Time (David Bowie song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Time” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Single by David Bowie from the album Aladdin Sane |
|||||
| B-side | "The Prettiest Star" | ||||
| Released | June 1973 (US) | ||||
| Format | 7" single | ||||
| Recorded | Trident Studios, London 9 December 1972 – 24 January 1973 |
||||
| Genre | Glam rock | ||||
| Length | 3:38 (7" single edit) 5:14 (Full-length album version) |
||||
| Label | RCA Records 0007 (US) |
||||
| Writer(s) | David Bowie | ||||
| Producer | Ken Scott, David Bowie | ||||
| David Bowie singles chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Aladdin Sane track listing | |||||
|
|||||
"Time" is a song written by David Bowie in New Orleans in November 1972 during the American leg of his first Ziggy Stardust tour. It was released as the opening track on Side Two of the album Aladdin Sane in April 1973. An edited version of the song supplanted the release of the single "Drive-In Saturday" in the United States and Japan.[1]
The piece has been described as "burlesque vamp",[2] and compared to the cabaret music of Jacques Brel and Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill.[3] Keyboardist Mike Garson said that he employed "the old stride piano style from the 20s and I mixed it up with avant-garde jazz styles plus it had the element of show music, plus it was very European."[4] Co-producer Ken Scott took credit for the idea of mixing the sound of Bowie's breathing right up front when the music paused, just before guitarist Mick Ronson launched into his cacophonous solo.[4]
The song's best-known couplet is "Time - he flexes like a whore / Falls wanking to the floor"; RCA allowed it to remain in the US single edit, being unfamiliar with the meaning of the British term "wanking".[5] However when Bowie came to perform the song on the US television special The 1980 Floor Show in August 1973, he slurred the line in such a way as to render it "Falls swanking to the floor".[6] Conversely, RCA cut the line "In quaaludes and red wine" from the single, while Bowie retained it for The 1980 Floor Show. The phrase "Billy Dolls" refers to Billy Murcia, late drummer for the New York Dolls.[3][7]
Like its parent album, "Time" has divided critical opinion. Biographer David Buckley calls the full-length version "five minutes of wired perfection" and the lyrics "poetic and succinct",[4] while NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray have described the words as sounding "strained and incomplete", concluding that "with such a weak lyric, the overly melodramatic music sounds faintly absurd".[7]
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
- "Time" (Bowie) – 3:38
- "The Prettiest Star" (Bowie) – 3:27
The Japanese release featured "Panic in Detroit" on the B-side.
[edit] Production credits
- Musicians:
- David Bowie: vocals, guitar
- Mick Ronson: guitar
- Trevor Bolder: bass
- Mick Woodmansey: drums
- Ken Fordham: saxophone
- Mike Garson: piano
[edit] Live versions
- It was recorded at the farewell concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on July 3, 1973, later released on Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture.
- The live version recorded for The 1980 Floor Show on October 20, 1973 was released on RarestOneBowie in 1995.
- A live version from the 1974 Diamond Dogs tour was released as a bonus track on the Rykodisc release of David Live in 1990. The 2004 reissue of David Live inserted "Time" into its correct position in the concert track listing.
- Another live recording from the 1974 tour was released on the semi-legal album A Portrait in Flesh.
[edit] Other releases
- It appeared on the Japanese compilation The Best of David Bowie.
- The single edit of the song was released on the bonus disc of the Aladdin Sane - 30th Anniversary Edition in 2003.
[edit] Cover versions
- Cinema Strange - Goth Oddity - A Tribute to David Bowie (1999)
- David J's Cabaret Obscura - .2 Contamination: A Tribute to David Bowie (2006)
- Hazel O'Connor - Single
- Rozz Williams - Live recording
[edit] Notes
- ^ Aladdin Sane at The Ziggy Stardust Companion
- ^ Kris Needs (1983). Bowie: A Celebration: p.29
- ^ a b Ben Gerson (19 July 1973). Rolling Stone review of Aladdin Sane
- ^ a b c David Buckley (1999) Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story: pp.185-187
- ^ Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: p.218
- ^ "Time" at The Ziggy Stardust Companion
- ^ a b Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: pp.54-55
[edit] References
Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5
