From Housequake's FB page:

25 years ago today, US TV show The Box premiered the video for Interactive. The video was later released (with some slight changes) on the Interactive CD-ROM game, as the game's opening section. The version on The Beautiful Experience TV broadcast in 1994 replaced the studio version of the song with a live version.

What do you think of the song "Interactive", and the video that goes along with it? In some ways, this one video broadcast kicked off the whole post-Prince era, and introduced the Gold-era version of the NPG.

For me, The Beautiful Experience was one of the best things he ever put out. I bought the VHS bootleg and wore that tape out!

Thoughts on the song "Interactive"... GO.

I like that in hindsight, all those internet related lyrics may sound a bit dated now but show how ahead of his time Prince was with regards to the internet and its effect on the music business in particular and society in general. But is not really one of my favorite songs that I often go back to, probably because of the lyrics. However, I love its energy and the music.

Back then they sure sounded futuristic though.

Loved the era, the band, the new songs and of course the Beautiful Experience film. Much like the song in question, the whole film was more or less a glimpse into the future that dealt with several internet related aspects such as interactive shows, online music, internet addiction and loneliness and so on , and I quite liked that.

The song and the Beautiful Experience TV special are, in my opinion, a bit underrated and don´t get the love they deserve. In some ways it reminds me a bit of the Sign of the Times movie, just a bit updated.

i wish this had been the opening song to 'the gold experience', instead of 'p control'.

I remember how amazed I was when I saw this the first time. The guitar licks and baselines were and still are awesome. I really liked SonnyT on bass and wondered whether it was he or Prince who created the Interactive bass riff. It's sooo great.

gripper28 said:

I remember how amazed I was when I saw this the first time. The guitar licks and baselines were and still are awesome. I really liked SonnyT on bass and wondered whether it was he or Prince who created the Interactive bass riff. It's sooo great.

Agreed! Those were the days.

dodger said:

Funny... We just made a video about the game a few days back and published it today.

Didn't know the anniversary was coming up when we filmed it!

Militant said:

Funny... We just made a video about the game a few days back and published it today.

Didn't know the anniversary was coming up when we filmed it!

Good synergy. I just happened to see this on HQ FB. Your vid ties in perfectly.

fms said:

According to Princevault this is the exact same version as was later included on the CD-Rom, only theorically at this stage the NPG Operator segues hadn't been recorded, so I assume this was the exact same short edit without the NPG Operator parts, as eventually featured on the 1994/03/06 untitled promo tape, but I would very much like someone to confirm that.

IstenSzek said:

i wish this had been the opening song to 'the gold experience', instead of 'p control'.

This was very typical of the kind of difficult decisions artists have to make.

.

P. Control was clearly a much stronger album opener (it's one of his strongest openers ever), if only thanks to its intro, and Prince knew it.

On the other hand Interactive, with the NPG Operator segues, was crucial to the whole Gold Experience concept, and sacrificing it undermined the whole concept.

A solution would have been to open with P. Control as some sort of prelude then jump straight into Interactive as a proper concept opener, it could have worked. Only Prince decided that he wanted to include Endorphinmachine as well and that it didn't work back to back with Interactive, so Interactive being the weakest of the three tracks, he finally decided to sacrifice it. But at what cost? :/

I think yet another solution would have been to start with P. Control then Interactive, and to squeeze Endorphinmachine later into the tracklist. With a running time of 65 minutes, this could be done. But I guess for some reason Prince also felt Endorphinmachine wouldn't work later in the sequence, and it's very likely he also felt very strongly about the P. Control/Endorphinmachine/Shhh! sequence.

.

In any case, throwing Interactive away was a very costly choice, because the cost for a stronger opening sequence was harming the very concept of the record. Prince could have just as well given up on the whole NPG Operator thing and gotten rid of all the segues.

databank said:

IstenSzek said:

i wish this had been the opening song to 'the gold experience', instead of 'p control'.

This was very typical of the kind of difficult decisions artists have to make.

.

P. Control was clearly a much stronger album opener (it's one of his strongest openers ever), if only thanks to its intro, and Prince knew it.

