Music / Listen Without Prejudice, Volume 1

Listen Without Prejudice, Volume 1

Listen Without Prejudice/MTV Unplugged

I won't let you down
I will not give you up
Gotta have some faith in the sound
It's the one good thing that I've got
I won't let you down
So please don't give me up
Because I would really, really love to stick around
Oh, yeah

—"Freedom '90"

Listen Without Prejudice, Volume 1 is the second solo studio album by George Michael. It was released through Columbia Records on 3 September 1990.

It features the hits "Praying For Time" and "Freedom '90". It was originally intended to be part of a Distinct Double Album, but Volume 2 never came to be due to record company disputes, and the song that was intended to be on that album, "Too Funky", was instead released on the compilation album Red Hot And Dance in 1992. The album was reissued in 2017 as a three-disc album called Listen Without Prejudice/MTV Unplugged which includes "Too Funky" as well as other studio tracks and live versions of various songs.

Tracklist:

Disc One

1. "Praying For Time"
2. "Freedom '90"
3. "They Won't Go When I Go"
4. "Something To Save"
5. "Cowboys And Angels"
6. "Waiting For That Day"
7. "Mother's Pride"
8. "Heal The Pain"
9. "Soul Free"
10. "Waiting (Reprise)"

2017 Reissue Disc Two

1. "Freedom '90" (live)
2. "Fastlove" (live)
3. "I Can't Make You Love Me" (studio)
4. "Father Figure" (live)
5. "You Have Been Loved" (live)
6. "Everything She Wants" (live)
7. "The Strangest Thing" (live at the BBC Theatre)
8. "Older" (live)
9. "Star People" (live)
10. "Praying For Time" (live)
11. "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" (with Elton John)
12. "Fantasy" (featuring Nile Rodgers)

2017 Reissue Disc Three

1. "Soul Free" (Special Radio Mix)
2. "Freedom '90" (Back To Reality Mix)
3. "Freedom '90" (Back To Reality Mix Edit)
4. "Fantasy"
5. "Freedom '90" (Edit)
6. "Cowboys And Angels" (Edit)
7. "If You Were My Woman" (live)
8. "Too Funky" (Single Edit)
9. "Crazy Man Dance"
10. "Do You Really Want To Know"
11. "Happy"
12. "Too Funky" (Extended)
13. "Too Jazzy" (Happy Mix)
14. "Fantasy '98"
15. "Heal The Pain" (with Paul McCartney)
16. "Desafinado" (With Astrud Gilberto)

---

Praying for tropes

• Big Applesauce: "Crazy Man Dance" on the 2017 reissue is about being a homeless person in New York City.
• Break-Up Song: "Freedom '90"
• Cover Version: "They Won't Go When I Go" by Stevie Wonder. "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt on the 2017 reissue.
• Crazy Homeless People: "Crazy Man Dance" on the 2017 reissue sings about this.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The cover image.
• Detail-Hogging Cover: A crowd scene photo by Weegee appears as the album's cover.
• Face on the Cover: George on the 2017 reissue.
• Fingore: One of the models in the music video for "Freedom! '90" is depicted stabbing her finger with a hair pin.
• Greed: The topic of "Praying For Time":
  The rich declare themselves poor,
  And most of us are not sure if we have too much,
  But we'll take our chances
  'Cause God's stopped keeping score.
• Grief Song: "Mother's Pride", about all the people lost to war.
• Heel–Face Turn/Heel–Face Door-Slam: "Waiting (Reprise)"'s lyrics point to either.
  But you once said there's a way back for every man,
  So here I am.
  Don't people change?
  Here I am.
  Is it too late to try again?
  Here I am.
  • The Heel–Face Door-Slam can also apply to humanity as a whole in "Praying For Time".
    And the wounded skies above
    Say it's much too, much too late.
• I Have No Son!: "Praying For Time" implies on a cosmic scale that God can't come back because He has no children to come back for.
• Intercourse with You: "Too Funky" and "Happy" on the 2017 reissue.
• Let's Duet: "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" with Elton John, "Heal The Pain" with Paul McCartney, and "Desafinado" with Astrud Gilberto on the 2017 reissue.
• Lyric Video: An Unbuilt Trope at the time, but the "Praying for Time" video, which is just the song's lyrics over a blank background, was a prominent forerunner of the style.
• Mood Whiplash: Two light danceable songs, "Freedom '90" and "Soul Free", appear wedged between rather somber and/or slower music.
• Precision F-Strike: In "Freedom '90":
  When you shake your ass, they notice fast, and some mistakes are built to last.
• Record Producer: George Michael.
• Second Coming: Jesus' second coming is alluded to in "Praying For Time".
  And you cling to the things they sold you;
  Did you cover your eyes when they told you
  That He can't come back
  'Cause He has no children to come back for?
• Shout-Out
  • To Aretha Franklin's "Think" in the chorus of "Freedom '90". Also to MTV in the same song.
  • To The Rolling Stones's "You Can't Always Get What You Want" near the end of "Waiting For That Day".
• Spoken Word in Music: Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate in "Too Funky":
  I'm not trying to seduce you. Would you like me to seduce you? Is that what you're trying to tell me?
  • And at the end, a line from The Tony Hancock Show episode "The Radio Ham":
    Will you stop playing with that radio of yours? I'm trying to get to sleep.