I'm of the opinion that The Gold Experience remains Prince's most overlooked masterpiece.

What makes TGE so great for me is the way Prince locates his famous trademarks in the context of a complicated new world around him. He's still funky in songs like P Control and Now, but he's also touching on issues concerning his disillusionment with fame and the record industry, and evolving phenomenons like female empowerment.

There's also an interesting dichotomy on TGE concerning a familiarity with his trademark sounds and the search for a new identity. The track 319 sounds like a more sexualized, more modern Kiss, Shy maintains a familiar sound yet switches things up by placing a female character as a social predator, and Gold is structurally similar to power ballads like Purple Rain but instead becomes a song about searching and transcending rather than accepting and moving on.

Some people have said that the album is overproduced, but I strongly disagree. Rather than having a cheap, plastic sound, the whole album pulsates with musically rich energy; like a series of explosive live performances. It's the sound of an artist and his band coming alive in the studio.

It's that energy that sets this album apart from his newest work in particular. The guitar solos and screams in Endorphinmachine (cow bell or not) capture the feel of a man on a journey he believes in. The similar urgency of Gold is the perfect way to signal a new era and close the album. It simultaneously sums up the error of his seeking commerciality in a stale musical scene while breaking free from the stagnation.

That's exactly what TGE does in the end; it breaks away from the stagnation that had started to set in on Prince's musical output at the time. He could learn a thing or two by popping this one in again.

I agree.

But it's already pretty much summed up there int he article reprinted in the liner notes.

amen to that. Each song stands strong and it has a great identity. What was great was his / concept that his live shows would only feature new music so going to his gigs from then would be like going to see a great movie. This he largely did I think on the Gold tour but I suspect going nearly broke made him respect and appreciate and totally milk the hits for years to come!.

It always reminded me of Diamonds & Pearls in that it's a collection of good songs, but none of them are particularly deep or challenging. There are a few interesting themes, such as P Control or Eye Hate U, and there are some more passionate ones like Dolphin.

But with Prince I want to be confused. I want to hate a song, then have it grow to be my favorite. My favorite description of Prince's music is "1/3 sexual funk, 1/3 pop perfection, and 1/3 huh?" Gold is missing the "huh?" part, and I find it a significant omission.

Song for song, it's probably the best thing he did in the 90's. But it's a lot of nice noise and not quite the Dawn that I had expected.

with u on much of this. the gold tour rocked. the energy and xcitement of the shows was something else. 2 do the setlists he did was bold and chalenging. it was him and us, and screw the rest. it surprises me that he hardly EVER plays tracks from gold, considering how much he lauded it himself at the time.

TGE is defintely one of my top faves!

One of my all time favorite albums.

With brilliant songs like Shhh, Eye Hate U, Most Beautiful Girl In The World and Gold, I will always find time to pop this into the CD player and absorb the atmosphere that Prince managed to record onto this.

Would love to see Prince play Eye Hate U live, but I do not like my chances.
Oh well, one can hope.

NDRU said:

Totally.

TGE could've been a hit on the scale of, or bigger than, D&P had the circumstances been right.

NDRU said:

Oh, you cannot compare these two albums whatsoever. The dynamism of TGE puts it well above the simple pop of Diamonds & Pearls. All they have in common are two distinctly different sounds that happen to be accessible.

Listen to the almost anguished yearning in that guitar solo in Shhh, the haunting irony of Shy, or the emotional confusion of I Hate U. These songs are not as one-dimensional as they may first appear.

It's as much an album about transcending the confounding issues of the environment around him as it is a work of inward musical rediscovery.

I almost wish Prince would just say "Screw it" and re-release it with added songs and proper promotion.
[Edited 1/13/09 16:48pm]

On the TGE cassette there was a bonus track Days Of Wild that seemed a little more cleaned up (remastered or something) than other studio versions. Its always been my favorite version.

As far as it heralding a new era, our friend has done that several times but I can't hold it against him.

PurpleKnight said:

well, I mentioned I hate U as being interesting thematically, but SHHH, for all it's dynamics, is not saying very much. I agree Gold is louder & bigger than D&P (Live 4 Love is one of the few songs that has the same feel). But the similarities are that they are both collections of nice pop songs none of which are going to confuse listeners very much.

I like the God Experience, I just don't think it's that deep. Good songs.

methodcal said:

Wow. Never knew that.

NDRU said:

The God Experience; was that the working title of The Rainbow Children? Lame. I know.

No, The Gold Experience is not a complicated album. That's not a shortcoming because it doesn't attempt to be, but it still says substantive things about his career up until that point while still managing to be easily digestible and fun. The difference is that D&P, with the exception being Money Don't Matter 2 Nite, almost goes out of its way to say nothing at all.

I can't agree with you that TGE is Prince's most overlooked masterpiece--that distinction goes to Graffiti Bridge, in my opinion--but I do think it's excellent. I used to think it was brilliant, and I still have a very high regard for it, but it loses points for its overproduction on three key songs. "Endorphinmachine" and "Now" don't hold up, unfortunately, and "Gold" is cheesy and overwrought (which is too bad, because previous versions of it were simpler and better).