On the other hand Interactive, with the NPG Operator segues, was crucial to the whole Gold Experience concept, and sacrificing it undermined the whole concept.

A solution would have been to open with P. Control as some sort of prelude then jump straight into Interactive as a proper concept opener, it could have worked. Only Prince decided that he wanted to include Endorphinmachine as well and that it didn't work back to back with Interactive, so Interactive being the weakest of the three tracks, he finally decided to sacrifice it. But at what cost? :/

I think yet another solution would have been to start with P. Control then Interactive, and to squeeze Endorphinmachine later into the tracklist. With a running time of 65 minutes, this could be done. But I guess for some reason Prince also felt Endorphinmachine wouldn't work later in the sequence, and it's very likely he also felt very strongly about the P. Control/Endorphinmachine/Shhh! sequence.

.

In any case, throwing Interactive away was a very costly choice, because the cost for a stronger opening sequence was harming the very concept of the record. Prince could have just as well given up on the whole NPG Operator thing and gotten rid of all the segues.

that's a very interesting way of looking at it. it never dawned on me, that way, but i think you're
right.

he also had that problem with the segues on the symbol album when he wanted to include
"i wanna melt with u" at the last minute and had to ditch the segues to make room for it, thus
losing 80% of the plot that the segues explained.

in the end, would his albums have been better without any segues? i'm certain 'symbol' would
have been. but i do like the gold experience segues, even if they are cheesy as fuck

let's not even talk about exodus

IstenSzek said:

databank said:

This was very typical of the kind of difficult decisions artists have to make.

.

P. Control was clearly a much stronger album opener (it's one of his strongest openers ever), if only thanks to its intro, and Prince knew it.

On the other hand Interactive, with the NPG Operator segues, was crucial to the whole Gold Experience concept, and sacrificing it undermined the whole concept.

A solution would have been to open with P. Control as some sort of prelude then jump straight into Interactive as a proper concept opener, it could have worked. Only Prince decided that he wanted to include Endorphinmachine as well and that it didn't work back to back with Interactive, so Interactive being the weakest of the three tracks, he finally decided to sacrifice it. But at what cost? :/

I think yet another solution would have been to start with P. Control then Interactive, and to squeeze Endorphinmachine later into the tracklist. With a running time of 65 minutes, this could be done. But I guess for some reason Prince also felt Endorphinmachine wouldn't work later in the sequence, and it's very likely he also felt very strongly about the P. Control/Endorphinmachine/Shhh! sequence.

.

In any case, throwing Interactive away was a very costly choice, because the cost for a stronger opening sequence was harming the very concept of the record. Prince could have just as well given up on the whole NPG Operator thing and gotten rid of all the segues.

that's a very interesting way of looking at it. it never dawned on me, that way, but i think you're
right.

he also had that problem with the segues on the symbol album when he wanted to include
"i wanna melt with u" at the last minute and had to ditch the segues to make room for it, thus
losing 80% of the plot that the segues explained.

in the end, would his albums have been better without any segues? i'm certain 'symbol' would
have been. but i do like the gold experience segues, even if they are cheesy as fuck

let's not even talk about exodus

Yes, it is interesting to look back on.

.

Looking at Pvault he had the shorter version of Interactive on one TGE configeration so you do wonder why he didn't at least squeeze that in somewhere as it's obviously a part of the whole concept.

.

I like the sequence it's in on the 10,000 Wallpaper compilation (Interactive - Come - Endorphinmachine - Space) what a quartet that it

Great song and the guitar solo is heavy and bluesy....I always liked this song way better than "Endorphin Machine".

databank said:

databank said:

IstenSzek said:

i wish this had been the opening song to 'the gold experience', instead of 'p control'.

This was very typical of the kind of difficult decisions artists have to make.

.

P. Control was clearly a much stronger album opener (it's one of his strongest openers ever), if only thanks to its intro, and Prince knew it.

On the other hand Interactive, with the NPG Operator segues, was crucial to the whole Gold Experience concept, and sacrificing it undermined the whole concept.

