By my memory I think the "GOLD" single back in '95 only made it to #93 on the US hit charts.

(But the song was still a top 10 in UK, IIRC?)

Why do U think this song, the "Purple Rain" of the 90's was such a flop back then..?

It really is a mystery to me, great song, and a very great music video too.

Still the americans did not like it..

Why do U think that..

thedance said:

By my memory I think the "GOLD" single back in '95 only made it to #93 on the US hit charts.

(But the song was still a top 10 in UK, IIRC?)

Why do U think this song, the "Purple Rain" of the 90's was such a flop back then..?

It really is a mystery to me, great song, and a very great music video too.

Still the americans did not like it..

Why do U think that..

I think it sounded a bit to preachy/upbeat for people at the time. I love the song to death, but I never play it around other people because of how cheesy it is. I imagine it didn't get much airplay on the radio for the same reason. Rock n Roll is Alive is awesome though!

is it a good song? I thinkn it charted about right and I think Prince ditching it from the concert playlists speaks volumes also on how he feels about it

i think Endorphinemachine or Dolphin would have done better as a single choice

thedance said:

By my memory I think the "GOLD" single back in '95 only made it to #93 on the US hit charts.

(But the song was still a top 10 in UK, IIRC?)

Why do U think this song, the "Purple Rain" of the 90's was such a flop back then..?

It really is a mystery to me, great song, and a very great music video too.

Still the americans did not like it..

Why do U think that..

I feel the same, love it!!! Amazing song!!! last time 4 me live was 6. aug. 2011 NPG Festival Denmark.. Loved it, but missed the guitar solo tho..

trax said:

i think Endorphinemachine or Dolphin would have done better as a single choice

This.

Kurt Cobain & Alanis Morrisette

1995 was deep into the post-Cobain, Alanis Morrisette period.

The 'alternative music' movement was falling apart, but the quazi pop-rock 'alt-rock' sound that was inspired by them was in full swing. The Gold Experience arrived on shelves a year too late, with almost no promotion since Prince had promoted it a year before, in a music landscape that had become so heavily influenced by the late 80s post-modern, art-rock, indie scene that Prince's hip-hop infused pop music wasn't going to compete well.

Prince's opportunity for a big hit with The Gold Experience was 1993 when The Most Beautiful Girl in the World was dropped. After that, the music scene had changed too much.

Couple that with the fact that Clear Channel had bought and killed most of their competition and set the American listening audience on a path of station consolidation where we heard the same 100 songs over-and-over again, and Prince had little chance.

His temper tantrum with Warners--the company distributing and promoting his material didn't help either.

But yeah, Kurt Cobain.

I don't think it's a very good song. I don't think the album is very good either. This album is another .org phenomenon. Appreciated only by a minority but vocal group in a fan-site. Ditto The Rainbow Children.

There was just no way this track was ever going to chart under ANY circumstances.

Because Prince was at war with Warner Bros back then, and the whole situation was a mess. Prince promoted the album long BEFORE it was released, and whet it came out he wasn't interested anymore. Anr as far as I know the video never was delivered to music channels.

V10LETBLUES said:

I don't think it's a very good song. I don't think the album is very good either. This album is another .org phenomenon. Appreciated only by a minority but vocal group in a fan-site. Ditto The Rainbow Children.

There was just no way this track was ever going to chart under ANY circumstances.

It did chart....number 88 in the US... not very high but it did chart.

It's just a bland pop song IMO. Kind of preachy as previously pointed out. I also agree with the previous poster about the timing of the release and the music biz at that time. But it definitely didn't help that it is such a bland/boring song.

Great Album, but horribly overproduced. The original Endorphinmachine pisses all over the the keyboard heavy album version. The lame interludes and spoken words over the music was annoying, and even horrifying on Billy Jack Bitch, where the nice horn breakdown is ruined by that lame bitch talking over the music with her silly "Please access another experience."

Gold suffers from the overproduction as well. A rough and raw sounding demo version would have been much better. I really like the song as is, but a great song would have been much better with production similar to "The Cross."

As I've said about Gold before, the only thing missing was an extra line in the ridiculous outro spoken word...

"U R now an official member of the New Power Generation. Your NPG Lunchbox and Official Membership Card and Bumper Stickers will be in the mail soon..."

Prince writing Slave on his face, and flooding the market doomed this project from the start. Hard to believe "Eye Hate U" made the top 15.

Because it was not a good song. The lyrics are trite and cheesy, and the song has no hook at all. The tags on the third verse: Old, soul, know, go. Goes in to the bridge: sold, told, mold, ...all that glitters ain't gold." Not the most inspired of writing. And throw in the fact that the video was shot on a sound stage...

imago said:

Kurt Cobain & Alanis Morrisette

1995 was deep into the post-Cobain, Alanis Morrisette period.

The 'alternative music' movement was falling apart, but the quazi pop-rock 'alt-rock' sound that was inspired by them was in full swing. The Gold Experience arrived on shelves a year too late, with almost no promotion since Prince had promoted it a year before, in a music landscape that had become so heavily influenced by the late 80s post-modern, art-rock, indie scene that Prince's hip-hop infused pop music wasn't going to compete well.

Prince's opportunity for a big hit with The Gold Experience was 1993 when The Most Beautiful Girl in the World was dropped. After that, the music scene had changed too much.

Couple that with the fact that Clear Channel had bought and killed most of their competition and set the American listening audience on a path of station consolidation where we heard the same 100 songs over-and-over again, and Prince had little chance.

His temper tantrum with Warners--the company distributing and promoting his material didn't help either.

But yeah, Kurt Cobain.

This.

