Love the song and album.

I play the "what if" game with this album all the time.

What if this album was released in 94?

What if the Come EP was released instead of the Greatest hits?

What if Prince had not stopped promoting the album?

ernestsewell said:

squirrelgrease said:

Me wanna go poopie on songy.

YOU'RE HATEFUL!

Great song, very anthemic.

Epic.. very much so, "the Purple Rain of the '90s".. and from a songwriters point of view, both have many similarities: Same key, instrumental intros, structure, instrumentation, climatic guitar solos, the list goes on..

Some may label it a cheesy song, however I say, a very well written journey with an optimistic feel and true message..

Love it!

Love the stripped down versions #1 & #2 as well.

Sure it's poppy, but so fucking what? it's awesome pop.

Excellent, I absolutely I Hate U & Gold...

the 2 best Prince songs of the 1990's.

love it

IMHO: the track Gold is bloated, mediocre, generic FM rawk. Reminds me of Meat Loaf and those unbearable "bat out of hell" tracks, I can almost picture that awful singer Bonnie Tyler duetting on this track. And it reminds me of Into the Light (from C&D), same vibe - another stinker. Again IMHO, so no worries, okay?

hyperpessimist said:

IMHO: the track Gold is bloated, mediocre, generic FM rawk. Reminds me of Meat Loaf and those unbearable "bat out of hell" tracks, I can almost picture that awful singer Bonnie Tyler duetting on this track. And it reminds me of Into the Light (from C&D), same vibe - another stinker. Again IMHO, so no worries, okay?

That's it. Right there... perfect description. Of course, Bat Out Of Hell sold 600 billion copies, so someone must like that rock-u-drama jibbajabba.

hyperpessimist said:

IMHO: the track Gold is bloated, mediocre, generic FM rawk. Reminds me of Meat Loaf and those unbearable "bat out of hell" tracks, I can almost picture that awful singer Bonnie Tyler duetting on this track. And it reminds me of Into the Light (from C&D), same vibe - another stinker. Again IMHO, so no worries, okay?

It's better than the song you wrote

ernestsewell said:

The whole album was Prince's last truly brilliant, inspired, ballsy, bold, thrilling, and GREAT album. For my Top-40 fan friends who don't keep up with Prince beyond the radio, I give them The Gold Experience, and they love it. It really is the Purple Rain of the 90's (and was recorded 10 years after Purple Rain was recorded and released). If Prince filmed Purple Rain in the 90's, then The Gold Experience would have been the sound and soundtrack.

Let's Go Crazy - Endorphinmachine

Take Me With U -We March

The Beautiful Ones - Shhh! / I Hate U / The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

Darling Nikki - 319

When Doves Cry -Dolphin

Purple Rain - Gold

etc etc

So many great comparisons, yet the album stands on its own, without blinking.

The Gold Experience album is overrated. The first half of the album is completely overproduced. P Control is a terrible song to start the album. Endorphinmachine is a poor version of the much superior Come track, Shhh! doesn't compare to the live version, We March is dreadful, and TMBGITW version on the album is worse than the single track. The rest of the album is pretty spot on, besides the lame version of Gold (outtake and live version is much better).

hyperpessimist said:

IMHO: the track Gold is bloated, mediocre, generic FM rawk. Reminds me of Meat Loaf and those unbearable "bat out of hell" tracks, I can almost picture that awful singer Bonnie Tyler duetting on this track. And it reminds me of Into the Light (from C&D), same vibe - another stinker. Again IMHO, so no worries, okay?

Hey, hey! Don't go insulting Meatloaf! I'm not that huge a fan of him, but he had some great songs and a fantastic voice.

muleFunk said:

Love the song and album.

I play the "what if" game with this album all the time.

What if this album was released in 94?

What if the Come EP was released instead of the Greatest hits?

What if Prince had not stopped promoting the album?

it seemed to me like he did a decent amount of promoting for it. unfortunately it never got released while he was promoting it. the beautiful experience and everything around that was a big push for the album. i loved his appearance on letterman and daves intro, something about "performing a song from a cd that will never get released, so it makes perfect sense that hes here tonight". maybe my memory is a little off on the timeline, but by the time it got released it seemed like he already moved forward and was looking ahead to other things.

the album remains one of my favoirites. i just pulled it back out recently and havent stopped listening...

my favorite is BJB---that horn section near the end is just intoxicating

also LOVE 319-- and I HATE YOU, along with We march....

When i really am in a rock mood i amp up Endorphine Machine

this is just a great Albut all around and Gold is just the cherry on top.....

Gold is an ok song i guess, but i am not really a big fan of the album.

Live was another matter altogether, among the best (Prince) shows i have attended.

I find it difficult to listen to the studio album now, (as i do a lot of the 90's output) but the alternate versions, remixes and live boots save it for me.

savagedreams said:

muleFunk said:

Love the song and album.

I play the "what if" game with this album all the time.

What if this album was released in 94?

