I just realized that i'd never really read the whole story if anyone knows it, and a few questions popped:

1) This was only Prince and Morris, but how did it happen? I've read that Morris was really mad at Prince when he left The Time in mid-1984, and by 1989 he had a quite successful career of his own, so i can hardly imagine Prince calling "Hey dude let's do a Time album just you & i" and Morris answering "Ok, cool, i'm coming at Paisley Park at once". Does any one know what exactly motivated both of them to work together again and relaunch The Time?

2) Which leads to my second question, because i always thought that Graffiti Bridge (the film) was the only reason behind The Time's 1990 reunion. But I've read that Corporate World was supposed to be released in November 1989. That's a YEAR before the film's release, so it's seems unlikely that both projects were related at this point. So what was the link between these projects, if any? And if Corporate World wasn't supposed to feature The Time's songs from the film, then what was?

3) Since this project was only Prince and Morris until WB said they wanted the whole original band to be involved, what was The Time supposed to "be" once Corporate World would have been released? Obviously Prince and Morris would need a band to play in the videos, on TV shows and possibly on stage if a tour was to happen. If not, there was no point in calling it a "Time" album instead of a "Morris Day" album. Is it known if Prince and Morris had already cast or chosen musicians when WB canceled the album and if they had, who they were?

Thanks for anyone who can give me any extra info about all this

1) Morris's career was going no where fast. So an opportunity for a Time album was needed.

2)Wiki says:n 1990, the original six members of the band reunited for the Graffiti Bridge movie and soundtrack, as well as a new album, Pandemonium. The project was originally called Corporate World and was set to only feature Morris and Jerome, but Warner Bros. demanded that the original line-up be brought in if Prince wanted the company's backing for the movie. This spawned their highest selling single, "Jerk Out" and the album featured more input from the band than any other Time album. The reunion was short-lived, however - infighting within the band caused them to disband once again. Morris and Jerome have since remained a team, with both trying out some small acting roles over the next few years.^[1]

kewlschool said:

1) Morris's career was going no where fast. So an opportunity for a Time album was needed.

2)Wiki says:n 1990, the original six members of the band reunited for the Graffiti Bridge movie and soundtrack, as well as a new album, Pandemonium. The project was originally called Corporate World and was set to only feature Morris and Jerome, but Warner Bros. demanded that the original line-up be brought in if Prince wanted the company's backing for the movie. This spawned their highest selling single, "Jerk Out" and the album featured more input from the band than any other Time album. The reunion was short-lived, however - infighting within the band caused them to disband once again. Morris and Jerome have since remained a team, with both trying out some small acting roles over the next few years.^[1]

1) Might be, i really don't know if his first 2 albums sold decently or not, but does anyone have more details about how it happened?

2) This is what i already know, not what i'm asking for, but thanks anyway

Where are Madhouseman, Langebleu, Scififilmnerd and BorisFishPaw when u need them???

To muddy the waters further, wasn't the Graffitti Bridge film hatched as an idea back in 1987? At that point The Time was surely dead, yet early drafts of Graffitti Bridge featured The Time more prominantly that the released version. If that's true then Corporate World may have been intended as a parallel release like Ice Cream Castles was, and perhaps GB would have been a Prince only album. But back to the original post, who was supposed to be in this version of The Time -- yet another version of the line-up backing Morris, or was Prince also considering bringing the boys back?

databank said:

I just realized that i'd never really read the whole story if anyone knows it, and a few questions popped:

1) This was only Prince and Morris, but how did it happen? I've read that Morris was really mad at Prince when he left The Time in mid-1984, and by 1989 he had a quite successful career of his own, so i can hardly imagine Prince calling "Hey dude let's do a Time album just you & i" and Morris answering "Ok, cool, i'm coming at Paisley Park at once". Does any one know what exactly motivated both of them to work together again and relaunch The Time?

Well, here's how I see it. On SOME level, Prince and Morris believe that "The Time" is basically just them. Not to say that they don't value the other members, or the non-members who have contributed over the years. But what you gotta bear in mind is that the whole creation of "The Time" was born out of Prince and Morris being friends, Morris writing "Partyup" from Dirty Mind in exchange for Prince building a project around him. Prince didn't owe any other bandmember anything, but he owed Morris.

