{{{Review in Filter ((album review section, p 97) of March 2003 edition:

One Night Alone ... Live!
Prince And The New Power Generation
*** (three stars = stands out from the crowd: well worth checking out - maximum rating is five stars)

Three CD box marks Prince's first live collection in 25 years.

Back when rock 'n' roll was still the devil's music, musicians had a choice when God came a-knockin' on their soul. Take Little Richard. He's flyin' on a plane, sees a vision of Armageddon, and knows he has to cast his lot with either the righteous or the rockers, but not both. Since then, rock and the devil have been parted - musicians know they can choose the Man upstairs while still playing the thunder down under. Which is what Prince, a relatively new convert to the Jehovah's Witnesses, does throughout One Night Alone ... Live! He knows how to sin, so to speak, and how to save, or so he thinks. How much you, good listener, can dig the former depends onhow much you can stand the latter.}}}

Although Prince has issued 14 discs of new material (including this set) since his much publicised "emancipation" from Warner Bros. seven years ago, this release is hardly just another album. It's the first live collection in the quarter-century career of the man who created 1999, Purple Rain and Sign 'O' The Times, the man who was most able to follow in the gut-busting, ass-shaking concert footsteps of James Brown. Still, One Night Alone ... Live! aint for the casual fan who wants to go crazy in a little red Corvette. Nor is it for the log time supporter begging for the release of vintage tapes of the Revolution. No, this set, culled from the month-long tour last year is Prince preaching to the choir - the hardcore devoteeswho've supported each and every name change, tirade and oddball release.

And things get odd here. A small sampling: the anti-Abe Lincoln rant, Avalanche, which might work as Public Enemy anger, but which falls on its face as Prince's smooth jazz; the Jehovah's warnings against blood transfusion; Prince positioning himself like Jesus fooling the Pharisees as he quizzes audience members on their generosity. Worst is the misogyny and other rap-related excesses on Family Name, Muse 2 The Pharaoh and the title cut from his concept album The Rainbow Children (2001), a disc that dominates the box with seven songs (nine other albums are repped by one cut each: Sign ... gets four).

But while Prince is to blame for the album's downfall, he's also responsible for its redemption. Like Brown, Prince is a crack bandleader in addition to being an ace performer, and he marshals all the skills in this lean - just bass, keys and drums, with four horns - edition of the NPG. During a 12-minute take on the unreleased Xenophobia, keyboardist Renato Neto pulls squawks straight from satellites then slides into a greasy, electrified groove. Throughout the set, Prince boasts about the outfit's prowess - "If you can describe it, it ain't funky!" - and the band dishes the goods to back it up. Not least of the talents is his own Royal Badness, who wrings everything from ominous metal to joyous exhortations from his Telecaster. On When U Were Mine, he tosses licks as dirty as any bedroom lyric he ever whispered.

Disc three weaves together several of Prince's aftershows, those post-concert club gigs where the first note might not ring till 3am. Here Alphabet Street bounds from double-time throwdown to raved-up hoedown. But the CD, which includes appearances from George Clinton and Musiiq, is really one long sweaty workout - a benediction, sending the flock out to spread the good news: Prince can not only kick out the jams, but kick the shit out of 'em and then dance on what's left.

Now just how, exactly, all this revelling in the heebie-jeebies squares with His Puplre Highness's conservative new faith ain't clear. But then, Prince has long plied us with strange relationships.

Chris Nelson

The article is accompanied by an image of the main double CD cover.

Damn straight!

Thanx for that article, is that in this months mojo?? My Dad gets that magazine

thecloud9mission said:

March 2003 issue - largely dedicated to Punk with articles on the likes of The Clash and The Damned and a free punk CD on cover.

Is Prince judeg on his beliefs or his sound?

> Is Prince judeg on his beliefs or his sound?
>
> "Goodness will guide us when love is inside of us... The Force will be with you, always"

As he uses the stage to preach as much as to play, both I would say.

Sometimes I think it's gets a little much (the preaching). But in this review it's a bit exaggerated, I think.

"Prince can not only kick out the jams, but kick the shit out of 'em and then dance on what's left."

...Nicely put...

That's what i call a review... Nice one

It seems that some didn't digest the royal badness era... Again it is very stereotyped to think rock equals bad attitude... In a couple of months people will start to complain about Prince's lack of "masculinity"

Nice review indeed.

"On When U Were Mine, he tosses licks as dirty as any bedroom lyric he ever whispered". Oh yeah!

"He knows how to sin, so to speak, and how to save, or so he thinks. How much you, good listener, can dig the former depends onhow much you can stand the latter."

hmmm...

klaatu said:

I picked up on that too. But I can certainly relate to the reviewer's displeasure of hearing mysogistic, preachy lyrics. Lyrics are certainly one of the core ingredients of what makes a good song, and if the message bothers you too much, you will dislike it viscerally.

Then again, I've heard lyrics that I can't relate to all my life, and built some kind of resistance. I tell myself it's this artist's world, what he cares about... and if the music itself transcends the lyrics, then I enjoy it at the level of "here's a person expressing his beliefs with words and music, and I'm an witness to this expression". I can do this only to an extent -- I doubt there's any musician out there that could make music great enough to transcend, say, "battie boys" lyrics.

I definitely have a feeling that if the lyrics had been less bothersome, this reviewer would have enjoyed some of the TRC tracks a great deal. It took me a couple of weeks to become less preoccupied with TRC's lyrics -- Unfortunately, critics have to move to the next record pretty fast, so he's probably going to realize I'm right in a couple of years.

One GREAT Article!!..

THANKS CHRIS!

FISH

funkyfish said:

I know i should know but waht are the mysoginstic lyrics?

Did somebody say rock and roll freak juice rocks

Why does every socalled critic have to base a review of a Prince rcord around his religion? What does it have to do with the music? nothing.

justin10 said:

In my book, that whole vibe about running agenda through his woman's hair, her letting him decide, the phrase "this is how it's gonna be, if you wanna be with me, ain't no room for disagree", according to the scriptures, women is supposed to be a complement for the man...

See - sometimes, my woman lets me decide stuff ("Daddy? Who's the boss of you and mum?" "I am! She just makes all the decisions.") But here we have a description of this arrangement as the only natural, moral, sensible solution. There ain't no room for disagree, this is just the way God's devine will operates: man over woman.

To me, there's no difference from this to the system of slavery: nowhere does it say that a white slave-owner must abuse his slaves, but the system demands that they are his subordinates, they are for him. Slaves work for massa, as the ideal woman in these pretty songs bear child for massa. "I gotta get back to my right place is the subject of my song" A woman's worth is measured as what they are to their Man - in themselves, what are they? Decoration. An appendage. Object, not independent subjects.

That's incomplete though:
U Make My Sunshine:
"I gotta get back to my rightFUL place/ This is the subject of my song"
QUEEN OF THE HUMAN RACE...This is where I belong"
I don't think Prince is saying that's ALL a woman is...but a big part.