Bio



Morris Day was the lead singer of the R&B group the Time (1981-1984), Day launched a solo career in 1985, following his success in the Prince film Purple Rain.

Hits include:

* "Jungle Love"
* "The Bird"
* "Jerk Out"

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) 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.

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 sociopolitical 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, which 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 for THE TIME and another side-project, Vanity 6. Add/Complete Bio

Appearances

Articles and Documents

No Articles, Documents or Photo's Found for This Artist. If you have something, you wanna share, about this artist/group you can always Contact Me.

Copyright © 2004 - 2024 SOULANDFUNKMUSIC.COM. All Rights Reserved.