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Bowie Nights is bringing concerts, listening parties and book talks to King's Cross
Immersive London venue unveils orchestral concerts, blackout playbacks and outdoor gig for late-summer celebration.
About This Track
Time arrives as the opening track on side two of Aladdin Sane, a song written in New Orleans during the American leg of the Ziggy Stardust Tour and later recorded in London. It casts time itself as a malevolent presence, speaking through Bowie's voice with contempt and hunger. The song moves between abstract menace and intimate crisis, from Time as a performer flexing and falling to the narrator checking his watch at 9:25 and marvelling, with something between relief and horror, that he is still alive. The lyrical architecture is deliberate and unsettling. Bowie personifies time as a corrosive force that demands sacrifice, that breaks up lovers and steals dreams, that leaves the listener "smiling through this darkness" with nothing but guilt to offer in return. The chorus, repeated with mounting insistence, suggests a stage call that never comes: "We should be on by now." Beneath the vocal performance sits a guitar solo that cuts through the song's mounting dread, whilst the outro dissolves into wordless syllables, time itself becoming mere sound.
"Time" is a track by David Bowie, from the album Aladdin Sane, released 13th April 1973. Full lyrics are available below. Dork has published 2 articles about David Bowie.
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READ MORE ABOUT DAVID BOWIEREAD MORE ABOUT DAVID BOWIEREAD MORE ABOUT DAVID BOWIEREAD MORE ABOUT DAVID BOWIEREAD MORE ABOUT DAVID BOWIEREAD MORE ABOUT DAVID BOWIEImmersive London venue unveils orchestral concerts, blackout playbacks and outdoor gig for late-summer celebration.
The show extends through to January window marking Bowie's 80th birthday.
A season of talks, performances and late nights runs at King's Cross through summer 2026.
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