On Tuesday June 1st 1993, Eileen of Controversy magazine received a letter by fax from Mayte – written with help from “Prince” and printed in Controversy #42.

The letter makes specific mention of new songs Come, Race, Pheromone, Dark, Dolphin and Pope and says: “The day before yesterday was the day he [Prince] played in sequence all the new music he’s recorded. All I can say is that it’s unlike any music he’s done before. All one word titles and strange.”

So obviously the Come album’s first configuration was made on Sunday 30th May 1993, and not on March 11th 1994 as stated by Uptown’s publications. (The second configuration of Come was made on March 11th 1994. )

In the letter, it further says: “Eye’m going 2 give it 2 my friends” and “music should be free – just like air.”

This probably means that Prince had absolutely no intention of the Come album being released by Warner Brothers. He’d rather give it away than have them earn money on his music. Or as it’s sung on Pope: Every time U want it I’ll B live, bring a date – I mean “computer”, when it’s over press “save”.

Prince was looking into alternative ways of getting the one-word titled songs out. He used most of them in the Glam Slam Ulysses production and played several of them live on Act II, probably well aware that this way the songs would be bootlegged – something he apparently saw as a preferable way of getting his music out than giving it to Warners.

So what was the Come ’93 configuration? If you look to the second and released configurations, the middle part remains constant with the beginning and end of the album undergoing changes. So let’s start with the beginning.

When on tour in 1993, Prince usually played Come, Endorphine Machine and Peach in succession, indicating that these were the three opening tracks of the album. And usually the first single off an album isn’t placed too far into it, so Peach most likely was the third track. Which also makes sense from a narrative point of view, if Peach is then followed by Space and Pheromone. Peach is about desire, Space is about stronger desire and Pheromone is about obsessive desire.

So that was the first three tracks and the constant mid-section, leaving the question of the closing tracks. Dolphin and Pope are also mentioned in the letter, and Dolphin is a natural following Solo.

But what about Poem and What’s My Name, which were included in the Glam Slam Ulysses production? Were they also included on the album? I say yes, because they are circulating segued together. And considering that Endorphine Machine did not become Endorphinmachine until 1994, and it’s the second track, then having What’s My Name as the second-to-last track on the album gives the track-list a symmetry that would be typical of Prince. (The only two non-one word-titled tracks placed at balancing ends.)

Interactive had yet to be recorded at the time of the sequencing. So in all likelihood, the first configuration of Come is as follows:

Come (4:29)
Endorphine Machine (3:50)
Peach (3:48)
Space (5:26)
Pheromone (4:24)
Loose (3:22)
Papa (2:48)
Race (4:01)
Dark (6:26)
Solo (3:48)
Dolphin (5:27)
Poem (3:36)
What’s My Name (3:03)
Pope (3:28)

It certainly sounds like a brilliant album from start to finish.

Following the release of Peach and Pope on The Hits Vol.2, and some re-recordings of some of the tracks later in 1993, Prince then revised the configuration on March 11th 1994:

Poem (3:36)
Interactive (3:06)
Endorphine Machine (3:50)
Space (4:30)
Pheromone (4:24)
Loose (3:27)
Papa (2:49)
Race (4:17)
Dark (6:08)
Solo (3:51)
Strays Of The World (5:07)

This configuration of Come was intended to be released by Warner Brothers as a companion to The Gold Experience, on which the Come album was advertised by the NPG Operator during Interactive – the opening track on both albums. Prince wanted to release The Gold Experience on his own, like he had done with The Beautiful Experience EP.

Poem’s new place as the opening track was an obvious dig at WB. In fact, the track woks on three levels – Prince pleasing his girl, Prince guiding the listener towards the opening track of the album and Prince teasing WB. As such, I think it’s quite brilliant.

When playing live in 1994, Prince now played Interactive, Endorphine Machine and Space in succession, indicating that he had indeed performed the opening tracks of the first configuration when he played Come, Endorphine Machine and Peach in 1993. He just changed the live set to match the changes on the album.

Besides Peach and Pope, Prince had also pulled Come and Dolphin from the Come album – probably because he figured they had hit potential and so didn’t want WB to have them. But he had yet to place Dolphin on the Gold album.

Even though reduced from 14 tracks to 11, I still think this is an outstanding album – brilliant from start to finish.

When WB nixed the idea of releasing Come and Gold simultaneously, Prince also pulled Interactive, Endorphin Machine and Strays Of The World from the album, replacing them with the sex-version of Come (just to bother WB, I’m sure) and Letitgo. And so, what had started out as a great rock/pop/funk album devolved into a rather ordinary R&B album.

