I been listening to this a lot lately, mainly in the car. I've had the album since the day it was released, but the title track 'Come' still blows me away. I think it could be, technically, one of his best ever tracks. The level of detail and work that went in to it, real concentration. That track is a masterpiece.

And anyone who says that album is shit, or 'filler' needs their ears testing.

bonedaddy said:

One of my favorites! I listen to this one all the time. My favorites are Come, Space, Pheromone, and Loose. And I've said it a million times, but that Space maxi single is awesome.

I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece. One of the things that makes it so great is how flawed it is

Raze said:

and that's what makes it perfect!

god, I haven't listened to this in ages. Time to go digging in boxes to find that MF

The album is great, in my oppinion, but it is the title track which I am mainly refering to as a masterpiece.

I also love the title track, which I prefer to the other version, even though most people prefer the other version(s) but I love the way he sings on this one, and the horns are great ( I never liked the NPG horns section because I´m such an Eric Leeds fan but they sound marvelous on this one).

It´s also cool that the album or that era have something like a little bit of a theme, i.e. that whole COME theme, spriritual revelation, coming to your senses, reaching a different state of mind, all in connection with sex...typically Prince but with a different twist than his 80´s combo of sex and spirituality. Too bad he left Strays Of The World off of this album because then the whole COME theme/concept would have been much more cohesive...

Only things I don´t like are the over the top moaning of Vanity in Poem and the pussy sucking sounds in the title track, which partly ruin a great listening experience....I also like how he uses silly words like " ...strawberry, chocolate,Fender Jazz, mashed potato , fuzz tone ..." etc.etc.

Race has great lyrics but the beat and the rapping don´t do it for me...should have deserved better music and vocal delivery.

All in all, a nice little album.

my favorite prince album right now.

probably my second favorite prince album ever.

Anxiety said:

This album ranks extremely high with me too

"'COME' is a masterpiece!!"


I agree 100%!!!! This song is brilliant. I can't get enough of it!!!
The album is fabulous too!

Very sexy!

KoolEaze said:

I really think Strays would have been out of place on this album. It's so over-the-top rock opera to me to be on such an understated album.

Raze said:

True, but it fits perfectly into the COME concept, with his plea to the strays to "Come now all ye Strays of the World, there´s a place for you.." and the last few lines at the end where the song ends with "Come!" . That´s like the icing on the cake.
Of course, the music is rather boombastic, probably too boombastic for this album but then again, this album contains so many different styles that this song might have been an interesting addition.
Wonder why he left it out. Either because of its sound or because he deemed it too good to put on a contractual obligation album.

Despite all the flack that this song gets here I still love it, I just feel weird to blast it in my kitchen with all my neighbors hearing it ...but I love it !
I would love to hear the original version that Prince played all by himself, without the NPG, as mentioned by Morris Hayes years ago.

KoolEaze said:

Sorry, but nooooo way. I can't stand it when the album is just refered to as some sort of shit that was knocked out to fullfill a contractual obligation, the album is far better than that. Real effort has gone into a lot of that work. I believe he tried to kill Prince off with a strong album. And that title track, damn!!! masterpiece!

^ But it WAS a 'contract filling' album... Certainly Prince himself considered it
as such and plastered the label "Contractural Obligation" over it's front cover
when it appeared on the discography on his own website.

Now this isn't to say that he thought the songs themselves were sub-par or
anything. It's simply a way of showing that the released album was only a
stripped down version of the one it should've been. Basically, Prince cut the
album down to the bare minium he could get away with. It's also quite strange
that he decided to release it under the name "Prince", as almost all the songs
on it were really the first batch of "" tracks he recorded (and had already
been listed as such on the Glam Slam Ulysses show in which they first
appeared). A lot of the tracks on Come and The Gold Experience were recorded
at the same time, and the choice as to which tracks made it onto which album
had little to do with when they were recorded and more to do with their 'sound'.
The sparser 'solo' sounding material was placed on 'Come', whereas the more
'full band' sounding tracks were put on 'The Gold Experience'.

The released version of the Come album certainly has some good tracks on
it, but it's really just a shadow of the album it could've been. Good though it
is, the inclusion of the newly recorded long version of the title track had
more to do with the track taking up as much album time as possible than any
artistic considerations (the same goes for the inclusion of 'Orgasm'). And the
way it segues into 'Space' doesn't work nearly as well as the way the original
versions of Come, Endorphinmachine & Space segued seamlessly into
eachother. It would've been interesting to see how different the album
would've been if Prince hadn't fallen out with WB, but then again, I doubt
the album would've even been released at all if he hadn't. It's far more likely
that the Come and Gold Experience tracks would've been combined into a
single release entitled 'The Dawn'.

Interesting, thanks for that. Could have been an awesome album, by the sounds of it. But I like what we've got, I aint going to go into what 'might' have been. Lucky he did try to make the title track as long as he could, cos it works just fine.

Regardless of the story behind its creation, let's just focus on the album itself.

I think it's a very tight album that just works. It didn't "WOW" me at first... then again, its hard for anything to do that for me (of my 6 albums, 3121 and ATIWAD were the only two that "wow"ed me at first listen... PR was self explanatory, the movie "wow"ed me, and so the album did too)

I checked it out last night (I really in the need for a "Prince fix") and sure, it took me a few minutes to relax into it, but it took me over in the transition from Come 2 Space.
There's a tiny flaw in the Space-Pheromone transition. Changing the perspective from "one-on-one" to "storytelling". Dark is a sleeper track for me cuz I don't get into it much.

