jonylawson said:

Yes, i was in my late teens, and a big Prince Fan!

but in 1994, 95 there were a lot of much much better albums.
You guys make it seem like 94 95 was a baren waste land of music, there were a lot of good albums.

My 94 95 albums, not one of which has dated as much as Gold X (even the freakin Chemical Brothers, sound fresher now that)

Portishead - Dummy- still digging this thing

Oasis - Definitely Maybe

Radiohead - The Bends

Oasis -"What's the Story Morning Glory"

Bjork- Post

Bruce Springsteen- The Ghost of Tom Joad

Tricky- Maxinquaye

PJ Harvey- To Bring You My Love

Smashing Pumpkins - Melion Collie & The Infinite Sadness

I would cringe when i listened to Princes 90's albums, and if anyone of my friends played any of that dated cheesy crap they would be pelted! not just by me, but by everyone whithin hearing distance.

I dont recall having seen the Gold X on any top 10 years ends list that year, not by a legit publication at least.
And he alway was every year in the 80's

So youre saying, music critics AND the general population of the world is high, and youre not
[Edited 8/14/08 17:29pm]

I like Shh, I guess... but that record really lacked the far-outness that I had come to expect from Prince... It's like he was moving to more Standard R+B. Or bad attempts at Rock and Roll like Endorphinemachine. The chorus to Pussy Control is entertaining, but then he RAPS on it, and the lyrics are stupid.

All the Christians who were REALLY into Lovesexy seemed to like it though.

violetblues said:

Diamonds & Pearls has also dated terribly, but it was a hit at the time due to the right singles and good promo. I think TGE could've done a similar thing if it had been given the same chance.
[Edited 8/14/08 17:40pm]

NouveauDance said:

Yes, UGGG D&P yeah but that stinker had one of the last full blown bad ass tracks on it "Gett OFF" and a good video too!

Taurus said:

I disagree.I think "I Hate U" was a perfect choice.It's such a great song and it did very well on R&B radio.It just needed a video! If Prince had delivered the video and performed this song on a few TV shows,it would have been the Top 10 smash that it deserved to be.

"319" would have been a strong follow-up single.

JudasLChrist said:

pretty much sums it up

Efan said:

Yes. If he'd released it on the back of TMBITW, it would have been huge with Dolphin and Gold as follow up singles. Instead he released Come which was poor, started the battle, and the album eventually limped out once the hype over the lead single had died down. Self-sabotage.

vivid said:

I always felt that 'TGE' should have been released in the summer of 1994 (when it was still new and fresh) instead of the mediocre 'Come'.Imagine if he had kept "Days Of Wild" on there too.That would have a summer of '94 jam....probably not a single,but it would have been a popular club track.Plus,as you point out,'TGE' would have been released only a few months after "TMBGITW"....the momentum of that single would have helped to make 'TGE' a smash.

Instead,he releases 'Come' (which went nowhere) and spends another year tinkering with the 'Gold' tracks...re-recording some songs and over-producing others.By the time it was finally released in the fall of 1995,most of it was old news to the many fans who had been playing those songs for a year,lol.

RumAndRaisin said:

Yeah,I've seen it too But why didn't he release it to the video channels?! That was a stupid move on his part.The song had alot of momentum,it was getting alot of airplay on R&B radio stations.It just needed a video!!

BorisFishpaw said:

"P Control" would have been a disastrous single,imo.NO radio station could have played that song without censoring half of the lyrics

I think "319" should have been a single,followed by "Dolphin" and the title track.

JudasLChrist said:

I agree! I thought I was the only fan who felt this way Alot of fans love this song but I find it embarassing.I don't mind Prince rapping (I love the superior "Days Of Wild"),but the lyrics on "P Control" are just ridiculous...

a 12 O'clock straight up nigga that don't give a shit that you're pussy control...well I'm that nigga

He was trying to be all gangsta,lol.

oh good lord.
considering i'm conducting about 3 thread fights as it is, i'm going to let this one pass because i don't want to go off on another one.

I'm just going to say that TGE got the attention it deserved.

coughgarbagecough

"if i was a Dolphin, would u listen 2 me then"?

TGE is my favorite Prince album. I will probably be listening to it 'til I am eighty. I think that TMBGITW is a great single. I never really understood the idea of releasing that single on its own and an EP for that single like it was it's own album. Then when TGE came out people were like "Oh. I have that song".

P.S. I LOVE BJB! I think the lyrics are funny.

Alej said:

I think most people were simply confused at everything was happening. Because he was sorta still in the limelight, his projects got a lot of attention, but were so weakly marketed not to mention every time you saw him on TV he was a spectacle.

I recall the first I had heard of TGE, it was right after TBA was released and he appeared on Letterman who said "Here's a new song off of another album that will never be released" If that was promotion for TGE, well I can see why it failed.

Did you all see that VH1 special that P did to promote TGE? I used to have it on VHS but no longer. It was off the chiz-ain! They showed the videos for "Dolphin", a live performance of "Rock'n roll is Alive...." and the video for "If eye luv U 2nite" etc. Does anyone remember what else?

Everytime I play TGE, there is an ounce of sadness when I play it because I hate that this CD isn't as big as it should have been. Reading Boris Fishpaw's post on what the singles were supposed to be makes me damn near sick because they would have been huge. Everyone involved with this CD fucked it up to some degree but sadly, Prince is the bigger criminal in this. The album should have come out in 1994 not 1995 and he should have made some kinds of compromises with the promotion with this CD, even though WB was shitty as usual with promoting it without Prince's involvement. It's still one of my favorite Prince albums but this is one of a few CD's where the term "What if..." pops up in my mind where it being a huge seller is concerned.

rusty1 said:

When that album came out the promotion was awful. WB could have made an effort and they didn't - in anyway. I imagine they did the least they could do to spite P. At the time in London any bus that went by had Mariah's face on it promoting Daydream. No such visibility for The Gold Experience

The album could have sold bucketloads, but unless you are a core fan people need advertising to be told of releases.

superspaceboy said:

purplecam said:

If u like it, it was a SUCCESS.

violetblues said:

I disagree. I think the only thing that sounds dated is the NPG Operator. The rest of it is really great and has aged very well IMO.

Graycap23 said:

When looking at it from that perspective, yes, it was a MASSIVE success. I just wish others who don't know squat about Prince could know about "Dolphin" or "I Hate U". It's all good though, it is a success in my eyes cause I love it.

purplecam said:

That is the ONLY perspective that counts.

Graycap23 said:

You're right.

It wouldn't have been a hit anyway. Shit hop had already taken over the radio airwaves, even back then. "I Hate U" did pretty well in my area on R&B radio but only a slow song would get any airplay. Even if he had released a jam like "319" as a single, those dull motherfuckers wouldn't have played it. There were a few fast rap songs on the radio back then such as 95 South, Dis N Dat, Tag Team, etc. but the people that were all into the slow shit hop (which had already taken over) were very quick to say...."that disco shit". It was even hard for good rap to get any airplay. It's like, if it wasn't slow and dull as hell, those dull asses didn't like it and the dull DJs acted like they were being forced to play a jam. I had never seen such dead motherfuckers in my life. I finally took all stations that played current R&B off my dial two years later and I thought I would never do that.
.
.
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[Edited 8/15/08 13:57pm]

Its's my favourite Prince album from the 90s.

Does anyone have any pictures or screenshots from the Gold video? I can't find any

Dolphin sucked so bad, it killed the entire album.

I love the gold experience and it IS no.1 in my book, that's what counts to me.

superspaceboy said:

lol, jeez i forgot about that, how cornball was that!
[Edited 8/15/08 20:59pm]