LoveGalore said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Out of those two songs, I'd fully agree "Days of Wild" is a superior track. But I can get with "Now" any ol' time.

I don't understand the hate for Now. It's corny but hello? Prince did corny music often.

I don't either. It's funky.

People seem to hate "Jughead" but I think most fans are just indifferent to "Shy". It's album filler. Pleasant album filler. But it's on album with 5 great singles so it pales.

TrivialPursuit said:

LoveGalore said:

TrivialPursuit said: I don't understand the hate for Now. It's corny but hello? Prince did corny music often.

I don't either. It's funky.

most generic plug-in rationalization for a "quality" Prince track ever.

Literally 1,975 songs of his give or take are "funky". give us something more.


Anyway, my take was right again. "Shy" haters upset he dared to turn off the cheesewhiz for 4 minutes. Nah, like, who wants diversity from a Prince album rite? we want geetar riffs all LP!!1

[Edited 11/13/22 15:29pm]

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Also shy is the only prince song with some cool slide guitar Its not perfect It feels a bit of a sketch but i think its meant to be, kinda folky but funky Def the only song on tge that he he takes some risks on.

yep.

it subverts expectations for one track on the LP. how dare he. who does he think he is, Prince? stick to the script.

[Edited 11/13/22 15:32pm]

SpookyPurple said:

LoveGalore said:

TrivialPursuit said: You said it. Could not agree MORE.

I find this so interesting. All subjective of course, but I'd rate SHY as one of the strongest tracks and one that I'll listen to on its own outside of the context of the album. Love the guitar. Love the steps as percussion. Love the story he tells with the song and the simplicity in an album with lots of production bloat. SHY's place in the tracklist is no different to me than SHHH coming on the heels of P CONTROL and ENDORPHINE. It's like the brakes get slammed with SHHH but it doesn't bother me. WE MARCH is the one song I always skip and I always remove the NPG Operator. I'll humor NOW but it was corny then and it's corny now and certainly not inventive is that what one is looking for. GOLD is also almost cringe-worthingly cheesy but I still enjoy. I actually find ACKNOWLEDGE ME boring and glad it wasn't included whereas INTERACTIVE I still think could've fit in there nicely. Agree with others that DOW would've been better than NOW.

Gold Experience fans like it because it's his corniest album. you're eating BBQ with a knife&fork with these kind of grounded rationalizations.

WhisperingDandelions said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

TrivialPursuit said:

I don't either. It's funky.

most generic plug-in rationalization for a "quality" Prince track ever.

Literally 1,975 songs of his give or take are "funky". give us something more.


Anyway, my take was right again. "Shy" haters upset he dared to turn off the cheesewhiz for 4 minutes. Nah, like, who wants diversity from a Prince album rite? we want geetar riffs all LP!!1

Pump the brakes, sis. It's not a contest.

WhisperingDandelions said:

LoveGalore said:

Crybaby shit right here. Nobody is saying any of that. People are allowed to not like a song. Grow the fuck up already.

Except literally the takes you co-signed branding it an outlier:

TrivialPursuit said:

it throttles the momentum of the record, becoming its proverbial wet blanket.

TrivialPursuit said:

It feels out of place at this point

TrivialPursuit said:

It's almost as though he put it there to simply take a breather on side 2 of the album.

Of course those are other people's takes, we're so rarely blessed to hear you elucidate your own opinion because you generally tap out after six or seven syllables... Unless it relates to you obsessively quoting my each and every post the second they hit the screen, the epitome of "grown up". You got a spouse, kids, dog, cat, goldfish with that kind of next level cosmic maturity?

WhisperingDandelions said:

Musically it's fine for me, not great. Lyrically it's never sat right with me. He's falling in love with someone while she's describing how she murdered someone.

Raevene said:

Strange lyrics about shooting someone, bit odd really.

i like the bootleg version with beat underneath.

