Keeping an Eye on Time

Time in Song

Time in Song - #5




Like everyone else in this world, over the course of time, I have lost someone close to me. There's a line in A Hazy Shade of Winter that reminds me of time and people I've lost. The bridge of the song says, "Seasons change with the scenery. Weaving time in a tapestry. Won't you stop and remember me?" Yes, I will remember you , my friend, for you may have been stolen away by time, but your memory will transcend it.

Here is #5 in my Time in Song countdown  - Simon & Garfunkel - A Hazy Shade of Winter




A Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon & Garfunkel circa 1966


Time, time time, see what's become of me
While I looked around for my possibilities
I was so hard to please


Don't look around
The leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter


Hear the Salvation Army band
Down by the riverside's, there's bound to be a better ride
Than what you've got planned
Carry your cup in your hand


And look around
Leaves are brown, now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter


Hang on to your hopes, my friend
That's an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend that you can build them again


Look around
The grass is high
The fields are ripe
It's the springtime of my life


Seasons change with the scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me


At any convenient time?
Funny how my memory skips while looking over manuscripts
Of unpublished rhyme
Drinking my vodka and lime


I look around
Leaves are brown, now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter


Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground


Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground


Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground






Time in Song - #4




One of my favorite tid-bits of wisdom on the Aphorisims & Folk Wisdom page warns that, "Youth is wasted on the young." I know of no other song that better personifies that sentiment than Yesterday When I Was Young.

Here is #4 in my Time in Song countdown  - Roy Clark - Yesterday When I Was Young




Yesterday When I Was Young - Roy Clark circa 1964


It seems the love I've known
Has always been the most destructive kind
I guess that's why now
I feel so old
Before my time


Yesterday, when I was young
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I always built to last on weak and shifting sand
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of the day
And only now I see how the years ran away


Yesterday, when I was young
So many happy songs were waiting to be sung
So many wild pleasures lay in store for me
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out
I never stopped to think what life was all about
And every conversation I can now recall
Concerned itself with me and nothing else at all


Yesterday the moon was blue
And every crazy day brought something new to do
I used my magic age as if it were a wand
And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
And every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died
The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end the play


There are so many songs in me that won't be sung
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue
The time has come for me to pay for
Yesterday, when I was young






Time in Song - #2




I've always considered the I Robot LP by The Alan Parsons Project to be a masterpiece. The album is chock full sentiments on life and time. One song however, stands out among the rest for its profound point of view on time. The song is Day After Day and to this day, I am hard pressed to give it a listen without getting misty.

As is often done, a YouTube fan created a slide show to accompany this song. I was moved by the imagery for its depiction of time and decided to use the fan's version.

Here is #2 in my Time in Song countdown  - Day After Day by The Alan Parsons Project.




Day After Day - The Alan Parsons Project - Circa 1977


Gaze at the sky
And picture a memory
Of days in your life
You knew what it meant to be happy and free
With time on your side


Remember your daddy
When no one was wiser
Your ma used to say
That you would go farther than he ever could
With time on your side


Think of a boy with the stars in his eyes
Longing to reach them but frightened to try
Sadly you'd say someday, someday


But day after day
The show must go on
And time slipped away
Before you could build any Castles in Spain
The chance had gone by


With nothing to say
And no one to say it to
Nothing has changed
You still got it all to do
Surely you know
The chance has gone by


Think of a boy with the stars in his eyes
Longing to reach them but frightened to try
Sadly you'd say someday, someday


But day after day
The show must go on
And you gaze at the sky
And picture a memory of days in your life
With time on your side


With time on your side
(Day after day the show must go on)
With time on your side
(Day after day the show must go on)






Time in Song - #3




I love the conflict of hope in the face of defeat in Jim Croce's song Time in a Bottle. This song, released in 1973 helped influence me to compose an anthlogy I titled The Fountain of Youth.

Here is #3 in my Time in Song countdown  - Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle.




Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce circa 1973


If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
'Til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you


If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you


But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with


If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you


But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with






Time in Song - #10




We kickoff this countdown with a bit of irony. For me, Time Passages by Al Stewart has become a passage through time. I was a senior in high school the year this song came out. I remember cranking up the Pioneer SuperTuner in my Firebird and crusing Route 1, never giving thought to the possibility that the very song pounding out of my Jensen Tri-Axials would one day guide my drifting mind into its own time passages.

Here is #10 in my Time in Song countdown - Al Stewart's Time Passages




Time Passages - Al Stewart circa 1978


It was late in December
The sky turned to snow
All round the day was going down slow
Night like a river beginning to flow
I felt the beat of my mind
Go drifting into time passages
Years go falling in the fading light
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight


Well, I'm not the kind to live in the past
The years run too short and the days too fast
The things you lean on
Are the things that don't last
Well, it's just now
And then my line gets cast into these
Time passages
I know you're back there - you're just out of sight
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight


Hear the echoes and feel yourself starting to turn
I Don't know why you should feel
That there's something to learn
It's just a game that you play

[Instrumental Interlude]

Well, the picture is changing
You're part of a crowd
They're laughing at something
And the music's loud
A gal comes towards you
You once used to know
You reach out your hand
But you're all alone
In those time passages
I know you're in there
You're just out of sight
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

Oh time passages






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