Detailed “One Nite Alone…Live” Box Set Review

by Brendan on Tue 10 Dec 2002 E-mail Brendan about this essay

USA Street Date: December 17, 2002 (tentative)
Contents: 2 Concert Discs, 1 Aftershow Disc, 56-Page Color Booklet, and Mini-Poster
(NPGMC version also contains “One Nite Alone” studio CD.)
Price: List price of $59.98, but check around, as it has been spotted as low as $39.17)

BACKGROUND/PRELUDE

I own over 70 sets of live Prince bootleg material covering the best of every single concert tour of Prince’s career. However, I only own one “One Nite Alone” bootleg (Chicago), so I will not be comparing and contrasting all of the various shows and performances against this set, nor will I be questioning why he chose this particular performance over that particular performance. I’ll leave that for those who have the tools for such a large task. I also won’t be going into excruciating detail of the description of every nuance of every song, as I don’t have the time or inclination.

{{{I’ve been to many Prince arena, theater and Paisley Park performances over the years. I think Prince hit his highest artistic point between ’86 and ‘88 and his lowest from just after the writing of the very personal “The Truth” in late ‘96 and early ’97, until the release of the terrific “Rainbow Children” project ended his long slumber in late 2001. During that long lull the only new Prince material that made it out of Paisley Park was “New Power Soul” (a glorified side project at that) and “Rave Unto the Joy Fantastic”. That right there should have been enough to make even the most ardent of believers, me included, start to doubt that any great creativity could be left in Prince’s tank...}}}

TECHNICAL DATA

Disc 1 (One Nite Alone…Live!) / 63:47

1 - Rainbow Children [11:48] - Washington D.C., March 31st
2 - Muse 2 the Pharaoh [4:50] - Indianapolis, IN, March 11th
3 - Xenophobia [12:40] - Portland, OR, April 30th
4 - Extraordinary [5:02] - Portland, OR, April 30th
5 - Mellow [4:31] - Indianapolis, IN, March 11th
6 - 1+1+1 is 3 [6:06] - Lakeland, FL, April 4th
7 - The Other Side of the Pillow [4:46] - Indianapolis, IN, March 11th
8 - Strange Relationship [4:13] - Indianapolis, IN, March 11th
9 - When U Were Mine [3:48] - Los Angeles, CA, April 19th
10 - Avalanche [6:05] - Portland, OR, April 30th

Disc 2 (One Nite Alone…Live!) / 62:00

1 - Family Name [7:18] - Portland, OR, April 30th
2 - Take Me With U [2:54] - Oakland, CA, April 24th
3 - Raspberry Beret [3:27] - Portland, OR, April 30th
4 - Everlasting Now [7:41] - Portland, OR, April 30th
(Encore)
5 - One Nite Alone…[1:13] - Seattle, WA, April 29th
6 - Adore [5:33] - Houston, TX, April 14th
7 - I Wanna Be Your Lover [1:22] - Portland, OR, April 30th
8 - Do Me, Baby [1:57] - Houston, TX, April 14th
9 - Condition of the Heart (Interlude) [:40] - Houston, TX, April 14th
10 - Diamonds & Pearls [:41] - Portland, OR, April 30th
11 - The Beautiful Ones [2:11] - Portland, OR, April 30th
12 - Nothing Compares 2 U [3:48] - Portland, OR, April 30th
13 - Free [1:07] - Seattle, WA, April 29th
14 - Starfish & Coffee [1:08] - Seattle, WA, April 29th
15 - Sometimes it Snow in April [2:41] - Seattle, WA, April 29th
16 - How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore [5:07] - Portland, OR, April 30th
17 - Anna Stesia [13:13] - Los Angeles, CA, April 19th

Disc 3 (One Nite Alone…The Aftershow: It Ain’t Over!) / 55:41

1 - Joy In Repetition [10:58] - New York city, April 9th
2 - We Do This [4:42] - New York city, April 9th
3 - Medley: Just Friends (Sunny) / If You Want Me To Stay [4:27] - New York City, April 9th
4 - 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton [6:15] - Los Angeles, CA, April 20th
5 - Alphabet Street [2:55] - Los Angeles, CA, April 20th
6 - Peach (xtended jam) [11:19] - Portland, OR, April 30th
7 - Dorothy Parker [6:17] - Los Angeles, CA, April 20th
8 - Girls & Boys [7:00] - Los Angeles, CA, April 20th
9 - The Everlasting Now (vamp) [1:50] - Los Angeles, CA, April 20th

