#SQUADGOALS (18)

By: Matthew De Abaitua
May 3, 2017

One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by HILOBROW friends and regulars during 2017, on the subject of our favorite squads.

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Morris Day and Jamie Starr seal the deal to form The Time over a messy mixing desk; there’s a Playboy centerfold, dollar bills, a bottle of tomato ketchup and a packet of Marlboro cigarettes strewn about. Money, sex, food — The Time are ironic materialists, excess upon excess. The lyrics are deliberately denuded — “Get It Up,” “Jungle Love,” “Girl.” That would be so nice, sings Morris. As nice as a leopard skin trim on a gold lamé jacket.

Jamie Starr is in fact Prince disguised by shades. A dollar bill is tucked in the breast pocket of his suit. The deal is this: Prince and Morris Day form the Time in return for Morris letting Prince use his track “Party Up.”

Jamie Starr is pictured with a cigarette in his left hand (Prince didn’t smoke), producer-as-hack, divesting Prince’s music of any interest in spirituality, politics, love. Old guys on the make with none of Prince’s pretensions. Morris Day’s character, the limp pimp with a catcall laugh, renders such cynicism loveable. The first three Time albums follow a pattern: six tracks, three to each side, delivering the bare minimum for your buck, with one song designed to start a dance craze — The Stick, The Walk, The Bird — that’ll fund the lavish lifestyle described in the other five tracks.

The band wear the vintage Harlem style of zoot suits, fedoras, baggy trousers and brogues: a parody of an elder generation. When Morris Day appears on the Letterman show, he’s only twenty-two years old but when Letterman asks him how old he is, he snaps back, “37.”

The Time are out-of-time, always a cult band despite their protestations to the opposite (valet and hype man Jerome Benton is required to create the fame of Morris Day). The long tracks incorporate skits set in fancy restaurants, or lavish bedrooms, Morris cackling and helpless in the grip of his sexual and culinary fetishes — camisoles and silk drawers, chocolate and turkey dinner. Like every squad, The Time have their in-jokes, their own moves, a tightly synchronised funk comedy.

The name of The Time was chosen because Jamie Starr wanted a word that was used a lot in everyday speech. What time is it? It’s time to go.

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#SQUADGOALS: Annie Nocenti on THE WILD BUNCH | Alice Boone on PRETTY LITTLE LIARS | Gordon Dahlquist on BOWIE’S BAND | Rob Wringham on THE HOME GUARD | Jennifer Krasinski on WATERSHIP DOWN RABBITS | Annalee Newitz on ROBIN HOOD’S MERRY PALS | Adrienne Crew on THE BLOOMSBURY GROUP | Mark Kingwell on THE HONG KONG CAVALIERS | Adam McGovern on KAMANDI’S FAMILY | John Overholt on THE CLUB | Greg Rowland on THE VULTURE SQUADRON | Sara Ryan on BETSY, TACY & TIB | Chelsey Johnson on VI ÄR BÄST! | Brian Berger on THE JOHN FORD STOCK COMPANY | Sherri Wasserman on THE WARRIORS | Jessamyn West on FAREYNIKTE PARTIZANER ORGANIZATSYE | Josh Glenn on DADA | Matthew De Abaitua on THE TIME | Mandy Keifetz on THE FOUNDING FATHERS | William Nericcio on ZOOT SUIT PACHUCOS | Deb Chachra on FIREFLY CREW | Matthew Battles on THE ANIMAL FAMILY | Ingrid Schorr on THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS | Joe Alterio on THE USUAL GANG OF IDIOTS | Dan Reines on THE BREAKFAST CLUB | Rob Walker on LES TROIS INSÉPARABLES | Devin McKinney on 1975 RED SOX | Steph Burt on DAMAGE CONTROL | Elina Shatkin on THE HOLOGRAMS | Chris Spurgeon on THE ALKALI METALS | Carl Wilson on NEW YORK SCHOOL POETS | Barbara Bogaev on THE MOD SQUAD | Franklin Bruno on THE AACM | Judith Zissman on THE FUTURIANS | Mimi Zeiger on ARCHIGRAM | Jacob Mikanowski on THE RATBASTARDS | Lynn Peril on THE DALY SISTERS | Anindita Basu Sempere on MEG MURRY’S FAMILY | Libi Rose on THE ENIAC TEAM | Gary Panter on THE TRIBE OF HIPPIES | Peter Doyle on CORNEL WILDE BOYS | Ken Layne on THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG | Molly Wright Steenson on BAUHAUS | Katie Hennessey on BEAT POETS | Mimi Lipson on THE RUNAWAYS | Jordan Ellenberg on BOURBAKI | Michael Campochiaro on THE SUICIDE SQUAD | Deborah Wassertzug on THE BLOODHOUND GANG | Colin Dickey on ACÉPHALE | Douglas Wolk on SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY | David Smay on THE MYSTIC KNIGHTS OF THE OINGO BOINGO | Karinne Keithley Syers on BLACKLIPS PERFORMANCE CULT.

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