Gold Experience

By: Jim Walsh

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

Throughout the 1990s, Prince feuded with his record label, Warner Bros., over his rights as an independent recording artist - and made some of the most brilliant music of his career. During that time, Jim Walsh covered Prince for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and wrote about him passionately, thoughtfully, exhaustively. Here, in real-time, is that coverage: a look back at Prince in the '90s. Walsh's newly unearthed interviews, essays, columns, and reviews make Gold Experience an essential slice of history for fans, scholars, and latecomers to the Minneapolis-born musical genius Prince Rogers Nelson.

Join Walsh at the 1994 NBA All-Star game afterparty and release bash for the single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World". Accompany him to the after-hours clubs Erotic City, Glam Slam, and, of course, Paisley Park. Meet Prince's wife and bandmate Mayte (and while you're at it, take in the wedding and reception and enjoy a two-hour sit-down interview with Prince). This is Prince as few have seen him, reported as only Jim Wash can: a portrait of the artist from a dizzying array of angles, captured in living color for all time.

©2017 Jim Walsh (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Reader did a disservice to the book.

What did you love best about Gold Experience?

The book itself was good. Many things I didn't know about Prince from that time, mostly because I only listened to his music at that time. I wasn't allowed to go to shows!

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I'm going to guess the reader wasn't a Prince fan. And perhaps he'd not been to Minnesota before. I cringed every time he mispronounced a song, place, album. Of the things mispronounced include: the album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (he pronounced Rave You Unto the Joy Fantastic), the song Anna Stesia (he pronounced anesthesia - like the medicine), the venue next to First Avenue (I can't remember how he pronounced that) and the way he pronounced the city Chanhassen (his emphasis in the -hassen...it was just weird).

Any additional comments?

There were a few times I wished Walsh had gone more into the stories surrounding...the stories he published. For example, he mentioned a time at Paisley that Prince asked if he brought his shoes to play ball. He hadn't. But did he ever? Did Walsh ever play ball with Prince? What was that like?

Another example, Walsh said very little about when Prince & Mayte lost their child. I wasn't looking for tabloid gossip but he was around when she was pregnant, he commented on Mayte's role in the band many times, and even the wedding, what was it like around Paisley during her pregnancy? It would have been nice to even acknowledge that huge moment in their lives.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

YESSSSSSSS

I’ve had this for a while and couldn’t bring myself to listen as I’ve been grieving with the rest of the world. I ha e to say this was so damn good. I absolutely loved the reading, the writing, the stories from someone who was there. Lucky people who lived there and could just drop in at Paisley...wow. I miss the spontaneity of life that P gave to my life. Thanks for this
It was fantastic.

So much learnt from a mysterious and creative time

The headlines were well known because of the Slave, name change and recording battle, but there is so much more within this book even the most diehard fan (like me) wouldn't know about Prince in the 90s. Enjoy!