A solution would have been to open with P. Control as some sort of prelude then jump straight into Interactive as a proper concept opener, it could have worked. Only Prince decided that he wanted to include Endorphinmachine as well and that it didn't work back to back with Interactive, so Interactive being the weakest of the three tracks, he finally decided to sacrifice it. But at what cost? :/

I think yet another solution would have been to start with P. Control then Interactive, and to squeeze Endorphinmachine later into the tracklist. With a running time of 65 minutes, this could be done. But I guess for some reason Prince also felt Endorphinmachine wouldn't work later in the sequence, and it's very likely he also felt very strongly about the P. Control/Endorphinmachine/Shhh! sequence.

.

In any case, throwing Interactive away was a very costly choice, because the cost for a stronger opening sequence was harming the very concept of the record. Prince could have just as well given up on the whole NPG Operator thing and gotten rid of all the segues.

P Control is one of the weakest opening tracks i can think of. Interactive into endorphinmachine works for me!

[Edited 9/1/18 1:47am]

^ Guys, there's no point in making those kind of statements. P. Control is objectively a strong track and an incredible opener. The fact that you don't like it is different, and doesn't change anything

.

As for Interactive vs. Endorphinmachine, both are strong, efficient tracks but Endorphinmachine was a much more interesting, challenging and structurally complex song: the way it merges rap into garage rock, the reggae interlude... even the lyrics were more thought provoking. Both tracks should have been on the record if you ask me, but Endorphinmachine was doubtlessly superior.

NorthC said:

I never liked P Control either. It's another example of Prince trying to keep up with shit hop. I understand that he wanted to do something against the sexism of shit hop by portraying a powerful woman, but really? Using sex as a way to control men? I remember how he used to announce this track on stage in 1995 saying: "you women have us men under control. Pussy control!" That's got nothing to do with the empowerment of women. And then all the cliché shit hop sounds on that record that don't fit at all with the live band sound he wanted to create back then... When it comes to Prince rapping about respect for women, Days of Wild is a much better example. That should have been on the album. [Edited 9/3/18 0:29am]

The political aspect of the track and its merits are debatable indeed, and I guess it sound more sexist that Prince intended it too. In his purple world this is how things were I guess: sex was central to his relationship with waaay too many women by comparison to normal folks.

.

Losing DOW was a huge loss. Apparentyly Prince felt the original studio version had become a downer by comparison to the live version and didn't manage to rerecord a studio version that had the live one's dynamics. Apparently DOW was also badly ridiculed in a pre-release review, and some fans at the time suspected it may have led to its removal. IDK. But TGE wasn't entirely TGE anymore without Interactive and DOW. Losing Acknowledge Me and Ripogodazippa was also a hard blow. The album remains great but knowing those songs before release (as opposed to after as would usually be the case with bootlegs) made it hard for us to ignore the removals.

databank said:

^ Guys, there's no point in making those kind of statements. P. Control is objectively a strong track and an incredible opener. The fact that you don't like it is different, and doesn't change anything

.

As for Interactive vs. Endorphinmachine, both are strong, efficient tracks but Endorphinmachine was a much more interesting, challenging and structurally complex song: the way it merges rap into garage rock, the reggae interlude... even the lyrics were more thought provoking. Both tracks should have been on the record if you ask me, but Endorphinmachine was doubtlessly superior.

'Objectively' a strong strack, say again???

Everything is subjective.

Endorphinmachine (origianl version) is better, but Interactive is fab too.

Both fit on TGE, with their guitar based live instruments whereas P Control doesn't fit with its programmed sound.

KAB said:

databank said:

^ Guys, there's no point in making those kind of statements. P. Control is objectively a strong track and an incredible opener. The fact that you don't like it is different, and doesn't change anything

.

As for Interactive vs. Endorphinmachine, both are strong, efficient tracks but Endorphinmachine was a much more interesting, challenging and structurally complex song: the way it merges rap into garage rock, the reggae interlude... even the lyrics were more thought provoking. Both tracks should have been on the record if you ask me, but Endorphinmachine was doubtlessly superior.