LOSTPASSWORDMAN said:

SpookyPurple said:

It grew on me, and that guitar is real cool, but I can´t help thinking that, if songs like The Ride, Days of Wild and Interactive replaced We March, Shy and maybe Now or P Control, it would have been an almost perfect album

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

LoveGalore said:

LoveGalore said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Prince actually wrote some decent gangsta rap responses in this period, ie he wrote about violence, rather than teying to rap too much, tho yeah he still did that too "Shy" and "Count the Days" are two good Prince does g-rap songs Now sucks cos its Prince trying to sound like a frat boy

"Count the Days" is not gangsta rap, lol. It is a straight up classic RnB song with soul and gospel mixed in. It's not even rapping at all much less gangsta rapping you crazy white boy.

You're not wrong, but I will add this: the lyrics clearly talk about the struggles of street life, as does one verse of "Shy." That does not make it gangsta rap, by any means. Prince long talked about social issues which makes him more aware and bold in his speech, rather than delving into something like gangsta rap.

To the other comment about the frat boy thing - makes zero sense.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

RJOrion said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

The irony.

WhisperingDandelions said:

I don't like "Shy" one bit. Can't believe all the people who "like" it here. Nope, nuh uh, nah brah... "Eye" love it.

The spare blues rock riff is fantastic for the verses. Prince tracks especially on this album often get overwhelmed by the arrangements. There are far and few moments in his oeuvre where he scales it back and gives you Prince + one instrument. They should all be cherished. Then that mellifluous chorus stepping it up a notch higher. I like the juxtaposition from crunchy to dreamy, nice and mellow, takes it where you do not expect it.


It seems the more ardent Gold Experience fanboys are the one who dislike this, maybe that's where we differ. Generally, TGE is pretty mediocre record that ages like sour milk, but this track is an absolute stand-out. My only hypotheses' are maybe the "hot virgin white" upsets some sensibilities, a lot of fans are slaves to the lyrics, look at "Free" stans,

And TGE stans generally exist because they get a rush from his cheeseball take on the rock genre, which got cornier and cornier with each successive decade he moved further and further from the 70s/early 80s, which was the only time his rock sound was remotely pop-culturally progressive,

Somehow over an hour of cornball 90s "rock'n'roll" Prince just isn't quite enough steaming hot limburger for TGE stans, so they take it out on the one track that has the everloving decency to do something *gasp* different with dynamics / expectations on the album. If he built the blues riff to a overwrought chorus cluttered with digital synths, NPG operator sound FX and a Hi-NRG cheeseball guitar wash it would probably be held up to the same rarified air as "Endorphinemachine", "Gold" and all the other blah experience that is absolutely laughable when compared to literally any other 90s rock artist you can throw a dart at.

"We March" is okay.

[Edited 11/12/22 2:48am]

Agree with you a lot here, TGE is overrated as an album and Shy is a highlight for me. Prince's rock was cheesed out mostly.

TrivialPursuit said:

LoveGalore said:

It's trash, for starters.

I'm going with this, most wholeheartedly.

The Gold Experience is one of my favorite era albums. I could write a book on the brilliance of this record. Every song is a gem.

Except "Shy."

It's lethargic, sparce, uninventive, and ads nothing to the album. In fact, it throttles the momentum of the record, becoming its proverbial wet blanket. I will admit the keyboard sounds and such in the song are nice, but the song itself is just horrible.

I've long taken the song out of my playlist, and I actually re-blended the segues around it so it just naturally flows. It goes from the NPG Operator right into "Billy Jack Bitch."

I never miss the song, because it's simply not in my head or reflex to expect it. If I happen to stream it, and the song comes on, I skip it.

It feels out of place at this point, and for that I'm glad. It should've been a b-side. Or perhaps thrown in the trash can.

LOL, That goes to show how much variation there is amongst Prince fans about what is his best music! For me Shy is a moment of redemption in a sea of cheesy overproduced 'synthrock' songs...

[Edited 11/17/22 0:14am]