Interesting. Thanks for those responses.

So, for the first 3 The Time albums, we're talking Morris on drums or Prince on the drum machine, Prince on bass, Prince or Jesse on guitar, Dr. Fink or Prince on keyboards, Morris on lead vocals, and Prince & Lisa & Vanity & The Time themselves on background vocals, with most of the songwriting done by Prince with some contributions by Lisa (as I understand it, she wrote "The Stick") and Jesse.

controversy99 said:

alphachannel beat me to it.

Dez co-wrote "Cool" from the first album and "Wild & Loose" from the second.

Also, for the record, the first two Time albums are essential...... "Ice Cream Castles" is mediocre at best, and "Pandemonium" has great moments but is too long and not cohesive at all.

alphachannel said:

controversy99 said:

Interesting. Thanks for those responses.

So, for the first 3 The Time albums, we're talking Morris on drums or Prince on the drum machine, Prince on bass, Prince or Jesse on guitar, Dr. Fink or Prince on keyboards, Morris on lead vocals, and Prince & Lisa & Vanity & The Time themselves on background vocals, with most of the songwriting done by Prince with some contributions by Lisa (as I understand it, she wrote "The Stick") and Jesse.

Don't forget Dez's songwriting contributions... So it sounds like the Time concept was nothing more than a favor owed to Morris but if that's all it was and Prince never intended to record them, why not just make Morris a solo act? Seems a lot of work was put into grooming and rehearsing what turned out to be a smoking band that was way underutilized. I definitely remember (at the time) enjoying their set over Prince's on the 1999 tour; 30 years on I'm still floored by that Homecoming DVD. I guess in the end I'm glad we have the live videos and CDs to appreciate what a great band they were in concert.

Yeah I forgot about Dez...

Militant said:

alphachannel beat me to it.

Dez co-wrote "Cool" from the first album and "Wild & Loose" from the second.

Also, for the record, the first two Time albums are essential...... "Ice Cream Castles" is mediocre at best, and "Pandemonium" has great moments but is too long and not cohesive at all.

Dez also wrote After Hi School, too.

He didn't use The Time for the same reason he didn't use his own bands on most of his own albums. That's the way Prince works, period.

As for the reasons why he created the band in the first place, it's been reported that Prince wanted to simulate a musical movement from Minneapolis, so people would have the feeling that Prince was both generative of, and part of a bigger movement, and perceive him as being something important in music history. The funny thing is that all these talents he used in his side-projects ended-up having careers of their own, making the MPLS Sound a real musical movement in the end.

Other than that, an obvious reason is to make more money and another is, as stated above, to be able to release more than one album a year.

I've read somewhere that Prince's contract with WB stipulated that he could and would release "side-projects" under the form other artists, so Prince had this in mind from day one.

Morris and "Partyup" just came in the mix at the right time. Alexander On'Neal was orginally suppoosed to be The Time's lead singer, and Sue-Ann Carwell and The Rebels were aborted side-projects long before The Time and Vanity 6 were conceived.

databank said:

As for the reasons why he created the band in the first place, it's been reported that Prince wanted to simulate a musical movement from Minneapolis, so people would have the feeling that Prince was both generative of, and part of a bigger movement, and perceive him as being something important in music history. The funny thing is that all these talents he used in his side-projects ended-up having careers of their own, making the MPLS Sound a real musical movement in the end.

Other than that, an obvious reason is to make more money and another is, as stated above, to be able to release more than one album a year.

That's a great explanation as to why, and obviously it worked. The cast of characters Prince created or embellished certainly made Minneapolis seem to be a hotbed of cultural (not just musical) innovation. So by positioning himself a juggarnaut on the scene, he seemed to be a rising star in a crowd of talent (much like his role in the Purple Rain film), as opposed to a mad genius puppetmaster operating in an Elvis-like vacuum. I often questioned why gave away many songs that were arguably superior to some he released or attributed production, writing or performance to others in his camp -- now it makes more sense especially at the time he did this. Though the Paisley Kingdom eventually collapsed under its own bloat, for about half a decade Prince's master plan was brilliant...

My Boyz !!!

PurpleLove7 said:

My Boyz !!!

