This was probably one of the best albums I ever listened to. If flowed better than most music today. I would love to hear your thoughts on this album.

^ really 20 years? I am old lol...


But, I completely agree with you - what a fine album..

I love every track on this masterpiece, so impressive... all those different styles & genres, my fave tracks are I Hate U & Dolphin & Gold & Shhh & 319 &.....

imo.. The Gold Experience = the Sign "☮" The Times album of the '90s..

This was my first Prince album, my gateway drug into the world of Prince. Every song I loved except for Dolphin, but grew to love that song as well. Could do without some of the segues now, but they're easy to skip, I like what he was trying to achieve with them, but they're a little annoying now. The music certainly makes up for it. Starts off with a bold rap song, leans into the heavy rocker EndorphineMachine, the pace continues with We March & then we slow down a little for Shh & TMBGITW & it's party time again until screams of heart break in I Hate U then we settle with the lovely, Gold.

Can't speak enough of the love I have for this album, i recently posted about it in my first impressions on another thread. Must've listened to this over a hundred times, in fact, I might as well celebate it's anniversary & the anniversary of my obsession of this man's music.

[Edited 9/19/15 22:30pm]

RJOrion said:

most overrated Prince album of them all...not a bad album...but i dont play anything on it...not even TMBGITW...this lp is almost totally devoid of funk/soul...

Agree with u to a certain extent.

The ORG really over rates this album. Way back in 2002 when I was becoming a PRINCE fan I would always read how amazing TGE was on the ORG and bought my copy on eBay.

It's a good album considering the lackluster albums Prince released in the 90's. Shhh is an amazing song. But TGE hasn't aged well and it very overrated imo by fans here.

I like it, but there is sludge on there too, and those fucking segues do my saggy tits in.

I'll join the others in saying that it wasn't a great album. But, it had the potential to be - the original mixes of Endorphinemachine and TMBGITW are pretty neat. I think it would have made a great rock album, had the plastic synths been stripped back.

Essentially, it could have been as good as C&D, which is pretty damn good.

RJOrion said:

this lp is almost totally devoid of funk/soul...

Oh really? "Now" and "Billy Jack Bitch" are two of the funkiest jams that Prince released in the 90s.

"I Hate U" is a soulful masterpiece."Shhh" is almost as good.

This is a guitar-heavy album,no doubt,but there's plenty of R&B/funk here.

20 years ago i totally remember the era, the whole build up, it seemed like it would

never come out at one point. but we had bits and pieces, the single for tmbgitw, then a

video for dolphin, a few track on the radio dat-tape, live versions of tracks that were to

be on it. then come came out first. and 1-800-New-Funk, Exodus, and Child of the Sun,

the interactive cd rom with interactive/endorphinmachine on it, the versace experience.
yet it seemed like gold was further away than ever, when all of a sudden ads started to

pop up for it in magazines.

i couldn't believe i actually had a copy of it in my hands the day of release, it seemed a

real surreal experience. the booklet and the art was a letdown though, and it still is. the

tracks we hadn't hear before: shy and we march, were ok but not spectacular and i was

a bit miffed that days of wild wasn't on it anymore.

dolphin was and still is my favorit track after 20 years. i caught the vid on tv the day it

premiered, totally unexpected. watched that tape so many times it disintegrated

it does feel like a lot of time has passed since, but holy shit, 20 years ?!

SoulAlive said:

RJOrion said:

this lp is almost totally devoid of funk/soul...

Oh really? "Now" and "Billy Jack Bitch" are two of the funkiest jams that Prince released in the 90s.

"I Hate U" is a soulful masterpiece."Shhh" is almost as good.

This is a guitar-heavy album,no doubt,but there's plenty of R&B/funk here.

lol..... I had the same reaction to "totally devoid of funk/soul"...........if HitNRun had 1/10th of the funk/soul on Gold Experience it would be so much better

the thing about this album that stands out...whether you like it or not.... This is Prince breaking away from his "pop" sound...D&P, Symbol album, etc... He really took a chance of changing his image, his sound, songwriting... I think he nailed it. I am curious to know how this album would of done, hadn't he changed his name, have the fallout with WB and if he would of toured the US to support this album... ehh...what could of been.

avasdad said:

I am curious to know how this album would of done, hadn't he changed his name, have the fallout with WB and if he would of toured the US to support this album... ehh...what could of been.

