purplecam said:

CerpinTaxt said:

I think it might just be you and a few other people. It's MUCH better live, by the way. Try to find it on bootleg The Beautiful Experience.

IMO, We March kind of screws up Gold Experience...

I totally agree with you on that one.

Yeah, I never really liked We March. I like the loop of Nona's voice. But I never liked the song.

"Now" is my favorite song on The Gold Experience, and one of my top 10 Prince songs.

Now is great! It's probably his best song in that type of more hip-hop influenced genre.

NOW is a great song!

When I think of the song now, I think of Prince getting up on stage at the SBowl, and kickn in with NOW. 99.9999% of the world would have went what is that crap he is playing.

Shy and We March are two great curve balls that show P's versatility and make TGE quite interesting for me, while now should be called Never!

P Control, Now, We March, the mechanical sounding drums, 90's keyboard sounds, and the segues mess up TGE. Other than that, its a great album.

Ernest - don't you hear any similarities between the two tracks? At all? It was the first thing that came to mind when I heard it, but that could just be me. I remember his linear notes to What's My Name in the Crystal Ball and to me that sealed the deal on my pet theory.

But I could be wrong.

Also, I agree Prince wouldn't let anything on his album without his approval, but isn't a fair assumption to assign the ott synths and keyboards to Ricky Peterson (sp?) - when you listen to TMBGITW as released as a single, and then the album version, and the boots before the release and then the album versions - and when you listen to subsequent non-RP albums - doesn't that kind of indicate that RP added a superfluous layer of production?

Again, I could be wrong.

Adisa said:

For what its worth I've always skipped P Control, We March, Dolphin , and Gold.

"P Control" is ridiculous.Alot of fans like that song,but I think it's just silly.

No, you screwed up the spelling yourself.

[Edited 7/9/10 14:11pm]

His last 90s dance-jam which:

-featured a retro (but not cheesy-dated-silly) 80s sound

-featured one of his best pseudo-raps

-featured a TRULY catchy & memorable chorus

-featured Prince losing control and getting crazy with the flow of the song

-is TRULY entertaining

the rest of the dance-jams featured on Emancipation, NPS or Rave are shit/uneven/boring compared to NOW!

cosmicslop said:

Now to me was Prince trying to outdo The Fresh Prince Will Smith's Boom Boom Shake Shake The Room, but because it was released a year or 2 later the link was missed and it sounded slightly outdated even at the time of release.

I do like it though.

Co-sign all the others alating We March - it is the weakest link in a strong album for sure. The vocal breakdown at the end it kind of cool but just doesn't work to my ears overall.

And I wish Ricky Patterson never came near Prince for this album, putting all his cheesy keys all over it - Gold really suffers from overproduction - I guess Prince couldn't help himself tinkering whilst he sat waiting for Warners to release it.

I always thought it was Prince's version of Arrested Development's vibe.

cosmicslop said:

Ernest - don't you hear any similarities between the two tracks? At all? It was the first thing that came to mind when I heard it, but that could just be me. I remember his linear notes to What's My Name in the Crystal Ball and to me that sealed the deal on my pet theory.

But I could be wrong.

Also, I agree Prince wouldn't let anything on his album without his approval, but isn't a fair assumption to assign the ott synths and keyboards to Ricky Peterson (sp?) - when you listen to TMBGITW as released as a single, and then the album version, and the boots before the release and then the album versions - and when you listen to subsequent non-RP albums - doesn't that kind of indicate that RP added a superfluous layer of production?

Again, I could be wrong.

Well what was nonsense was the statement of Prince trying to out-do DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. Prince likes a challenge, and that surely wasn't one. He took on Lenny Kravitz back then. THAT was a worthy opponent. It's a safe bet to say that Will smith was not on Prince's radar musically at that point.

"What's My Name" isn't about Will Smith - not solely. There were a LOT of hip-hop folks using the name "Prince". Prince Be from PM Dawn (which had an album called The Bliss Album, similar to The Black Album in title, as well as covering a Prince song on another album, Jesus Wept, plus sampled Prince plenty of time), Fresh Prince. B.G. The Prince of Rap. Prince Paul. The list goes on.

The liner notes uses a plural, saying "with the increasing amounts of lollipops using the name...."

Prince has always been one of those artists that many people have said should be limited to 24 or 36 or however many tracks. He just keeps adding and adding and adding to stuff. I think TGE is a brilliant, bright, in your face, kind of album. It's not meant to be subdued or quiet (which is why "Shy" is a sore thumb for me).