'Objectively' a strong strack, say again???

Everything is subjective.

While I agree that it is extremely hard to define how to objectively assess the quality of a work of art I do not adhere to that relativist view of existence that claims that nothing is anything. No, everything is something and objectively, for example, Fight Club is a better movie than Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. No matter how you wanna put it, you will find it difficult to defend the opposite opinion (but you're welcome to try if only for a laugh).

.

P. Control is, if nothing else, a pretty original song in thge context of 1995: with its high pitched chorus, its epic synthesizer riff and Prince's half-sang half-rapped lead vocals, it is a track that stands out among its contemporaries. I've read on the org in the past some people saying that it was Prince trying to emulate hip-hop, when nothing could be farther from the truth (I guess those people didn't listen to much hip-hop to believe such a thing): this is Prince incorporating hip-hop in his own musical fantasyland in quite a colorful way, without trying to emulate anything. It's definitely funky (I know "funky" is hard to define with words but the bottom line is that P. Control is very likely to make you groove if you're into funk or any kind of Black music). As for being a strong opener, the introduction of the song, with the keyboard riff's hypnotic qualities and the way the groove and rap set themselves, makes it an obvious album opener. Because of its epic/operatic qualities, it fits pretty well into TGE, a record that is mostly made of powerful, energetic tracks and that is too filled with synthesizer for a drum beat to be an issue, even if many a track has real live drums. TGE makes it sound like the term "power rock" had been invented for this particular album

.

As for Endorphinmachine, honestly the only reason most fans prefer the original is because they're McCartney/Springsteen/Dylan rock fans who like bare-bone sounds better (same with Gold, and when I read that some prefer the Gold demo, I'm actually surprised no one has yet claimed that the acoustic demo of Kiss is better than the original ). Both versions of Endorphinmachine work, but the released version works better in the context of TGE: it's more of a sonic wall, more agressive, more powerful and, as such, more in tune with the overall tone of the record. TGE is not Glam Slam Ulysses: had GSU been turned into a record in 1993, then the original recording of Endorphinmachine would have been perfect in that context, but it would have sounded really weak in the context of TGE.

.

Nevertheless, Interactive had many qualities and also made for a great opener. I remember being quite mortified when I learned that it had been moved from the tracklist. To be honest, I would be at a loss if I had to choose between the originally planned 1994 tracklist (with DOW, Interactive, Acknowledge Me and Ripop) and the final release (with P. Control, Endorphinmachine, Shhh!, We March and Dolphin). Both make for a remarkable Prince record. I only wish Prince had been able to put all those tracks on a single, 80 minutes-long CD.

databank said:

KAB said:

'Objectively' a strong strack, say again???

Everything is subjective.

While I agree that it is extremely hard to define how to objectively assess the quality of a work of art I do not adhere to that relativist view of existence that claims that nothing is anything. No, everything is something and objectively, for example, Fight Club is a better movie than Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. No matter how you wanna put it, you will find it difficult to defend the opposite opinion (but you're welcome to try if only for a laugh).

.

P. Control is, if nothing else, a pretty original song in thge context of 1995: with its high pitched chorus, its epic synthesizer riff and Prince's half-sang half-rapped lead vocals, it is a track that stands out among its contemporaries. I've read on the org in the past some people saying that it was Prince trying to emulate hip-hop, when nothing could be farther from the truth (I guess those people didn't listen to much hip-hop to believe such a thing): this is Prince incorporating hip-hop in his own musical fantasyland in quite a colorful way, without trying to emulate anything. It's definitely funky (I know "funky" is hard to define with words but the bottom line is that P. Control is very likely to make you groove if you're into funk or any kind of Black music). As for being a strong opener, the introduction of the song, with the keyboard riff's hypnotic qualities and the way the groove and rap set themselves, makes it an obvious album opener. Because of its epic/operatic qualities, it fits pretty well into TGE, a record that is mostly made of powerful, energetic tracks and that is too filled with synthesizer for a drum beat to be an issue, even if many a track has real live drums. TGE makes it sound like the term "power rock" had been invented for this particular album

.