Well, what do you all think? Is my guess at the first configuration right? Any better ideas? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Borisfishpaw?
[This message was edited Sat Jul 10 11:31:48 2004 by scififilmnerd]

I feel the same way u do! Great observations and A+ 4doin yo homework playa! Kudos.

i always take the 93-95 tracks and make them a triple album called the Dawn. he should have done this. saved it all for when he was "free" instead of putting out Emancipation, and filled his WB contract with outtakes.

Come (4:29)
Endorphine Machine (3:50)
Peach (3:48)
Space (5:26)
Pheromone (4:24)
Loose (3:22)
Papa (2:48)
Race (4:01)
Dark (6:26)
Solo (3:48)
Dolphin (5:27)
Poem (3:36)
What’s My Name (3:03)
Pope (3:28)

[This message was edited Sat Jul 10 11:31:48 2004 by scififilmnerd]

There were many configurations of Come in the time before it's eventual release.
Most of the first versions to be compiled had the opening three tracks as follows...
1. Come
2. Endorphin Machine
3. Space
These three tracks segued into each other, and you can still hear the remenants of the
segues in the released version of Endorphinmachine. The first 8 seconds (before the guitar riff
kicks in) are part of the segue out of the original version of 'Come' (which is why the key
changes down before the song starts), and the held synth note after the finale is actually the
intro to 'Space'.

The earliest version of 'Come' I've seen had the following sequence...

1. Come
2. Endorphin Machine
3. Space
4. Pheromone
5. Loose
6. Papa
7. Race
8. Dark
9. Dolphin
10. Poem

There were many other sequences around this time which expanded the album to include tracks like 'Peach', 'Strays Of The World', 'Pope', 'What's My Name', 'Solo', 'Johnny', 'Shhh', 'Interactive', 'Zannalee' and 'The Ride' (Unfortunately, the exact sequence of a lot of these incarnations are not known).

By the end of 1993 Prince had recorded many more tracks
(a lot of which would surface on The Gold Experience and Crystal Ball), and for a while he
was seriously considering compiling a double or triple album of all this new material entitled
'The Dawn'. This idea was scrapped due to the strained relationship between Prince and WB,
as a) WB were not keen on releasing a triple album (or even a double), and b) it would've
only counted as 1 album towards Prince fulfilling his contract, so he decided to split the tracks
into 2 albums. The only surviving part of 'The Dawn' concept were all the 'NPG Operator'
segues on The Gold Experience.

There was even a version of 'Come' that included 2 versions of the title track. It opened with the shorter faster unreleased version and closed with the then newly recorded 'album' version (which segued into an uncredited 'Strays Of The World').

COME (PART 1) (2:57)

scififilmnerd said:

wow that would have made the album even more special.

GrayKing said:

I did the same thing a few years back, and I have to say I still listen to it a lot even now.
I did take a few liberties with it though and included a couple of tracks that strictly speaking
hadn't been written at that point, plus I also used a lot of my own tweaks a remixes/re-edits
and alternate versions. Anyway here's the tracklist...


THE DAWN

disc 1:
01. WELCOME 2 THE DAWN (2:08)
02. npg operator (0:11)
03. COME (PART 1) (2:57)
04. ENDORPHIN MACHINE (3:50)
05. SPACE (5:11)
06. DAYS OF WILD (7:15)
07. npg operator (0:17)
08. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD (4:54)
09. THE POPE (4:32)
10. RIPOPGODAZIPPA (4:36)
11. npg operator (0:06)
12. RACE (8:01)
13. EMPTY ROOM (3:16)
14. npg operator (0:06)
15. MAD (5:29)
16. ROCK & ROLL IS ALIVE (4:30)
17. SHHH (7:25)

disc 2:
01. PUSSY CONTROL (5:38)
02. npg operator (0:08)
03. PEACH (3:04)
04. CHAOS & DISORDER (4:12)
05. SHY (4:56)
06. npg operator (0:14)
07. PHEROMONE (4:27)
08. 319 (3:19)
09. 18 & OVER (6:10)
10. npg operator (0:14)
11. LEMME SEE THAT BODY GET LOOSE (4:30)
12. PAPA (2:48)
13. npg operator (0:05)
14. BILLY JACK BITCH (7:06)
15. I HATE U (8:50)
16. LET IT GO (5:31)
17. DON’T TALK 2 STRANGERS (3:12)