Total runtime for entire set: 3:01:28

The NPG Band

Prince - Whatever
John Blackwell - Drums
Rhonda Smith - Bass
Renato Neto - Keyboards

The Extended NPG

Maceo Parker - Sax
Greg Boyer - Trombone
Candy Dulfer - Sax
Najee - Sax

Special Guests: George Clinton, Sheila E., Larry Graham, Musiq Soulchild

GENERAL BOX SET OBSERVATIONS

At the opening of the third disc Prince takes the stage and asks the audience, “How long you all been waiting?” The New York club crowd grumbles and growls a bit but comes up with no comprehensible or conclusive answer. But to those who are now holding onto and listening to this first ever live set -- a 3-disc box set no less -- the answer comes far easier: “Almost 25 years, Prince!” And after that ridiculously long absence of a live album from one of the greatest live musicians of all time, it’s quite remarkable and much to my HUGE surprise to announce that it manages to live up to and be worthy of this gigantic wait (and weight).

I feared and mostly expected the worst with this live set; that being that it would end up sounding like an aural patchwork of superimposed perfection so clinical as to render it impotent as a live document, but my worries could not have been more misplaced. The sound of this set is just the best I’ve ever heard, ever, from anyone. To own a great sound system is to have Prince and the NPG at your beck and call. The technicians/engineers behind this sound (primarily Scottie Pakulski, but also Femi Jiya, Joeseph Lepinski and I’m sure others) deserve a standing ovation.

According to the liner notes this set was recorded directly from the soundboard to 2-track for release with minimal overdubs. The only studio manipulation I can detect at all (and it’s REALLY minor at that) is of course the melding of the different concert performances together in a way that makes it feel like a singular experience. “Xenophobia” appears to get the worst of any meddling, as it sounds like maybe the music portion and talking portion are taken from two different nights, but to be honest it’s so well done I’m not even sure I’m right about that piece of speculation. “Joy In Repetition” is also possibly overdubbed with singing from the crowd from a completely different night. I’ll leave it to experts in the field of sound engineering to decipher any imperfections and completely take me to school later. It’s very possible I’m not capable yet of hearing them because I’m still so concentrated on listening to and enjoying the music. It’s not perfect like if it were just one continuous take of a single concert, but I can assure you that it doesn’t sound the least bit like a bunch of unconnected live performances stacked one upon another that should only be listened to and taken in as individual events. In short, the extreme purists will certainly find things that break their unwritten code of conduct, but almost no one else will care.

Perhaps Prince the perfectionist has finally gotten comfortable enough with his playing skills and the level of playing he has found with his current band to leave well enough alone. He still of course is presumably too much of a perfectionist to find one single concert that from start to finish meets with his ultra-meticulous nature. But at least he was able to create something through multiple concerts that meets his high standards without manipulating (read: gutting) the actual performances themselves. That’s a start. Now if he keeps this current band together long enough perhaps one day he’ll find one 3-hour concert performance that meets his high standards and release that mostly untouched.

The artwork is a lot better than it has been, although it still falls short of being great by a long shot. The cover artwork on both discs (“One Nite Alone…Live!” and “One Nite Alone…The Aftershow: It Ain’t Over!”) is something you can proudly carry around with you in public. No need to wrap this stuff in a brown paper bag of shame like with the “One Nite Alone” studio album, “New Power Soul” or “Rave Unto the Joy Fantastic”. The front cover of the “One Nite Alone” jewel case is nothing more than a serious looking, lowly lit picture of Prince in a light-blue suit with a black turned-up-at-the-collar shirt and black hat that mostly fades into the black background. A small cursive-like white font reads, “One Nite Alone Live” just to the left of his face. This same picture also graces the outside of the 6” x 12” box that is otherwise all black with the inside outer edge being wrapped in piano keys. The aftershow cover is a shot of the entire band performing in a club with Prince pictured just right of center wearing what appears to be the same suit and shirt from the other cover, but this time he’s styling a dark knit cap. The title of the album appears to be burnt through the top portion of the CD and the same burned-through white font style on the bottom left reads, “Up Late with Prince & The NPG”. The predominant color of this cover is a reddish brown. The 56-page color booklet fits snuggly inside the box and is a real treat for collectors and those who enjoy scanning images for making their own compilation artwork. And it was a nice touch to include a mini-poster, even if the photo appears to have captured Prince in more of a Malox moment than anything akin to musical magnificence.

