THE YEAR IS 1984!
- The Time was put together by Prince, and included Minneapolis musicians Morris Day, Jesse Johnson, Jimmy “Jam” Harris and Terry Lewis. The group released two albums before Ice Cream Castle, and they broke up shortly after “Jungle Love” was released. It’s unclear how much each group member contributed to this song and how much involvement Prince had in it, but Prince, Morris Day and Jesse Johnson are the credited writers.
- his song is typical of the “Minneapolis Sound,” which was popular in the mid to late ’80s. In his NME interview, Jesse Johnson explained: “The Minneapolis ‘sound’ thing is bulls–t, it’s just a load of bands who’ve moved here and are trying to sound like Dirty Mind and the early Time albums. The record companies still fall for it, but the whole point of the Time or Prince was that we went against the grain, sexually in Prince’s case, musically in ours. Our music was naked, we avoided all the popular effects, sounded old really. We did anything anyone else would hate.”
- The Time appeared in Prince’s movie Purple Rain, as did this song.
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Prince’s original demo of this song was released in 2019 on his posthumous album Originals. His version is strikingly similar to what The Time came up with – Prince even included the various ad-libs, like the laugh and jungle sounds at the beginning – in the demo.
- Morris Day is currently at odds with the estate of Prince. They own the name “The Time” and will not allow him to use “Morris Day And The Time” without paying a licensing fee to the estate. Something he says Prince NEVER made him do.
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