The Gold Experience

The Gold Experience is an album released by Prince (his stage name at that time being the love symbol he created) on September 26, 1995. The album is considered by some fans to be the Purple Rain of the 1990s, due to the rock and roll feel, accessibility of the tracks, and Prince’s own admission that the song, “Gold” would be the next “Purple Rain”.

Prince wanted to release The Gold Experience under the symbolic moniker in 1994, alongside Come, which was marketed as a “Prince” album of “old” material. Both albums contained material from Prince’s musical production called Glam Slam Ulysses. The plan was to show the superior quality of the newer material as opposed to the older “Prince” material. Plans were thwarted by Warner Bros., which felt the market would be over-saturated with Prince material, and withheld the album. Prince was prompted to protest by appearing in public with the word “slave” written on his face and stating The Gold Experience’s release date would be “never”.

Some songs originally intended for the album, such as “Interactive” and “Days of Wild”, were removed by the time of the album’s release. It has been alleged by some that “Days of Wild” was nixed by Warner Brothers at the request of some of the larger retail chains, because of its lyrical content.