I have two questions

Are Morris Day and Prince related, and

Who played the drums on The Time's "777-9311"?

1. no relation
2. Linn LM-1 drum machine

tbag said:

Oh Lawd...not again

THERE IS NO LINN DRUMM ON THIS TRACK!! THAT'S MORRIS ON THE DRUMS AND THIS IS THE LAST TIME I'M GOING TO SAY IT!

what about the clap effect? if that's Morris playin' then they must've looped his drums like Fleetwood Mac used to do.

I thought Prince recorded it entirely on his own.

As far as I know it is programmed drums.

Well, back in 82, I saw a high school talent show and there were 2 drummers doing a back-and-forth routine and they did the beat from "777" and it took BOTH of them to pull it off...seems to me it looks mighty hard to do that beat and that brilliant high-hat work at the same time, and I used to play drums myself and couldn't do it at the peak of my skills....so it MAY have been programmed.

tbag said:

I would have thought it was Jellybean playing the drums, since he was an original member. But like sextonseven said Prince might have done all on his own.

That's P on all of the tracks, including the guitar solo. Dez is actually singing on the hook. Dez is on vocals on this song AND "Wild and Loose".

blackguitaristz said:

Did Dez verify this in his book? I cant recall

One of the phatest guitar solos ever!

ok, who stole my cell phone # again

tricky2 said:

Helen Keller even knows it's a drum program.

Morris was present when the Time album was recorded. Since he helped write most of the songs. just don't push the red button and stop yelling at each other dang...

It was a drum program, Prince mentioned how great the timing on the Linn was in I think a musicians mag article (could of been Mixer mag). HE said something like the timing was so cool-that's how we got unique patterns like "777-9311".

ON a side note: About 4 years ago I was looking for a drummer and I went to put a flyer up in a Guitar Center (I'm from the bay). I hear some guy killing in the drum room, he then proceeds to play "777-9311" perfectly. I was like "that is my drummer.." walked in the room and it was John Blackwell.

true story

Nero

neronava said:

He played it EXACTLY the way it sounded? - High hat work and all? Because that high hat work is damn near impossible to play in rhythm with the bass and snare. I just can't believe he did that.

Aftershock said:

Yeah, it was perfect! I told that story to a friend of mine right before we walked into the Fillmore for the feb14th show out here. And she was skeptical. They were getting loose and playing lots of random stuff (I think they were having fun because they knew they'd be playing nothing but hits for the next year). Anyway, about mid show Prince was offstage & Blackwell played a solo, and started playing it. Everyone started chanting "GO RHONDA!!" to have her join in...she did. THen Prince came out from backstage and started singing it. Awesome. There's a recording of it in existence.

i think prince played on this sone but isnt or was DEZ phone number?

grimey said:

Yes, it was Dez's phone number initially.

Aftershock said:

He did it during the musicology shows too. And YES it was exactly like it.

neronava said:

Great story.