For a few years, I heard people on here gripe about the live ONE NIGHT ALONE project. I just recently bought it and I love it! I think it was so smart of Prince to release a live album comprised of mostly material from THE RAINBOW CHILDREN album. RAINBOW CHILDREN is probably Prince's most musically organic album since SIGN O THE TIMES and it translates VERY well live. The live version of "Family Name" and "The Everlasting Now" are modern day classics up there with anything Prince did in the 80's. I also loved the jam feel of disc 3.....the only thing missing is that "Last December" shoulda closed out disc 2

All n All, I loved the ONE NIGHT ALONE disc....

for those who disliked it, what were your gripes...

No gripes here-love it! Fantastic from start 2 finish!

Fabulous

The only real gripe I had was with a press release that said Prince was putting together "the ultimate live collection" (or something to that effect). So I was expecting tracks from the Purple Rain tour, the Sign O' The Times Movie, The Diamonds & Pears Tour, and maybe some early Dirty Mind/Controversy era stuff. But what we got was basically Rainbow Children live. It's not so much that it's a bad album but more that there was just so much more he could have done with a 3-disc live album.

my only main gripe with it is the aftershow disc, which i think sucked rotten eggs. there were maybe two decent tracks on it (dorothy parker and joy in repetition), and the rest of it was stuff that, at best, you had to actually BE there to really enjoy. at worst, well...let's just say "musiq" and leave it at that.

i was super-excited for an 'official' aftershow recording and disappointed with what we got.

the main CDs were just fine, i thought. perhaps a little too fragmented and fussed over, but the end result was perfectly listenable.

Anx said:

the aftershow sucked ass, well the actual aftershow sucked so...

I'm not crazy about this live collection...

The only song I really love is "Joy In Repetition"!

2 Nigs United 4 West Compton??? It's got nothing to do with the original...

Cheek said:

MikeMatronik said:

Close your eyes, Kylie...

Cheek said:

you have been listening to much to that red hed kate bush wannabe

MikeMatronik said:

You're wrong. I sold all of my Tori CDs.


And Madonna too!

Cheek said:

You the right choice. Madonna sucks big time

MikeMatronik said:

Cheek said:

She tries to hard... to important!

All the re-invention stuff it's just stealling! Also her gay fans are the most disgusting twinks I ever seen

MikeMatronik said:

Please, don't stop it!

Cheek said:

And that H&M stuff....horrid early 90's Versace rip-off!

Even Kylie did better knickers that she!

Anx said:

I agree with you on the Musiq gripe but I love the Aftershow. It really shows the band at its funky/jazzy best. The interplay of the musicians really show them at a peak. Even the Musiq segment displays some brilliant guitar work by P. It makes me really want to attend an aftershow.

Gripes:

*Live albums never convey the energy and excitement of the room.
*Bad levels of crowd noise to convey live performance
*Ridiculous segment where he changes seats of the female concert goers who disagree with his religious dogma. This is one of those times where his religious fundamentalism goes overboard and makes him look like a cult leader. What happened to his humanist and spiritual outlook to the diversity of religious views?
*The band doesn't handle the rock new wave of "When U Were Mine" well.
*Nagee
*Piano Solo is great but could do without the drawn out Adore version


Brilliant Moments:
*Avalanche (Beautiful absorbing melancholy)
*Rhonda Smith
*Xenophobia (Great understated picture of post 9/11 America)

I really like it, my only gripe is that linn drum machine he still uses on some tracks...unnecessary. Leave it with the Revolution!
[Edited 3/27/07 7:29am]

i think if C-NOTE would have been the third disc instead of the aftershow disc, the live box set coulda been on fire.

I loved the boxset myself but Prince could have released complete live recordings of several One Night Alone Tour gigs on CD and DVD!! I remember when I watched the concert at Kodak Theater in Hollywood, they were filming it and I'm sure it happened in other cities as well! It would have been great to have a 10-disc box set-- 5 CDs, 5 DVDs from 5 different cities!!!!! How great would that be!!! And I loved TRC so I don't mind the materials from it at all!! Actually great 2 c Prince doing the Darth Vader voice live!!

December1984 said:

Same here!
The piano medley however became one of my all time fav.
I've played disc2 more than any other P-songs since it's release.

The whole set is just lifeless compared to what it could have been.

As it stands, it sounds like a compilation of acoustic cover versions with a faint audience noise dubbed on in the background. There's no sense of the atmosphere that usually accompanies a live show, particularly a Prince live show.

The third disc redeems itself by having unique takes on some Prince tracks on it and coming across as a long, fascinating jam. But those two first discs, with the exception of Xenophobia, offer nothing new to Prince fans that the bootleggers haven't done so much better in the first place.

A wasted opportunity at best.

It's very good, but not my favorite!

I see what yall are saying about Disc 3. I loved JOY IN REPETITION, WE DO THIS, DOROTHY PARKER. The "2 NIgs United" was "interesting." I was like what in the world. I disliked "Girls and Boys" and I thought he coulda did more with "Peach." I was surprised that he put "Everlasting Now" on the 3rd disc since he had demolished the song on disc 2. I do like that funk vibe of disc 3. His band is tight

I think it is smart that he doesn't overexpose and saturate his live show. It would be a mistake to release dozens of versions of his brilliant and exciting concerts on DVD or CD. He is much more than the Grateful Dead or Pearl Jam. He has been smart over the years for not selling the rights to his shows to HBO or Showtime who have put in offers. One Nite Alone was a unique preservation of a band at it's peak during an interesting P phase.

You can't replace or translate the unique atmosphere and energy of a Prince concert.