jdcxc said:

Such obvious commercial appeal to the Gold Experience material...Warners really screwed up the marketing for this album.

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Prince sabotaged it.

There is something so personal and plaintive about "Dolphin". The opening lines, "how beautiful do the words have to be, before they conquer every heart?" It's a "what else do I have to do to make you see me for who I am and let me be me?" type song, and it's so eloquently put. He's pleading to WB, and whoever is listening, desperate to be free of his demons. It's as equally about his contract issues as it is his life, his mental state, etc.

That Love 4 One Another special is still the tits.

jdcxc said:

Such obvious commercial appeal to the Gold Experience material...Warners really screwed up the marketing for this album.

It wasn't about the marketing, it was about them simply refusing to release it. It was the following year that it was ready before they released it. Remember, Prince wanted it released alongside COME, one being a Prince album, one being a album, to see which people preferred. WB said no, and released COME. It was over a year later that the Gold experience came out. And you know Prince, by that time he was over it. He had played songs from it for the whole year, side by side with COME songs sometimes. Remember, the Ultimate Live Experience highlighted new songs, and he played the fuck out of these tunes months before WB ever decided to release the album. But by the end of 1995, he had moved onto other things.

On the commercial side, I totally agree. I have always, and will always, maintained that it was Purple Rain 2. The rocking opening number, the duet, the power ballad, the anthem at the end (both based on a color, by the way, and colors basically opposite on the color wheel by chance), the dirty songs, the sparse arrangement song, etc. It's a rich and beautiful record, so concise, layered, purposeful, powerful. It was a new power pop of the 90s, a genre that bands embraced more by the end of the decade (with bands like Green Day, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, FatMooken, and more, well into the aughts).

Prince and WB weren't in sync once the album came out and little was done on either side to promote it as it deserved. By the time it came out, Prince was in the last throes WB fucking him over, not counting The Black Album was one of the albums that counted to fulfill his contract. He surely wanted to get away from everything and was probably already looking toward Emancipation.

Thanks Latin!

Latin do you have to dominate everything?

Wow, this brought back some teenage memories!

I seem to remember seeing this on TV, the Endorphinmachine video was recorded for BBC'S Top Of The Pops, you can see the 'TOTP' letters in the background.

Glad Dolphin has now got the official video treatment, I find the ending part where he's lying in her arms, smiling and rolling his eyes so hypnotic. The part where he seems to 'die' really makes him seem at peace, I hope when he went he went peacefully like that.

It also seems rather creepy watching Rock and Roll is Alive (great video!) with the references to Elvis and being found dead on the floor, there's even a bit (3:58) where he feigns collapsing on the stage himself. Seems to mirror his untimely ending somehow.

All in all a blast from the past, I had forgotten how energising and exciting it was to be a Prince (or rather an 0+> fan then. It seems sadly something drastically changed after Emancipation (likely the personal circumstances) which affected things from then on.

[Edited 11/2/18 9:19am]

Latin said:

"About the track: When Lenny Kravitz released his single “Rock and Roll is Dead” in 1995, Prince was quick to respond with his own declaration on the state of the genre: “Rock ‘n’ Roll is Alive! (And It Lives in Minneapolis)” was released as a B-side to the single “Gold” in the fall of 1995, just a few months after Lenny’s version hit the airwaves."

..and it sucks

Thanks. Never knew that there's a video for "Endorphinmachine".

CoolMF said:

Thanks. Never knew that there's a video for "Endorphinmachine".

Once Paisley Park existed, there's damn near a video for everything. He ran up and coming independent production companies into bankruptcy because he filmed so much and paid so little (or not at all).

It's nice to see Endorphinmachine.

I have this as a promo VHS that also includes the TOTPs performance of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.

Hopefully this latter performance will also make it onto the channel.

It's such a shame the videos are so very over compressed.

It's about time... Hopefully more is on the way?

