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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