01. Interactive
02. Days Of Wild
03. Shhh
04. Acknowledge Me
05. Love Sign
06. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
07. Endorphinmachine
08. 319
09. Billy Jack Bitch
10. I Hate U
11. Dolphin
12. Gold

Empress said:

I don't understand why some people on this site are always wanting to change Prince's albums. Leave his shit alone! The albums are how he wanted them to be.

Strive said:

Empress said:

I don't understand why some people on this site are always wanting to change Prince's albums. Leave his shit alone! The albums are how he wanted them to be.

It's fun to wonder what if and The Gold Experience is one album that was definitely overthought by Prince.

The March configuation seems like it would have been cool. Especially if there was an earlier version of Gold on it. There was a good song buried in that overproduction.

Despite the demo's presence on the so-called 10,000 Wallpaper videocassette, it's extremely unlikely Prince ever considered releasing it in this form. Ricky Peterson's overdubs were already recorded by Spring 1994 and the released version clearly reflected Prince's original vision for the song as some sort of epic power ballad.

Why and how anyone could favor this clumsy demo over the released version's gorgeous synthesizer orgy always was beyond me. I guess this is (once again) the result of Prince having succeeded in building a "crossover" audience, with more rockers than electronic music or R&B fans. I totally fail to see how more guitar and less synthesizer could benefit a song like Gold.

It's likely that, if Prince's stems surfaced, Prince's whole catalogue would be transformed into a minimalist bass/guitar/drums rock discography as barebone as a Nirvana album

databank said:

Why and how anyone could favor this clumsy demo over the released version's gorgeous synthesizer orgy always was beyond me. I guess this is (once again) the result of Prince having succeeded in building a "crossover" audience, with more rockers than electronic music or R&B fans. I totally fail to see how more guitar and less synthesizer could benefit a song like Gold.

It's likely that, if Prince's stems surfaced, Prince's whole catalogue would be transformed into a minimalist bass/guitar/drums rock discography as barebone as a Nirvana album

.

I looked up the "original" version of Gold. To me, it's still the same horrible Purple Rain-wannabe song (and I dislike Purple Rain to begin with)

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As to the barebones transformation, it's probably because Prince simply almost always chose the worst sounding synths he could find. I like Prince music in spite of how it sounds. There's a reason Parade/Rainbow Children/The Vault... Old Friends 4 Sale/Come are liked a lot. (by me, they are a bit more controversial to other listeners, I've heard ) They sound better than most of his other output.

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Rick James, oddly enough, made Prince's synths sound a whole lot better than he did. Comparing Street Songs to Dirty Mind or Controversy... Rick's album sounds way better. (Prince has better songs though)

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So... yes, being able to remove the horrid sounds and keep the good ones (Prince also fucked up his guitar sound to the point of it sounding like a cheap synth regularly) would be great!

Very underrated album IMO, but ...

... I'd change the lyrics to Dolphin. Hearing that for the first time, I quite like the music but the lyrics. What was he thinking!?

VaultCurator said:

databank said:

Of all his albums GE and GB are the 2 that could do with a bit of re-jigging!

Days of Wild is goota be on it (lose Now)

Dump P Control

Add Interactive

Add earlier version of Endorphinmachine

Add drumbeat version of Shy

Remove The Operator segues

etc etc

i agree with prince that the gold experience is album of outtakes that prince intentionally culled with the purpose of selling poorly .. the entire of theme of this glittery album is that it is not his gold material .. it is subpar resembling a bowl full of golden piss .. yes beautiful girl was included surely at the insistence of wb and the title track would do well on a muppets special but putting pussy control as the opener and including i hate u with his story of raping his lover in court for cheating on him was nothing short of career suicide in terms of providing a "hit" album along the lines of diamonds and pearls for mass consumption as in songs everyone could appreciate .. gold experience is clouded with so much anger and spite there really isn't much to enjoy about this album .. the whole thing feels forced .. personally i feel the songs from this period that ended up on crystal ball are much better than tge .. the songs on come and chaos are also much better .. i see tge as a big fuck you to wb and intentionally not a very enjoyable record overall .. i would change tge by trashing most of it and making a much better record from the cb collection ..

days of wild
calhoune
whats my name
peach
strays of the world
the ride
da bang

interactive
she gave her angels

much better album from the time imo .. dolphin and beatiful girl are decent enough but very overproduced compared to the above raw bangers

I wouldn't change a thing. I've made my own playlists taking stuff out and replacing with others and I'm always missing the stuff I take out.

