Time: Racing Around to Come up Behind You Again

Part of the Seed Pod #2 series for December, here on Substack

Dec 14, 2024

The following post is part of a Seed Pod collaboration about time. Seed Pods are a SmallStack community project designed to help smaller publications lift each other up by publishing and cross-promoting around a common theme. We’re helping each other plant the seeds for growth!

Album cover for Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon/MoMA/George Hardie, Hipgnosis, Harvest Records, 1973

Approaching time is as obtuse and ethereal as one cannot imagine. For me, time seems fleeting and unforgiving. The changes encountered with family and friends? Those are probably most people’s yardstick from where they came to where they’re going.

For me, it’s about music. Can I recall the name of the first song I heard? No. But can I recall the feeling, place and yes, time? That I can do.

Rolling Stones - Time Is On My Side (Brian Live on the TAMI Show)/℗© Unichappell Music Inc., Tro Essex Music Ltd/You

Time Is On My Side

There are clips aplenty of this song available. However, it’s this version from the T.A.M.I. Show in October 1964 that best sums up how time is intrinsic to the Stones: Bill being oh-so cool chewing gum, Brian looking loopy, Charlie being rock-steady, Keith… barely has a visual presence, and Mick. Mick is so rubber-band-y in command, his gaze so penetrating. Like the lyrics eloquently detail, “And baby, I do anything your heart desires, remember I'll always be around.”

Styx – Too Much Time On My Hands/℗© Stygian Songs/YouTube

Too Much Time On My Hands

In the first few seconds, I’m transported back to high school (remember this is about “time”) and this Styx song from 1981. In segments of reflection, I’m reminded how everyone I knew during that period were enamored of Styx, they were so omnipresent on the radio and at school lunch. I believe to this day my schoolmates are still only 17 and we’re playing air guitar with Tommy Shaw.

Culture Club – Time (Clock Of The Heart)/℗© Roy Ernest Hay, Michael Emile Craig, Jonathan Aubrey Moss, George Alan O'Dowd/YouTube

Time (Clock of the Heart)

Well, this one just yells “MTV!” in my brain. How can it not, when you have Boy George in full-blown 1982 form, gently funky, gently new wave? There was nothing over-the-top then, really. Yes, the visual is cheesy and so prevalent of the “time,” but it’s that sparkly vibe that is missing too often these days… although having seen George in 2024, I can unequivocally say “time” has been very kind to him.

Bob Seger – Old Time Rock And Roll [Official Music Video]/℗© Peermusic Publishing/YouTube

Old Time Rock and Roll

It’s painfully hard to imagine this song without seeing a 1983 Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear – but guess what? This song was first released in 1979! I attended a vocational high school, meaning as a student, you learned a trade to prepare you for the ‘real world’ and every other week the lot of us creative loonies were behind drawing boards with a cassette boombox blasting tunes for inspiration. This, my long-lost freaks, was on non-stop.

If I Could Turn Back Time

So many stories, post-1989 on what this song did for Cher reverberate to this very day. However, my memory was of my gay BFF and myself driving from Chicago to the Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit to see Cher in concert in 1999 (he was from nearby St. Clair). Oh, sure, you’d think we’d be listening to the radio as we got closer, ready for traffic updates. The traffic would be crazy, right? Yet, as we neared the venue… the parking lot was EMPTY. Yep, Cher had canceled at the last minute. Stunned, we walked to the doors and a security guard informed us of the bad news. But hey, we could have free tickets to see Cheap Trick up at Pine Knob! No thanks, we said. Can we use the restrooms, please?

PS – she did eventually reschedule and we went back later to take in all that was “timely.”

Time

“The idea in “Time” is a similar exhortation to “Breathe.” To be here now, this is it. Make the most of it.” — Roger Waters

Want to see more posts from this Seed Pod or join in on the fun? Head over to our thread to learn more!

Cartoon of three green happy peas in a pod on a plain yellow background with a dotted orange border. Black text by the peas reads, "Seed Pods; A SmallStack Community Project