From the young Black teenager who built a bass guitar in woodshop
to the musician building a solo career with Motown
Records—Prince’s bassist BrownMark on growing up in
Minneapolis, joining Prince and The Revolution, and his life in the
purple kingdom  In the summer of 1981, Mark Brown was a
teenager working at a 7-11 store when he wasn’t rehearsing with
his high school band, Phantasy. Come fall, Brown, now called
BrownMark, was onstage with Prince at the Los Angeles Coliseum,
opening for the Rolling Stones in front of 90,000 people. My Life
in the Purple Kingdom is BrownMark’s memoir of coming of age in
the musical orbit of one of the most visionary artists of his
generation. Raw, wry, real, this book takes us from his musical
awakening as a boy in Minneapolis to the cold call from Prince at
nineteen, from touring the world with The Revolution and performing
in Purple Rain to inking his own contract with Motown.
BrownMark’s story is that of a hometown kid, living for sunny
days when his transistor would pick up KUXL, a solar-powered,
shut-down-at-sundown station that was the only one that played
R&B music in Minneapolis in 1968. But once he took up the bass
guitar—and never looked back—he entered a whole new realm, and,
literally at the right hand of Twin Cities musical royalty, he
joined the funk revolution that integrated the Minneapolis music
scene and catapulted him onto the international stage. BrownMark
describes how his funky stylings earned him a reputation (leading
to Prince’s call) and how he and Prince first played together at
that night’s sudden audition—and never really stopped. He takes
us behind the scenes as few can, into the confusing emotional and
professional life among the denizens of Paisley Park, and offers a
rare, intimate look into music at the heady heights that his
childhood self could never have imagined. An inspiring memoir of
making it against stacked odds, experiencing extreme highs and lows
of success and pain, and breaking racial barriers, My Life in the
Purple Kingdom is also the story of a young man learning his craft
and honing his skill like any musician, but in a world like no
other and in a way that only BrownMark could tell it.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!