People who don’t like “The Rainbow Children”, don’t like Prince’s ballads, particularly played mostly acoustically at the piano, or don’t like Prince’s new jazz leanings are probably not gonna find much to love on these first two discs. But there is also a strong chance that those who don’t like “TRC” are going to have their ears opened to it for the first time. Additionally, those who think live music should be about recreating the studio experience are going to be either horrified by the third disc or have their brains transmogrified by the possibilities and inspirational powers of live music.

HIGHLIGHTS OF DISCS 1 & 2 (ONE NITE ALONE…LIVE!)

(Disc 1)

Drum rolls and dark and foreboding digitized sounds gurgle and pop the “Rainbow Children” into ominous action. Four minutes into the presentation of this song and even the daffiest of individuals would have a hard time missing the serious-musicianship-over-theatrics tone being championed. The version here traces the album version quite closely, from the swinging opening, to Prince’s attacking guitar solo that grows seemingly bolder and angrier with each reflective strike, to the cool jazz-like bridge that ultimately shakes something wicked funky before it finally mutates into the Santana-esque orgasmic slop that is the rocking instrumental coda. This song could easily be renamed, “10 Simple Steps For Touching On All Aspects Of 20th Century Music In One Groove.” Okay, perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But the fusion of funk and jazz here is so powerful as to stir memories of the powerful melding of the disparate worlds of rock and funk in the equally ever twisting and turning apocalyptic masterpiece “Crystal Ball”. Sounds like Rhonda Smith is playing her Vektor acoustic bass here. And, yes, the God-like voice is present here for better or for worse, in sickness and in health.

I’ve heard many people allude to the “The Rainbow Children” tracks sounding much better live. However, with the exception of the two laid-back R&B numbers “Muse 2 the Pharaoh” and “Mellow”, both of which are fed with a welcomed boost of extra protein, I just don’t hear that big a difference. “The Rainbow Children” studio tracks are pretty live sounding themselves and most are reproduced quite faithfully here.

Fusion fans are going to brake their necks when they hear “Xenophobia” played live. This is a sick and sticky complex arrangement of jazz musings and rock yearnings and probably the closest the band ever gets to reaching the epic level of playing found on the aftershow disc. And, oh, did I mention that it’s funky as 3-week old drawers? If Prince could have found a way to incorporate more new “TRC” material and continue in this direction I think this concert could’ve soared right past legendary status. As it stands he ended up choosing a little safer route, probably fearing that if he went completely hardcore that the “Purple Rain” people would have stormed the ticket counter for refunds and never ever returned. His method was to break them in more gently, though the opening 16 minutes seem to go over really well and I’d have to guess that a majority of the people were sitting there hearing this for the first time thinking, “What the hell is taking place here? Did somebody steal our Prince?” Renato Neto gets time to stretch here as does Maceo Parker, as Prince leads this snaky groove down paths like that of some demented band leader drunk with power. Before the end of the first section where Prince goes into his “leader/follower” routine with the crowd, John Blackwell fiercely breaks the skins down in a way that instantly recalls Sheila E. on the “Sign O’ the Times” tour. Prince then takes the person who gave the right answer (you guessed it, the follower) on stage where he privately and briefly serenades on guitar. The whole band then eventually returns in full power and glory, led by nasty Prince guitar work that eventually weaves its way back to the “Xenophobia” theme, and everyone gets sticky all over again. This is one of Prince’s finest moments.

Great art at times definitely challenges you to look at things differently and sometimes that means going back and revisiting and reassessing your own viewpoint. That’s exactly what has happened to me upon hearing live versions of “Extraordinary” and “The Other Side of the Pillow”. I always looked at these tracks as good but minor, but now I’m not so sure. Both tracks here startup in a somewhat conventional sense, only to later be deconstructed and turned into jazz, and both are imbued with walk-till-you-drop, stand-up acoustic bass by Rhonda Smith. About halfway through “Extraordinary” we get a very mature Candy Dulfer sax solo, followed by equally serious and mature jazz piano by Prince. On the “Other Side” it’s Najee who solos just before Greg Boyer so feels the direction that the song is taking he pleads for a piece of the action and his muted and playfully vamping trombone takes us all back to a 1930s, smoke-filled Harlem jazz club. Who would have expected this from Prince? This is fun!

Despite the fact that Prince stops the entire “1+1+1 is 3” groove mid-funk and announces that “theocratic order” is what he’s talking about (good, god, only Prince), it still manages to excite, thrill, and create all kinds of bouncing havoc on those in which it ensnares. Prince understand that you work the back of the room and balconies first and hardest and the rest will take care of itself, and this adage is proven here and elsewhere throughout the set. I still think this one is just begging for an 8- to 12-minute P-Funk version, but unfortunately Prince only allows it to shine for 6 glorious minutes before pushing the stop button. Prince, next time, don’t hit stop until we drop.