What if the Come EP was released instead of the Greatest hits?

What if Prince had not stopped promoting the album?

it seemed to me like he did a decent amount of promoting for it. unfortunately it never got released while he was promoting it. the beautiful experience and everything around that was a big push for the album. i loved his appearance on letterman and daves intro, something about "performing a song from a cd that will never get released, so it makes perfect sense that hes here tonight". maybe my memory is a little off on the timeline, but by the time it got released it seemed like he already moved forward and was looking ahead to other things.

The album was released on 26th Sept '95. Prince did promote the album after it's release, but the promotion was minimal, mainly due to the fact that the usual release hype machine was a bit diluted due to it's delayed release. Promotion after the album release centred around gigs/parties at Paisley Park, a short tour of Japan and the mini tour of Hawaii.

Overblown, overproduced, cheesy, ingenuine and fairly disposable despite its anthemic nature.

Despite all of that I quite like it!

hyperpessimist said:

IMHO: the track Gold is bloated, mediocre, generic FM rawk. Reminds me of Meat Loaf and those unbearable "bat out of hell" tracks, I can almost picture that awful singer Bonnie Tyler duetting on this track. And it reminds me of Into the Light (from C&D), same vibe - another stinker. Again IMHO, so no worries, okay?

The very fact you mention it alongside Meat Loaf automatically makes your argument void..

it's a cool track, contains all elements of a perfectly poppy groove but then he elevates it with that guitar solo. beautiful.

the video is nice too, the crowd participation.. he looks really good. his hair is rock god, love the slave & 5 oclock shadow.

trousers are divine, he's got a fly opening, that's so exciting & when he does that little turn just 2 show off the thong illusion

well most people call it cheesy, and what they dont realize is that "Purple Rain" was cheesy in that fact too, these are properly constructed POP songs, there is a thread ongoing now aboout the last great POP song, and so far only about 2 or 3 ideas suggested are even POP songs, being played on the radio doesnt make it a pop song.

But on GOLD its from his best "concept" record, the whole thing worked, it stayed on track, even songs i listen too rarely like "We March" i wouldnt scrap from the record because they do belong, but i will always say that the NPG operator could have been lost in favor of "Days of Wild".

i have to agree with squirrelgrease. its just really corny, and defs not the next purple rain, i dont know what would make him think that, notihng comes close to purple rain.

scandalousalan said:

I was listening to the gold experience today, and apart from the standouts such as dolphin, endorphinmachine, 319, What is your take on this track. Personally I think the best part is the soaring guitar at the end, just fits so well. It's kind of like I listen to the track just to hear the guitar at the end. X

I was just about to make a post about this song. I really love it and find The Gold Experience to be fairly underrated in recent musical history. It has such a Magical Mystery Tour feel to it except Prince took that feel to the '90s with the hard hitting production and his typically hot guitar soloing. It's also one of his most emotionally touching songs - inspirational and moving without being sappy or too tearjerking. I can definitely see why he was trying to market it as the next "Purple Rain". It's not quite as great as that song but I think in a different time (maybe five or six years earlier) under different circumstances it would have been a big hit.

KeithyT said:

I remember sitting in a pub around 1995 time and this song had actually got to Number 10 I think in the UK charts. It started playing on either the jukebox or radio and when it got to the guitar solo part, a girl within earshot of me just said out of the blue "this song is orgasmic"

That pretty much sums it up for me too.

I remember similar comments. What it really is-we all want Prince to be loved and when he is we can't cope!. However at this time Prince was actually probably more popular as an individual than he had ever been. In the early nineties people no longer saw the Prince of 88 etc and bang he changes his name. At this time Sexy MF came in to the charts in the top 5 and was lyrically changed on the radio. Prince was loved!!!

ernestsewell said:

The whole album was Prince's last truly brilliant, inspired, ballsy, bold, thrilling, and GREAT album. For my Top-40 fan friends who don't keep up with Prince beyond the radio, I give them The Gold Experience, and they love it. It really is the Purple Rain of the 90's (and was recorded 10 years after Purple Rain was recorded and released). If Prince filmed Purple Rain in the 90's, then The Gold Experience would have been the sound and soundtrack.

Let's Go Crazy - Endorphinmachine

Take Me With U -We March

The Beautiful Ones - Shhh! / I Hate U / The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

Darling Nikki - 319

When Doves Cry -Dolphin

Purple Rain - Gold

etc etc

So many great comparisons, yet the album stands on its own, without blinking.

I've looked at your profile before Ernest based on the back of your general commentary and it then as does now surprises me that you think this about the Gold album. I like it a lot but I always found it a little bit chunky- what I mean by this is that it has a bit of fashion slapped on the top of its focus and production. I didn't find that with Purple Rain (even though I know you will correct me on that). Out of the list above the PR-Gold thing I can see. I like Gold a lot but I do believe it was the beginning of Prince contriving his own musical heritage. I think the stand out track is I Hate U- amazing!!!!!