The Time is a funk and
dance-pop ensemble formed
in 1981. They are close Prince
associates and arguably the most successful artists who have
worked with him.
History
The band was assembled under a clause in Prince's contract with
Warner Bros. that
allowed him to recruit and produce other artists for the label.
Inspired by the 1980 film The
Idolmaker, Prince decided to put together a pop-funk
group that would serve as an outlet for material in the vein of his
own early albums, while he explored other genres and styles in his
own career.[1]
By 1981, he had built The Time out of an existing Minneapolis
funk unit, "Flyte
Time" (from the Donald Byrd song),
which featured Jellybean
Johnson on drums, Jimmy Jam and
Monte Moir on
keyboards, and Terry
Lewis on bass. To this base were added Jesse
Johnson on guitar and a lead singer and childhood friend named
Morris Day, and
Jerome Benton who
was a promoter drawn from another local band called "Enterprise",
who became Day's comic foil. Prince had used an Enterprise song,
"Partyup", on his Dirty
Mind album, and his selection of Day was essentially a
reward; he had originally tapped Alexander
O'Neal - yet another player in the Minneapolis Uptown funk
scene - for the vocalist slot, but O'Neal wanted too much money,
himself being quoted as saying, "I basically didn't see no point in
being a superstar with no money."
The band went on to release four albums (mostly performed by
Prince + singer Morris Day alone) during the course of their main
career, each a solid slice of jammy, rock-infused 80s funk,
generally light and humorous in tone, strongly influenced by
Parliament
- and, of course, Prince. Although they scored numerous hits
(including "The Bird", "Jungle
Love", "777-9311", "Get It
Up", "Gigolos Get
Lonely Too", "The
Walk" and "Cool",
mostly on the R&B charts) during the early 1980s, they never
approached superstardom.
But as good as they were, they weren't allowed to play a note on
their debut album. Prince recorded all the music himself, crediting
the production to Jamie Starr and Morris Day, who at
least was allowed to sing on the record, but was forced to follow
Prince's guide vocals note-for-note.
A growing rivalry began to develop between the two groups, as
The Time toured with Prince and
his
band during his 1982 Controversy
Tour. Frustrated with their lack of input on the albums
bearing their name and being underpaid, The Time would take to the
stage with the purpose of showing up Prince, much the same way
Prince and his band undermined Rick James when they toured with him
as James' opening act. (Unlike what happened during Rick James'
Light it Up tour, no one
was leaving before the headliner, Prince, finished his set.) The
tension came to a head on the final night of the tour in Cincinnati
during the Time's set when Prince and some of his cronies egged
their supporting act from off stage. Things further escalated after
The Time's performance when guitarist Jesse
Johnson was handcuffed to a wall-mounted coat rack and further
humiliated. Prince, of course, demanded no interruptions during his
performance, but as soon as he left the stage, a food fight
erupted. When the battle continued at the hotel, Prince made Morris
Day pay for all damages, claiming that he had started the whole
thing.[2]
During the 1983's 1999/Triple
Threat tour, The Time were forced to play as Vanity
6's backing band from behind a curtain, before playing their
own hour-long set with only a small pay increase. Jimmy Jam
and Terry Lewis, who had begun writing songs and production
work of their own (working with SOLAR to produce
Klymaxx and with
Tabu Records to
produce the S.O.S. Band), were
stranded in Atlanta by a blizzard
and failed to make it to a Time concert in San Antonio,
for which Jerome had to mime playing bass guitar on stage while
Prince played Lewis' part off stage, and Lisa stood in for Jimmy
Jam. Subsequently, the duo were fined and then fired. Although
Prince would state in a 1990 Rolling
Stone's interview that he "didn't fire Jimmy Jam
and Terry Lewis. Morris asked [him] what [he] would do in his
situation. Remember, it was [Morris'] band." Whether their firing
was due to the incident or to their increasing independence has
never been clear. Monte Moir took the opportunity to leave as well,
and would also work with Jam and Lewis. The three were replaced
with Mark Cardenas and Paul Peterson on
keyboards and Jerry Hubbard on bass. This new line up were featured
in Prince's Purple
Rain film. The Time rode the wave of popularity created
by the movie and hit singles "Jungle
Love" and "The Bird" and were
household names in 1984. Unfortunately, the band was not to reap
the benefits.
It was Day who left next after arguments with Prince, choosing
to pursue a solo career in 1985 after a successful acting turn in
Purple Rain. Soon
thereafter, with Jesse Johnson also opting to go solo (taking other
Time members Cardenas and Hubbard with him), the band
disintegrated; the remaining members (Benton, Jellybean Johnson and
Peterson) were reformed into a new short-lived project called
The
Family. Meanwhile, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis went on to become
one of the most successful songwriting and production teams of the
80s and 90s.[1]
In 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]
Several members of The Time reunited in 1995, added a few new
recruits and have remained together since. This version of the band
can be seen in the Kevin Smith film
Jay
and Silent Bob Strike Back and tours frequently to this
day. The band is usually billed as "Morris Day and The
Time".[1]
A fifth Time album is rumored to have been completed in the late
90s, recorded with the new lineup but production and coordination
with Prince has prevented its release. The title Old Dogs, New Tricks was the working
title. A 2004 album attributed to Morris Day called It's About Time contains a few new
tracks written and performed by Day and a number of live
performances by The Time.
The Time reunited at The 50th Grammy Awards on February 10, 2008
in a medley that included Rihanna and featured
"Jungle
Love."
In June and July 2008, all of the original members of The Time
(Morris Day, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jesse Johnson, Jerome Benton,
Jellybean Johnson, and Monte Moir) reunited once again for a series
of shows at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
A recent interview as of January 2009 mentions that guitarist
Jesse "FunkFunk" Johnson states he is working with The Time on
their upcoming album. The Time appeared at The Fox Theater, in
Detroit, Michigan on June 11, 2010, with the original lineup to a
packed house. Two days later during what Jimmy Jam dubbed the "The
Stingy Tour"on June 13, 2010 the "magnificent 7" played a hometown
reunion concert in Minneapolis, MN, and, during that concert,
announced on stage that a new album was "90% complete,"
which confirmed information provided in a Billboard profile published a week
earlier.
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