Look at the two hits that the person named...."The Bird" and "Jungle Love". That just goes to show that they were from the pop world and didn't know a thing about the funk.

Se7en said:

By never seeing them live, you only have half a picture. the half that Prince was the central focus. That is like talking about Prince to someone and they talk about he hasn't had a "hit" record in a decade... and then you go on about his musicianship, live performance (can't be matched) etc.

Same with the Time. They were a great live band. I think they could have had some meaningful contribution to their own albums.
Jam and Lewis producing HIT albums for other groups WHILE STILL IN THE TIME BAND is very revealing. They had talent that had to be expressed.... their outside work caused them to be fired from the time... goody for us! Because in exchange for Jam and Lewis from being fired from the Time...we got:
Janet Jackson,
SOS Band,
Herb Alpert,
Mariah Carey,
Boys II Men,
Luther Vandross,
Karyn White,
Johnny Gill,
Alexander Oneal,
Cherrelle,
George Michael,
Human League,
Cheryl Lynn.

THOSE WERE ONLY THE #1 HITS..
[b]

vainandy said:

Yeah Andy, you are right... it is obvious, they only really know about the Time through Prince (ie Purple Rain) and only bought the Time CD because of exposure through Purple Rain.

Letme tell you something thread starter, I saw a BAD AZZ concert in 1982 The Time, Prince, and Roger featuring Zapp.

I WENT TO SEE THE TIME. All of my girls went to see the Time also.

We were R & B fans... and believe me, THE TIME RULED!!! Prince being a little worried about the monster he created with the Time.... you better believe it!

We all thought the Time kicked azz and took names at the concert.

That must have been in early 1982 during the "Controversy" era with The Time doing their jams from their first album and Roger throwing down with "Heard It Through The Grapevine" and "So Ruff, So Tuff".

vainandy said:

I wondered when you'd pop up here to set things straight!

Please. While the majority of the songs from their albums was written by Prince... they as musicians & performers are excellent.

And if you have never seen them live (I mean the original members, not these guys that are touring under the The Time name today) you don't know what you're talking about.

Ah, the ignorance of youth...

The Time was HUGE on r&b radio before Purple Rain. What you saw on PR was a watered-down version of the group. I can still remember hearing 777-9311 for the first time on the radio in '82. And in '85 Jesse Johnson was all over black radio with Jesse Johnson's Revue, most notably "Be Your Man". And don't even mention Jam and Lewis - beginning with The SOS Band (the reason Prince fired 'em) they practically owned black radio with the artists they produced. They even "crossed over" to pop radio with "I'm Only Human".

And by the way, The Time (most notably Jesse Johnson) did play on Ice Cream Castle. You hear Jesse's guitar all over that album and of course, he wrote "Jungle Love". It's become accepted fact that The Time didn't play on their own albums until Pandemonium. Not true.

I guess you had to be there...

They were a cool band. Prince knew if these guys started doing their own thing without his help...they would have had many more hits & albums out. Imagine if the rest of them left when he fired Jam & Lewis & they all started their own band. That is why he feared them. Jam & Lewis has proven that they are also big hit makers too. I do not think they were overrated. If anything i think they did not get enough credit for the sound they created.
[Edited 7/6/07 16:06pm]

How can you diss Jesse when his album cums all over Prince's albums released at the same time. Put down the crack pipe dude and go pick up Bare my naked soul. Some people have got their head stuck so far up Prince's ass that they have to diss every black musician just to put P up. The same goes for the hate toward TTD on this site.
I won't even go into the skills of Jam and Lewis.
What's next Wendy>>> Jesse and Dez?

rebelsoldier said:

You do only mean by guitar-playing standards, don't you?

