Are there any o.g.'s in the house? If it is then ya'll can deifinately relate to this thread. O.G.'s let me ask you, do ya'll remember the first time you heard the song "Cool" by The Time? I sure in the hell do. Man, the first song I heard by The Time wasn't "Cool" though. It was "Get It Up". I heard that shit on the radio and thought I was going to lose my mind. First of all, I KNEW it was Prince. That shit was as obvious as the moon up in the sky. I didn't care what the name of the band was, I KNEW it was Prince. The music, the lyrics, the falsetto in the background and that almighty guitar solo. I broke my neck getting down to Music Plus record store and getting the single. I was pissed cuz the 45 version was vastly different from the full version they played on the radio. Shortly after that though, the album was released. THAT'S when I heard the song "Cool". As much as I dug "Get It Up", man, I LOVED "Cool". The one thing about this song is that it is so much fun to listen to. Nothing sounded like this at that time. The music, the cool ass bravado, those on point lyrics (written by Dez), nothing was like it. You didn't hear people talk about what The Time were talking about on the radio back then. That whole album is fantastic. Whenever I would play Cool or hear it on the radio, my whole mood would change. It was just something about the way it sounded. The keyboard strings, the groove, the mixture of new wave and funk and just Morris's jolly sounding self. The Time sounded like they were onto something that nobody else had discovered. And they knew it too. It just put a smile on my face whenever I heard this song. When I went to see them in Feb 82 at Santa Monica Civic with Zapp on the bill opening up for Prince on his Controversy tour, man, I saw that I wasn't the only one digging The Time. Anyway, who else here isn't too cool to admitting that they dig this song?
[Edited 10/8/08 20:44pm]

Unlike you brotha Black, I didn't figure out the Prince connection w/ The Time until I bought the album and seen them perform on Soul Train.

First thing came to mind when I seen them, I told my brother, "Man, that cat looks like Prince, does he?"

But to me, Sexy Dancer was the blueprint of The Time's sound.

And the fact that Prince put this mug together, before actually having a band, I was like "damn!!" Sheer genius...The brotha was on fire in those days.

The Stick is my all time fave, but I dig this mug also







[Edited 10/9/08 19:53pm]

I first heard this cut back in 85' when I was Six and my cousin was practicing on his Turntables for a party he was spinning at later in the week. I went around my house for days after that singing "COOL", lol, my mom had no idea why I kept saying it.

funkpill said:

Yeah, when I bought the album, I thought that Morris looked like a dappier version of Prince. But they did resemble. That's why I never really believed that P truly considered having Alexander O'Neil as the lead singer. Morris resembled Prince enough to make people tie it in with Prince. And I think P wanted that association made from the get go. Musically and visually. He did just that.

funkpill said:

From what I've heard and from what I've actually been told, it was A.C who first came up with the idea to do The Time. Andre wanted to take Flyte Tyme and reshape it, mold it into kinda what it became. His idea of them dressing like they were in the 1930's & 40's. But Dre said that when he took the idea to P, Prince at first , was not interested in it. He told Dre that if he wanted to do it, go ahead and do it. So Andre put a few songs together and then when it started to take shape, Dre said that P then took over the project, got them signed to Warners and once that happened, it was all P's after that. Cuz he had the control with Warners and P was signed on as "Producer" of the album and the one to over see the project. That was in writting. It has also been rumored that WB wasn't pleased with the sales of Dirty Mind or the direction Prince was going visually. And that they were thinking about NOT re-signing P because he had only signed to a 3 year deal with them and after Dirty Mind, that was it. It was their right to not option to re-sign with P. WB wanted another hit like "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and that didn't happen with anything from Dirty Mind. So P felt that this project would put him back in good graces with Warner's because he would deliver an album that was more "black". Which is what WB wanted from Prince, not this new wave rock hybrid which was Dirty Mind. But filter it through another group so P could still do what he wanted to do musically and visually. Ironically, AFTER the first Time album sold so well, way better than Dirty Mind, P himself ended up wearing pants and a vest on his own tour. So he became more conservative in his dress.
[Edited 10/8/08 23:52pm]

I always DEFINATELY believed that the first Time album influenced the jams on the 1999 album. The instrumental breaks that P did in tracks like "Get It Up", "Cool" and "The Stick" is very similar to the instrumental breaks on "Lady Cab Driver" and parts of "Automatic". And "D.M.S.R." musically, is a STRAIGHT Time song. AND "International Lover" was originally intended for The Time to do on their second album. Then he was like "Fuck that" and kept it for himself. Instead he gave them "O.G.'s Get Lonely Too". I'm glad P kept International Lover cuz he turned that song out vocally. But it was after P saw how well first Time album sold and how well received The Time were from their live shows, I think going into the recording for his 1999 album, P thought "I better put a lil mo' focus on the funk element". I think this is when P started musically competting with The Time. Although he was writing all of the material.

