Whats the difference? Are my ears so out of sync that I can't differenciate.
All I know is the original is about 4:05 the one off the Beautiful Experience is supposed to be 4:37 but seems to me it fades out way earlier than that and the one off The Gold Experience is 4:25.

There are drippy drops and tick tock clocks and shooting stars in all of them as far as I can hear. What nuances should I be looking out for?

The one on TGE has an entirely different 'feel' to it. Listen on headphones... you can almost hear the 'space' between each instrument in the arrangement.

Plus it stops in teh middle with a clock ticking....I love that version because it was just liek the live version on the Gold Experience Tour.when teh G Experience wasnt available - hearing it finally released was liek being back in teh crowd

purpledoveuk said:

Love that version.

There's also one that has a whole little rap at the end: "You're what I'm trying to talk about . . . You and that thang your sittin on, it's keepin me in the game and I'll hit it long, long and hard to make money so I can give it all to you honey, underneath the sea in august . . .come here, and you got mad attitude, just like this bass is walkin . . ."

Okay I'll try listening again, admittidly it was almost 1 am when I tried it ast night but I'm pretty sure all three have those tick tock clocks. The only difference I can distinguish so far is that the Gold experience one mabye sounds cleaner.
It's not my favourite track by any stretch, I'd consider it fairly medicore so this wouldn't be my favourite Prince project.

omnithanos said:

I've only heard the version of TGE.

Sure, it sounds a little mediocre to me too. The lyrics are kinda nice, but don't go as deep as I'd think they should.
I mean, c'mon Prince, make it a little more convincing. You think this girl is the most beautiful one in the world, use a little more feeling.
Then again, in some ways, it just works. I love the use of keyboards or w/e, especially in the last minute of the song... it makes it difficult for me to get it out of my head and consequently, I listen to it a bunch of times following that.
Among the tracks, though, I still rank it highly for the one reason. It's almost spiritual cuz of how joyous and happy it is.

omnithanos said:

Yes, they all have sound effects in the mix somewhere.

Personally, I think this track is one of the very last visible signs of Prince being able to craft a hit song on purpose that has that 'special something' - able to capture the attention of the mainstream audience.

I like TGE version the best, it just sounds cleaner and more 'perfect'. All the versions are great tho!

omnithanos said:

The 4:05 version is the original single release.
The 4:37 version is the same, only it goes on a little longer before it fades out.
The 4:25 Gold Experience version is remixed and features several re-recorded
instruments. It also features a few musical breakdowns in the second verse and
a completely new ending.

On top of that, there are several remixes as well.

omnithanos said:

The version on TGE has a completely rerecorded bass part (by Sonny T) - listen carefully.