Was listening to the Time's first album last night and noticed 2 things.

Prince's voice sounds like it's all over the place in a fairly obvoius background mix. I know he played and wrote most of it, but you'd think they'd let Terry, Jesse etc. voice be more clear.


More importantly, I never realized "The Stick" sounds a lot like a rawer version of Let's Pretend we're Married. Especially this one part which has a syncopated chord on the "and" of beats 1 and 2...it gets repeated a lot. In LPWM it's often right before a new section or verse begins.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Prince even says at one point "everybody sing this song" on The Stick just like he does on LPWM.
[This message was edited Sat Sep 27 16:29:23 PDT 2003 by GaryMF]

GaryMF said:

i didnt think they sounded the same, but The Stick I do love how P and Lisa is all over the background.

The Time's 1st LP was ALL sung by Prince as demos, and the Times lata surrounded their singing over his vocals(which like you said can be noticed during the mix).

I hate the fact that The Times had lil' inputs in their 1st LP(or maybe no inputs at all) but I love the LP itself and "The Stick" is my FAVE along with "Get It Up".

When I listen to the first Time album,the only vocals I hear are Morris and Prince.I doubt that the other Time members are even singing on this record."The Stick",in particular,is practically a Morris/Prince duet.

DavidEye said:

right. To my knowledge, prince basicly did everything on this album and simply added morris' vocals. Though lisa does claim she came up with the music for "the stick" while "fooling around" (as she puts it) with morris & prince, and her voice can be heard on this track as well.

So does anyone besides me hear the beginnings of "Let's Pretend We're Married" in this song?

It's mainly that syncopation thing... I didn't record the exact time it occurs on the CD but it happens a lot... it's like a guitar chord played on the "and" of 1 and 2...

It usually happens in like the last measure of a phrase.

On let's pretend... it usually happens right before prince says something like "All the white people claps your hands now"... it's like the ending of a musical phrase.

Also, he kind of does that shtick on The Stick with the "everybody sing this song now" which also occurs in LPWM.

GaryMF said:

you gotta be the only person...i hear no difference.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

OK I"m really embarased now. I MEANT to say D.M.S.R... not Let's Pretend We're married. OOOPS!


I did pull out the CDs anyway before I realized my mistake... and what i'm talking about in The Stick first occurs in the verse... at about 0:22-23 seconds, and then again at about 0:31-32 seconds. It's the syncopated hits. It happens throughout the song, but this is to give you an idea.

Those syncopated hits occur throughout DMSR alhtough on synth.

Also, the "Everybody sings this song" in the Stick is at 3:15...simialar to when prince says it on DMSR

BTW, I also noticed in The Stick is the debut of "Get A little satisfaction" line which Jesse later made his trademark!