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Thread started 11/11/17 5:14pm

Fury

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Was the time essentially a covers band ?

Well documented that Prince wrote the vast majority of the Time catalog with input from Morris. The first two albums were basically a two man show in the studio.
So even though the members are all talented musicians... weren’t they just performing like a covers band?
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Reply #1 posted 11/12/17 1:51am

databank

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Fury said:

Well documented that Prince wrote the vast majority of the Time catalog with input from Morris. The first two albums were basically a two man show in the studio. So even though the members are all talented musicians... weren’t they just performing like a covers band?

I'm not sure I understand your question.

For the most part, they indeed hadn't composed, arranged and performed the material they played on stage.

Call it the way you want if you need to put a label on it.

A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/
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Reply #2 posted 11/12/17 12:08pm

TrivialPursuit

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That argument could be made, illogically, for any of Prince's acts. A cover is a song that has already been released. The Time had new songs on their albums, written by Prince. "A Case of U" is a cover song. "The Walk" (etc) is a straight-up Time song.

Despite Prince playing a lot of that stuff, The Time owned those songs once you saw them play 'em live. Even Prince said The Time was the only band he was scared of.

"eye don’t really care so much what people say about me because it is a reflection of who they r."
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Reply #3 posted 11/12/17 12:55pm

MickyDolenz

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The Time's early albums are not much different than some 1960s rock bands whose members sometimes didn't play on the studio records. The parts were played by session musicians like the Wrecking Crew. This was generally done because the session musicians could record a lot faster with fewer takes, so saved time & money. In the 1970s, some of The Spinners songs clearly had female background singers (The Sweethearts) and not male but the songs were still credited to the group. Same for some later songs by The Supremes which were really Diana & The Andantes, not Mary, Flo, or Cindy. It's been rumored that some of Michael Anthony's & Alex Jon Such's bass parts on Van Halen & Bon Jovi's records were played by someone else. There's Beatles songs that don't have all 4 members on them.

You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton
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Reply #4 posted 11/12/17 2:23pm

paulludvig

The Revolution on Prince's own albums is another example.
The wooh is on the one!
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Reply #5 posted 11/14/17 7:15am

luvsexy4all

but they were such great musicians they brought his music to another life

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Reply #6 posted 11/14/17 9:11am

RodeoSchro

No.

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Reply #7 posted 11/14/17 11:25am

Zannaloaf

no

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Reply #8 posted 11/14/17 1:18pm

Rev

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The band members are listed as "the Players" on the albums.

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Reply #9 posted 11/14/17 4:57pm

SoulAlive

They were not a covers band.They were a band who were produced by Prince....the same as Prince’s other protégés and side projects.No different from the bands and artists who were produced by Jam and Lewis,LA and Babyface,etc.
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Reply #10 posted 11/14/17 6:05pm

databank

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MickyDolenz said:

The Time's early albums are not much different than some 1960s rock bands whose members sometimes didn't play on the studio records. The parts were played by session musicians like the Wrecking Crew. This was generally done because the session musicians could record a lot faster with fewer takes, so saved time & money. In the 1970s, some of The Spinners songs clearly had female background singers (The Sweethearts) and not male but the songs were still credited to the group. Same for some later songs by The Supremes which were really Diana & The Andantes, not Mary, Flo, or Cindy. It's been rumored that some of Michael Anthony's & Alex Jon Such's bass parts on Van Halen & Bon Jovi's records were played by someone else. There's Beatles songs that don't have all 4 members on them.


Even better is Deborah Allen's Telepathy (Instrumental), from the 7". Allen is not on the track, had nothing to do with it at all save maybe making the decision to use the instrumental as a b-side. Yet, it's officially a Deborah Allen track.
A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/
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