Jellybean Johnson of the Time thought that the band was getting so good during the early days that they could have been the Black Beatles. Spoken during an interview with Joe Kelley this week. You won't want to miss out on the "Upper Room with Joe Kelley" MPLS Music month in March.

www.upperroomwithjoekelley.com
[This message was edited Fri Feb 28 22:26:49 PST 2003 by JoeKelley]

I just want to say thanks Joe for bringing all these acts to the radio for fans to still enjoy.

You put on some great shows and I hope that one day you'll have an website with an archive of all of them in Windows Media or MP3 for everyone to enjoy!

Oh and yes, The Time could have been. I'm sure Princes' got some more gems in the vault.

Prince did mention to Kurt Loder in 1999 that he had in the Vault, The Time tracks that were more psychedelic, maybe you can ask The Time/Morris Day about that!

Wooo!

what about Earth,Wind&Fire? Sly&The Family Stone?? The Time were Cool&Bad for there Time but as Songwriting Goes Nothing they did Echoed Lennon&Mccartney let alone Harrison&Even Ringo IMHO.They were Tighter Players as the Original Band but a Groove Band more than a Band as Rounded as the Beatles IMHO.Prince,Jam&Lewis,Jesse don't make Me think of George Martin as a Producer.Maurice White Yes though.Sly Stone Yes.

mistermaxxx said:

Hm. You may be right. Earth Wind and Fire kicks some major musical butt. Who's to say that there HASN'T been a Black Beatles!

Why put it that way.. Black Beatles?? WTF..

firstly, ARE U KIDDING? The Time is a funky group, and a pretty good act, but last time eye checked, The Beatles were actually artist's who could play multiple instrument and write some eclectic songs..

perhaps its a joke, and eye didnt catch it..


haha?

goodness

Sdldawn said:

Beatles were Better Songwriters&More Versatile in Stylings,but The Time had Multi-Instrumentalists.Jesse Johnson Played Guitar,Bass,Drums&Keys,JellyBean Guitar&Drums,Jimmy Jam Keys&Piano,Programmming,Terry lewis,Bass,Programming&Probably other things,Morris Day Drums&Keys,.but The Time just didn't have a Chance to Truly be Great,nor were they able to Expand as Artists while under Prince's Thumb.

Black Beatles?! That's ridiculous. They were opposites as far as I'm concerned. On one hand you have funky entertainers good live and in the clubs. On the other hand you have introspective artists good to listen to when you're in a reflective, peaceful mood. I'm simplifying a bit here but you get the point. That's whats great about P. He brings the best of both worlds and then some.

I have to take the 'are you kidding' side with this.

The Beatles were amazing
The Time was a bad joke.

I dont remember the Beatles having a 'comic foil'

Basically, Jellybean was referring to how the popularity of the Time was growing so fast back in the 1980s and that the individual members of the Time were so talented.

Pipe in and check out the interviews coming up in a few days.

Just got back from the Time show at BB Kings. A few more members of the Time will be hopefully stopping by "The Upper Room with Joe Kelley" soon.

www.upperroomwithjoekelley.com
[This message was edited Sat Mar 1 22:40:29 PST 2003 by JoeKelley]

I don't neccessarily think they coulda been "the black beatels", but I do agree that they coulda been bigger.

estidog said:

Why do you call The Time "a bad joke"? They were a kickass R&B/funk band that gave us some of the funkiest jams of the 80s.And while they can't compare to The Beatles (NOBODY compares to the Beatles),let's not totally dismiss them outright.Pull out your copy of 'What Time Is It?',you seem to have forgotten how funky they were.


...
[This message was edited Mon Mar 3 6:29:09 PST 2003 by DavidEye]

estidog said:

There are plenty of people who think Ringo Star was the comic foil of the Beatles. I've read that his drumming is so weak that session drummers were brought in to do the actual drumming on some of the Beatles recordings.

estidog said:

Their comic foil was called Yoko.

