Prince and Morris rock First Avenue
Here’s a cool snapshot of Prince’s Minneapolis scene before he struck it big with ‘1999’, and BIG BIG with ‘Purple Rain’. The date is March 8th, 1982. Location: the Minneapolis club First Avenue, which Prince made famous two years later in the movie ‘Purple Rain’.
It’s a small club gig with a loose, intimate feel. Towards the end of the show, Prince brings up a few members of the time: Morris Day, Jesse Johnson (guitar), Jimmy Jam (keys), and Jellybean Johnson (drums). The banter is pretty funny. You can hear the competitive edge between Prince and Morris, as they go back and forth in between songs. Prince: “y’all can play, but this is my stage tonight!”; “you gotta play some rock and roll, don’t come up here playing that you know what.” Morris: “say man why don’t you take my comb, you could use it.” Jimmy Jam: “Time for the Time. Time to kick Prince off the stage.”
The first song that the Time kick into, “Dance to the Beat”, is an unreleased song that comes right out of the Prince “Delirious” playbook (and his B-side “Horny Toad”). Prince responds to that one with: “I didn’t like it….play something you know how to play”. So the Time get down and dirty and do what they do best, funkin’ it up with “The Stick”. The night ends with Prince’s “Partyup”, with Morris Day on the drums.
Here’s the set list from the gig. Check out “Sexuality” thru “Partyup”. Throw them together in order and listen in to a fun, carefree, groundbreaking era in Prince’s “Minneapolis Sound”.
- Buy Prince music.
- Buy The Time.
11 Comments
jazzmaster
Pete~
Hey, man… This is great! Thanks for the hook-up!!! Do you mind if I add this link to the housequake website?
Brian
Pete
Feel free Brian…
justavibe
LOL that top picture is always a classic! A good read too, I wish there was some OFFICIALLY released concert footage of The Time and Prince along with them from back in the 80s. I bet it’d never happen..but it’s always nice to think about it. BTW, you probably already’ve seen this before, in ’04 I found this pretty cool article about the early Time, Prince, Mpls. music scene, etc. check it out: http://citypages.com/databank/25/1232/article12300.asp
Thanks for the trax songs 🙂
Pete
justavibe – i hadn’t read that article until now. Thanks!
Jim
That is a great photo! Sign me up for the Prince updates. I am already an Ickmusic Forum Member.
Charlie
you are truly the biggest Prince fan that I’ve ever met. It’s an honor to know such a fan.
Paul
Mental! Thank for this. Anymore like this getting around?
ellen
prince updates please! awesome.
"christopher"
hi pete,
great site, great pic.
i`m a prince fan 4 more than 20 years…..
an i often rememver the “good old times”……sometimes i think there are much better than today !!!
please email me, when u post about prince, thanx !!!
greetings from germany….
“christopher” 0)+>
may u live 2 see the dawn…………..
theos
How can I get a copy of this?
don
love the article and photo. one can only wonder how big morris day & the time could have REALLY been, if prince had fully supported the group.