But while I was listening, the more I felt like Prince was "saying goodbye". (cuz of the epitaph on the cover: Prince- 1958-1993). He goes beyond what he usually does with the first 2 tracks, going out of the way to make me feel comfortable with him, which I find an appealing quality in an album.
Pheromone is a story that goes a little while back that he hasn't gone into yet.
Loose is the message he wants to leave us with (life is a party and do so while you have it)
Papa is a story (quite possibly autobiographical) with a message at the end that he wants to leave us with
Race is another one of his messages/lessons with some innovative instrumentals
Dark is about a relationship gone bad (not sure who its about) and its "the beginning of his end".
Solo sums everything up (hence "Prince's death")... and has nearly brought me to tears a few times when I hear him say "my name is no one"
Letitgo can mean a number of things, but its a good closer and exit for Prince.
Not that u can call "orgasm" a song, but it works... just does...

I got a bit of sadness from the album, but hey Prince, if you're "dead", why not go out in a blaze of glory with this album that says so much about who you are.
I'm not sure if it's my favorite, but its pretty darn close.

bonedaddy said:

Heeeyyy....chill !
We have a little bit of a misunderstanding here...I LOVE that album but it really WAS a contractual obligation album, as Prince himself has said in several interviews, including the one in VIBE magazine in 1994 ( the one with those fantastic pictures by Dana Blixenberg ).

It was a contractual obligation but that doesn´t mean he wasn´t really a 100% behind those songs even though he degraded them in that interview mentioned above.
In fact, many tracks switched back and forth between The Gold Experience and Come.

wonder r the COME outtakes from "" such as 18 & OVER, GET LOOSE! & SO DARK any better than the actual album tracks?

I didn't like this album for the longest time. As I said in another thread, when it came out, I was right in the middle of treatment for an extremely rare blood disorder (TTP - the one J Dilla died from). It involved spinal taps, chemotherapy, daily blood plasma replacement therapy and finally a splenectomy. Anyway, the dark, nasty tone of this album was really a bit too much for me. I was trying to compartmentalize my negativity and shut off pretty much all feeling for those 6 months, and I just couldn't be bothered with Prince's bad mood at the same time. Plus it was really fucking hot outside, and this album made it seem like it was even hotter. I just couldn't handle it. In fact, I really hated it. The same thing happened with Madonna's "Bedtime Stories"

Anyway, a couple of years later, I revisted both of those albums, and fell in love

raveun2thejoyfantastic said:

So Dark sucks balls.

raveun2thejoyfantastic said:

So Dark and Get Loose kind of suck. 18 & Over is more of its own thing and only tangentially related to the song Come in the same way that Violet The Organ Grinder is related to Gett Off, but even less so.

Raze said:


OK thanks 4 the info.

I just heard this CD for the first time last week. It's like getting newly recorded music. When this CD was first released I'd just had my first baby and dug deep into reggae. Letitgo makes my _____ hurt tho. Oooh wee the funk of it all.

This album has been really popular on the org here lately. It goes to show just how good it really is and how timeless many P albums r. Come is the shhh!

adorable2 said:

Yeah, a lot of threads like this over here, most are very appreciative.
Me, I always love it, although it's missing a (or 2) final song(s) (dolphin and(or strays woulda been great).
Also Peach would have been great on this.

The funk-rock combo of Come and Endorphinmachine is fantastic, too bad they're both unavailable officially.
Now and shy would have fit either.

Fantastic album nonetheless, very new2P/neutral ppl listened to this and were blown away, plus it still sounds very fresh, as mentioned

Waltervandenvogelwejde said:

Well, since everyone kinda "conned" me into getting TGE (thanx btw) and the fact I fell in love with it and I enjoyed the mini-movie "The Beautiful Experience", Come had to be in my growing collection.
It's just so new and different, unlike anything else. I also had the most questions about it because so much controversy surrounds it and all of the changes it went thru b4 its release.

And people tend to make a big deal out of it cuz they call it a mere "contractual obligation". Who really cares if it is or it isn't? I think its great. Innovative & Creative describes it well, not to mention personal and one of those albums that have many mysteries surrounding it.
It's also spontaneous and diverse, but also tightly knit together.

I doubt I'll ever agree with the Come/Endorphinmachine combination, though. I love Come, but not so much the other... I have to be in a certain mood to get into it... but at one time, I thought they worked. The only downside of Come is that after hearing it, u listen 2 the outtakes (on TGE) and wish they were a part of it... kinda takes away from my former fav. album.

bonedaddy said:

Well, I like the song, but in the end it sounds like he is licking your ear.
And then I'm like: Stop licking my ear Prince!
[Edited 5/30/07 13:29pm]

FunkshaII said:

It does huh?

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

TGE isn't Come outtakes, though. They were 2 projects he was working on simultaneously on which several tracks were shifted back and forth. (Same as with the original Rave and Graffiti Bridge projects in 1988.)




Off-topic: I think TGE could easily be just as good as a double album if you include a lot of the outtakes, not even counting the stuff on Come. Acknowledge Me, Mad, Days Of Wild, Interactive, Strays Of The World, Calhoun Saure, 18 & Over, Empty Room, What's My Name, Ripopgodazippa... they're all worthy of being on an album. I'd have much preferred a 2-disc TGE than a 3-disc Emancipation.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

You'd totally change your mind about the Come/Endorphinmachine combo if
you heard it. In fact I'm pretty sure they were originally recorded together that
way, in the same way that Christopher Tracy's Parade and New Position were
on the Parade album. It's worth noting that the version of Come that segues
into Endorphinmachine is totally different to the long released version.
Endorphinmachine itself is slightly different as well, and sounds a lot rawer.
(no cowbell, sirens or extra keyboards).