'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' from the Abbey Road album is as funky as anything on the Black Album. Search Kazaa for the cover version by Booker T & The MGs. Also, I found a version of 'Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey' by Fats Domino which sounds as if it was written for him.

As for The Time... Maybe they were more like the black Monkees rather than the black Beatles. For all their musicianship, they were still just another of Prince's 'puppet' acts.

BinaryJustin said:

BinaryJustin said:

---
Dude shut the fuck up and stop making a ass out of yourself.
The Time could have been the Black beetles if they had been allowed to grow as artist and not just be under Prince.
All of the guys are just great musicians who put on fantastic live shows. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have gone on the write thousands of RnB and Pop hits. They have certainly left their legacy on the music world.
I would like to inform you that their are like 50 RnB groups that are funkier than Beatles in any life time.

laurarichardson said:

I'll say whatever the fuck I like. You can't compare The Time as an act to The Beatles. If you want to compare the merits of individuals within The Time to the merits of individuals within The Beatles then start another thread about Jam & Lewis vs Lennon & Mc.Cartney.

In my opinion, The Time were musicians but The Beatles were artists. I'm not even saying that The Time were bad musicians - they obviously are not - but they are not The Beatles.

Does Sheila E play percussion for former members of The Time or does she tour playing percussion for a former member of The Beatles?

Oh - Your spelling's fucking terrible too... Buy a fucking dictionary and shove it in your mouth sideways until you learn some manners.

BinaryJustin said:

How is her spelling "fucking terrible"? I make it one typo on "Beetles" which she then corrected in the final sentence. A few little grammatical errors (a/an, the/to, their/there) perhaps but this isn't an English exam.

Whoa! This thread is getting nasty

DavidEye said:

Oi, stay out of it!

ConsciousContact said:

Okay,but first let me say this



It's absurd to even be comparing The Time to the Beatles.The Time is an R&B/funk band,while the Beatles were pop/rock.Apples and oranges.

"The Time could have been the Black Beatles".

That is THE most ridiculous thing I've read this year, I read David Icke's website regularly

Um... I love The Time, but the "black Beatles?" I REALLY don't think so.

BinaryJustin said:

-----
First of all asshole. I do not find the Beatles entertaining. I listen to music to be entertained. I do not find suck-ass singing and studio effects entertaining. Pound for pound I think as a rock group the Rolling Stones kick the Beatles ass.

I find the Time to be very entertaining maybe one of the best RnB groups ever. Maybe you do not consider them to be artist like the Beatles but,I think they just rocked as musicians and would have sold a lot more records if given the chance.

I think you are another rock-nerd who knows nothing about RnB music and for some reason feels comfortable speaking out of your ass. It is your opinion and I do not have to agree with it. So get over it!!!!

As far as Sheila is concerned I feel sorry for her. Her career has come to working with Ringo Starr. I wish she would hook up with Prince.

I do not need a dictionary. It is called a spelling error you ass. I am sorry I am not as perfect a person as you think you are. I am sure you never make mistakes.

Goodbye and Fuck-off
[This message was edited Sun Mar 16 10:26:36 PST 2003 by laurarichardson]

laurarichardson said:

Oh yeah - I'm sure Prince had a gun to their heads...

BinaryJustin said:

---
No, he owned and still owns the name of the group. He wrote all of the songs and owns the copyrights to the songs. So he did not have a gun to their heads but, they could not do anything as a group without his input.

Like I said you nothing about the group or RnB music.

laurarichardson said:

If they really didn't want to trade on their Prince connections and do their own thing, why would Jam & Lewis give their production outfit a similar-sounding name to "The Time"? ie: "Flyte Tyme".

I'm not a "rock-nerd" thank-you very much. I have very broad musical tastes - as (it seems) do Jam & Lewis... Looking at their website http://www.flytetyme.com I see that they produced two bloody awful ballads for those Rock-Dinosaurs, Sting & Bryan Adams.

Nobody could ever "be" as successful as The Beatles again.