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Tempus by SmokeyVW [Email]
Genre: Other

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SONG STATS:
Hits: 952
Comments: 44
Votes:
Plays: 147
Last Played: Nov 19, 2008 - 10:45:27 AM
Downloads: 58
Fans: 13
Uploaded: Jul 08, 2007 - 02:25:25 PM
Last Updated: Sep 14, 2008 - 10:56:14 AM



Description:
album: Beyond One's Control
track 1: 3:57 How And Why
track 2: 2:40 That's Progress
track 3: 6:56 Unwinding Time
track 4: 8:21 Quant
track 5: 3:37 Five on Seven
track 6: 2:46 New Amsterdam
track 7: 4:12 Vicki Kierkegaard
track 8: 6:56 Remember Petr Dumfrey
track 9: 9:01 Another DDT
track 10: 2:19 In The Mess
track 11: 5:21 Tempus
...more albums...

Song Description

Fugit

Lyrics:
Tempus

Time - chippin' away
Time - day by day
2x

Time follows you
to your home
(He) writes down the times
(that you) come and go
(He) takes in the view
when you're alone
He's always there
(and you) never know

Time - chippin' away
Time - day by day
2x

Time holds you down
(and) takes your soul
(He) ties up your hands
(in a) living hell
(He's) taking the plunge
He takes control
when He is done
you're a shell

Time - chippin' away
Time - day by day
4x

Time
the memory won't go away
Time...

(c)2007 Bill Grundmann


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Hey Bill... &mdash 07/08/07 - 03:09:23 PM
To my ears this is the coolest thing you've laid down to date! One of the most interesting aspects of this is how it spans several decades stylistically. Love the main chord progression. Nice vox. Great percussion as usual. Kudos!

Be well man!

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. &mdash 07/08/07 - 03:20:50 PM
i always claimed my tastes were eclectic - here you go!

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. &mdash 07/08/07 - 03:22:16 PM
and thanks

it includes a tritone (the devil's interval)

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Yikes! &mdash 07/08/07 - 03:41:10 PM
Get thee behind me Smokey!!! Ha ha....

---
"We are put upon this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love." (William Blake)

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My son is doing a robot dance to this one! &mdash 07/08/07 - 07:18:49 PM
You've got a touch of Jim Morrison cadence to this one...

Actually, a touch of Morrison's cadence in parts of the vocal, and just a hint of Manzarek in some of the harpsichordish bits...

Then, suddenly, at other points, we find ourselves in the Eighties...

Funny thing, time.

I bet this'll be a MacJams hit....

Ed

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 12:27:04 PM
i wasn't really going for a JM cadence - it was more driven by the needs of the lyrics...

you called it. this got a pretty good response.

thanks

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This is great!!!! &mdash 07/08/07 - 07:42:58 PM
Reminds me of that book "In The Cut". Well Done Bill!!! Edge On Bud!

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 12:29:45 PM
although ostensibly about time, there is a much darker alternative viewpoint.

thanks

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Hey! &mdash 07/08/07 - 08:43:34 PM
Definitely getting a Doors vibe. Very sexy and scary at the same time. Everything you do sounds different! My dog is scared, my wife is confused, and I'm impressed! Cool tune, man.

~Brian Weiland

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 12:32:52 PM
the Doors vibe surprised me. maybe there's a bit of a Rider on the Storm sense to it.

thanks

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I feel like Billy &mdash 07/08/07 - 09:05:08 PM
from SlaughterHouse Five. I am flashing through the best of rock from the past 40 years. The Doors reference, too true. And a nice contemporary sound.

Time! what a concept.

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i should &mdash 07/09/07 - 02:47:51 PM
also add. You can't escape time. it follows you where ever you go. Time knows.

---
what is the norm?

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 12:39:14 PM
perhaps like becoming unstuck in time, the elements in this song come from various genres in a deranged collage?

here, time is compared to a very scary individual

thanks

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 12:45:38 PM
time plays two roles here:

it's the main subject, being described by analogy, about the ravages of time and how we are all victims of time.

but, the song could be about a stalker/predator. and the song is actually observing that his victim will never forget his attack. in that case, time is just ordinary time, and though the saying goes "time heals all wounds" - some wounds are not healed by the passage of time...


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like the lyrics and the chords &mdash 07/08/07 - 10:01:54 PM
The production on this song is one of the best i have seen on macjams. The vocals are also tight as well

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 12:47:34 PM
thank you very much.

i was very pleased with it how came out. but the final lyrics really bugged me for a few days.

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cool &mdash 07/08/07 - 10:03:37 PM
you always suprize with your abundantly creative approach.
good work...
tim


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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 12:49:12 PM
Tim, i really appreciate it

thanks for listening and commenting

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Timely &mdash 07/09/07 - 12:59:18 AM
This is one of my favourites of all your tracks Bill - it's melodic, but still retains the sense of .... unhinged-ness that you do so well. Time is one of my obsessions, and usually crops up in my lyrics, so i dig this immediately. Really cool vocal on this - agree with the Morrison feel. Despite the melody, this is still pretty ominous - it feels like a warning.

Gotta go now, got no time ...

Steve

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 12:55:49 PM
the more i think about it, i guess the Doors (Morrison anyway) were really into the darker side of the human psyche. these lyrics certainly are in that vein.

i was intentionally limiting the vocal range here to keep within what i can comfortably sing. somehow with that, the lyrics and a little harpsichord, i reminded folks of the Doors. not that this is anything near as good as the Doors!

thanks

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Fleeting... &mdash 07/09/07 - 07:42:28 AM
Time may fleet and youth may fade..... Very well done one of your best.... Bravo.

