worked with Prince, he went to the people who did, and these are the stories of their time in the room with Prince when these tracks were recorded. The access he was granted is unprecedented and exposes an entirely new view of the genius of Prince, revealed by those who knew him best.
Over 220+ sessions are detailed in the first book including music recorded for Prince as well as The Bangles, Stevie Nicks, Sheena Easton, Apollonia 6, The Time, The Family, Sheila E., and others.
The first book in the series, Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984 was released in November 2017 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishing. However, for this book club, we will be reading the expanded edition released in 2018.
The second book in the series, Prince and the Parade and Sign O’ The Times Era Studio Sessions: 1985 and 1986, was released in June 2021. We will eventually get to this title in 2025 through this online book club series.
About the Author
About the Author
Duane Tudahl is an award-winning author who has worked in entertainment for over thirty years and has produced and/or directed documentary programming for the History Channel, CBS, GTV, Fox, Discovery, Pax, the Gospel Music Channel, the Food Channel, Tru-TV, and HGTV, among others. He has also been an editor on multiple Emmy-nominated programs, including Intervention, and Unsolved Mysteries. He is a former stand-up comic and has been writing about Prince and the Minneapolis music scene for over 25 years. Prince and the Parade/Sign O’ The Times Era Studio Sessions: 1985-1986 is the second book in his series that chronicles Prince’s legacy in the recording studio.
The Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson is not affiliated, associated or connected with the ‘What Did Prince Do This Week? Book Club Series,’ nor has it endorsed or sponsored the ‘What Did Prince Do This Week? Book Club Series.’ Further, the Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson has not licensed any of its intellectual property to the producers, advertisers or directors of What Did Prince Do This Week? Book Club Series.’