Does anyone remember that song? It was the B-Side to one of the Time's singles. It starts out with Morris cracking on somebody really hard. "You OLLLLDD.....FAT!.....BLACK!... MICHELIN MAN LOOKING" All the while there's laughter in the background. The whole song is nothing but a synthesizer and drums. Any idea who he could be talking about? I doubt it was Jerome(UTCM) cause he doesn't fit the description.

Actually it's really Prince doing most of the "Morris" vocals.

its actually Prince and Morris...

While it is true that the opening of the song is indeed Morris' voice, it is actually Prince you hear from the the moment the drum starts up.

The track was recorded by Prince with the remaining members of The Time after Morris had quit.

Considering how others who left the little man's employ around that time got "a farewell salute" (St. Paul got Dream Factory), I'd dare say that Tricky is about...

Why, it's about Morris!

Now imagine being Morris and sitting in an MTV Studio years later to talk about his solo album Daydreaming and being asked who the song Tricky was about.

I thought I read that it's Morris and Prince alone in the studio, with Morris on drums and P on bass..... and yeah P is doing the "Morris" voice while someone is laughing.

BUt then that never made sense cuz who is palyign the synth parts?? Maybe the above description only really fits CLoreen Baconskin cuz that is only bass and drums.

So it would make sense the St. Paul or someone is palying the synth horns. But that emans Jellybean is playing drums on that?

So who is cracing up while Prince is saying all that sh*t? It sounds lika like Morris' natural voice.

I thought Tricky was about G. Clinton?

GaryMF said:

Like Vanity's moaning on Vibrator, Prince re-used the drum beat from Cloreen Baconskin a few times too. It's on both Irresistible Bitch and Tricky. Whether the drum is lifted directly from Cloreen Baconskin or Prince is imitating it, who knows?

The people laughing in the background of Tricky are the remnants of The Time.
[Edited 9/16/05 13:47pm]

scififilmnerd said:

If it is Prince, he sure does do a good Morris Day impression. That would be funny if that song really is about George Clinton. "What Tricky Say Yakkety Yak? Well Yakkety Yak My @$$ Muth@F----."

ThePunisher said:

I recall P and G.C. feuding in the early 80s around that time, I forgot what it was but I'm almost POSITIVE that that is who Tricky is about.

ThePunisher said:

I didn't know this until years later, but it's actually Morris who is imitating Prince's "Tricky" or "Jaime starr" persona.

In other words, that voice and persona is really Prince's alter ego.

If you've ever heard or seen 'The Avenue", you hear him go into a similar voice during the DMSR finale, when he says "thank ya, thank ya....we'd like to play a few mo' numbahs fo' ya.. " etc.

Sheila kinda went into a similar persona during the Romance 1600 show during her stage "banter" and during "Toy Box"

for the 9 billionth time its Prince and Morris Morris is on drums and prince is playing bass with Gloves on.

TheRealFiness said:

I don;t think anyone disagress witht his.

My question is who is playing the Synth when Prince says "gimme some horns!"??
[Edited 9/17/05 13:26pm]

TheCrucialExperience said:

The description does fit George Clinton very well, but I sure would be interested in knowing why Prince(or Morris) wrote a mean-spirited song about him, Because they both seem pretty cool now. After all, Prince did let him do the Graffiti Bridge movie. Wait a minute! I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy.

ThePunisher said:

LOL! But yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a smack at George Clinton and to this day I don't know why they had beef with GC.

From my notes, the song was recorded at Sunset Sound on Wednesday February 1, 1984 (drifting into the morning of Feb. 2), during a rare break from working on the Apollonia 6 album. The rumor was that they were returning from a George Clinton concert, but the session started at 7 PM, so that is doubtful. For 6 hours, Prince, Morris (I think you can also hear Jerome) and a few others goofed off in the studio. Prince was playing the bass (supposedly while wearing gloves) and keyboards, while Morris played the drums. They were supposedly singing about George Clinton, but since both of them respected his music, I don’t know why, other than they were still young and cocky. It is obvious that Prince and Morris were having fun, so some of the tension they had during the recording of ICE CREAM CASTLE was behind them. That album was finished (having been mixed on Jan. 18/19th).

The funny thing is they were using studio 2, so they had to take a microphone down thru the main recording area, down the hall to the bathroom where the toilet flush had to be cued for the end of the song.

A side note about this session: this was the last “new” recording of “The Time” for years. Technically, there was additional work done on the album in early May (a few tracks were edited down), but for the most part, it would be Morris’ last time recording with Prince until they got together for the unreleased Time album “Corporate World”.

ThePunisher said:

maybe it was a joke? hmm maybe that makes sense right?

madhouseman said:

Whoah! You mean to tell me there's an unreleased Time Album? By chance, are there any copies floating around that you know about? I'm not soliciting, I'm just curious. When was it recorded?

ThePunisher said:

Yes. It was called Corporate World (it has also been called Corporate World Machine). It was recorded in the summer of 1989 and scheduled for release in Nov. of 89. It was primarily Prince, Morris and Jerome, but when a full fledged Time reunion took place, the band got together and scraped parts, recorded new parts and reworked some songs from earlier in the 80s. Some leftovers made it on to Graffiti Bridge. There is a copy of it floating around. Find a copy. It is a lot of fun.

madhouseman said:

First off, MAD PROPS for giving us the heads-up on the George Clinton/Tricky thing, I KNEW there was some connection I just didn't know, so thanks again, dawg.

Secondly, Corporate World's album consisted of: "Murph Drag", "9 Lives", "Donald Trump (Black Version)", "Love Machine", "Data Bank", "Shake", Corporate World (New Soul Nation)", "The Latest Fashion", "Release It", "My Summertime Thang." It was supposed to have been released in late 89 but WB wanted to feature the original line-up from The Time (Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Jesse were gone by then) so after those 3 got on, they recorded a bunch of other songs that same year, dumped a few of the songs and that album then became "Pandemonium."

madhouseman said:

Wow your notes are pretty amazing!! Did you work with Per on the Vault??

ANyway, what I'm curious about is was Prince palying keybords and bass at the same time? That seems pretty unlikely... so did they overdub the keys later?

GaryMF said:

Yes, I've helped research and write for UPTOWN since the first few issues. He had the bass on and would play the keyboard during it. But then again, he is pretty talented.

scififilmnerd said:

i thought Dream Factory was about Morris?

sunchylde said:

Nope, St. Paul.

madhouseman said:

Wow! so great 2 know all these details (thanx). I read once that Per scrapped at least half of DMSR 2 make it a not 2 long book. Will u guys ever release ALL the stories u know about P?