“When U Were Mine” (in which Prince goes old school with when he dusts off the falsetto) and “Strange Relationship” take flight, not because they have been significantly altered with brilliant new arrangements, but because of the power and energy that the band infuses into them. It takes me back to the days of the “Lovesexy” tour where every song played seemed to fly just a little bit higher than it ever had previously because of the musicians that were piloting the proceedings. I loved the punk/funk Prince of the early 80s, but musicianship wise he and his band are light years ahead of that time period and I can’t see why anyone with diverse musical tastes would want a return trip. People are gonna love Renato Neto, he appears as equally adept at either hanging old school Minneapolis sound or following Prince into excursions of improvisational jazz. The fact that his presence already feels like a rock is rather scary when considering the short period of time he's been with the band. Add in the already proven rhythm section of Rhonda Smith on bass and John Blackwell on drums and you’ve got a core around which you can play and build literally anything. Hopefully Prince grows old with this band.

It’s no grand accident that “Avalanche” is triggered with a large explosion of sound from the end of “When U Were Mine” (just notice how it’s ingeniously tracked), and it certainly makes you sit up straight in your seat as the snow comes sliding your way. I truly believe this to be one of Prince’s finest compositions, something that could eventually become a musical standard, and the version heard here -- which brings the first disc to a close -- is presented in an even more stunning and achingly soulful way than on his piano album. I just adore the way the chorus comes rolling in over the verse like an avalanche while Prince’s falsetto carefully caresses each syllable like his very life depended on delivery without breakage. It breaks your heart, it really does. Prince’s piano solo at the end of the first chorus is so genuinely heartfelt and sharp in both content and style that it feels like each key strike is a nail in the concept of slavery and/or perhaps the stinging pain that is still being felt generations later. Rapturous and glorious. Stops you dead in your tracks even though you damn well know doing so will cause you to be engulfed in its wrath.

(Intermission)

Fortunately there are several moments of humor here that counteract some of the more serious and sometimes even preachier moments. When on “1+1+1 is 3” Prince sings the line, “I ain’t really that hard to please” you can clearly hear Rhonda Smith on the background responding quite sarcastically with, “Don’t believe it!” Always good to hear Prince allowing the self-deprecating humor through, as it helps balance that very well endowed ego. “They say money won’t buy you happiness…but it’ll pay for the search”, Prince deadpans right at the tale end of “Nothing Compares 2 U”. And you won’t be able to miss how Prince sadistically mimics the name “Rebecca” to the poor women in the front who doesn’t quite understand that he was asking for her last name during the “Name Change” skit. And perhaps one of the funniest moments comes near the end of “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore” where Prince -- while seated at his piano -- catches a glimpse of some interesting soul in the audience and his immediate reaction is, “Miss, I just wanna say, ‘crack kills!’” One can’t help but instantly conjure the image of this person’s state of grace given the rather, um, (clears throat), eccentric characters we’ve all seen at Prince concerts. And fortunately there are many more great jovial moments of audience interaction scattered throughout that I’ll leave you to find.

This is a very cohesive and agreeable listening experience that is mostly wall-to-wall music. The talking sections, with the possible exception of the ending speech on the final track of Disc 2, are fortunately fairly abbreviated and mostly unobtrusive. This is especially true when compared to some of his concerts in the past, most notably the “Purple Rain” concert where I skip the middle, dead-section almost every time.

The horn work throughout this set is consistently brilliant, seemingly always there to fill every nick and cranny, bump and pump energy into every passage, or fly gracefully on short but purposeful improvisations that seem to add weight to almost everything they touch. When listening to some of this material one is reminded of the glory days with Atlanta Bliss and Eric Leeds.

I don’t expect anyone to believe me on this until they hear it for themselves, but this collection made-up from pieces of 8 different concerts have been fused together with such perfection and care that it really does feel like you’re experiencing one concert.

(Disc 2)

“Family Name” kicks of the second disc and is pretty faithful to the album version. Prince is one of the few living musicians bold enough (and talented enough) to take the greatest funk track Sly Stone never wrote and end it with an enraged fuel of piercing metal guitar loud and impassioned enough to jolt the guitar metal heads amongst the gathered into reverential disbelief. Another blow to the segregationist label makers. Yes indeed, I do believe Thomas Jefferson and his funky platitudes have left the building and in his wake comes the hopeful spirit of Martin Luther King.

