Listening to The Time's "Jerk Out" I am wondering when Morris calls out "Cut It Jesse" whether the ensuing solo is in fact Jesse Johnson playing or Prince trying to sound like Jesse. My guess it is Prince imitating Jesse's playing as the guitar break doesn't quite sound like Jesse's playing to me. I also read there were many tensions at the time of recording Pandemonium and wondered whether this may have limited Jesse's input. Can someone help me with the facts!

That's clearly Jesse playing on Jerk Out.....

THAT IS JESSE!!!!! JESSE DIDN'T PLAY ON THE FIRST TWO TIME LP'S, BUT A LITTLE ON THE THIRD AND DEFINITELY ON PANDEMONIUM.....WHAT I WANNA KNOW IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AFTER SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE THAT CAUSED THE SECOND "TIME DEMOLITION"!!!!!

Sydney said:

I don't believe Prince CAN imitate Jesse's playing.

BlaqueKnight said:

I agree with you. Could you elaborate please? I'm interested in your opinion as to why you think Prince couldn't imitate Jesse's playing. Seriously.....

Im not sure, I believe a cat on hear heard that Jesse wanted to use a wireless system on the show, which is liable to crash and you dont want an embarrassment like that on a live show. I belive that might have caused a problem, also since Jam and Lewis created an empire probably lost interest. Somebody knows the real deal out there.

of course prince can imitate jesse,listen to 777-9311,how many time fans know its prince playing solo on 777-9311

thebanishedone said:

That's Prince giving his interpretation of Jesse's playing . . . . .

of course but i bet many orgers don't know its prince playing guitar solo and all other instruments on 777-9311

Hman127 said:

Yeah, whenever they replay The Time on SNL doing "Jerk Out", it's the dress rehearsal, 'cause Jesse didn't heed the engineers' warnings that wireless always posed problems. JJ didn't listen and of course, he had problems - a tech had to come on stage while they were performing and plug a cord into Jesse's guitar. That's been known ever since as "The Jesse Johnson story".

Let's just say I heard it from a couple of flies on the wall of that particular show...

AVENUEMAN said:

EXACTLY.

you think jesse plays better then prince 777-9311 and get it up?

the cymbal work on 777 is insane. didn't know that was Prince. i should read the credits more often

thebanishedone said:

Yes. Personally, I thought Prince overdid it with the whammyisms on 777-9311 - he was like a kid with a new toy. It was like he was trying a bit too hard to do it how he thought Jesse Johnson would do it. Doesn't sound anything like JJ.

Cool solo, nonetheless.

but prince's solo is the blue print solo for 777-9311

datdude said:

The cymbal work comes from the Linn Drum . . . . .of course it was programmed by Ecnirp!!!!!

thebanishedone said:

Of course it's the blueprint - he performed it on the record! You're grasping at straws here, dude - there's no reason to try and find a way to rationalize Prince's greatness. As I've stated at least a dozen times in one of your posts, Prince is a great guitarist. But there are others...including Jesse Johnson, whose playing I prefer on 777-9311.

Wasn't this supposed to be a Jesse Johnson thread?

thebanishedone said:

Let me set something straight; Yeah, that's P playing the solo on 777 and Get It Up. But in concert when the o.g. members of The Time played both of these songs, I wouldn't doubt it if P didn't go out to the bus during these two songs. Cuz I'm here to tell ya, Jesse KILLED it. Jesse's solo put to shame what P played in the studio. Granted, I LOVE both of these solo's on the albums. P wasn't fucking around. But Jesse just took what P had recorded to another level. Period.

so do you think that jesse can take every prince solo to higher level?
or just time songs .
do you find jesse better soloist.
i dont know both of them play from the heart ,
have same guitar hero jimi,but as much as i find jesse being a great guitar player i find his playing not to be so distinctive.

he sounds like great guitar player but lacking personality,
while prince is instant recognisable no matter is it funk lick or fuzzed guitar solo.
maybe jesse practised more?
but prince beats jesse in another department if you ask me.
composition.p
prince composes his solo better then jesse it is a fact.
jesse is more improvisator.i doubt jesse plays baby can you help me the same way as in studio.

thebanishedone said:

Oh jeeez.....

Another excursion through ramble-ville!