Morris and Prince are basically the only two people involved in The Time who are irreplaceable. You can't have a Time album without Prince and you can't have a Time album without Morris. Everybody else is replaceable.

Yes, Morris was mad at Prince. I believe he actually left the camp in early '84. Certainly by the time Purple Rain came out in June, he had been gone for a while. He had to get in touch with the management simply in order to arrange his own attendance at the premiere. But they were good enough friends to where any falling out was only ever gonna be temporary. I fall out with my best friends all the time. We always end up cool again, one way or another. 5 years is a LONG time, so to me it's not surprising AT ALL that they would be friends again. I don't see Morris' career as being relevant, really. Him and P are deeper than that. They would have just become friends again at some point, started kicking it again and then somewhere down the line, the idea of doing another Time album came about. I don't think anyone but Prince or Morris could tell you what "motivated them to work together again", but to me it seems fairly obvious that they just resolved their personal issues at some stage and became friends again.

2) Which leads to my second question, because i always thought that Graffiti Bridge (the film) was the only reason behind The Time's 1990 reunion. But I've read that Corporate World was supposed to be released in November 1989. That's a YEAR before the film's release, so it's seems unlikely that both projects were related at this point. So what was the link between these projects, if any? And if Corporate World wasn't supposed to feature The Time's songs from the film, then what was?

Here's the distinction as I see it. "Corporate World" was the reunion of Prince and Morris working together, therefore "The Time". Prince had an idea in his head of doing another movie (the movie that would become Graffiti Bridge). So, Prince decided that Morris would have some involvement in the movie. Prince went to get funding from Warner Bros for the movie, but due to Under The Cherry Moon not being a massive commercial success, he couldn't dictate the project. So, you look at things from the point of view of WB, who are funding the project, and the ideas that they brought to the table are pretty clear, and that's:

1. The movie is a sequel to Purple Rain.

2. Reunite the original line-up of The Time.

Now, why would WB want that second caveat? Well, it wasn't just Morris that was a star. Jimmy and Terry were too, and so was Jesse. Jimmy and Terry were the biggest producers in the world at the time, with the success they'd had with Alexander O' Neal, and more obviously, Janet Jackson. Jesse had had a string of hit albums at that point. I think it had been long enough at that point to where any personal issues any members might have had with P would have been resolved or forgotten, so at this stage, why not just reunite the whole original line-up, and do an album where not only Prince and Morris had a say, but all the other bandmembers had the opportunity to do so also. Which is exactly what happened, with the Pandemonium album.

And, 4 tracks that were slated to appear on "Corporate World" did end up in the movie. Shake, Release It, Love Machine, and The Latest Fashion. The projects were related loosely, in the sense that Prince knew he wanted to make a movie when he started recording new stuff with Morris.

3) Since this project was only Prince and Morris until WB said they wanted the whole original band to be involved, what was The Time supposed to "be" once Corporate World would have been released? Obviously Prince and Morris would need a band to play in the videos, on TV shows and possibly on stage if a tour was to happen. If not, there was no point in calling it a "Time" album instead of a "Morris Day" album. Is it known if Prince and Morris had already cast or chosen musicians when WB canceled the album and if they had, who they were?

Thanks for anyone who can give me any extra info about all this

Like I said, on a fundamental level Prince and Morris could hire anyone and call it "The Time", because it would sound like "The Time" and it would have Morris on lead vocals. Which, when you consider the discography, is exactly what the first two Time albums were anyway (aside from the co-writes with Lisa and Dez and the additional synths from Matt Fink).

I mean, the line-up that appears in "Purple Rain" isn't the OG line-up either. It's the line-up with St. Paul (who most people don't even remember was in the band), Mark Cardenas, and Gerry Hubbard (who most people don't remember, full stop).

As for a backing band, yeah, they probably had some people in mind. Paisley Park as a label was in full swing at this point and they were developing all kinds of acts, some of whom got to release their albums and many of whom didn't (see Robin Power & The Uptown Dames, for example). Prince and Morris would have had plenty of people to choose from, Jerome was back with them, and there's even a possibility they would have reached out to some other former members at that stage also, before the decision was made to reunite the original line-up.

