♫ Time Passages ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history

While I was in the midst of ‘America Week’, a couple of songs either popped into my head unbidden or were mentioned by someone.  This one by Al Stewart is one that … I think … just popped into my head, though someone might have mentioned it … I’m old and the memory fails sometimes.  I could have sworn I had played this before, but I checked and double checked, and while I have played several by Al Stewart, I have not played this one yet!  Let’s correct that oversight now, shall we?

I like this song, but apparently Al Stewart did not, even though he co-wrote it with Peter White and sang it, too!  In an interview with acousticstorm.com, Stewart said …

“I’ll tell you a funny story. I have never really cared for that song. I know it was a big hit and all that. It was just one of those things where the record company asked me to write something that sounded like “Year Of The Cat” and we ended up doing that. But I didn’t realize truly how bad a song it was until one day I was in an elevator, and I was listening to what I thought was Muzak. About 30 seconds went by, and I finally began to recognize it and said to myself, ‘This sounds pretty horrible.’ Then, horror of horrors, I heard my voice come on, it actually was the record. So, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God what have I done, this is terrible!’ Hopefully in the last 25 years I’ve redeemed myself with other things, but “Time Passages” has just never thrilled me.”

According to SongFacts …

Stewart wrote this with the guitarist Peter White, who started touring as a member of Stewart’s band in 1975 and collaborated with him for the next 20 years. In June 2010, Peter told us: “Al and I wrote this song together in 1977. I had come up with the electric piano riff which starts the song and together we put together the verse and the chorus, based on that recurring riff. There was no attempt or even conversation about writing anything similar to ‘Year Of The Cat’ which Al wrote with Peter Wood. The words and melody were mostly from Al and the musical bed and instrumental breaks were mostly my ideas and even if Al says he doesn’t like the song, he has been playing it onstage consistently for the last 32 years! As soon as we added the saxophone in the studio there were obvious comparisons to YOTC. (The saxophonist was Phil Kenzie, who had also played the stellar solo on YOTC). But to say that the song was written to satisfy the record company – that was an issue that never even came up! And yes I’m very proud of this song, which still gets radio airplay every day!”

Interestingly, though Stewart is a British singer-songwriter, this song did not chart in the UK at all.  It made #7 in the U.S. and #10 in Canada, but the Brits apparently didn’t care for it at all!

Time Passages

Al Stewart

 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
There’s something back here that you left behind
Oh time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

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

Well the picture is changing
Now you’re part of a crowd
They’re laughing at something
And the music’s loud
A girl comes towards you
You once used to know
You reach out your hand
But you’re all alone, in these
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

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: AL Stewart / Peter White

Time Passages lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Spirit Music Group

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27 thoughts on “♫ Time Passages ♫”

  1. Hi. I know I am really late here. But I have an old ringtone maker from it seems generations ago. I made a bunch of them, and my current ringtone is this one, Time Passages. I love it. Grand post as always, Jill. Hugs. Scottie.

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  2. Sweet music, but to me meaningless lyrics. I can’t find any depth to them. Still, pleasant enough on a cold morning after a night of snow. It is not Muzak, hut I can see a circumstance where one might think that… i enjoy it wnile it ‘s on but I won’t be going looking for it.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yeah, you pay more attention to lyrics than I do. For me, music is for enjoyment, not deep introspection, though needless to say there are some songs, such as Lennon’s “Imagine” and others, that are deeply introspective and I love. But it’s not requisite for me.

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  5. Oh, I know this song. My gosh, I don’t know how long ago I heard it the last time. Your blog is really a treasure box. What also captured my heart is the album cover which shows Monument Valley. We have been there this May… I was so looking forward to and enjoying that vacation. A dream. And yes … time passages…

    Liked by 3 people

  7. I’ve no idea why Al didn’t like this one, as it is probably in my all time top twenty – by anyone. Fabulous song, great album. He was put into the box marked ‘folk music’ here and never really got the sales he deserved. He had a short purple patch in the Seventies over there, but has only ever had one chart single and a few albums in the lower reaches here, of which this was one. I wrote a piece about ‘time’ nine years ago, and played this as part of it. I don’t know what prompted it but one of the two likes on the post is from you, in October 2022, and we had a comment chat around it. That has to be one of the longest gaps between a song suggestion and you playing it 🤣

    Liked by 3 people

    • I like it well, too! It isn’t YOTC, but only YOTC can be YOTC. Still, I wonder… if Time Passages had been released before YOTC, would I be saying the same now, except in reverse?
      I like the lyrics in this; just as mystical as YOTC. To me, anyway. My .02. Thanks, Jill! I hadn’t heard this in a while!

      Liked by 2 people

    • WOW! Your all-time top twenty! I’m so happy that you liked this one that much! Now that is weird, that I responded in 2022 to something you wrote 8 years prior, long before I even knew you! It must have crossed my radar somehow!

      Liked by 1 person

      • I’ve always preferred it to songs like Year Of The Cat, though it has always had much less airplay than Al’s greatest hit. I can only guess that a comment when you played another of his songs led you to that post.

        Liked by 1 person

        • I don’t even remember “Year of the Cat”, but remembered this one right off. Yeah, funny how our blogging family/world has connections and threads that lead us to places we might not otherwise have ever found. I was saddened today, though, when reviewing some of my older posts from several years ago, reading the comments, to realize that at least three of the commenters on one post had since died. And those are the ones I know about … others have dropped off my radar … are they now dead too, or just stopped blogging? Sigh. Time marches on …

          Liked by 1 person

          • That was his big hit album and single, though I prefer this one.

            That is sad but, as they say, the two certainties in life are death and taxes. Time moves ever faster, it seems!

            Liked by 1 person

  8. Pingback: ♫ Time Passages ♫ | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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