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Child in Time

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This article is about the Deep Purple song. For other uses, see Child in Time (disambiguation).
"Child in Time"
Song

"Child in Time" is a song by British hard rock band Deep Purple. Featured on their 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock, the song is 10 minutes and 18 seconds long.

History and characteristics

It is said by Ian Gillan to have been inspired by a riff featured in a song by the Psychedelic band It's a Beautiful Day, called "Bombay Calling". It's a Beautiful Day in return borrowed Purple's "Wring That Neck" and turned it into "Don And Dewey" on their second album Marrying Maiden (1970).[1] As Ian Gillan put it in a 2002 interview, "There are two sides to that song - the musical side and the lyrical side. On the musical side, there used to be this song 'Bombay Calling' by a band called It's A Beautiful Day. It was fresh and original, when Jon was one day playing it on his keyboard. It sounded good, and we thought we'd play around with it, change it a bit and do something new keeping that as a base. But then, I had never heard the original 'Bombay Calling'. So we created this song using the Cold War as the theme, and wrote the lines 'Sweet child in time, you'll see the line.' That's how the lyrical side came in. Then, Jon had the keyboard parts ready and Ritchie had the guitar parts ready. The song basically reflected the mood of the moment, and that's why it became so popular." [2]

"Child in Time" is an essentially simple composition, featuring an organ intro, three power chords, and a two minute long solo. Lyrically dark, vocalist Ian Gillan utilizes his full vocal range and goes from quiet singing to loud, high-pitched, banshee-esque screaming. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore comes in with a slow solo, which builds up to a fast-pace playing and then ends abruptly, with the whole song cycle starting over again. Blackmore is normally associated with playing a Fender Stratocaster, however, he played a Gibson ES-335 on the studio version of the song.

A staple of the Deep Purple live concerts in 1970–73 and later after their initial reunion tours of 1985 and 1987–88, the song has not been featured regularly at concerts since Gillan returned (for a second time) to the line up in 1993. Gillan cites many personal reasons for leaving the song out, but it is likely that, given his advancing years, the song is becoming increasingly difficult to perform without sampled vocal backings. Its last appearance in Deep Purple's live set was at Kharkov's Opera Theatre's scene in 2002 [3]. In that performance, high-pitched guitar was used to cover up Gillan's now-limited vocal range during the "screaming" parts. A similar technique is used on current live performances of "Space Truckin'".

Noted on the original album release: Child in Time ... The story of a loser—it could be you[4]

A live version later appeared on the 1972 live album Made in Japan. Another live version can be found on the Scandinavian Nights / Live in Stockholm live album, recorded in September 1970. Gillan also featured a live jazz influenced version of the song in his Ian Gillan Band project of the late 1970s.

  • Jon Lord's solo organ introduction was sampled by Big Audio Dynamite and used in the introduction to their song "Rush".
  • The song is used in the 1999 documentary One Day in September, which is about the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis. It plays during a rapid montage of the violent aftermath of the concluding airport shootout.
  • A portion of this song was featured in the 2007 BBC television documentary The Secret Life of the Motorway, in the last programme of the 3 part series.[5]

References

  1. ^ Kusnur, Narendra (2002-05-03). "Ian Gillan, Mumbai, India. 3 May 2002". Mid-Day Newspaper. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
  2. ^ http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4714
  3. ^ http://www.deep-purple.ru/live/dp_kharkov2002.html
  4. ^ Album track notes on original album release
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ Metal from Finland: TARJA TURUNEN covers Deep Purple's "Child In Time"
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