TrivialPursuit said:

jdcxc said:

Such obvious commercial appeal to the Gold Experience material...Warners really screwed up the marketing for this album.

It wasn't about the marketing, it was about them simply refusing to release it.

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No, they refused Prince to release it independently.

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It was the following year that it was ready before they released it. Remember, Prince wanted it released alongside COME, one being a Prince album, one being a album, to see which people preferred. WB said no, and released COME.

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Nope, not true. All Warners got was Come. Prince wanted to release TGE independently, and that shit was never gonna fly.

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before WB ever decided to release the album.

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Warners had no opportunity before.

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Prince and WB weren't in sync once the album came out and little was done on either side to promote it as it deserved. By the time it came out, Prince was in the last throes WB fucking him over,

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Oh please. rarely has a major record label given so much leeway. They fucking cancelled an album while it was being shipped to retailers and recalled the shipments. They financed his shitty movies. They allowed him to release his concert movie independently. They invested millions into PPR while the only thing that sold anything on that label was Prince.

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not counting The Black Album was one of the albums that counted to fulfill his contract.

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Again: blame Prince. The story is well-known and there is no reason to lie: https://musicfans.stackex...a/3719/129

CoolMF said:

Thanks. Never knew that there's a video for "Endorphinmachine".

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Seriously, WTF is it with you lot? This video has been available on the Interactive CD-ROM game since the mid-1990s. What kind of wack-ass fan doesn't buy everything? (Oh, and this gme was sold for peanuts mere years later, so none of that "it was too expensive" BS.)

BartVanHemelen said:

BartVanHemelen said:

CoolMF said:

Thanks. Never knew that there's a video for "Endorphinmachine".

.

Seriously, WTF is it with you lot? This video has been available on the Interactive CD-ROM game since the mid-1990s. What kind of wack-ass fan doesn't buy everything? (Oh, and this gme was sold for peanuts mere years later, so none of that "it was too expensive" BS.)

This one was awesome! Thx Bart

BartVanHemelen said:

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It was the following year that it was ready before they released it. Remember, Prince wanted it released alongside COME, one being a Prince album, one being a album, to see which people preferred. WB said no, and released COME.

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Nope, not true. All Warners got was Come. Prince wanted to release TGE independently, and that shit was never gonna fly.

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before WB ever decided to release the album.

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Warners had no opportunity before.

To be fair, they did: according to every source I've read, and unless I've missed new infos, Prince didn't wanna release TGE independently at first, he wanted to release both Come and TGE with WB at the same time, and WB chose to pick Come over TGE because Come was "Prince" vs. TGE being " " (which was the dumbest move ever, because even with the symbol, TGE was much, MUCH more commercially viable).

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As for who had lost interest when TGE was released, I think everyone, including Prince, WB, us the fans and the casual listeners.

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It was simply too late after the name change, TMBGITW, the Interactive CD-Rom, the Beautiful Experience film and promo tapes, Love Sign and AMA95, people had been confused by Exodus and the masked TV shows, and except for Versace thing a little earlier, the hype was completely gone.

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Dolphin has been wasted away with the promo video and TV shows as a viable single, Acknowledge Me had been wasted by being deleted from the album as another viable single, Now had also been wasted by being dated (I think the 1994 line would have killed it as a 1995 single), and while Gold was kind of an obvious single, Prince decided to waste another single by releasing I Hate U, which is a great song but by all accounts a poor choice for a single in the context of September 1995, particularly since it didn't have a music video at the time and since it was stuck between 2 other ballads (TMBGITW and Gold), which made Prince look like a singer for yo momma back when being "cool" was most important to reach a young audience! Shy would have been more appealing to trip-hop crowds (it was on heavy rotation on Couleur 3, one of the hippest European radio stations at the time), or why not either Endorphinmachine for the rockers or P. Control for the funkateers, or even an edit of Shhhh for the R&B radios in the US (it would have done Prince little good in Europe, though) but not fucking I Hate U of all songs! Hell, even We March or Billy Jack Bitch would have been a better choice for a single!