Back to trying to keep the radio listeners in their seats comes “Take Me With You” and “Raspberry Beret”, both blessedly receiving full versions. No more of that abbreviated Las Vegas-medley tripe that melded the two tracks together on previous tours. And just like “When U Were Mine” and “Strange Relationship” before them, they sound as energetic and lively as any band twice their size has a right to. Rhonda takes the place of Apollonia and Wendy on the vocals respectively and comes out better than both. Loads of crowd interaction here, or is that just Prince’s new 2000-person backup choir?

“Everlasting Now” closes the main set and manages to nearly match “Xenophobia” in both twists and turns and stunningly unreal, start-stop musicianship. Once again Prince finds a way to carve out a jazz middle section that both soothes and satisfies and acts as a fresh stream where more great Prince guitar work can be mined before the original tune is eventually returned and rocked and funked to submission. A fantastic way to closeout the main set and beckon the masses to cry out for an encore.

I’m not a huge fan of medleys, but this encore, containing a dozen songs, varying from the barely touched to the full-on encounters, is a wonderfully constructed 27 minutes of bliss. And I guess since all the other songs are fully formed and the medley is isolated to this one location that it’s much more digestible than constantly cutting songs short here there and everywhere. Completely acoustic at times, quasi-acoustic at times, full-on band at times, this run-through of many of his falsetto-drenched, make-the-girls-weak-at-the-knees ballads gets better -- much like this entire set -- with each listen, and over time it really does begin to play like one long, compelling statement. And it also reinforces just how large and varied Prince’s back catalogue is; thicker than one of those Sears jobs your mamma used to bring home just in time for Christmas wishing. Most of the playing here is just Prince and his voice alone at the piano, but at times subtle backing orchestrations can be heard that nuance the performance and that Prince himself is probably triggering via his electric piano.

“One Nite Alone” starts things off in very abbreviated form, but it stays around long enough to set the perfect mood and imagery. There’s a purple spotlight, baby black grand, and the presence of a dancing, twirling feminine spirit that seems to be provoking the whole sorted affair. And the spirit transforms as we move from song to song and from inspiration to inspiration. Second up is “Adore” and it gallivants about for more than five minutes, but it’s not all frolicking and cherishing here. Three minutes in Prince slams the brakes on the romance upon reaching the word “smash” in the “you can smash up my ride” line. He later finds out his words were ironically prophetic and the twinkling Twilight Zone music paints the picture of a little red Corvette crumpled beyond recognition. He comes around, though, begrudgingly as it may be, and changes his mood to one of forgiveness, buys her a new car and finishes the song off with the kind of glorious vocals that this gospel masterpiece deserves; no, demands. The next 90 seconds are a trip back to 1979 for the hit “I Wanna Be Your Lover”, played with such hard rocking vitality on the piano that it certainly must have brought the crowd back to their feet, if only for a moment. Now everyone sits right back down to listen (or is it sing?) to the gorgeously sexy “Do Me, Baby” for two minutes, a phenomenon of audience participation that will grow as we go, causing Prince to remark at one point, “Now you know I’m scared of you, right?” “Condition of the Heart” is only hinted at next in interlude and serves as the midpoint marker to the piece.

