Album of the Day: The Time, “What Time Is It?”

The Time
“What Time Is It?” (Warner Bros. CD 923701-2)

Time are one of the few bands to have released an album before they even existed. How is that possible? Simple, when there is
half a certain Prince who can play almost all the instruments (as well as produce, write and arrange the entire album). Then just ask a talented friend, Morris Day, to overlay the main vocal parts and that’s it.
Yes, but how to make people believe that it is a real band? Very easy, just call some fantastic musicians like Jesse

Johnson, Monte Moir, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Jellibean Johnson and have them pose on the cover; that’s how Time was born, with Prince hiding behind the pseudonym of Jamie Starr.

The first album by this band (let’s put it that way) was released in 1980 and is one of the milestones in the history of funky music, even arousing the admiration of guru George Clinton.
Long, pounding tracks like “Get It Up”, “Cool” and “The Stick” were a hit in the discos and quickly turned the album into a platinum record, selling a million copies in America alone.
Two years later, The Time hit the stores again with “What Time Is It?”. Prince still wrote all the songs and played most of them.
but leaves room for other people’s guitar and keyboard solos, and “Wild and Loose”, “777-9311” and “The Walk” would be enough to consign the album to the history of black music. Dense and snappy sounds, rich in pure energy.

Any suspicion of a discographic bluff is swept away by the band’s live performances, which, being composed of phenomenal soloists, set stadiums all over America alight with their torrential sets, earning the title of best soul/funky group of the decade. Johnson is a guitarist who descends from both Hendrix and Sly Stone, Jam & Lewis demonstrate a rhythmic compactness that already anticipates what will be their characteristics as producers, Jellybean’s drums give no respite and the audience goes wild thanks to the theatrical charisma of Morris Day, inventor of bizarre dance steps and vocalist who often interrupts his performance to look at himself in the mirror.

The third album, “Ice Cream Castles”, was a misstep but ten years later the group returned to the fore with another fundamental album, “Pandemonium”, which brought them back to the top of the charts.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical subjects.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: Un disco per ogni giorno dell’anno” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.