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The only effort Prince did to promote the record after it was released was the Love 4 1 Another film, but it was waaay too little waaay too late, and WB clearly didn't give a fuck anymore at this stage: they just wanted to get rid of him.

databank said:

Feel that this original studio mix of Endorphin Machine has lead vocals sounding a bit thin... almost like they're not there.

TrivialPursuit said:

I have always, and will always, maintained that it was Purple Rain 2. The rocking opening number,

Pussy Control is the opening number. A great track, but not "rocking".

ludwig said:

TrivialPursuit said:

I have always, and will always, maintained that it was Purple Rain 2. The rocking opening number,

Pussy Control is the opening number. A great track, but not "rocking".

I know that "P Control" is the opening, but it's really sort of a hidden track in plain sight. It's just there, then the NPG operator comes on and brings in "Endorphinmachine". "P Control" also feels like a bonus track at the front of the actual album. And while it's listed on the track listing, it's not in the lyric sheet (probably because of lyrical content, Prince never published cuss words to my knowledge in his lyric sheets). For me, with TGE being a rock-heavy album (despite songs like "Now" or "We March"), "Endorphinmachine" really begins the record. The song parallels are still there.

lastdecember said:

databank said:

Again I still feel despite all the company stuff had the album come out the way he wanted and with all sides agreeing it would have sold anymore than the love symbol did. Princes popularity was sliding at that point again he rode the diamonds and pearls wave which was commercial type singles but love symbol was not despite selling close to two million the singles outside of 7 were not what diamonds and pearls had as far as appeal. Come and gold would have not gotten him more than what diamonds and pearls did, no way, no matter what the configuration or if it would have been a single or double album he was fading popularity wise and neither album would have changed it.

Sales were still very strong for and, more importantly, Prince was all over the media, music TV channels, radios etc. All the vids were on heavy rotation on MTV Europe. TMBGITW was a huge worldwide hit and TGE had it on it. Love Sign -despite not getting a proper release- was also on heavy rotation on TV and radios in '94, at least on the then #1 French music channel. And let's not forget that what was a moderate success for Prince, such as , would have been a massive success for many artists: ask Morris Day or Wendy & Lisa how much they'd like to have sold as many copies as and its singles...

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There was room for a song like Acknowledge Me on the charts in 1994. Let's not forget that it wasn't going to be a double album: Come was to be the sacrificial lamb and TGE was to be blasted as the new, great record. Let's also keep in mind that at this stage it wasn't the TGE we know: Interactive was the opener, and it still contained DOW, Acknowledge Me and Ripopgodazippa (that last one would also have made a great single, That'sTheWayLoveGoes-style), on the other hand no Dolphin, no Endorphinmachine, no Shhh!, no We March and no P. Control... Would Prince have reworked it last minute to include a few of those? I honestly don't know but the record would probably have been a little less "power rock" and a little more new jack swing as it was in Spring 94.

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But to be honest the record itself has little to do with sales: average people will just buy what they're told, they don't have that much of a choice and even less in those pre-internet days. TGE may have been a moderate success like , I'm not saying it'd have been PR, but if both P and WB had done their best to promote it and if it'd been on heavy rotation on radio and TV, it would have sold period. You can release 5 minutes of Terrence and Philip farting and singing in Canadian, it'll sell as long as it's on heavy rotation everywhere.

TrivialPursuit said:

There is something so personal and plaintive about "Dolphin". The opening lines, "how beautiful do the words have to be, before they conquer every heart?" It's a "what else do I have to do to make you see me for who I am and let me be me?" type song, and it's so eloquently put. He's pleading to WB, and whoever is listening, desperate to be free of his demons. It's as equally about his contract issues as it is his life, his mental state, etc.

That Love 4 One Another special is still the tits.

^ those 3 videos.. wow to re-view, is a lovely experience.