This week we’re going to examine some slower, sadder songs and we’re starting with Tom Waits’ “Time.” As you’ll see, it has particular relevance to this date in history.
Tom Waits wrote and recorded “Time” in 1985. It appeared on his eighth album, Rain Dogs. The song is about… well, who ever knows what a Tom Waits song is about? It tells the story of several lonely people, using a series of vignettes, all ending with the repeated chorus:
And it’s time time time
And it is time
And it’s time
And it’s time time
That you love
And it’s time time time
Time is precious. Life is precious. We must make of it what we can, while there is time.
Fast forward sixteen years to the year 2001. Tori Amos recorded an album of cover songs called Strange Little Girls. That album offered Ms. Amos’ versions of songs made famous by men, but from a woman’s perspective, including 100cc’s “I’m Not In Love,” Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold,” the Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays,” and the Beatles’ “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” Her version of “Time” was the seventh track on the CD.
On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four jetliners and used them to attack the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, killing almost 3,000 people. That event transformed American life, putting everything on hold as the nation dealt with its grief. That included entertainment, especially the late-night talk shows.
Late Night with David Letterman, broadcast from New York City, went dark for a week after the attacks. David’s first show back from the break featured his old friend Regis Philbin and newscaster Dan Rather, along with a rather moving monolog, which you can read here. On his second show back, on September 18th, David had Tori Amos as his musical guest—the first musical performance since the 9/11 attacks. Respecting the moment, Ms. Amos performed a haunting version of “Time,” accompanied only by her acoustic piano, that captured the powerful emotions that everyone was feeling at the time. It moved Letterman himself to tears.
Today is the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In memory of that moment, here’s Tori Amos performing “Time” on the David Letterman show. It is timeless.