Yeah,it's a shame that there were so many "distractions" that got in the way of this album becoming a huge seller.I wish that the war with Warners and the "slave" stuff had never happened.

SoulAlive said:

avasdad said:

I am curious to know how this album would of done, hadn't he changed his name, have the fallout with WB and if he would of toured the US to support this album... ehh...what could of been.

Yeah,it's a shame that there were so many "distractions" that got in the way of this album becoming a huge seller.I wish that the war with Warners and the "slave" stuff had never happened.

it really could of been something...I am not saying the next "purple rain"... this was the real turning point musically for Prince's career...

avasdad said:

SoulAlive said:

Yeah,it's a shame that there were so many "distractions" that got in the way of this album becoming a huge seller.I wish that the war with Warners and the "slave" stuff had never happened.

it really could of been something...I am not saying the next "purple rain"... this was the real turning point musically for Prince's career...

I agree.

KingSausage said:

Lots of great songwriting and performances, but the absolute worst production of any Prince album. Ever. It's fucking atrocious.

worse than HitnRun??

It was such a special time. I became a fan in '94/95. He was all over the media in the UK in early 1995: The Brits, NME, The Sunday Show, Radio 1... it was the only way to hear new music at the time which made it all the more exciting.

Along with the release of EXODUS, it was a really exciting time with the promise of all the new music (24, The Tora Tora Experience, etc) which makes the album special to me. It's not just the music (which is still amazing) it's about all the things that were happening around that time too.

KingSausage said:

Lots of great songwriting and performances, but the absolute worst production of any Prince album. Ever. It's fucking atrocious.

I disagree with you, Prince is a great producer..

The Gold Experience is one of his finest albums.

It is so fucking great on this album, bad production no way that is the Emancipation album.


IMHO.

.

I also remember well that era, with all the fuss and the WB-War.

.

To me TGE is probably the best of P 90's release, on pair with "Come".

.

Only things I regret of:

a) No "Interactive" and "Days Of Wild"

b) I strongly prefer the TMBGITW original mix: don't like too much that "live version"

.

KingSausage said:

Lots of great songwriting and performances, but the absolute worst production of any Prince album. Ever. It's fucking atrocious.

.

Well, as ever it's a matter of taste to each one.

.

As a production, to me it is probably the best of the entire P 90's (particularly when I compare it to the following "plastic sound" from Emancipation to Rave barring the archival releases).

.

One of the best Prince albums ever and great world tour!

The singles were great, the videos were great, the band, the TV specials, everything!

Totally amazing!

BoraBora said:

.

I also remember well that era, with all the fuss and the WB-War.

.

To me TGE is probably the best of P 90's release, on pair with "Come".

.

Only things I regret of:

a) No "Interactive" and "Days Of Wild"

b) I strongly prefer the TMBGITW original mix: don't like too much that "live version"

.

you are so spot on..

and, I agree with what you wrote here, everything of it..

KingSausage said:

I hate to use the term overproduced, but good lord is TGE overproduced. There's like 14 or 15 extra layers of gloss on top of what should be raw, powerful songs. I listen to some of the bootleg versions from before Prince added all the unnecessary and just shake my head. I enjoy the album because I can listen to it knowing that Prince had a good time making it so glossy. But I wish he had kept the raw power of the early versions. Also, too many damn sound effects.

As much as its my favourite era and maybe favourite album I have to agree with this. When you listen to the earlier versions of Endorphinmachine and Gold they blow the released versions out the water.

.

The big disappointment for me was the exclusion of Days Of Wild. After watching the Beautiful Experience video about a million times that was the one song I was dying to get on CD.

.

As for the sound effects - they're ridiculous but I loved them back then. Just in case you didn't know what a clock sounded like he'd give us some ticking and if he was 'out the door' we'd get a door slamming noise - genius.

.

The best one was in Days Of Wild (Beautiful Experience version) when he says 'a woman every day should be thanked, not disrespected, not raped or spanked' he'd feign to spank Mayte's arse and we'd get a slap sound effect - I loved that shit!

jaawwnn said:

Great cd. I love every song and still listen to it often.