In 1990, Prince, who was as competitive as he was virtuosic, made a rare admission of vulnerability: “To this day, [the Time] are the only band I’ve ever been afraid of.”

Prince had initially helped nurture the Time, a group of crack musicians from his hometown of Minneapolis that he formed into a band and wrote songs for. When they emerged in 1981 with an eponymous album full of knee-buckling funk and an impeccably choreographed live show, they immediately scored a pair of Top Ten R&B hits: “Get It Up,” a thoroughly convincing argument for “freaking all night long,” and the chest-puffing, highly danceable “Cool,” which ticks off the resume of an impossibly wealthy, indefatigable playboy embodied by lead singer Morris Day.

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