The Clock is Ticking

Ever stop to consider the schizophrenic relationship that we have with time? When you're a teenager, you can hardly wait to turn old enough to drink or drive; when you're uncomfortably close to the big six - o, you would jump at the chance to lose a few decades. However disconcerting it may be, we all have to face the fact that - as Mick Jagger put it so succinctly - "Time waits for no one and it won't wait for me." Consequently, as I am acutely aware that time is running out for me and my alleged lifestyle, I've come up with a few "time" lines.


One of the great Sixties anthems is "Time" by the Chambers Brothers - who could forget the psychedelic impact of the group chanting: "Time! " as the clock ticks ominously in the background. Yet the message was: "Time has come today" , as in the moment is now, change is in the air, we can't turn back. From a different perspective - but approximately the same era - we have Tyrone Davis' soulful lyric (re-done by R Kelly) lamenting:"If I could turn back the hands of time," a more commonly accepted view of having the time back that you squandered so you can re-write the past. I've frequently wanted to join Jethro Tull "Living in the Past" - seriously,what's the point of being paralyzed by the wreckage in the stock market when you can delude yourself with visions of "Glory Days"?


Ray Charles' "Night Time is the Right Time" is another angle on when it's "time" to fall in love, as opposed to Dr. John's familiar (and oh-so-true refrain) : "I was in the right place/But it must have been the wrong time." However, as Pete Seeger and the Byrds remind us: "There is a time for every purpose under heaven" ("Turn,Turn,Turn"). There's always as a first time - as in Lou Gramm and Foreigner reminding us that: "It feels like the first time " - and there's always a last time - Jagger and the Stones pointing out: "This could be the last time - baby the last time - I don't know-oh no -no no no (etc)."


Mick and company win the BSRR Best Time Song for March,2009, mainly because they've managed to express the hope of us aging boomers that: "Time is on my side - yes it is."