If you prefer Prince's playing & composition over Jesse's that's cool.
Nobody's asking you to defend your personal opinion.
Prince's playing is instantly recognizable, while Jesse lacks personality?
Yeah right... That doesn't sound like a blanket statement to you?

I find it quite humorous that all the positive atributes always seem lean heavily in Prince's favor whenever his musical greatness is challenged.
Especially in any of these type of threads you post to. LOL!

I like their playing a lot. However, Jesse gets my vote as I have a really fondness for old school no B.S. blues-rock players. Prince while he'll ofter incorporate blues in his playing, he still manages to be un-bluesy. At least to my ears. Again, purely a matter of opinion & taste. In Jesse's live recordings I've heard he just has that "foot in yo'ass" sensibilty to his playing.
His sense of taste & tone and note authority are what I find so appealing.
[Edited 5/19/07 19:44pm]

i like prince and jesse both as guitar players,
the thing i don't like is that when those 2 are
mentioned in the same line always negativity flows here .

nobody rembers that when prince saw jesse playing for the first time he insisted that jesse must move to mineapolis,and he called jesse every day to say him over and over"dont go this thing(the time) will happened."
so prince that means prince liked jesse and apricciated his playing.
he wasn't intimidated by jesse as some here wants to represent.

thebanishedone said:

Well I wouldn't go so far as to say negativity flow like water in these types of threads. Some folks just will not accept that Prince, as great as he is isn't the end all be of musicians. Yes..Prince can get smoked on guitar! But hey, this is'nt a competition. Some of the comparisons can get silly though.

For example: "I think Jesse has much cooler lead sound". Someone will post: "Yeah but can Jesse play his leads while wearing gloves,and simultaneously hump his guitar into feedback"? "Can Jesse summon small land mammals with a pinched harmonic"? LOL! How can you have an intelligent dialog after reading something like that?

And as far as what happenned in the past. Who can really say? I've lurked on this board for a few years and rarely do I come across any 1st hand accounts.
Most of it is what someone read or heard. As time wears on the stories tend to get stretched or exaggerated depending on who's spinning the yarn.

I'll paraphrase what Jesse stated in a article in Guitar World from 1988, "Prince seemed to most impressed with the fact that I could plug straight into an amp and get my sound happening, without any effects. Just fingers on the strings".

If you play guitar or even hung out with guitarist you'd know that they tend to be competitive by nature. Sometimes in a healthy way. I don't know If Prince was intimidated by Jesse.
I can guess that once he became aware of how good Jesse was he'd have to step his game up. Can't have the help upstaging the boss can we? I guess the same thing can said about Dez Dickerson to a degree as well. Anyways, that's my 2+ cents on the topic.

but prince isnt only the guitar player.it's just asspect of his.
if he wanted to sabotage jesse he could just not let him play guitar in the time.

thebanishedone said:

Huh?! Sabatoge? Who mentioned anything about sabatoge? Dude...aw hell what's the point? Nevermind.

people often talk about prince was intimidated by jesse so he erased jesse's solo and jesse was very pissed

thebanishedone said:

Ok....but none of the earlier post were even addressing that. Intimidation & sabatoge were topics you intoduced to the thread.

kstrat said:

thebanishedone said:

Dig, I was the first person on here to talk about P erasing parts of Jesse's solo to Jungle Love without asking Jesse. I know this cuz Morris himself told me so. Morris was there and actually saw Prince do this. Morris said Prince's reason was "to make the song better". Now, Morris's opinion was that he felt it was partly that reason PLUS he and jesse were not getting along. Morris said that HE and others in The Time felt that Prince was threatned by not just Jesse as a guitarist but as a ladies man. A lot of women showed that they prefered Jesse over Prince when it came right down to it. Prince, being the "star", did not dig this in the least. So, Morris felt it was a combo of things of why Prince did what he did to Jesse's solo to Jungle Love.

yeah but wasnt easier for prince to play solo himself?
jesse was offered to be guitar player for the family but he didn't acecept.
hey was jesse having some legal problems in the mid 90s?

thebanishedone said:

AAARRGGHH! C'mon man...you can't be serious? Why? Just as a way to add further insult to injury. That would have been the ultimate dis! I'm glad Jesse decided to leave when he did.
This cat was simply too talented to confined to the role of a side man.