On Time: A Princely Life in Funk

by Morris Day, David Ritz (With)

Overview

A memoir by Morris Day of The Time centering around his lifelong relationship and association with Prince.
Brilliant composer, smooth soul singer, killer drummer, and charismatic band leader, Morris Day, has been a force in American music for the past four decades. In On Time, the renowned funkster looks back on a life of turbulence and triumph. He chronicles his creative process with an explosive prose that mirrors his intoxicating music. Morris' story is a fast-paced page-turner replete with unexpected twists and shocking surprises.

A major and fascinating theme is his lifelong friendship and years of musical partnership with Prince, from their early days on the Minneapolis scene to selling out stadiums and duking it out as rivals in Purple Rain. Eventually, Morris went on to release four albums with a new band of his very own, the legendary Time. He battled his addictions and came out victorious. But not before increasing tensions and embittered rivalry between Prince and the Revolution and Morris Day and the Time led the two performers towards separate paths. Through the years, the fierce brotherly love between Morris and Prince kept bringing them back together, over and over again-until pride, ego, and circumstance interfered. Two months before Prince's untimely death, the two finally reconnected and started to make amends. But Morris could've never imagined it would be the last time he'd ever see his friend again.

This is Morris Day's singular story in which the magic of music is the ultimate healer. On Time is also a deep meditation on friendship, Morris' poetic method of reconciling the loss of his close friend and longtime collaborator, and a way to commemorate an incendiary life cut short. But this book is more than just a walk down memory lane-it's a metaphorical means to bring Prince back to life. Throughout the narrative, Morris allows Prince's "voice" to protect his own legacy, to counter Morris's interpretations of events, and to essentially breathe new life into a tale as old as time-of two brothers, two bands, and a musical culture that even today pulsates with fresh energy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306922213
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	10/08/2019
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

MORRIS DAY is a legendary multiplatinum recording artist, musician, composer, arranger, and singer who is best known as both a solo artist and the lead singer of The Time. He costarred with Prince in the blockbuster Purple Rain. Day resides in Orange County, California.

DAVID RITZ is a Grammy Award winner and the only four-time winner of the Gleason Music Book Award. He won the 2013 ASCAP Award for outstanding musical bio for When I Left Home, written with Buddy Guy. Ritz lives in Los Angeles, California.

Table of Contents

Prelude 3

1 Drop the Groove 7

2 Crowded House 11

3 The Lunchroom 17

4 Good Times 25

5 Shampayne 33

6 Drummer for Hire 39

7 Evolution of a Revolution 49

8 Time for The Time 55

9 The Electrifying Mojo 65

10 Egg on Your Face 73

11 Purple Rain 83

12 MD 93

13 The Split 97

14 What Color Is Success? 103

15 The Character 109

16 Daydreaming 115

17 Don't I Get My Own Chapter? 123

18 Corporate World 127

19 Graffiti Bridge 133

20 Nothing Is Guaranteed 139

21 Right Time for The Time 147

22 Raves and Rants 153

23 It's About Time 161

24 Musicology 165

25 The Come-to-Jesus Talk 171

26 The Gig That Wasn't 177

27 Gigolos Get Lonely Too 181

28 Remembrance of Things Past 187

29 Secrets 191

30 Not the End 197

31 The Beginning 201

Acknowledgments 205

Editorial Reviews

Day has a front-row seat for the life of one of the greatest musicians of all time and his book is a worshipful telling of what Prince's rise looked like from his vantage.

The New York Times Book Review - Touré

09/16/2019

In this entertaining memoir, musician Day tells of his career and his friendship with his musical mentor, Prince. Interweaving “the voice I’m hearing of Prince” within the narrative (at times to distracting effect), Day writes of growing up in 1960s Illinois, before he and his mother and his siblings moved to Minneapolis to escape his abusive stepfather. There he met a 15-year-old guitarist named Prince and formed a funk band called Grand Central. Prince landed a record deal on his own in 1978, and three years later Day formed the Time. Competitive tensions mounted, as Day recalls wanting Prince “to hear that we weren’t just funky but so goddamn funky that he’d have to think twice about how to outfunk us.” Day appeared in Prince’s film Purple Rain, but they had a falling out that lasted until just before Prince’s death (“Since Prince and I both believed in Jesus, you’d think a come-to-Jesus meeting” would have been easy). Day candidly shares his descent into drug abuse and his philandering (“The higher I get, the more adoration I crave”) and writes honestly about Prince’s desire to control him and his musical career. Fans of Prince—and the Time—will be thrilled with this insider view. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Great book! Great storytelling!"—Lenny Kravitz

"[An] entertaining memoir... fans of Prince - and The Time - will be thrilled with this insider view."—Publishers Weekly

"An enticing read... [L]argely a memoir but also, in part, an entertaining commentary."—Soul Tracks

"What if Prince came back and he and Morris got down to settling old scores and giving away secrets? Morris makes it happen, and I devoured this great book!"—Paul Shaffer, author of We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives

"What time is it? It's time for everyone to read Morris Day's memoir. Lean, slick, cooler than Santa Claus, and surprisingly tender, the book not only traces Day's history in Minneapolis funk, but doubles as an intimate recollections of his time with Prince."—Ben Greenman, author of Dig If You Will The Picture: Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince

"A breezy, hard-to-put-down book."—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"[Day]'s quite a vivid storyteller and the Day/Prince interplay not only works, but it keeps things moving forward. At times, it's a challenge to put On Time down."—Twin Cities Pioneer Press

"A vital, illuminating and wildly entertaining autobiography."—Billboard

"Fortunately, Morris Day's memoir arrives in the same month as his old friend's. Day grew up a few blocks from Prince and played drums in his first band. The two remained close for decades...Day's book has him in conversation with Prince's ghost, arguing about how to tell the story, and gives us details about Prince that he never got to tell his memoirist...Day has a front-row seat for the life of one of the greatest musicians of all time and his book is a worshipful telling of what Prince's rise looked like from his vantage."—New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

Only Prince can tell his story, but his former collaborator Morris Day solves that problem by allowing Prince’s "spirit" to chime in on his new audiobook—at least, in the way Morris would expect him to speak. Narrator Ron Butler carefully navigates the tricky terrain of speaking in Day’s voice as well as speaking in the voice of Prince from beyond the grave. He perfectly maintains Day's hip attitude toward drug use and the outrageous lifestyles of Prince’s family members and his own band, The Time. Occasionally, it can be a bit hard to determine who’s speaking during dialogue, but soon the listener will get into the rhythm. And isn’t that what Prince is all about? M.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2020 - AudioFile

Only Prince can tell his story, but his former collaborator Morris Day solves that problem by allowing Prince’s "spirit" to chime in on his new audiobook—at least, in the way Morris would expect him to speak. Narrator Ron Butler carefully navigates the tricky terrain of speaking in Day’s voice as well as speaking in the voice of Prince from beyond the grave. He perfectly maintains Day's hip attitude toward drug use and the outrageous lifestyles of Prince’s family members and his own band, The Time. Occasionally, it can be a bit hard to determine who’s speaking during dialogue, but soon the listener will get into the rhythm. And isn’t that what Prince is all about? M.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2020 - AudioFile