I really like Days of Wild and Acknowledge Me so added both.

The one I dig that everyone seems to not is We March. I've always liked that one. Oh well...

dodger said:

mtlfan said:

SoulAlive said:

"Ripopgodazippa" is one of my favorite songs from this era.It's such a cool song!

if you're always with me.....U never have 2 call me.....touche'

SantanaMaitreya said:

SoulAlive said:

Never really liked it.It just sounds silly and contrived,imo. I’d replace it with “Hide The Bone”,an excellent funk jam.

I never liked it very much either. It was just "the artist" trying to be a bad guy like the shit hoppers. I remember that when he played this live, he used to say things like, "Parents, take your children outside! It's going to get nasty!"

I agree.Sometimes when Prince raps,it sounds pretentious and forced....like he's trying too hard to fit into that image.I think "Days Of Wild" sounds truly convincing and badass,and yet he removed that one!

I would replace we March with Days O Wild

Replace the weak album version of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD with the version he released on his own as a single.

SoulAlive said:

I wouldn't. I've always loved this album, as is.

CAL3 said:

Great topic. . De-clutter the production, less aggressive mastering. . And entirely lose any “interactive” seques. . That would be a great start. .

Yes, quite a few albums sound overproduced. Most P albums have perfect production, then there's Sign of the Times that's underproduced. But it wasn't until 90s that he started going too heavy and thick, multilayering stuff as if this would make mediocre songs sound great.

TGE consequently can be tiring to hear in one listen.

Add back in:

Interactive
Days Of Wild
Ripopgodazippa
Acknowledge Me

Add the missing NPG Operator segues. Lose the Endorphinemachine cowbell.

Maybe remove We March. I don't dislike it as much as most people do.

Pretty sure I'm over 80 mins

CAL3 said:

Great topic. . De-clutter the production, less aggressive mastering. . And entirely lose any “interactive” seques. . That would be a great start. .

I'm in the minority I think of people who like the segues.

I don't care for them on the album (Vanessa Bartholemew) but I do like them on The Gold Experience.

Se7en said:

Add back in:

Interactive
Days Of Wild
Ripopgodazippa
Acknowledge Me

Add the missing NPG Operator segues. Lose the Endorphinemachine cowbell.

Maybe remove We March. I don't dislike it as much as most people do.

Pretty sure I'm over 80 mins

Same. I don't get the hate for We March either. It's a weaker track but only in context of what surrounds it. Conversely, I don't get the total love for Dolphin. It's OK but, man, them lyrics are corny. I poked over to Wikipedia just to refrresh myself on the track list and...man...it's a really strong record.

I think the title track is one of his more underrated in that category too. He was obviously aiming at an anthem (again) and, while "Gold" falls a little short, it's a pretty great track. I used to LOVE P Control in my 20's but now not so much. It's a weird lead off track too since it doesn't really set the tone for the rest of the album. Interactive would be a better opening song (you're rigth) and, the older I get, P Control feels more like a b-side, tbh.

Burying Days of Wild is a crime though. And fuck the haters because "NOW" is a banger.

And, wait...you're saying to ADD segues? Hard and strong disagree on all that. Prince fucked up more albums with that goofy shit than I'd care to remember (Love Symbol, The Rainbow Children, Exodus and Gold). They're funny and cute the first time (sometimes) but really mess up the flow on repeated listens and lord if I don't have a custom CD that removes that crap from all those albums.

Odd to think too that on his Big Serious Artistic Statement, Lovesexy, he made it all one track but at the same time included zero seques.

TGE probably holds up the best from every album in his 90's catalog and makes a strong argument for the top five.

"We March" is not a terrible song,it's just not as strong as the other tracks,imo.I can see why many would remove it.

Seems that most of us really like "Days Of Wild" and would have loved for that song to be on the album

SoulAlive said: