Anji said:

Ok..Rave does have soul. It isnt immediately apparent but its there..Undisputed if played life (drunms) would be straight up funkdified..the Linn got in the way but it cant take away from the idea and feel of the song...I Love You But Dont Trust You is aching soul..Aretha could have sung this in the early seventies and it would have been right in place..thats how you can tell, not even including the vocal delivery that aches of soul. Man O War is soul. The chtous Why You Screamin is classic..its a Sat night standard saying put to song...TGRES is soul. Some say plastic but the melody is Marvin soul.TGRES is NOT a bad song and in the coda he gets down to the feeling of it. The vocal delivery is soulful as well with the way its sung.The synths when he syas th epre chorus "the middle of it all" with the synths goin dun a dunnit is soulful. So Far Sop Pleased has a soulful guitar break and solo. It isn't LDC but the way the melody of th e sng as well as the geetar breakdown is is very rhythmic and if it copies th e fel of ICNTTPOYM then so be it. Everyday is A Winding Raod getsa lot of flack but the way Prince put soul into or onto it is plain...expecially the breakdown end with the kazzo Girls n Boys kazoo synth..thats some feling right there as well as the pfunk synths samples.Wherever You Go Whatever You Do is a perfect tug at ya song with that vocal and melody. A perfect ending. baby Knows is pue bar band soul as well. It makes women start moving automatically. I seent it! Overall I think people claim it isn't suolful because its contrived and th e production is to clean etc. Just because it has clean production it still has soul in those parts I mentioned and in some I didn't imo. Now is it down home greens and buscuits soul? NO of course not. But then again I dont think he has one like that anyways.

Here's the tracklist for a 3CD version I made:

disc 1:
1. Welcome 2 The Dawn (2:08 )
2. NPG Operator (0:11)
3. Come (part 1) (2:57)
4. Endorphin Machine (3:50)
5. Space (5:11)
6. Days Of Wild (7:15)
7. NPG Operator (0:17)
8. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (4:54)
9. The Pope (4:32)
10. Ripopgodazippa (4:36)
11. NPG Operator (0:06)
12. Race (8:01)
13. Empty Room (3:16)
14. NPG Operator (0:06)
15. Mad (5:29)
16. Rock & Roll Is Alive (4:30)
17. Shhh (7:25)

disc 2:
1. Pussy Control (5:38 )
2. NPG Operator (0:08 )
3. Peach (3:04)
4. Chaos & Disorder (4:12)
5. Shy (4:56)
6. NPG Operator (0:14)
7. Pheromone (4:27)
8. 319 (3:19)
9. 18 & Over (6:10)
10. NPG Operator (0:14)
11. Lemme See That Body Get Loose (4:30)
12. Papa (2:48 )
13. NPG Operator (0:05)
14. Billy Jack Bitch (7:06)
15. I Hate U (8:50)
16. Let It Go (5:31)
17. Don't Talk 2 Strangers (3:12)

disc 3:
1. Interactive (3:01)
2. Acknowledge Me (6:33)
3. NPG Operator (0:09)
4. Somebody's Somebody (3:43)
5. Love Sign (4:29)
6. What's My Name (3:01)
7. The Ride (7:36)
8. NPG Operator (0:20)
9. Now (3:59)
10. Face Down (2:09)
11. NPG Operator (0:09)
12. The Same December (3:27)
13. Extraordinary (2:25)
14. Dolphin (6:17)
15. Come (part 2) (9:06)
16. NPG Operator (0:38 )
17. Gold (7:22)
.

BorisFishpaw said:

The Gold experience seems rather plastic. Even Emancipation feels more playful than Gold...so I'm gonna have to say "Sign," by a longshot. Don't get me wrong, I like Gold...but there was something strained about it...

I'd have to say SOTT, as teller said, "gold" seems rather plastic, I do like it, though.

teller said:

That's an interesting thought. Emancipation is more playful than The Gold Experience? I definitely agree.

rdhull said:

Interestingly, we had a vote on Diamonds & Pearls vs Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, his two most visible attempts at commercial success in the 90s. Diamonds & Pearls won 25 votes to 12 votes. Rd, if you honestly believe what you just wrote, which I think you think you do, then I will hold you to this.