disc 3:
01. INTERACTIVE (3:01)
02. ACKNOWLEDGE ME (6:33)
03. npg operator (0:09)
04. SOMEBODY’S SOMEBODY (3:43)
05. LOVE SIGN (4:31)
06. WHAT’S MY NAME (3:01)
07. THE RIDE (7:36)
08. npg operator (0:20)
09. NOW (3:59)
10. FACE DOWN (2:09)
11. npg operator (0:09)
12. THE SAME DECEMBER (3:27)
13. EXTRAORDINARY (2:25)
14. DOLPHIN (6:17)
15. COME (PART 2) (9:06)
16. npg operator (0:38)
17. GOLD (7:22)

Don't drool at his ! Drool at MINE !

BorisFishpaw said:

You know, splicing the Glam Slam Ulysses parts together into the full (4:29) version is quite simple. I did it on simple double tape deck. I'm surprised you haven't thought of this.
[This message was edited Sat Jul 10 13:47:52 2004 by scififilmnerd]

It's a mix I made myself using the Beautiful Experience remix, and the
organ solo outro (to get the segue into Endorphinmachine). Come (part II) is an edited version
of the regular album version.

What's POEM like. Is it simply that...a poem?

IIRC, weren't all these one word title songs written as a result of "Puerto Rico" as i remember he once said
Apparently that was when his spirit came to him and told him to change his name.

This time period was in my opinion one of his best in terms of the music. Not since the 86/87 Crystal Ball prject had he produced such a large amount of amazing music. I was thrilled when I first hear Come and TGE. To me TGE is one of his best 3 or 4 albums, and even then it could have been so much better.

BorisFishpaw said:

But... isn't the remnants of the segue from Endorphine Machine to Space because the circulating version of Endorphine Machine is from the March 11th 1994 configuration?

The Past, Present & Future II bootleg boasts having Interactive and Endorphine Machine from the March 11th 1994 acetate, but they didn't include Poem and Space!

But I thought the NPG Operator-segues were part and parcel of The Gold Experience concept, which was vastly different from the Come concept. Would Prince really stray that far from those concepts and mix it all together? Unless the triple album was simply Come, Gold and The Undertaker collected as separate discs in a triple collection.

BorisFishpaw said:

Must have been between the March 11th 1994 configuration and the released configuration, then. I'll buy it.

(Gosh, I just love talking 'bout this. I think 1993 was a very fascinating period in Prince's recording history. )
[This message was edited Sat Jul 10 13:52:29 2004 by scififilmnerd]

MashedPotatoKid said:

They were indeed, according to Mayte's letter which the wonderful Bananacologne has been so very kind to post.

'The Gold Experience' (as an album concept) came very late in the evolution of these tracks.
The segues were done when the album concept was going to be 'The Dawn'. Then after that
was shelved the single album was going to be called 'The Beautiful Experience' (but then he
used the name for the TMBGITW ep). Then the album was going to just be called 'Gold'.
Then he thought about packaging it in a plain gold sleeve (like the black album) and letting
it be known as 'the Gold album'. Then finally it was christened 'The Gold Experience'.

BorisFishpaw said:

So let me see if I got this straight...

On May 30th 1993, he did this configuration:

1. Come
2. Endorphin Machine
3. Space
4. Pheromone
5. Loose
6. Papa
7. Race
8. Dark
9. Dolphin
10. Poem

- even though I like my guess a little better?

Then he recorded The Undertaker.

Then - still in 1993 - he started recording the Gold tracks, C&D tracks and such, reworked some Come songs and put it all on the triple Dawn album which included the NPG Operator segues?

Then - still in 1993 - he pared The Dawn down to The Beautiful Experience album?

Then - still in 1993 or in early 1994 - The Beautiful Experience became Gold, possibly with a new track list?

Then - in March 1994 - he conceived the idea of releasing Come (now with a new configuration) and Gold (now retitled The Gold Experience but not necessarily with a new configuration) as two companion albums?

Then he did a new configuration of Come that included both the "spiritual" and "sex"-versions of Come?

Then he did the Come that was released.

Then he did the Gold Experience that was releases, sans Days Of Wild.

That makes it four configurations of Come (including the released one) and four versions of Gold (including the released one), plus one The Dawn consisting of tracks from Come and tracks that would become Gold. Phew!

Did I miss any configurations here?
[This message was edited Sat Jul 10 14:59:52 2004 by scififilmnerd]