4. endorphinmachine (from the gold experience lp, 1995)
one of the things that plagued prince during the symbol era was a seeming inability to leave well enough alone. in any case where i've heard an original version of a song, the later, "official" take is always, always overproduced, e.g. just about every previously unreleased track on crystal ball (most heinously: "crucial.") another case in point: "endorphinmachine." i was tempted to include the version found on the test pressing of come, but it was annoyingly difficult to segue. what the gold experience version teaches us is that, yes, there is such a thing as too much cowbell. and yet it rocks, a pre-millennial "let's go crazy." the endorphinmachine, if one is curious, was a part of his set during the album's tour, a set constructed like an upside-down vulva, wherein the endorphinmachine is the clitoris.

all before he became a jw, you see.