I think most of your questions were already answered in the liner notes to 4DF's 'Corporate World'.

And just remember that the GB movie project started in 87.

Databank said

I remember Black Beat magazine reporting this: During one of the Lovesexy shows in 1988,a few of The Time members came backstage for a private meeting with Prince.He played them several tunes that he had written and recorded for them.The guys were very enthusiastic and at that moment,it was decided that a reunion would take place,with Prince involved.

SoulAlive said:

Databank said

This was only Prince and Morris, but how did it happen? I've read that Morris was really mad at Prince when he left The Time in mid-1984, and by 1989 he had a quite successful career of his own, so i can hardly imagine Prince calling "Hey dude let's do a Time album just you & i" and Morris answering "Ok, cool, i'm coming at Paisley Park at once". Does any one know what exactly motivated both of them to work together again and relaunch The Time?

I remember Black Beat magazine reporting this: During one of the Lovesexy shows in 1988,a few of The Time members came backstage for a private meeting with Prince.He played them several tunes that he had written and recorded for them.The guys were very enthusiastic and at that moment,it was decided that a reunion would take place,with Prince involved.

A long long time ago (mid/late 1990s) I wrote a very long piece on the making of Pandemonium. I hope I can dig it up and perhaps post it on the Wiki so it can be updated with the latest info.

Thing is, I read a ton of interviews from that era, and the same people tell different stories to different magazines, often contradicting themselves or saying things that don't make sense at all or things that we know can be right because of the research done by Uptown and others.

.

[Edited 5/19/11 1:27am]

BartVanHemelen said:

SoulAlive said:

Databank said

I remember Black Beat magazine reporting this: During one of the Lovesexy shows in 1988,a few of The Time members came backstage for a private meeting with Prince.He played them several tunes that he had written and recorded for them.The guys were very enthusiastic and at that moment,it was decided that a reunion would take place,with Prince involved.

A long long time ago (mid/late 1990s) I wrote a very long piece on the making of Pandemonium. I hope I can dig it up and perhaps post it on the Wiki so it can be updated with the latest info.

Thing is, I read a ton of interviews from that era, and the same people tell different stories to different magazines, often contradicting themselves or saying things that don't make sense at all or things that we know can be right because of the research done by Uptown and others.

.

[Edited 5/19/11 1:27am]

Please do, I'd love to read it.

Militant said:

BartVanHemelen said:

A long long time ago (mid/late 1990s) I wrote a very long piece on the making of Pandemonium. I hope I can dig it up and perhaps post it on the Wiki so it can be updated with the latest info.

Thing is, I read a ton of interviews from that era, and the same people tell different stories to different magazines, often contradicting themselves or saying things that don't make sense at all or things that we know can be right because of the research done by Uptown and others.

.

[Edited 5/19/11 1:27am]

Please do, I'd love to read it.

There's an old version quoted here: http://groups.google.com/...b4e1b33ee/ . Another version: http://groups.google.com/...f156a9b7f1 .

Many thanks Militant and Bart for these insights

BTW ASCAP lists Prince as a co-writer on "Pandemonium": http://www.ascap.com/ace/...mp;start=1

Obviously the only reason is the fact that it used the "Fellas I'm back" chant from "Murph Drag", so one could say it doesn't count except that since "Murph Drag" was unreleased at the time, it still makes it an original contribution. Funny that no one acknowledges this, including Princevault

Not sure if this was mentioned already,but the Time had been planning a reunion since 1986.The plan was for them to do a movie of their own with Janet Jackson as the co-star.There was gonna be a big soundtrack LP on A&M Records.Prince was not involved in any of these plans,but he was quoted as saying "I hope those guys get back together again".

SoulAlive said:

Not sure if this was mentioned already,but the Time had been planning a reunion since 1986.The plan was for them to do a movie of their own with Janet Jackson as the co-star.There was gonna be a big soundtrack LP on A&M Records.Prince was not involved in any of these plans,but he was quoted as saying "I hope those guys get back together again".

There actually was a one-off reunion concert in 87 IIRC, which is where the intro of Pandemonium comes from ^^