Rock and Roll Book Club: Jim Walsh follows Prince through the '90s

The Current's book club reviews: Gold Experience is full of fascinating details about life with Prince (or, rather, the Artist Then-Formerly Known as Prince) in the '90s.

Walsh_Gold coverGold Experience: Following Prince in the '90s begins on Valentine's Day 1994, when Paisley Park hosted a party after the NBA All-Star Game. In attendance were roundball stars including Magic Johnson ("I don't care how late it gets. I'm not leaving until he leaves the stage") and a panoply of pop-culture figures: Will Smith, Downtown Julie Brown, Daisy Fuentes, Tevin Campbell, Kriss Kross.

The book ends in June 2002, as Jim Walsh muses about how much Prince would have enjoyed Rock the Garden (headliners: Medeski Martin & Wood).

Since Prince's death, a lot of recaps of his career have focused on his commercial peak in the '80s and then fast-forwarded to his activity in the past few years. The '90s? There's a mention of the SLAVE period and the introduction of the glyph, and that's about it.

Walsh remembers a lot more about that period: he was here for it, covering Prince's doings as closely as anyone. At the time, Walsh was the main pop music writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and Gold Experience consists largely of the features and reviews Walsh published in the newspaper throughout the '90s.

Full review.

Published in: The Current
By: Jay Gabler