I got a quick question. Did Jerome join in '82 or '83? Because it seems he's not on the back cover of WTII?

I believe he was in the video for "The Walk" which would have been 1982...

alphachannel said:

I believe he was in the video for "The Walk" which would have been 1982...

I did remember Jerome being in the video because I saw it on BET long time ago. And he WAS in the video to "Cool". I guess he was an original member but it's strange because there's seven guys at the Grammy picture and six on the back cover of WTII.

[Edited 5/17/11 11:52am]

Spinlight said:

Militant said:

alphachannel beat me to it.

Dez co-wrote "Cool" from the first album and "Wild & Loose" from the second.

Also, for the record, the first two Time albums are essential...... "Ice Cream Castles" is mediocre at best, and "Pandemonium" has great moments but is too long and not cohesive at all.

Dez also wrote After Hi School, too.

Yeah, that's right! Love that jam. I see a similarity between the vibe of that song and "He's So Dull" which Dez wrote for V6.

Even though their first 2 albums are their best, I actually like how "Ice Cream Castles" was mixed & I like the echo & reverb on it. It [audio wise] sounds better than their first 2 albums imo...

alphachannel said:

controversy99 said:

Interesting. Thanks for those responses.

So, for the first 3 The Time albums, we're talking Morris on drums or Prince on the drum machine, Prince on bass, Prince or Jesse on guitar, Dr. Fink or Prince on keyboards, Morris on lead vocals, and Prince & Lisa & Vanity & The Time themselves on background vocals, with most of the songwriting done by Prince with some contributions by Lisa (as I understand it, she wrote "The Stick") and Jesse.

Don't forget Dez's songwriting contributions... So it sounds like the Time concept was nothing more than a favor owed to Morris but if that's all it was and Prince never intended to record them, why not just make Morris a solo act? Seems a lot of work was put into grooming and rehearsing what turned out to be a smoking band that was way underutilized. I definitely remember (at the time) enjoying their set over Prince's on the 1999 tour; 30 years on I'm still floored by that Homecoming DVD. I guess in the end I'm glad we have the live videos and CDs to appreciate what a great band they were in concert.

Yeah that Homecoming DVD was a true eye-opener to me, finally I could witness how bad (in the most positive way!) The Time really was! They were amazingly tight, also I love that funky rnb flavor on lots of their tunes.

Obviously the first two albums were the best, as most of us seem to agree here.

Timmy84 said:

alphachannel said:

I believe he was in the video for "The Walk" which would have been 1982...

I did remember Jerome being in the video because I saw it on BET long time ago. And he WAS in the video to "Cool". I guess he was an original member but it's strange because there's seven guys at the Grammy picture and six on the back cover of WTII.

[Edited 5/17/11 11:52am]

Jerome was in the video for Cool. So, my guess is he's been a part of the "band" from the very beginning.

Maybe the reason why he wasn't on the back cover for What Time is It is because they wanted to show members of the band that people would be seeing play the songs live.

Paris9748430 said:

Timmy84 said:

I did remember Jerome being in the video because I saw it on BET long time ago. And he WAS in the video to "Cool". I guess he was an original member but it's strange because there's seven guys at the Grammy picture and six on the back cover of WTII.

[Edited 5/17/11 11:52am]

Jerome was in the video for Cool. So, my guess is he's been a part of the "band" from the very beginning.

Maybe the reason why he wasn't on the back cover for What Time is It is because they wanted to show members of the band that people would be seeing play the songs live.

I see...

July 29. 1980 rel The Time: The Time

1.Get It Up
2.Girl
3.After Hi School After hi school is registered to Morris Day, yet it was actually written and demoed by Dez Dickerson
4.Cool Cool is registered as a collaboration of [Prince] (music) with Desmond "Dez" Dickerson (lyrics).
5.Oh, Baby
6.The Stick The stick was originally written by Lisa Coleman, but it was registered to Jamie Starr.