The second half of the piece, if you will, begins with a 10-line tease of “Diamonds & Pearls” and then we’re quickly scurried off to one of the loudest ovations of the set at the mere hint that the “The Beautiful Ones” might be visiting. And visit they do until Prince asks the women, “Are you gonna due that to me, Baby?” in reference to smashing his picture, at which the ladies scream emphatically, “NO!” and Prince retorts in skeptically cynical fashion with a, “Yeah, right.” The rapturous bitter sweet “Nothing Compares 2 U” gets near full treatment next and the entire band joins him shortly after he gets the mournful affair up and rolling. The energy reaches full tilt when Candy Dulfer steps center stage for a short sax statement powerful enough to kill the dandelions growing in Prince’s loveless backyard. Amongst the diverse gathering, goose bumps must have been the common denominator. Prince brings this one home with some of the most impassioned vocals of the set and then abruptly drops it all back down to a simple spotlighted piano, for serious reflective pondering on the human condition. At the end of this contemplation Prince states in somewhat defeated fashion, “Ultimately what you find out is that…ain’t none of us really free”. He then jumps right into “Free”, that just like “Nothing Compares 2 U” before it, is delivered as both acoustic meditation and full-on band supported anthem. We’re only allowed to feel “Free” for a little more than the length of one verse and one chorus and then we’re all transported directly into Cynthia Rose’s lunchbox, filled with “Starfish & Coffee” and other diverse and mysterious wonders to the source of joy. This one gets full band treatment and gets people back to moving at least some of their extremities again, if for only a minute. Things settle down once again with Christopher Tracy’s lament (“Sometimes It Snows In April”). This ridiculously underrated “Parade” classic melts in the ear for almost 3 minutes before moving off to the final song in the acoustic set, a 5-minute melancholy speculation on “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?” One wonders if the inclusion of this last song isn’t influenced at least in part by the recent covering of this song by Alicia Keys on her multi-platinum selling “Songs in A Minor”, especially since she has also been performing it in concert and has released it as a single. By dividing this song in two distinct parts new interest is instilled in this now 20-year old composition. The first section allowing for convention, starting with 45 seconds of piano and slight orchestration and then followed by full band, including a laid-back, meandering harmonica (I think a synth). The famously fierce Prince scream is reached and captured live and then instantly played back for several seconds in echoed manner as a means of breaking with the song’s convention. From here we move into the second more seductive, gospel-based, jumpy-but-cool section that contains some wonderfully inspired Al Green-like vocal gesturing that brings this acoustic set to a beautiful conclusion. Prince cries out, “Oh, Portland, I can’t leave it like that”, referring to the songs fairly trivial nature (at least in comparison to the seriousness that is to follow) and then the song slowly winds down and moves into the concert closer.

“This is how we want to leave it”, Prince states just before hitting the opening piano chords that signal the rousing and spiritual “Anna Steisa” which brings closure to the entire event. The full song is played and then eventually breaks down into an extended audience-participation groove consisting of a “Rise Up!” call that reminds of Bruce Springsteen’s recent “My City of Ruins” track in both spirit and moody potential to inspire the audience into action. We hangout here for 8 minutes where the theme set forth in the concert’s opener is revisited in both feeling and in words; that being, the diversity of mankind embracing and coming together under our similarities -- first and foremost according to Prince being the creator of us all.

LOWLIGHTS OF DISCS 1 & 2 (ONE NITE ALONE…LIVE!)

Prince chooses at times to speak rather than let the music do the talking for him. When you’re hit with an “avalanche” of sound and unadulterated energy it can open minds and hearts of all sizes, shapes and backgrounds, but you start preaching and doors will start slamming pretty quickly. Art is surely partly about pushing buttons and sharing your unique view of the world. However, its impact is lessened when the language is either so straightforward as to leave no room for other viewpoints or interpretations, or so cryptically coded (“The Opposite of monotheism is NATO”, “I’m talking about a theocratic order!”) as to be useless as anything more than gibberish masquerading as importance.

Probably also not the smartest move to mix a serious message with the business of the NPGMC during the final speech on “Anna Stesia”. But Prince does just that by commenting on how “high” the non-members are seated and turning this into a request to sing “high” on the closing chant of “God is love, love is God, girls and boys love God above.” This might ruin the experience for some, but by now I’m used to Prince sprinkling in a few kooky, squirm-inducing moves here and there, as he’s done it to one degree or another on every single tour I can remember.

But when you hear him literally cry out “L.A.” multiple times at the end of “Anna Stesia”, there can be little doubt as to the veracity of his convictions. I truly believe that there is a passion behind his message and he merely wants to share what has worked so well for him in his life; which like many in his place, of course, feel will work for everybody. And at the end of the day, I can respect that kind of passion, even if I don’t always agree with his chosen words or methods.

I don’t know how much of a negative this really is, if at all, but Prince references the WNPG at the start of “Strange Relationship” and then the whole cover section is removed from the concert. In their absence the booklet has a “WNPG Playlist” section that lists about 50-60 songs that serve as an excerpted list of what the fictional WNPG would play if they had enough wattage.

The length of the concert at 2 hours and 5 minutes is certain to be the subject of some debate, as the actual “One Nite Alone” concerts were often around 3 hours. I was on the fence on this issue myself, but the more I listen to this set the more I come down on the side of it being the right length.

On the one hand you could argue that there should have been at least 25 minutes more worth of material to make it feel much closer to representing the actual tour. But the other side of the argument is that the “SOTT” movie was only 85 minutes long and yet that collection gets tremendous respect, even with the numerous and obvious overdubs.

I think ultimately if the set didn’t have to be divided up on two discs like it is due to CD technology storage limitations, it wouldn’t feel quite so awkward. It’s just odd if you choose to listen to only Disc 2, as there are only 4 full songs and suddenly the encore hits you. If you’re going to make a concert that spills over to two discs, it’s important that both discs work as standalone experiences.