Well I'll take Bare my naked soul, shockadelica and Revue over ATWIAD, Parade and Emancipation any day of the week.
Yeah lovesexy is miles better than Every shade of love but imo Im just wanting you kills everything on lovesexy. Im biased cause this song has my fav guitar solo ever.

rebelsoldier said:

Oh, but "Jesse Johnson" is a badass motherf***ing guitar player! He rivals with "Prince" very closely. I love that guy's style of playing whenever I hear it. Just as long as I don't have to mind his songwriting skills.

Check out the extended version of Free World...Jesse Johnson kicks ass on that bad boy also!

VonMarie said:

Hell yeah

Genesia said:

I've seen The Time live, and they kick ass.

Just listen to "Get It Up" and hear Prince go all over the place. The keyboards, drums, bass, guitars and back-up vocal...."I'll fuck you all night!" is priceless. That's all you need. The Time gave Prince that funk outlet that the mass market wouldn't let him have....a successful Rebels.

rebelsoldier said:

What does "imo" mean?

The original line up was UNDERrated. Show of hands of how many folks here seen THAT lineup. First 2 albums were great, but the magic of the Time was in the live show, thank GOD I seen them on the 1999 tour.

WonderU said:

Jochem said:

In my opinion

IMHO = in my humble opinion


And this is not IMO, it's a fact!

FarrahMoan said:

What is it that you don't like about his songwriting skills? I'm just curious. What have you heard of Jesse's?

I think that "Bare My Naked Soul" showcases his playing AND songwriting ability to the max. It really shows the true Jesse. I have to say that I dug just about every song on there. Plus, I stole a lot of licks off of that album

overrated my ass.
They might be one of the most underrated bands of all time. I've taken people to go see them live that just know the purple rain stuff and now they try to follow them around almost as much as I do.Nobody denies its Prince and Morris's baby but to call them overrated is just a joke

I saw them live in the 90's in Hammersmith, I was amazed at how the played after hearing the lps (yes LPs!!) and knowing that Prince Produced directed, composed and pressed all the LP's by hand. and Jerome is a class act with the mirror!!lol

JesseDezz said:

I've heard "Crazay", "Baby Let's Kiss" and "Black in America". I know that ain't much, but, after that, I wasn't too interested in hearing his songs for their lyrics.

Oh, and one more question. Does anyone hear know if it was always collaborative effort (Like, if "Morris Day" laid down the drums on the tracks and "Prince" did the rest) between "Morris Day & Prince" or did "Prince" do all of the tracks on each album, except for "Pandemonium"?

FarrahMoan said:

I don't know whether 3 songs is enough to pass judgment on a whole career. If you haven't heard other songs, how do you know if the lyrics are "worthy" or not? You young 'uns

JesseDezz said:

Alright, so you're right. Good "GOD", man!!! I'll make sure I pass by some more of "Jesse Johnson's Songs" and listen to the lyrics. For better or for worse, though, even if the lyrics are not good, the guitar-playing is still kickass and top notch, so why complain to me?
[Edited 7/7/07 6:23am]

FarrahMoan said:

Just exactly who played what and who's credited on a lot of the early stuff is open for debate. It's pretty much accepted that the 1st 2 time albums are Prince's babies. Jeese is clearly heard on Icecream Castles amd from what I understand contributed to some of the songwritting. Pandemonium was a collaborative effort. All the original band members by that time had enjoyed a great deal success doing their own thing and I seriously doubt they would have returned if Prince was going to exert the type of control he had in the past.

As an aside, Prince IMHO has written some absolute dogs lyrically. Some of Jesse's lesser tunes don't even approach the level of schmaltz of cheese of a bad Prince tune. LOL!
[Edited 7/7/07 7:05am]

kstrat said:

Oh, because from what I often heard about "Morris Day" was that he might have been like, "THE BEST" drummer/percussionist "Prince" has ever known (Not in those exact words, but you know what I mean) and....I don't know. I mean, "777-9311" is my favorite track of "Morris Day & The Time" to feature a set of drums.

FarrahMoan said:

Pssssstt....Those aren't live drums on 777-9311.....