As for Endorphinmachine, honestly the only reason most fans prefer the original is because they're McCartney/Springsteen/Dylan rock fans who like bare-bone sounds better (same with Gold, and when I read that some prefer the Gold demo, I'm actually surprised no one has yet claimed that the acoustic demo of Kiss is better than the original ). Both versions of Endorphinmachine work, but the released version works better in the context of TGE: it's more of a sonic wall, more agressive, more powerful and, as such, more in tune with the overall tone of the record. TGE is not Glam Slam Ulysses: had GSU been turned into a record in 1993, then the original recording of Endorphinmachine would have been perfect in that context, but it would have sounded really weak in the context of TGE.

.

Nevertheless, Interactive had many qualities and also made for a great opener. I remember being quite mortified when I learned that it had been moved from the tracklist. To be honest, I would be at a loss if I had to choose between the originally planned 1994 tracklist (with DOW, Interactive, Acknowledge Me and Ripop) and the final release (with P. Control, Endorphinmachine, Shhh!, We March and Dolphin). Both make for a remarkable Prince record. I only wish Prince had been able to put all those tracks on a single, 80 minutes-long CD.

you make many great points there. i'm not going to quote them all, but let's just say
that i was nodding my head a lot as i read your post

IstenSzek said:

databank said:

While I agree that it is extremely hard to define how to objectively assess the quality of a work of art I do not adhere to that relativist view of existence that claims that nothing is anything. No, everything is something and objectively, for example, Fight Club is a better movie than Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. No matter how you wanna put it, you will find it difficult to defend the opposite opinion (but you're welcome to try if only for a laugh).

.

P. Control is, if nothing else, a pretty original song in thge context of 1995: with its high pitched chorus, its epic synthesizer riff and Prince's half-sang half-rapped lead vocals, it is a track that stands out among its contemporaries. I've read on the org in the past some people saying that it was Prince trying to emulate hip-hop, when nothing could be farther from the truth (I guess those people didn't listen to much hip-hop to believe such a thing): this is Prince incorporating hip-hop in his own musical fantasyland in quite a colorful way, without trying to emulate anything. It's definitely funky (I know "funky" is hard to define with words but the bottom line is that P. Control is very likely to make you groove if you're into funk or any kind of Black music). As for being a strong opener, the introduction of the song, with the keyboard riff's hypnotic qualities and the way the groove and rap set themselves, makes it an obvious album opener. Because of its epic/operatic qualities, it fits pretty well into TGE, a record that is mostly made of powerful, energetic tracks and that is too filled with synthesizer for a drum beat to be an issue, even if many a track has real live drums. TGE makes it sound like the term "power rock" had been invented for this particular album

.

As for Endorphinmachine, honestly the only reason most fans prefer the original is because they're McCartney/Springsteen/Dylan rock fans who like bare-bone sounds better (same with Gold, and when I read that some prefer the Gold demo, I'm actually surprised no one has yet claimed that the acoustic demo of Kiss is better than the original ). Both versions of Endorphinmachine work, but the released version works better in the context of TGE: it's more of a sonic wall, more agressive, more powerful and, as such, more in tune with the overall tone of the record. TGE is not Glam Slam Ulysses: had GSU been turned into a record in 1993, then the original recording of Endorphinmachine would have been perfect in that context, but it would have sounded really weak in the context of TGE.

.

Nevertheless, Interactive had many qualities and also made for a great opener. I remember being quite mortified when I learned that it had been moved from the tracklist. To be honest, I would be at a loss if I had to choose between the originally planned 1994 tracklist (with DOW, Interactive, Acknowledge Me and Ripop) and the final release (with P. Control, Endorphinmachine, Shhh!, We March and Dolphin). Both make for a remarkable Prince record. I only wish Prince had been able to put all those tracks on a single, 80 minutes-long CD.

you make many great points there. i'm not going to quote them all, but let's just say
that i was nodding my head a lot as i read your post