6 Distinctly Measured Songs About Time

All the many phases and occurrences within time have been represented, in song, in one way or another throughout the decades.

On the soulful “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” Otis Redding reflects on all the things he couldn’t do in passing time, so he’s sitting at the dock of the bay, watchin’ the tide roll away since he’s come to peace with it all.

Harry Chapin penned one of the most misty-eyed stories of how a father and son missed out on spending quality time with one another on his 1974 folk hit “Cats in the Cradle,” while The Cars wanted to let the “Good Times Roll” in 1979. Styx’s “Too Much Time on My Hands” observes someone spending excessive time drinking at a bar at the cost of their sanity.

Semisonic’s 1998 hit “Closing Time,” was inspired by singer Dan Wilson’s soon-to-be fatherhood, and on a deeper level, the act of coming into the world, and new beginnings. Coldplay’s 2002 hit “Clocks” documents a tearing relationship as time keeps slipping away. In 2017, Harry Styles addressed the still-calamitous era of inequality among sexes, races, and more in his debut solo single “Sign of the Times.”

Though there are volumes of other songs centered around time, here’s a look at just six songs that captured unique depictions of it from the early 1960s through the late ’90s.

1. “Time Is On My Side,” The Rolling Stones (1964)
Written by Jerry Ragovoy and Norman Meade

First recorded by Kai Winding and his orchestra in 1963 with background singers Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, “Time Is On My Side” was also covered by soul singer Irma Thomas before The Rolling Stones recorded it for their album 12 X 5. In the song, the narrator knows his love will return, because he believes he has time on his side. 

The Stones peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart with “Time Is On My Side,” which marked the band’s first top 10 in the U.S.

Now you always say
That you want to be free
But you’ll come running back (said you would baby)
You’ll come running back (I said so many times before)
You’ll come running back to me

Oh, time is on my side, yes it is
Time is on my side, yes it is

2. “Time of the Season,” The Zombies (1968)
Written by Rod Argent

The closing track on The Zombies’ 1968 album, Odessey and Oracle, “Time of the Season” is about the times of sharing love with someone. The song was written by keyboardist Rod Argent when the band was up against the clock to finish their album.

“It was written in the morning before we went into the studio in the afternoon, and I kind of struggled on the melody,” said Zombies singer Colin Blunstone in 2015. “Rod and I had quite a heated discussion – he being in the control room and me singing the song – and we were just doing it through my headphones. Because it had only just been written, I was struggling with the melody.”

Blunstone continued, “It makes me laugh, because at the same time I’m singing, ‘It’s the time of the season for loving,’ we’re really going at one another.”

It’s the time of the season
When love runs high
In this time, give it to me easy
And let me try with pleasured hands

To take you in the sun
To promised lands
To show you every one
It’s the time of the season for loving

Read the full story behind “Time of the Season” HERE.

3. “Time,” Pink Floyd (1973)
Written by Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, Nick Mason

The realities of passing time are epically chronicled in Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side of the Moon classic “Time.”

Throughout the nearly seven-minute track, David Gilmour contemplates how quickly time passes by —Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day / Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way / Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown / Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say

4. “The Time Warp,” The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1973)
Written by Richard O’Brien and Richard Hartley

Cross-dressing mad scientist Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) hosts a party of misfits and urges guests to do the “Time Warp” — a dance blending The Twist and other popularized dances from the 1950s and ’60s — in one of the most central scenes of the 1973 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Before the festivities can begin, humpbacked servant, played by Rocky Horror creator Richard O’Brien, along with his demonic sister Magenta (Patricia Quinn), and groupie Columbia (Nell Campbell), introduce the song about the splendors of pretending to go back to another time, even for a moment — With a bit of a mind flip / You’re into the time slip / And nothing can ever be the same / You’re spaced out on sensation / Like you’re under sedation.

The song originated in the 1973 stage production The Rocky Horror Show, created by O’Brien, and was also used in the film adaptation.

It’s just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right.
With your hands on your hips
You bring you knees in tight
But it’s the pelvic thrust…
That really drives you insane
Let’s do the Time Warp again!

5. “Time After Time,” Cyndi Lauper (1983)
Written by Cyndi Lauper and Rob Hyman

Cyndi Lauper’s first No. 1 hit from her 1983 debut She’s So Unusual, “Time After Time” became a mega pop ballad centered on the end of a relationship, and the love that still remains. At the time, Lauper wrote it with Rob Hyman (The Hooters), both were having issues in their respective romantic relationships and put it into song.

“Time After Time” was one of four tracks Lauper wrote for her debut, resulting from her pushing to get more of her own lyrics onto She’s So Unusual. “I kept fighting to write a song for this record with one of these guys,” said Lauper. “What I thought was great is that we were able to take real-life things, real things that were really happening—things that people said, things that people did—and put them right in the song.”

“Time After Time” hit the top of the Billboard Top 100 and Adult Contemporary charts. The song also peaked at No. 3 in the U.K. and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

Sometimes you picture me
I’m walking too far ahead
You’re calling to me, I can’t hear
What you’ve said
Then you say, “go slow”
And I fall behind
The second hand unwinds

If you’re lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I’ll be waiting
Time after time

Read the full story behind “Time After Time” HERE.

6. “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life),” Green Day (1997)
Written by Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, Tré Cool

Billy Joe Armstrong originally wrote “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” in 1993 while working on Green Day’s third album Dookie. It was inspired by a girlfriend who was moving to Ecuador, and the end of their relationship.

“It’s about trying to be cool, accepting that, in life, people go in different directions,” said Armstrong about the song, which was released on the band’s 1997 album Nimrod. “People come into your life and it’s wonderful, but they seem to go out of your life as quickly as they came in.”

“Good Riddance” was the first time Green Day had an acoustic ballad on an album, and the song quickly took on a life of its own and was being used at weddings, and graduations, and connected to other life events.

“I was definitely not thinking about weddings and graduations when I wrote it,” added Armstrong. “A girl just sent me a message on my Instagram [saying] she had a brother that just passed away, and that became the song her family would listen to that they related to their experience. It’s really beautiful when you think about it.”

Photo: Gettyimages.com