I don't remember how much Ricky Peterson is on the album, but the man is talented, and can play the socks off a lot of folks on the scene today. I've watched him, Paul, and the other brothers sit and play, and they're flat out amazing. I don't believe TGE suffers from over-production. The production, whatever it is, IS the sound of the album. A lot of the other versions we've heard are just earlier versions in process, not complete. Purple Rain had a huge sound, as did 1999, and a lot of stuff on SOTT, and GB.

I don't believe Prince was tinkering with it waiting on Warner Bros. The album was done, and Prince wanted it under , and COME under "Prince", released side by side, to see which would sell better. WB sat on the album of course, and Prince had already moved on by the time it came out. We know that because of the plethora of stuff recorded in late 1994 and through 1995.

GustavoRibas said:

IMO, ´We March´ screws it. If ´Interactive´, ´Days of Wild´ and ´The Ride´ were included in the album, it would have been almost perfect. I wouldnt mind if ´319´, ´Shy´ and ´We march´ were replaced by these ones.

With you on that, but I have inserted Days Of Wild and Interactive into TGE on my iPod.

no, i love "now", i think shy, & we march screw it up!

"Now" is a great song, but I always felt it's kind of ruined by the "freaks on the floor" chant over the slick "now-how-ow" vocals. Too much stuff happening. But I love the rest - the horns, the rap, the theme etc.

ozone14 said:

P Control, Now, We March, the mechanical sounding drums, 90's keyboard sounds, and the segues mess up TGE. Other than that, its a great album.

I couldn't agree with you more. I can't even listen to any of those three songs (especially P control). And as my man Jules from Pulp Fiction would say about Now, it ain't the same league, it ain't even the same fuckin' sport as Irresistible Bitch and Housequake.

Putting that aside, I love Gold especially I Hate U, BJB, Shhh, and Dolphin.

All those NPG Operator interludes do, thank god for itunes.

TBH, the only songs I listen to from that album are I Hate U, Gold and Shhh.

P Control and We March could have been left off, especially P Control, which I don´t like at all. Days Of Wild and The Ride should have been included.

ozone14 said:

P Control, Now, We March, the mechanical sounding drums, 90's keyboard sounds, and the segues mess up TGE. Other than that, its a great album.

I love it... I personally don't like "We March" but each to his own.

I love Now, it's one of several reasons The Gold Experience is a great album. Now sounds so urgent, like he wants everything now, which mirrors the message of the song so well. The only song on Gold that is not above average is Shy, not bad but not very good.

[Edited 8/5/10 16:13pm]

todd305 said:

SoulAlive said:

It's interesting to think about all the great songs that didn't make the album:

"Days Of Wild"

"Ripopgodazzipa"

"Interactive"

"Hide The Bone"

"Acknowledge Me"

Those five songs are better than "Now" and "We March",imo.

Completely agree. I picked up Crystal Ball back in '98 and realized then what The Gold Experience could have been. Add these five songs (or at least the first four you listed), cut "Now", "We March", and "Billy Jack Bitch" and you'd have damn near the most perfect album of Prince's career. As it stood, too much of the project was mediocre for it to achieve masterpiece status in my mind.

BTW, I am definitely a "Shy" fan. In fact, it is my favorite song on The Gold Experience.

Cut Billy Jack Bitch??? What, are you crazy??!!! That's the funkiest track on that album, and possibly his funkiest of the 90s! Hands down. In fact, I just wish the released version had that entire horn arrangement by the Hornheadz instead of what we got.

And to answer the original question posed by the OP, hell to the naw! Now's funky as shit, though it's a little similar to Onyx's "Slam". He knows this track is hot because he not only played it to death during those days, but he also chose it to perform on Soul Train that year.

Now was amazing back then and still is today. But i always felt that it was a bit lonely there, with its "sister" track Days Of Wild being removed from the album.

Something i guess we all agree with is that The Gold Experience shoulda been a double or triple album anyway (including Come and all the later released songs from this era)...

ernestsewell said:

"Shy" is what fucks up TGE...

I agree...

Shy and Future Soul Song have something in common. Both produce cool sounds but I get lost in the message...or lack of one. Both songs start fine but by the end you're like...uhhh what?

there is plenty more than NOW that screws up gold .. that record staled pretty quick for me .. tho i like WE MARCH .. i used to really dig the live AHDIO version .. and actually i find billy jack bitch to be a guilty pleasure i cant resist

No NO NO

I don't think now screws it up

I think the fact that

DAYS O WILD wasn't on there does LOL