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 12:57:24 PM
thanks Skean!

and beware: time may be looking in your window right now. :-)

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Downloded &mdash 07/09/07 - 12:45:16 PM
Wow very nice indeed !

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but youre older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought Id something more to say


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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 01:01:52 PM
thanks for the Floyd quote. that's one of my all-time favorite songs! how'd you know? did you think of it because of that bassdrum/heartbeat thing i tried during the intro?

this song's vision of time is different, i guess i found another fishbowl to swim around in...

glad you liked it

thanks

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No paticular reason &mdash 07/22/07 - 09:47:01 AM
I thought the feeling ,,,,the message was spot on to floyds.Its one of my favorite Floyd songs as well so I instantly made the connection . Listened again still lovin it.

---
One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

- Bob Marley

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I agree with EJH &mdash 07/09/07 - 05:34:30 PM
gotta love this for that Doors influence! and yes I hear a little Talkin Heads in there, overall its just you being you very creative especially that 3rd change, trippy mang!

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 01:07:13 PM
i've been a Talking Heads fan for a long time!

i'm thinking of "And She Was" for some reason:

And she was drifting through the backyard
And she was taking off her dress
And she was moving very slowly
Rising up above the earth
Moving into the universe
Drifting this way and that
Not touching ground at all
Up above the yard
--

sometimes i can't get enough of that tape-loop effect - i was trying to go for a "nightmare that never ends" feeling there - it got rather strange i guess

thanks!

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Always something &mdash 07/10/07 - 01:46:19 PM
Cool tune. Definitely your best vocal effort to my ears. Like the synth at the end.... Thanks for taking the time.

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 01:10:06 PM
i was trying to keep my vocals in the sweet spot - i have a five note range at best.

i really like that synth too - although it was, in a sense, a visitor from the wrong decade

thanks!


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The music... &mdash 07/10/07 - 02:19:27 PM
...definitely is part of the storyteller. Goes so well with the lyrics.

Very cool tune, VW.

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 01:13:51 PM
i liked the tritone step in the chords, it lent a nice little "evil" tone to it. "day by day" also contains that tritone.

and evil is certainly the star in the lyrics.

thanks

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another &mdash 07/11/07 - 11:40:18 AM
good one. something way out of left field for you. love the doors-ey feel to this one. now that I think of it, you did all of those spoken word pieces, and now this.maybe you're actually Morrison. i always knew you weren't dead.

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 01:16:17 PM
LOL

but... even if i were Morrison, by now i'd be so old, i'd be, well, dead. wouldn't i?

thanks for listening

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The West Is The Best &mdash 07/11/07 - 07:39:55 PM
Father, I've come to kill you.

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? &mdash 07/14/07 - 01:17:42 PM
"I have no response to that."

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Very nice &mdash 07/12/07 - 02:58:18 AM
Love the the keyboard on this one. and I agree with the Doors comments. Very interesting and weird.
Reall enjoyed and please keep it up.
Dave

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 01:20:33 PM
glad you noticed the keyboard thing - it fun putting that together (no loops anywhere here except the drums)

and thanks for commenting

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Emit &mdash 07/13/07 - 03:07:19 AM
many songs that are submitted in the "other" genre can really fit into other categories...but this song for sure belongs right where it is. I love the circus like 50's horror flick Dr. Dimento vibe on this. Quite creative. Perfect pic for this too!

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. &mdash 07/14/07 - 01:29:33 PM
until you said "circus" i wouldn't have noticed that the chords during the verses would sound great played on a calliope. (well, maybe that's too wacky.)

the second verse is my attempt to create in audio what they do in movies for dream-sequences all blurry and through distorted glass and such. smoke and mirrors

i'm glad you mentioned that pic - i spent a long while web searching trying to find it. it *had* to be a parking meter - and i knew it needed "violation" not "time expired" on it - and when i found this, the numbers being in the upper ranges of human lifetimes was an added bonus.

thanks


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I like a lot of what's going on here in this tune &mdash 07/14/07 - 10:27:02 PM
particularly the repetition of "Time" in the verse parts. Some things that caught my ear in a way that distracted: Some of the vocals are not in the pocket, and this is exacerbated by the on beat "Time" part. The main keyboard lead is too up front in the mix too much of the time for my taste. The reverb on the main vocal part puts you down in a well. I think a drier take would have more impact.

That said, I dig the groove that closes out the song. I can feel the same things that others have said, the Door's references for sure. I will have to check out more of your work.

Matt

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. &mdash 07/16/07 - 01:28:56 PM
thanks for listening and commenting.

i'll definitely try out your suggestions on the vocals reverb and the keyboard volume.

i'll also see if perhaps i messed up synching the vocal track (it's a side-effect of my recording process). but it's possible that i'll lose that unsettled feel though - i'll need to experiment with it. good ideas - thanks again.

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Go away for two weeks &mdash 07/15/07 - 09:02:03 AM
and there's so much good stuff to catch up on. This is an amazing track all the way around - content , performance, production. Very considered - thought out and realized. On top of that it's fun and entertaining. The perfect Smokey blend.

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. &mdash 07/16/07 - 01:32:46 PM
thanks Bud - this one primarily grew out of the lyrics

and there is definitely smoke and mirrors going on here, as opposed to a prior song where you said there wasn't any smoke and mirrors on that one :-)

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This is a great &mdash 07/20/07 - 01:43:09 AM
and unusual song. Very distinctive and original. I enjoyed this a lot. Thanks. (Don't know how I missed this and all your other latest stuff.)
Cheers
Len




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