I got hip to The Time back in 1981, back when I was just starting to explore more of Prince’s music. I didn’t know it at first, but it didn’t take long to figure out that The Time was part of Prince’s organization. Here, we’ll take a quick look at The Time’s four albums, a bit of a rewind through the past.

In 1981, an album called The Time was released. It introduced us to the swaggering, charismatic Morris Day as its lead singer, and a congregation of musicians that (supposedly) provided the tight funk backbone. As time went on, though, it was apparent that this album was recorded solely by Prince, before the band had been officially assembled, with Day handling the vocal duties. It’s still a fantastic album: “Cool” was one of the highlights of the year for yours truly, in fact. I’d give this one three and a half stars, out of five: it still stands up as a solid funk effort.

1982 brought us What Time Is It?, and while it’s still mainly a Prince project with overdubs by a few Minneapolis regulars (like Jesse Johnson on guitar), this album is the epitome of the Minneapolis sound, even more so than Prince’s own recordings at times. Rather than horns, musical figures were punctuated with synth lines. In concert, the grooves were just as tight: this band fired on all cylinders. “777-9311” was the lead-off hit single, with “The Walk” following shortly thereafter. The Time also backed up the disposable girl group Vanity 6. Four stars!

When Purple Rain hit the public consciousness, The Time released Ice Cream Castles. A major disappointment: the music was quite lame in comparison to the earlier two albums. While Prince was the main musical thrust on the studio tracks, the live recording of “The Bird” featured the band. Or, what was left of it: the band had splintered by this point. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis had left for a successful production career, and Jesse Johnson (their fantastic guitarist) had also split the scene. The replacements were musically competent, but the whole feel of the band became weaker, and not as punchy; even the songwriting was uninspired. The Time was bordering on self-parody at this point, although “Jungle Love” and “The Bird” both got airplay thanks to the movie. Two stars, at best.

Coinciding with another Prince movie project, The Time reunited for an album called Pandemonium, and the result was just that: pure 100% Minneapolis born and bred musical pandemonium–The Time was back with its original lineup. And not only that, the band insisted on playing all the instruments on this album, and it shows! The title track, which opens the album, kicks into high gear with plenty of great songs following: “Jerk Out”, “Sexy Socialite”, and several others. “Chocolate” was actually a Prince track with Day’s vocals on it: it’s still a good track, but you can tell it’s not The Time backing Day. The trademark swagger, the tight instrumental interplay, it’s all there. Five stars for this one!

One only wishes The Time could have stuck together. Day’s solo career just sort of ricocheted back and forth for awhile and never really went anywhere. Maybe they still have one great album left in them…we can only hope! And of course, it would have to be the original lineup with Morris Day, Jesse Johnson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Monte Moir and Jellybean Johnson. There is a lineup of The Time out touring, but it only has a couple of the original members.

Two good sites for The Time that you should check out:

http://www.purplemusic.mynetcologne.de/the_time.html

http://citypages.com/databank/25/1232/article12300.asp