If I had to guess, it was partly to get back into Prince's good graces, partly because Prince was enjoying a big Batman commercial comeback, and partly to work with their friends again from a new position of power themselves.
It’s Your World- love this track! Sometimes I Get Lonely- maybe should have been the only ballad because DT Black Version is god awful. So easy to hear Janet singing this tho. Databank- never liked this song or anything about it. 0/5 Prince’s version I’d give a 3.5/5
"Data Bank": Yeah, this was pretty much ruined for Corporate World/Pandemonium. Prince's version destroys it. But enough of the "original weirdness" persists to make the Time's worth the occasional listen. But when I do listen I still wish I were listening to the Revolution's version. Time: 3/5 Prince: 5/5
Today's song is "My Summertime Thang", written and produced by Prince; credited to The Time. Lyric. Basic tracking was done on March 27th, 1983, during the Ice Cream Castle/Purple Rain era, the day after "JUngle Love" and on the same days as "Cloreen Bacon Skin." Prince later gave this to Eric Leeds to work on for his solo album but Eric Leeds did not choose it. It seems a little more work was done on the song in 1989 for The Time's unreleased Corporate World. Morris Day: vocals Prince; backing vocals and all instruments Candy Dulfer: saxophone Prince vault also includes these credits: Jellybean Johnson - drums and backing vocals (credited, but participation is unknown) Jesse Johnson - guitar, backing vocals (credited, but participation is unknown) Jimmy Jam - keyboards, backing vocals (credited, but participation is unknown) Monte Moir - keyboards, backing vocals (credited, but participation is unknown) Terry Lewis - lead vocals, bass guitar, backing vocals (credited, but participation is unknown) Jerome Benton - percussion, "mirror and holler" (credited, but participation is unknown) Jana Anderson - background vocals (credited as "Stella" (assumed)) Robin Power - female vocals (credited as "Grace" (assumed), but participation is unknown) Elisa Fiorillo female vocals (credited as "Blondie" (assumed), but participation is unknown) Karyn White - female vocals (credited, but participation is unknown) Margie Cox - female vocals (credited, but participation is unknown) Jill Jones - female vocals (credited, but participation is unknown)
Well I haven't calculated ratings in several days due to being abroad. But I will catch up with that this week, as I am back home. But with several threads going, there is a considerable backlog!
The last track on the album is not really a song, and had no Prince involvment. As Prince has only been involved in the writing of 5/10 of the songs on this album (and his involvment on one seems to have been minimal), I"m not going to hold this album up for rating, and instead, tomorrow I'll start holding up songs from Graffiti Bridge; I'll write about that later today. Here's "Pretty Little Women"
I mean, Prince loved this one enough to use new lyrics and call it “the latest fashion” on graffiti bridge (although the original version of the latest fashion is superior to the one released in my view). It’s a decent enough slab of funk, but it’s overly long and seems a little laboured 3/5
Summertime Thang - OK, pleasant enough, but actually a bit boring. And the spoken bits are pretty awful. Nice piano though. 2/5.
"My Summertime Thang" is...okay. I prefer "The Latest Fashion." It does seem odd that he would rework the song and feature it in two projects released so closely together. Maybe he wanted to link them in some way? I'll give it a 2.75/5
My Summertime Thang This is the original version, It was rerecorded as The Latest Fashion. My Summertime Thang is the superior one. It’s just a groove, but a great one. This is a 4 out of 5
My Summertime Thang Within all that usual bolstered 80s style production is a pretty lightweight song. 1/5
True, although the original unreleased The Latest Fashion dates back to 1987 and uses a completely different backing track to My summertime thing. The unreleased (but leaked) The Latest Fashion is far superior to the released to my ears.
The past few days I've been at times critical of some of The Time songs, not hearing much magic in them and being held down because of bad skits/raps/interludes. That's not my impression of My Summertime Thang. This is a fun groove. The raps/skits during the song do not distract too much from them. The song is quite long but doesn't overstay its welcome, I'm quite OK with the repetition on it. So yeah, the album ends on a high note. I can even take the skit (Pretty little women) after it. 4.5/5
"My Summertime Thing": Parts of the backing track are pretty nice, but there's much too little variation, and the result is rather boring. It's still better than "The Latest Fashion," though, which isn't saying much. Neither inspires me to bother digging out Prince's demo of the latter for comparison. 2.5/5
Data Bank: I heard this first by The Time, when I got the album at the time of its release. I like it well enough, a funky groove like most of their jams. When I heard the Prince original a couple of years later, I liked it as well. Now that’s the one I prefer. However, both versions irritate with the computer bleeps, although not so much now. 4/5, with half-point more for Prince’s version. My Summertime Thang: Another funky groove by The Time, and like all their non-ballad cuts here, guaranteeing some serious non-stop partying. Repetitive in groove and length, as I’ve mentioned before, is a good thing for dance songs. This one I prefer over their take on DB, if only because it doesn’t have the annoying computer noises. 4.5/5
My Summertime Thang Not that great but certainly better than The Latest Fashion as it doesn't have the irritating "go Morris go Morris go Morris" cahnting going on. 2.5/5
My Summertime Thing Another Ive never liked. Same for Latest Fashion. Just bloats the album for me, unneeded filler. 1/5