Damn, the idea that Rd thinks Rave has got soul...I never thought I would hear a hardened Dirty Mind-Controversy-1999 follower bow down to what I see as by and large, a spiritless attempt at pop. To Rave's credit, there are is one very notable moment. The Greatest Romance Ever Sold.

Copy, print, save!

SOTT is a masterpiece even after it was cut down from the original Crystal Ball. Musically, I think Prince was at his peak of songwriting and instrumentation. There are so many unparalleled songs that it is purely astonishing. The variety of funk, jazz, pop, gospell and lounge leaves you breathless. This album made me realize that if Crystal Ball was released in the original format, it would have been in the top three albums of all time without a doubt.

Gold Experience is good, but it can't compare with SOTT.

Sign "O" The Times is Prince's greatest work.

Anji said:

Well...I'm not very good at these sorts of discussions, but:

Take Emancipations's sheer length--obviously no pressure to drop very many songs as on a single CD. And over most of disc 2, he takes him time with pretty ballads, and gets strange on Joint-2-Joint in the middle. Disc 1 and 3 both try some strange, interesting stuff--whether people liked it or not, things like "Courtin' Time" are exactly what I expect from Prince--playful experimentation. The Human Body isn't one of my favorites, but it's adventurous inasmuch as P hasn't done many tunes like that before or since.

Gold, on the other hand...shit...maybe I better pop the CD in...

teller said:

Gold does have it's fair share of playful moments and it's got more purpose, direction and attitude than Emancipation. I do think, however, that Prince didn't do himself complete justice translating his spirit at that time (exemplified by his Paisley concerts) through to the album. Something got locked.

The Gold Experience suffered a bit from it's delayed
release. The album was intended to be a 'live in the
studio' type thing, with every song sounding as it
would in concert. That's why none of the tracks fade
out, every one has a proper ending.

The idea was that the user would 'access' the
'experiences' on the album, and a 'virtual' &
the NPG would perform them live in your living room
(or wherever you were playing the CD).

Unfortunately, since the album gathered dust for over
a year and a half while WB & argued, remixed
a lot of the tracks and added extra instumentation.
Some of the tracks initially were a lot rawer, like
the songs on Chaos & Disorder (Endorphinmachine is
the most obvious example of this).

If had been on good terms with WB at that time
I'm certain that TGE would've been either a double
or triple album, and Come wouldn't have existed.
Most of it's tracks would've been assimilated into
this one 'Crystal Ball' like 1994 album (and
probably called 'The Dawn').

.
[This message was edited Sun Mar 9 12:30:47 PST 2003 by BorisFishpaw]
[This message was edited Sun Mar 9 12:31:23 PST 2003 by BorisFishpaw]

BorisFishpaw said:

I had forgotten about the original premise behind the 'please access your experience' concept of The Gold Experience. It was quite futuristic for the time.
[This message was edited Sun Mar 9 13:24:41 PST 2003 by Anji]

I'm sure if DVD had been invented back then,
TGE/The Dawn would've been an interactive
video collection rather than a straightforward
CD. Prince filmed videos for almost every
song from that period.

BorisFishpaw said:

Almost every song?! Well, I'm glad that we got the CD instead. I don't particularly rate Prince's videos and they could have potentially detracted from the music, as opposed to enhance it. Great idea though.

Boris - on your 3 cd collection, you start off with Welcome to the Dawn - is this a live band version, or is this the acoustic version? I'm interested in copying you, and think a live band version would fit better with the remaining songs rather than the acoustic version.

Prime time Prince with Sign. desperate&Over-Produced Prince 1995.no skipping tracks in 87 like with 95.the Songwriting alone in 87 was far more challenging IMHO than 95.

cosmicslop said:

I edited down the acoustic version to about 2 minutes.
The idea was to use it as a kind of intro to the album
rather than it being a fully fledged song.

As you can probably see from the track timings, most
of the songs on the album are either alternate versions,
extended takes or a mixture of both.