When I 1st heard this song yrs ago it blew me away.It was more commonly known then as "Expert Lover"b4 He released the Crystal Ball set.
Neway back 2 the point,who would agree with me that this is probably the most nightmarish piece he has ever written and recorded?
The whole arrangement and use of a wide variety of styles in the song r simply breathtaking imho but i have 1 query....I am not very good at translating songs and was wondering if ne1 could perhaps tell me what its all about....
Is it about perhaps the last time and chance he will have 2 make love 2 his woman b4 the world explodes and disappears????If ne1 can tell me and also agree with my appreciation of this masterpiece I would greatly honoured

I always figured it was about making love during the apocalyps

and yes, it is one of his very best tunes ever. true genius!

THank God and I thought I was the only freak who loved it

kape said:

no you're not. and i know for a fact that lots of people on this site
absolutely love this song and consider it one of his best tunes ever!

i guess they're all just too bussy right now. maybe they're all just
listening to the song, lol

~my baby kiss me lick me drink me oooooh hoo hoo

fantastic cut!!aren't there like,3 versions of the song?maybe,3 edits.

And it IS Mathematical Gas!

superspaceboy said:

what else has been offered as possible lyrics?

rockwilder said:

Yes there are. The CB version with the Orchestra. There is another orchestra version with "Purple Underground Speech". Then there is the stripped down version with the "Purple Underground speech" I like the stripped down version the best.

IstenSzek said:

My friends originally thought it was "guess' not gas.

What a song!

Those string after the guitar solo...

superspaceboy said:

It's totally "mathematical gas."

kape said:

Me three. I remember being totally mind-, body- and ear-fucked.

I love Crystal Ball 2-great song!

The best example of his genius i can think of. And only Prince could create this

Sly said:

So true!

Prince drunk on his own genius- Liz Jones

soulyacolia said:

Thank the Good Lord that that was one of the classic unreleased cuts from the vault that Prince actually did release. He usually seems to over look underground favorites on his official releases.It's such an amazing and complex song to be kept in the vault...and bootlegs

I heard this and Joy In Repetition at the same time back to back and I almost lost my mind. Still to this day they rank in my top ten favorite Prince songs ever. That mid 86 to 87 era when he cut most of the greatest unheard Prince songs are they best he's ever created.

FunkMistress said:

Me four!!! This is one of my top 5 Prince tracks of all time. It's just incredible. It inspires me to create every time I hear it.

wow! CB is one of my all time favorites. It is way 2 funky. I remember when I first heard it, I kept it on repeat before listening 2 the rest of the CD

superspaceboy said:

Me too..of course, that could be because it's the first version I ever heard on some boot in the mid-90's. I was so attached to that version that upon hearing the version on the official CB set, I HATED the strings and other embellishments...that passed and now I love them all! Always struck me odd that UPTOWN magazine never cared for this song..don't have Turn It Up or The Vault in front of me but I seem to remember them saying something to the effect of the song being too full of ideas but lacking substance...?

Matt