I was in the wrecka stowe the other day trying to finish converting my Prince collection from LP and cassette to CD. I asked the clerk at the counter if they could special order The Gold Experience. They told me it has been out of print since 1999. Now, I'm surprised that Warner Bros would fight so long hard with Prince over the rights to his music and then shelf it. The Gold Experience is great and it saddens me I can't get it anymore.

My concern is that overtime more and more of his albums will slowly go out of print. This sucks because I can't tell you how many times I've replaced albums Sign O'The Times (4), Lovesexy (3), Dirty Mind (6), Emancipation (2), Crystal Ball (2) just because I play them over and over. I would have thought that by 1999 Warner's would have at least remastered this album and by now Purple Rain and Sign... do you think they will continue to shelf his albums?

The Gold Experience is one of my favourite prince / albums. It seems crazy that it's no longer available in the US, here in the UK it's still available. In fact I'm sure you can still get pretty much all his albums apart from The Black Album.

Unfortunately the fall-out between Prince & WB will mean that his back-catalogue is highly unlikely to get any remastering or repackaging. I'm almost certain that to make any changes to his existing WB output requires consent from both sides. Warner's can't change anything without Prince's permission (which he probably wouldn't give on principal), & Prince can't do it himself because Warners own the masters & distribution rights to those recordings. Prince is free, Though, to re-record his back catalogue from scratch if he wishes (which he has allegedly done already).

Personally, I wouldn't like to see 'New Master' versions of all his albums replace the originals, as I'm sure Prince would make some radical changes (like removing swearing, changing 'The Cross' to 'The Christ', & maybe even removing songs like 'Bob George' completely). I'd like to hear the 'New Masters', though preferably in the form of some sort of 'Best of' or box-set.

I'd love to see his entire back catalogue re-mastered with full colour booklets including lyrics, sleeve notes & pictures. Maybe even some bonus tracks.

I read rumours up in this joint that Prince owns the masters for The Gold Experience.

cryndove said:

I don't believe Prince actually owns the masters to The Gold Experience - at least not in it's entirety. But I do believe there was some kind of special deal worked out between Prince and Warner Bros. for that album. Whether it was some kind of "split" ownership or perhaps a time sensative ownership where Warner's give up ownership after a specified number of years I don't know, but I do believe based on all the commentary on that album and Prince's refusal to give it to Warner Bros. at the time that there was some kind of special agreement worked out concerning it's release. And when you think about it, that would certainly help explain why Warner Bros would let it go out of print.

[b]Adambomb[b/] I was in your shoes this past summer. Most of my Prince albums growing up, were on either vinyl or casette. I'm currently in the process of converting all of my albums into CD. I couldn't find The Gold Experience anywhere last summer. I checked every store I knew of. I finally ordered it on EBay's- Half.com That's the only chance you have of getting the album sad enough.
Blue Cashmere

Amazing how 'The most beatiful girl' was his only UK Number One and this was released through an independent label.

Even though The Gold Experience is out of print, it still isnt that hard to find. I bought mine at circuit city new about a year and half ago, and my Best Buy had a couple of copies not too long ago. Even if you can't find them in stores, you can find them cheap on eBay.

The Gold Experience is easy to find at just about any wrecka stow that sells used CDs. That's where I found mine. And yeah, you can find used copies with fairly good regularity. Don't let anyone overcharge you for it and say it's a "special out-of-print collector's item"! It may be that one day, but that day isn't today.

As a "new masters" version of this album is concerned, how hot would it be to include some of those live/stripped-down Undertaker versions of Gold songs in a re-release? I used to be scared of Prince's "new masters" concept after hearing what he did to 1999, but after seeing him live last night, it seems to me that he's starting to realize the value of down-to-basics, down-and-dirty arrangements, without tons of lame guest-rappers and embarrassingly outdated house music bells-and-whistles. FINALLY!

(Fingers crossed.)

Anxiety said:

Well, the only TGE song on the Undertaker was Dolphin...

However, if he were to re-release it, there's no reason that the studio version of Days of Wild does not replace We March. What was he thinking with that decision?

hi. adambomb, i know how u feel. i have just recently (in the past week) finally completed upgrading my entire collection of prince's albums 2 cd. the whole process took over 2 months, £120, alot of searching on the web, and alot of hassel.
basically anything that was done by and was on NPG records (this includes TGE, it has both NPG records and warners logo on the sleeve) is out of print.
i have heard a good place 2 try is cdnow.com and madhousemusic.co.uk
just keep searching and should get what u want (eventually )

my local Best Buy has at least 4 of TGE...

yeah it's outta print so that's why u go to used cd place and get them for $7.99 instead of having 2 buy it at retail price...

lol its out of print and 1999 new master isnt?

madhousemusic.co.uk

DONT BUY FROM THEM - they are the biggest ripoff in the entire Prince universe
Ridiculous prices - I remember they were charging 190 pounds US$300 !!!! for A CD copy of the War a few years ago ....
they suck ! they are just ripping you all off because they know you will pay it , so DONT !!!

Regular retail stores in Holland don't have it anymore and I can't order it either.

I've got my TGE cd tho, but I'd like another one, just in case [neurotic tendency].

I spent the past year and a half looking for a new copy of The Gold Experience. My original got so scracthed from being listened 2 so much and moved around from CD book 2 CD book that half the tracks skipped so bad I couldn't listen 2 them. I had given up when I found a PERFECT copy of it in a used CD bin in a tiny little record store in Hamden, CT. I got so excited. My favorite Prince/ album in mint condition for $5!

Always check the used CD's, people!

FunkyStrange said:

Amen. I've bought a couple of things from Madhouse in the past, but lately it's become so completely ridiculous that I don't even bother looking at their site anymore. I just wish they would stop emailing me all the time...


BTW... Anyone else find themselves rereading the booklet 4 The Gold Experience after posting here? Interesting 2 note that this was the only album booklet that ever featured any kind of story or narrative 2 it. I wonder why that is?
[This message was edited Tue Mar 5 13:18:08 PST 2002 by getwild007]