Day Follows Long Night With Time on His Side

Ain’t it funny how the Time slipped away? Can it really be 15 years since Morris Day & the Time appeared like some latter-day, category-decimating Sly & the Family Stone? Can it really be a decade since Day’s solo career helped him become an omnipresent entertainer on record, film and television? What ever happened to this onetime umpire of cool?

After a number of hit records with the Time and solo, after a lauded, scene-chewing turn in the film “Purple Rain,” after a reign on fledgling MTV that saw him cross over from the dance market into mass acceptance, Morris Day disappeared. Now, he and the Time are on a comeback tour--they appear Sunday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana--and are working out a record deal.

With hip-hop taking the play away from Day’s brand of playfully funky charisma in the urban-music world, he sounded almost geezer-like in a recent phone interview from the House of Blues in Los Angeles, where a packed house awaited him.

“I’m doing this because people wanna hear where my head is at,” Day said. “Whether or not any of these things I’m doing now show up on a CD . . . I don’t know. I change almost daily as far as my frame of mind and the songs I’m doing. I’m letting people know what I’m up to and what I wanna do. Once we finalize everything, which will be soon, it’s hard to say what’ll end up on tape.”

Day, who calls himself “too old to talk about my age, too young to quit,” is no fan of hip-hop--the slick, contemporary brand of commercial R&B.;

Day’s mix of hot, live funk crossed with rock ‘n’ roll attitude and pure, undiluted showmanship may be yesterday’s news, but he feels that the climate is ripe for a return to live music performed by musicians rather than sampling machines.

“People seem to want to hear real music again,” he said. “We’re gonna stick to the real stuff. I think there’s a place for hip-hop and all that, but it’s not my cup of tea. I miss being able to listen to a good band play; that’s what excites me about music.

“I don’t get excited if I go to a concert and everybody’s playing tapes; that doesn’t do anything for me,” he said. “Not to take anything away from the talented people who are doing that and the records they make in the studios, but the live thing is lacking these days.”

The Minneapolis-based Time released its debut album (“The Time”) in 1981. Abetted by a high-profile friendship with the then-red-hot Prince, the album yielded two hits in “Cool” and “Girl.” “What Time Is It?” followed in 1983, and the singles “The Walk” and “777-9311” charted.

Day went solo in 1984, releasing the hit album “Ice Cream Castles,” fresh on the heels of his star-making role in Prince’s “Purple Rain.” More solo albums followed, as well as an all-but-ignored 1991 Time reunion album, “Pandemonium.” But the career momentum was long gone.

*

What has Day been doing since?

“After I had done my last solo album, I did a little touring, doing some plays and theater,” he said. “Then I did some sitcoms, which didn’t quite work all the way out. It’s one of those things, whatever happens. You ride the wave of the moment, things cool off, and you come back; you keep at it until things heat up again.”

Day has been working at a ferocious pace on his current tour, appearing nightly as he tries to recapture a piece of the glory days.

Although no longer the star he was 10 years back, Day still possesses his essential cockiness and sense of humor. He’ll need both in large supply to survive the music world of the ‘90s.

“My goals are always just to do the best I can and impress myself, mostly,” he said. “And usually when I impress myself, other people will be impressed as well.”

* Morris Day & the Time and Barela play Sunday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $25-$27. (714) 957-0600.