The Time
Morris Day & The Time
The Beginning
Once upon a time ... exactly in April 1981 [Prince] creates THE TIME as an
outlet for some of his most funky and danceable R&B material. The project was
made possible when he signed a contract with Warner Bros. Records, that
allowed him to develop and record other acts. After the considerable success
the record company had achieved with his 1979 album "Prince" and the
hit-single "I wanna be your lover" (which sold more than 1 million copies and
hit #1 at the R&B Charts and #11 at the Pop-Charts) in the black marketplace,
the record company was very interested when [Prince] presented them with more
of the same. By creating THE TIME, [Prince] was able to continue on the path
of his 1980 album "Dirty Mind" and explore other musical genres that would
not label him as a R&B artist. His ideas about creating an alter-ego group
was reinforced by a 1980 motion picture entitled "The Idolmaker". Directed by
Taylor Hackford, this movie is a revealing and entertaining glimpse of the
process behind the invention of pop stars. It was based on the career of Bob
Marcucci, who pulled the strings for Fabian and Frankie Avalon in the '50s.
Sue Ann Carwell did a stint as lead singer before getting a solo contract,
and also Alexander O'Neal took over. He was [Prince]'s first choice as lead
singer for THE TIME, but he finally declined his offer by saying "If there
isn't going to be a bunch of money, then I'm not in.". Alexander O'Neil
later released more than 10 albums and collected three gold records - THE
TIME released only 4 albums but got three gold and one platinum.
Finally [Prince] envisioned THE TIME as a cool, street-wise funk band, with
[Morris Day] as the lead singer. The songs [Prince] tailored for the band
were unpretentious and well humored, mostly concerned with love, sex, style,
attitude, partying and money. Containing none of the spiritual or
socio-political concerns that he dealt with on his own albums. Part of
[Prince]'s incentive for involving [Morris Day] in THE TIME was to repay him
for the use of his track "Partyup" on [Prince]'s 1980 album "Dirty Mind".
THE TIME's further line-up was basically created around a Minneapolis funk
band called Flyte Tyme. This band, named after a song by jazz artist Donald
Byrd, was founded by [Jellybean Johnson] (drums) and [Terry Lewis] (bass) and
had exist in different incarnations since around 1973. [Monte Moir] and
[Jimmy Jam] (both keyboards) had also played with Flyte Tyme many times ago.
[Jesse Johnson] (guitar) was finally enlisted by [Morris Day], who remembered
him from an audition for his former band Enterprise.
Cynthia Johnson was one of Flyte Tyme's early lead singers until she left
to sing with Lipps Inc., who had a huge hit with "Funkytown" in 1980.
Andre Cymone, who played bass in [Prince]'s band, had been very involved in
THE TIME project from the beginning. He was also assembling a girl group,
called "The Girls", and saw the side projects as an opportunity to supplement
his relatively small income from being a band member only. Andre claimed that
he came up with many of the ideas for THE TIME before being muscled out of
the project, wich led into falling out with [Prince]. The relationship
between Andre Cymone and [Prince] had been deteriorating for some time. Andre
felt, that he didn't receive enough credits for his input into [Prince]'s
music and stage act, even accusing [Prince] of knowing stealing his ideas.
He decided to leave [Prince]'s band and embark a solo-career. He accepted to
participate in the upcoming european tour, but he left the band immediately
afterwards.
Lisa Coleman later also reported, that [Prince] pulled stunts like turning
home studio jams with [Morris Day] and her into material for THE TIME and
another side-project, Vanity 6.
Throughout Prince's career, he has been involved with a succession of
protects and side-projects. This Story envelop a fascinating insight into
Prince's production and songwriting techniques. Many of the artists have
become stars in their own right. Perhaps most famous and successful of all of
this musical projects have been ... THE TIME.
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