HIGHLIGHTS OF DISC 3 (ONE NITE ALONE…THE AFTERSHOW: IT AIN’T OVER)

If you took “Small Club” and removed some of the fat (even though the fat on “Small Club” is the kind of wonderful stuff you can only enjoy on a choice cut of steak) it might sound something like the nearly 1-hour “It Ain’t Over” disc. The musicianship is that tight and the arrangements -- planned and otherwise -- are that phenomenally right. If you play this disc first you may never get to the more standard fair found on the first two discs; it’s that addictive.

“It Ain’t Over”, even more so that the first two discs, sounds remarkably like one concert. But what we have here is really one long run from New York on April 9th and one long run from Los Angeles on April 20th, interrupted only once with a remarkable 11-minute taste of “Peach (xtended jam)” from Portland on April 30th. And this taste of “Peach” is so unbelievably, preposterously thick and juicy that it certainly must be the forbidden fruit talked about in Genesis. No doubt a strong candidate for the funkiest moment in Prince history. Your jaw will be hitting the floor on the beat.

“Small Club” has “Just My Imagination” and “It Ain’t Over” has “Joy in Repetition”, that one track you just keep cueing up over and over again until your ears ache or the police show up to inform you that you’re disturbing the peace. The guitar solo contained within is the type of awe-inspiring stuff Prince never serves up in the studio (multiple minutes of great guitar work instead of 5 or 10 seconds here and there). You just aren’t going to believe how spectacular this one is no matter how successfully I or anyone else describes it, so I’m just gonna leave it alone. Music just doesn’t get any better than this. Now you can just point your impressed friend at a local record store. No more secret passwords or handshakes and no more having to build relationships based on trust with some shady character named “Louie” behind the beaded curtain of smoke just to get your sweaty hands on the goods.

Another transcendental moment equaling the greatest moments of “Small Club” occurs on “We Do This”. If one were continuing to draw parallels this track would be to this CD what “People Without” is to “Small Club”; that is, an unreleased track (George Clinton track in this case) that might be more of a groove becoming a song on the spot than a finished piece. This one apparently has already caused a big enough stir that Dallas Austin and other big-name producers have been circling like vultures in hopes of being the first to lock talons to sampling rights. Handling lead vocals is the master of funk George Clinton. George comes out sounding like Luis Armstrong with a bad case of laryngitis and a fit of funk to unload, castigating any non-believers in the crowd with, “It would be ludicrous to think that we are new to this, we do this, this is what we do!” This song crescendos into a magical mix of Maceo Parker sax, Larry Graham fuzz bass, and Prince guitar driving the whole groove home with some seriously insane, paint-stripping metal work that certainly must be hurting those pushed up front near the loud speakers. Clinton sensing finality starts to cry out repetitiously, “It ain’t over!” in hopes of carrying this orgasmic groove on just a little longer, just a little further. Just consider for a moment the staggeringly enormous level of talent that was on that stage during this performance. Then consider how lucky we are that this can now be witnessed by more than just a few hundred lucky New Yorkers. Funk fans take notice, this one ranks with the classics and the paint ain’t even dry yet.

The presence of “Dorothy Parker” on this disc proves two things: This song is monumentally versatile and Prince is challenging/inspiring himself again to genius-level arrangements. Take the now vanilla-sounding version that was played on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, throw everything out but the jazz-based impression, then rebuild the song from scratch until it sounds like it never has before, and like you never thought it could. I think Sheila E. is on a percussion set for this one and for sure she is seated behind the drums for “Girls & Boys”, the track that follows “Dorothy”.

“I want to sing, but it’s too funky!” Prince announces almost 2 minutes into the instrumental “2 Nigs United 4 West Compton”, and this could pretty much be the working theme for Disc 3 as well as being a simple fact of physics. This version is so fresh and new as to be almost unrecognizable to the original “Black Album” version, but the arrangement and musicianship are so tight and right that it elevates this track nearly to the level of “Xenophobia” live.

From the 4th track until the 9th and final track this disc becomes one gigantically irresistible groove, with the band twisting and turning on a dime, following a muse, or just putting it in a holding pattern for a moment to enjoy the fruits of their labor. To draw another parallel, this is most like the last 30 minutes of Disc 2 of “Small Club” where you can’t believe the trip you’re on or that it could possible ever get any better than the present only to have it change and somehow build and progress further with each step until everyone is pleading against the possibility of it ever ending. “It ain’t over! It ain’t over!” chants the audience in L.A., almost as if they had tapped into the residual spirit of George Clinton’s impassioned pleas from another aftershow 3 thousand miles to their east.