It's a wonderful, great album, though.

IF " I Hate U" didnt have that horrid courtroom bit. I would say that The Gold X had one solid song,
This is some stale silly cheese, unredeamable. Come is cheesy too but at least most songs there as solid

PurpleKnight said:

TGE is much better than D&P, i find myself skipping at least half of D&P i can listen TGE on repeat all day.

PurpleKnight said:

You forgot to mention the masterpiece within the masterpiece; Dolphin.
Other than that, very well said.

Efan said:

Graffiti Bridge? Wow. I agree that it's underrated, but don't you think the non-Prince songs drag it down? If it was just Prince's songs on it, I would consider it brilliant. All the non-Prince songs except for Shake are terrible.

bleutuna said:

i have that cassette

PurpleKnight said:

Funnily enough, Shake is the non-Prince track on there that I really, really dislike. I don't mind Round and Round, but I got tired of it years ago, and I actually like Melody Cool. The other Time songs are good, too, at least for me.

Still, if you take out the non-Prince tracks (and the title song) you are left with a genius album. The other songs may distract from that, but they can't detract from it. And now that I think about it, GB minus the non-Prince songs would have a lot in common with TGE--a similar layout of songs, similar title tracks, and a comparable collection of tunes. But I still think Joy in Repetition, Question of U, and Thieves in the Temple trump anything on TGE.

PurpleKnight said:

TGE is a good album, but it sat on the shelf for so long that Prince messed with it... adding P Control (lame), a poor man's version of Endorphinmachine, the worse version of We March, and another version of TBGITW. Also, the studio cut of Shhh doesn't match the quality of the live version from TBE video. From Dolphin to conclusion, it's great, although the song Gold is overproduced and not nearly as good as it is live. The way he says "Gold" in the studio version just bothers me. It's not open and happy like it was live during that Europoean tour.

TGE is a quality album, but in some way it's not as crisp and pure as Come, which is an excellent work.

1) I like Graffiti Bridge. I agree about the non-Prince tracks, and I despise "New Power Generation Part 2" because the rap is so mediocre, but overall, I enjoy the album. But why is that? Well, because a lot of the songs are previously written. NoveauDance tipped me off about "Can't Stop This Feeling I Got" so I did some looking into the album and was amazed that some of the songs were almost 10 years old, and were re-done for the album. So I was surprised to see how cohesive it all was. That said, having now heard the original versions of "Can't Stop" and "Tick, Tick," I think the GB versions are far, far better.

Stand-outs for me on this album are: We Can Funk (obviously), Can't Stop this Feeling I Got, The Question of You, Joy in Repetition (one of his greatest songs), Still Would Stand All Time, The Latest Fashion, and Thieves in the Temple.

The rest I like a lot, except for: Release It, Shake!, Round and Round, Melody Cool, and NPGII.

2) The biggest crime perpetrated on Prince lovers was the mix on Dolphin. Anyone else remember that AMAZING performance on David Letterman in 1994? How hard-rocking and amazing it was? By the time the album was released, the guitar was brought down so low that it seemed more like an afterthought rather than the spine of the song that I had remembered.

That was truly sad.
[Edited 1/13/09 21:45pm]

tangerine7 said:

I can't remember the last time i owned a piece of equipment that plays cassettes, and my tapes are packed away.

Tangerine, the bonus track is on there, right? I need to verify that I'm not insane.

PurpleKnight said:[quote]

Efan said:

They are all Prince songs, just preformed by different artists.
Like TGE, GB has moments but there is no real over all structure.
In relation to under-rated albums that distinction goes with-out doubt to the masterpiece that is NEW POWER SOUL.
Now that's a cool album.

New Power Soul is pretty damn good.

Man, let's just be honest. Most of his stuff is damn freakin' amazing :p

At least in my opinion. Call me a fanboy, i don't care. I love the man's music. Most of it. It always delights and inspires me.

Yes. I have alittle collection of cassettes because i bought many from BMG music & the other one the Bigger one,my my mind is failing me. Also,
The Dawn was to be the first Prince album after Emancipation, but it was shelved in 1997. An acoustic version of the title track can be found on The Truth. Prince had often thought of releasing an album called 'The Dawn' at many points during his career. The earliest known incarnation of 'The Dawn' was from 1986, and seems to have been some kind of musical (an idea that eventually resurfaced as 'Graffiti Bridge'). Another incarnation of 'The Dawn' was assembled around 1994, soon after Prince changed his stage name to an unpronounceable symbol. This time the content was made from tracks that would later surface on Come and The Gold Experience. The last known incarnation of the album was assembled in 1997, this time it came very close to release, and was even advertised on the back of the free cassette single of 'The Holy River' given away at 'Borders' stores in 1997..
[Edited 1/13/09 22:14pm]

bleutuna said:

that's true of almost every Prince track

tangerine7 said:

Must be a bootleg then.

The studio version of Days of Wild has never been officially released.

NDRU said:

Yep.

PurpleKnight said:

And Live 4 Love, even Jughead is making a point about something.