Loved the video.xxxxxx

V10LETBLUES said:

I don't think it's a very good song. I don't think the album is very good either. This album is another .org phenomenon. Appreciated only by a minority but vocal group in a fan-site. Ditto The Rainbow Children.

There was just no way this track was ever going to chart under ANY circumstances.

And yet in the UK, it charted around the same as Purple Rain did about a decade earlier.

Because the song is generic adult contemporary garbage. Sounds like something Lionel Richie or Irene Cara would record in the mid 80s. Come to think of it- lionel Richie would reject it, for being too wimpy.

[Edited 12/29/12 4:48am]

trax said:

it's interesting to see the kind of hate this song is getting all of a sudden, i'd never

seen that before for this particular track.

me, i like it, a lot. sure it's a bit cheesy but all it's cheesy elements add up to one

hell of a song imo.

and it would have been a hit, if he'd been able to keep pushing singles right after

the succes of tmbgitw.

dolphin would have been a hit, i'm sure. but it was never officially released and it

took about 2 years for anything else to be released off that album by which time

there had been too many other releases and the general public just didn't really

understand anything he was doing anymore.

the momentum that "the gold exprience" had in 1993 was all but dead by 1995 and

that is what really killed any subsequent singles.

[Edited 12/29/12 6:43am]

[Edited 12/29/12 6:44am]

IstenSzek said:

it's interesting to see the kind of hate this song is getting all of a sudden, i'd never

seen that before for this particular track.

Yep. I don't really care for it myself (it's good for what it is, but hardly the type of stuff that motivates me to listen to Prince). It's been a fan favourite for years in any case.

Yeah, I think it could have been a hit (it was a minor hit in the UK). It didn't do better because it just got thrown out there sometime after the album got released and that was all there was to it. There was quite a lot of schmaltz and power pop stuff on the charts during those days, so it couldn't have been just because of "Nirvana".

novabrkr said:

IstenSzek said:

it's interesting to see the kind of hate this song is getting all of a sudden, i'd never

seen that before for this particular track.

Yep. I don't really care for it myself (it's good for what it is, but hardly the type of stuff that motivates me to listen to Prince). It's been a fan favourite for years in any case.

Yeah, I think it could have been a hit (it was a minor hit in the UK). It didn't do better because it just got thrown out there sometime after the album got released and that was all there was to it. There was quite a lot of schmaltz and power pop stuff on the charts during those days, so it couldn't have been just because of "Nirvana".

Excluding the re-release of 1999 it remains his last top ten hit in the UK. Hardly a minor success.

novabrkr said:

IstenSzek said:

it's interesting to see the kind of hate this song is getting all of a sudden, i'd never

seen that before for this particular track.

Yep. I don't really care for it myself (it's good for what it is, but hardly the type of stuff that motivates me to listen to Prince). It's been a fan favourite for years in any case.

Yeah, I think it could have been a hit (it was a minor hit in the UK). It didn't do better because it just got thrown out there sometime after the album got released and that was all there was to it. There was quite a lot of schmaltz and power pop stuff on the charts during those days, so it couldn't have been just because of "Nirvana".

I just took a glance at the top 100 US singles of 1995. I didn't recognize most of the songs by name, but it looks like the big hits of the year were r&b & adult-contemporary-type things based on the performers, so I don't think it can be said that Gold failed because alt-rock had taken over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...es_of_1995

I don't like it much myself (for same reasons as others have mentioned), but I think it could have been a reasonble-sized hit in an alternate universe where it was released after TMBGITW.

[Edited 12/29/12 9:24am]

Nivivrus said:

thedance said:

By my memory I think the "GOLD" single back in '95 only made it to #93 on the US hit charts.

(But the song was still a top 10 in UK, IIRC?)

Why do U think this song, the "Purple Rain" of the 90's was such a flop back then..?

It really is a mystery to me, great song, and a very great music video too.

Still the americans did not like it..

Why do U think that..

I think it sounded a bit to preachy/upbeat for people at the time. I love the song to death, but I never play it around other people because of how cheesy it is. I imagine it didn't get much airplay on the radio for the same reason. Rock n Roll is Alive is awesome though!

Because Americans think like this about music and that's why the radio stations spew crap all day long. Americans want to be seen as cool at the cost of their own personal tastes and individuality.

errant said:

Poor choice of single, especially for that album. War with WB. Etc.

plain and simple

HonestMan13 said:

Nivivrus said:

I think it sounded a bit to preachy/upbeat for people at the time. I love the song to death, but I never play it around other people because of how cheesy it is. I imagine it didn't get much airplay on the radio for the same reason. Rock n Roll is Alive is awesome though!

Because Americans think like this about music and that's why the radio stations spew crap all day long. Americans want to be seen as cool at the cost of their own personal tastes and individuality.

don't often agree with u but you're bang on!

america is too focused on rock heroes, in the uk we appreciate a touch of eccentricity and eclecticism. or at least we did as it seems the differences between american and uk tastes is diminishing year by year.

nothing wrong with cheese on toast. you just wouldn't wanna eat it every meal.

aaarg... so many critical opinions on "Gold"...?!

"Gold" is imo one of his best singles/ videos from that decade/ the 90's..

And I even looove the way it is produced. (not joking).

The sound is pop/ rock, a little soft I agree, but cool... I love that and that guitar solo...

There's a little "Hey Jude" sound, over the outtro "Lalalala lala", (even I have to say Hey Jude is a better song),

Oh well you can't please everyone.. with a Prince song like "Gold".

To me this song sounds like a big hit, but it wasn't... unfortunately, people can be so critical (like myself once in a while)..

I just love every single note on the Gold Experience.

Still thanks for all replies here, there's a few positive and a lot "socalled" negative...

I am a little surprised, but ok.. different opinions.... cool.