The informed out there in Prince’s abilities as one of the greatest musical talents of the 20th century have finally been handed the perfect tool for dealing with the non-informed. Just hand them this disc with a sly but slightly knowing smile, a pat on the head and a “Bye bye, now!” They won’t be back to bother you again…ever.

LOWLIGHTS OF DISC 3 (ONE NITE ALONE…THE AFTERSHOW: IT AIN’T OVER)

It’s a well-known show-biz adage that you never follow a kid, an animal act, or a legend. Well, poor Musiq Soulchild has been placed as the third track on Disc 3 and has the unenviable task of following both Prince and George Clinton, and you can feel the drop-off in performance skills, even though he delivers a very solid, soulful 3 minutes while holding the lead microphone. Fortunately it doesn’t at all sink the disc, as the beautiful musicianship and crowd interaction manages to buoy the proceedings until Prince takes grasp of the sails again. Boy, though, we certainly didn’t need another “Everybody in the house make some noise!” and other cliches that this current generation never seems to tire of hearing or delivering, but Musiq’s scatting is very nice at the end nevertheless. In the end, though, you’ll be thankful for this track’s presence, as it’s the only respite your body will get.

Some might complain that with a runtime of 56 minutes that the disc is too short. Perhaps it is. But as incredible as this disc is I’d hate to see its import lessened to any degree. Of course there are more great aftershow performances out there on this tour, but are there others that would fit the same vibe and not only keep it going but add to it and take it even higher? Less is usually more and in this case you’re left definitely craving more.

Disc 3 is perhaps so good that it has the potential to reduce the impact of the first two discs. But that’s often the disparate reality with Prince in small clubs and Prince in large shows, so it certainly is not surprising to experience it here as well. I truly fear for people’s hearing as they attempt to climb inside this one.

SUMMATION

Fortunately this set is not about putting together a live hits collection for the masses to feed (or is it fester?) on. That’s what he’s been doing for the last several years and thankfully he did not chose to release those tired retread “hit” shows as his first live album, even though from a purely commercial standpoint it would’ve made much more sense. And with Prince’s current stand on curse words, does anybody really want him messing around with (read: censoring) past great concerts and releasing those instead? Hopefully he does that later when he reaches a less extremist viewpoint.

Overall this 3-disc set is a fantastic document of Prince’s live performance skills, not a sterile live compilation showcasing every great song he’s ever written (an impossibility anyway with only 3 discs). And I think that’s the point. You get jazz, R&B, rock, soul, funk, an acoustic section filled with falsetto balladry, aftershow adventuring, challenging reworking of songs both new and old, rare extended examples of Prince’s tremendous skills on both guitar and piano, and rarified musicianship all but a few of the world’s elite could ever hope to match. Several thousand serious music lovers will find their way to this box set just as they found their way to “The Rainbow Children”. Respect has a way of traveling underground.

RATINGS (out of 4 stars):

One Nite Alone…Live! (2 Discs) - 2:05:47

*** – The more I listen to this set the fewer flaws I find. This set falls just short of being the monumental achievement that is the third disc. The musicianship is fantastic (perhaps the greatest band Prince has ever had if you don’t account for dancing or backup singing) and the overall presentation great, if not a bit odd in its song selection. But it still falls just a tiny bit short of fully capturing the sustained kind of magic Prince is capable of live (see Disc 3 for that). In addition, Disc 2 never quite matches the level of Disc 1, first and foremost because it needed a few more full-length songs before the encore/medley starts. But that is some obsessive nitpicking, because if you listen to the two discs back-to-back it sounds wonderfully right on. And of course one day this will be stored on one long-play CD, taking away the only major negative I can possible find outside of some Prince-speak that is less than flattering to his intelligence. This is one of the finest Prince tours captured in most, if not all of its glory.

One Nite Alone…The Aftershow: It Ain’t Over (1 Disc) - 55:41

*** - A masterpiece of legendary aftershow funk. An absolutely essential disc. Instantly joins the pantheon of greatest recorded live music ever released. Perhaps jumping all the fantastic bootlegs out there with one gigantic leap, and it’s even legal to buy and sell. Although anything this fun surely won’t be legal for long.

In closing, this box set, taken as a whole, will be rightfully debated for years to come as the finest thing Prince has ever released.

Put simply, Prince’s artistry, “It Ain’t Over!”

by Brendan Patrick
December 3, 2002