I have always wondered if Dez and Dre had more to do with the music back than P will admit. P has yet to make any thing as funky as he did when they were around

Always loved that jam. That's what the Time is all about wrapped up into that one song. I remember the first time I saw the video on Night Flight. That shit was cracking me up.

Too C O O L

DecaturStone said:

Well it's no secret P had some help. I mean Lisa co-wrote "The Stick". BUT to Prince's credit, he was the MAIN cat behind most of that. I don't doubt that some of the people who was in P's clique brought some things to the table but at the end of the day, I believe P was the one writing and producing some incredible jams ALONE. The bulk of it actually, the vast of material, I believe P did by himself.

Rhastus said:

DAMN..I remember Night Flight! In some ways, I dug Night Flight BETTER than MTV! They would play shit like "Cool", "Controversy" , "Automatic", "Sexuality", "Nasty Girl", the original version of "Drive Me Wild" with them in the hotel lobby. MYV wouldn't fuck with that shit. They only played 1999 and LRC. Plus they would play Rick James videos too. MTV HATED Rick James so they NEVER played any of his shit. Which was outrageous because in 1981, Rick was hotter than Michael and Prince. Street Songs was HUGE and for them to NOT play SuperFreak was crazy.
[Edited 10/9/08 1:14am]

blackguitaristz said:

You make him sound like Santa Clause...!

Very Cool.. ..I like! ... LOVE hearing all the stories and background too
[Edited 10/9/08 12:44pm]

Jeffiner said:[quote]

blackguitaristz said:

[Edited 10/9/08 12:43pm]

Jeffiner said:

Thanx..Check out MinniFung's thread though..His is the o.g.

blackguitaristz said:

spot on...you can easily imagine mr. day and the time doing whole chunks of 1999. The DMSR chant is pure Time.
all the tracks from this era are just top stuff for any artist with an attitude to perform. It must have been truly difficult to decide which artist got what and also what Prince kept for himself.

Some how, I think Prince really wanted to be The Time

funkpill said:

blackguitaristz said:

A couple of days ago at work this song came to mind and I'm like "Got DAMN Prince was singing this song.!" Musically and lyrically it ain't that great of a song, but the vocal performance/ arrangement is

funkpill said:

I think so too. He wrote the songs for them, with help from Dez and Lisa. But I think he felt more loose with doing that type of material and not as rigid with what he did with the Revolution. It was just a different side of Prince.

boxerboy said:

Thanx...I agree.

The first time I heard "Get It Up" on the radio, I thought it was Prince. Afterwards, the DJ announced that it was The Time. About a week or two later, when I heard Ebonee Webb's "Something About You", I thought that was Prince also. When I finally heard "Controversy" on the radio, it sounded like Prince but after being fooled two times, I didn't immediately say "That's Prince".

As for "Cool", that jam was great also. Isn't there a line in there in the long version that says "suck my dick"? I know I've heard it in there.

vainandy said:

yup


why was it said?

who knows

You have to be listening real close to hear it too. Apparently the radio never caught it because they played the full version all the time with no beeps.

yup...

just like with Get It Up

the "I'll f*ck you all night" part towards the end....


always got played through

Sure did. And so did the 12 Inch of "Let's Work".....

Hot dick and bubble gum is all you get

blackguitaristz said:

You're right. Night Flight was the shit. I remember them playing some Prince special around the Purple rain time, but they were playing shit like Dirty Mind, Sexuality. Ice Cream Castles, Nasty Girl, Cool, Pretty Mess. Not the LRC, When Doves Cry, Jungle Love that you saw on MTV all the Time. That show was cool cause they would go off on some tangent and play some obscure stuff.

I think the first time i saw rick on TV was on there. Super Freak and give it to me baby.

Cool was way to cool by my all time fav Time track is 777 9311.

Thanks BGZ for getting this thread going

We never got to see The Time down in Australia - one of the great tragedies of my life...

Call7779311 said:

No problem.

Call7779311 said:

we didn't see much of them in the U.K./Europe either. I often wonder if they would have been a big hit over here if they had been promoted at all, (maybe bigger than their lord and master Prince). I reckon their sound, skill and sense of fun would have been massive but it could just be my taste. All I know is that even my kids love the songs I can let them to listen to.

boxerboy said:

I agree with you! I think they would have been huge over here too, I don't know why they weren't promoted here. I remember seeing them in Purple Rain and being TOTALLY impressed (and so were my friends), I liked them nearly as much as I liked 'Prince', I thought they were so, SO cool and so much fun like you say. But, that was the only thing I ever saw or heard of them .....