I also think the lyrics are very cliched on this song, but happily they are 'saved' by the music.....especially the last part .....the counting off, the amazing guitar solo, and the na na na part....

This song also benefits from the great sound of this CD, most cd's of Prince during the eighties and even the nineneties are thin and flat sounding, but this one has a splendid sound, emphasing the tight playing of the NPG (Michael Blands drumming ...Yummy!)... At that time the NPG were at there peak and probably the most tight pop / funk / rock outfit in the whole while world.

But to come back to the lyrics of Gold, noticing Prince seemed influenced by alchemism during that period (using the soapstone-symbol as his name even), maybe there IS some deeper meaning behind these lyrics.....It is known that the alchemists were trying to find a way to create Gold by mixing different elements, different studies on this subject dont take this literally, but as a metaphore: some reseachers see alchemists were people who studied and shared ancient, secret knowdledge whith the goal to find insight in 'everything': the meaning of life... Alchemy is linked to the old egyptian sources and the movement of freemansory.. and from the lyrics of The Symbol album, Exodus and The Gold Experienced i would say Prince did let hem inspire himselve by his sources...

So, maybe Prince is using the world Gold (in an alchemist way) as finding total, spiritual freedom... it might be a bit more crypticial, but didnt he try to achieve the same (lyrically) on Purple Rain, The Cross and Lovesexy (the title track)?

Riverpoet31 said:

"The Gold Experience" is one of the very first albums mastered with what later became the industry standard of over-limiting the source material. It results in an extra layer of distortion at the high frequencies which makes the high-end sparkle. Unfortunately, on some sound systems it just doesn't sound exactly like it should.