Prince] initiate this album before the band had even been assembled. The record was completed in only two weeks in April 1981 at his home studio in the basement of his house at Lake Riley in Chanhassen, Minneapolis. Only Oh, baby was recorded in April 1979 at Alpha Studios in Los Angeles during the sessions for his own 1979 album "Prince". The final mixing of the tapes took place at Hollywood Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, from 28th to 30th April 1981. [Prince] himself plays more or less every note on the album. Matt Fink delivers synthesizer solos on Get it up and The stick, while Lisa Coleman provides some backing vocals on Cool and The stick. [Prince]'s own voice is often audible in the final mix.

February 14th, 1982 • Civic Auditorium, San Francisco






Date: February 14th, 1982
Venue: Civic Auditorium • 99 Grove Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA
Show: Supporting-Act at [Prince]'s "Controversy"-Tour

1. Concert intro + The stick
2. After hi school
2. Oh baby
4. Get it up
5. Cool

• [Morris Day] lead vocals
• [Jerome Benton] stage valet & percussion
• [Jesse Johnson] guitar
• [Terry Lewis] bass
• [Jellybean Johnson] drums
• [Monte Moir] keyboards
• [Jimmy Jam] keyboards

^^ Now that is a cool pic.

OldFriends4Sale said:

LOVE THIS PIC!!!

OldFriends4Sale said:

July 29. 1980 rel The Time: The Time

1.Get It Up
2.Girl
3.After Hi School After hi school is registered to Morris Day, yet it was actually written and demoed by Dez Dickerson
4.Cool Cool is registered as a collaboration of [Prince] (music) with Desmond "Dez" Dickerson (lyrics).
5.Oh, Baby
6.The Stick The stick was originally written by Lisa Coleman, but it was registered to Jamie Starr.

Prince] initiate this album before the band had even been assembled. The record was completed in only two weeks in April 1981 at his home studio in the basement of his house at Lake Riley in Chanhassen, Minneapolis. Only Oh, baby was recorded in April 1979 at Alpha Studios in Los Angeles during the sessions for his own 1979 album "Prince". The final mixing of the tapes took place at Hollywood Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, from 28th to 30th April 1981. [Prince] himself plays more or less every note on the album. Matt Fink delivers synthesizer solos on Get it up and The stick, while Lisa Coleman provides some backing vocals on Cool and The stick. [Prince]'s own voice is often audible in the final mix.

Wonder if Oh Baby was originally supposed to be a demo but Prince decided to let Morris' version be included on the album...

^ What do u mean?

"Oh Baby" and "Girl" both sound like almost-there type productions where he felt they didn't measure up to standards like "Do Me Baby" etc so he tossed em to The Time to release them anyway.

Spinlight said:

"Oh Baby" and "Girl" both sound like almost-there type productions where he felt they didn't measure up to standards like "Do Me Baby" etc so he tossed em to The Time to release them anyway.

That's what I'm getting from the songs too... like he was like "hey Morris, you wanna sing these songs? I'm not putting them on my album." They were just leftovers.

Kinda explains why The Tme (or Morris Day and The Time) tour constantly with the same material, eh? It's not their material!!!

I'm not doggin them out. Live they are a hard-hittng band, probably harder than Prince/Jamie himself, but if (when) they did all original material it won't (didn't) sound like the first three.

PANDEMOMIUM is a good album, but is The Time in name only. Morris did a OK job on COLOR OF SUCCESS. "Oak Tree" was a good fit in the mold of "the Bird".

PFunkjazz said:

Kinda explains why The Tme (or Morris Day and The Time) tour constantly with the same material, eh? It's not their material!!!

I'm not doggin them out. Live they are a hard-hittng band, probably harder than Prince/Jamie himself, but if (when) they did all original material it won't (didn't) sound like the first three.

PANDEMOMIUM is a good album, but is The Time in name only. Morris did a OK job on COLOR OF SUCCESS. "Oak Tree" was a good fit in the mold of "the Bird".

"Oak Tree" was actually my INTRODUCTION to Morris Day. Wasn't long until I knew about the Time and their Prince affiliation.

"Fish net" was another jammin track offa that!!!

PFunkjazz said:

"Fish net" was another jammin track offa that!!!

YES!!!!

PurpleLove7 said:

My Boyz !!!

Because no one on the planet can work as fast as Prince in the studio. He knew what he wanted in his head The sound, The Concept & The masterpieces only he can create...