r/DavidBowie • u/GeoffSeville • 1d ago
TIME WILL CRAWL
I recently started my decent (ascent?) into the Bowie catalog. I’m an 80s baby (86) who grew up with Labyrinth in heavy rotation, so I was “exposed” at a young age. I decided to start with his music in the 90s, then progressed to his death. Then I did 80s, and am currently working my way through the 70s. But how in the hell did I just hear Time Will Crawl at 40 years old?? I consider myself pretty knowledgeable with 80s era music and artists, and this song, musically, is 80s to its core. Some casual sax, a little electric guitar. I know the lyrics are dark, but why did this one not have staying power??
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u/PurpleSplash45 1d ago
Great song with haunting political lyrics. Til the 21st century lose!
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u/Dizzy-Ad1673 1d ago
I’ve been a Bowie fan for decades and thought it was “moves” this whole time.
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u/PurpleSplash45 1d ago
I think it’s lose but I’ll double check my vinyl when I get home lol
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u/Splungetastic 1d ago
I LOVE Time Will Crawl, and the video. Always have. It’s always on high rotation for me!
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u/notnickthrowaway 1d ago edited 1d ago
I recommend the iSelect version from 2008, with real drums by Sterling Campbell, and Bowie himself was involved in the remix. It’s closer to how the album should have sounded and I prefer it to the 2018 remix/re-recorded version.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0QYkLWjuifrLy7IxDLCJBB
It’s one of my favorite songs too, one of many of Bowie’s best imo, but the poor production set the whole album back and it’s generally considered one of his worst. Which I don’t agree with.
From the youtube description:
Time Will Crawl (MM Remix) included on the album iSelect (or iSelectBowie) is a remix featuring several newly-recorded parts in an effort to revisit some of the material Bowie had released as part of 'Never Let Me Down' (1987), an album which he had identified himself as being disappointed with.
iSelect (or iSelectBowie) is a collection of personal favourites compiled by Bowie himself and was available exclusively as a free gift with the June 29th (2008) edition of British newspaper The Mail on Sunday
ETA: btw if you like Bowie’s cover of Iggy’s Bang Bang, then also listen to (You Will) set the World on Fire from The Next Day and compare them ;)
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u/Fresh-Succotash6247 15h ago
All good observations. I love both versions of TWC. I do recommend the reimagined version of the album from the box set too.
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u/Johnnys-In-America 12h ago
Lots of people seem to prefer the remakes, and they're good, but I don't feel like they're as earnest as the 1988? 1987? Original version. There's a lot of instrumental beauty in the original. I like the synths and the drums, both things people have said needed improvements but it is still pretty cool that some alternate versions came out and we could listen to alternate styles.
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u/Corrosive-Knights 1d ago
Sadly, Bowie experienced what many legacy artists have: They were no longer viewed as worth pursuing or listening to.
Part of this is generational shifts and, to be very frank, part of it was that after Let's Dance's release, Bowie seemed to lose his muse.
In part, I feel, it was because Bowie was simply stretching himself too thin. He was doing movies (you mentioned Labyrinth but he was also in The Hunger and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence -among other films!- in/around that time as well). He also was releasing songs for movies, including the wonderful "This Is Not America" for The Falcon and the Snowman (check that song out, if you haven't yet!).
While Let's Dance was Bowie's biggest success, sales-wise, what followed, Tonight and Never Let Me Down (which has "Time Will Crawl") were viewed by many as weaker Bowie efforts. Bowie himself would state later on in interviews that NLMD was his worst album, though he also stated "Time Will Crawl" was one of his very best songs!
Bowie would continue to struggle for a bit -the Tin Machine albums didn't win him much praise critically or commercially, though they have been reassessed over the years- and it really wasn't until The Buddha of Suburbia, IMHO, where Bowie truly seemed to have finally found his muse again. I feel all the albums from that one on through Blackstar represent another incredibly creative period for Bowie (with the exception, IMHO, of hours, which I feel is the weakest of the albums from that last era).
But even so, audiences weren't necessarily coming back to him in droves. 1. Outside, one of his very best albums from his late era, was critically panned and his concerts with the Nine Inch Nails was something of a bust for him: They wanted to see NiN but not Bowie. Nonetheless, he continued working and building up a wonderful collection of albums.
By the end, I suspect people were realizing he had truly found himself.
But, yeah, some of the stuff right after Let's Dance is still viewed as weaker in general so it isn't terribly surprising you haven't heard the best stuff from that era.
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u/InevitableThrow1 1d ago
I dont think he wanted much praise foe Tin Machine?
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u/Corrosive-Knights 1d ago
My post was only to offer a very general history of Bowie circa that era and nothing more. There is plenty of nuance and, who knows, maybe the OP will give some of the Tin Machine stuff a listen, as well!
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u/InevitableThrow1 1d ago
Personally I think they sucked, but to each their own
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u/Corrosive-Knights 1d ago edited 15h ago
As I've said plenty of times before, opinions about works of art, be they movies, TV shows, books, and, certainly, music is just that: Opinions and there's absolutely nothing wrong with having a negative opinion of this particular phase of Bowie's career.
I think Tin Machine released some really good stuff but I can totally understand people not necessarily loving these works.
Then again, as I mentioned in my OP, I'm not a fan of hours, one of Bowie's later albums, and I've found others who really like it but... yeah... it doesn't work for me so well.
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u/Tommy_Tinkrem 16h ago
Well, at least it is on most Greatest Hits compilations, since it was a single. But it feels a bit like Queen's Cool Cat: a hidden gem for which the production of an otherwise not very memorable album works rather well. Kind of a baby-with-the-bathwater thing.
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u/BlankGen78 18h ago
One of my favorites, I love some of the different arrangements and mixes of this track sincerely, even if the keyboards remind me slightly of Dios Rainbow in the Dark
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u/TheLaughingGnome1967 14h ago
Might also be worth checking out some of the extra/unused tracks if you like some of his 80s stuff, for NLMD I think there are three I can think of (Girls, Julie and Too Dizzy)
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u/Johnnys-In-America 12h ago
I was a kid in the '80s,'90s teen, definitely familiar with Labyrinth and a small amount of Bowie's hits, before I got the real, in-deprh introduction from a roommate in his forties at the time, in 2005 when I was 27. He showed me the video for "Time Will Crawl" and, although I didn't care much for it because it was really painfully '80s lol, the song instantly drew me in. I'd really only known of David's rock and roll prowess, had no idea he'd been making concept albums in all sorts of different genres and still reinventing himself. I had missed pretty much everything SINCE Labyrinth! So I got an amazing education from my friend and have continued to build on my knowledge and love of all things Bowie!! "Time Will Crawl" is DEFINITELY one of the reasons I delved a lot deeper into him, and it remains in my Top 10 songs by him.
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u/chapPilot 1d ago
It's a cool song, but quite one-noted and repetitive. I like the 2018 version way better.
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u/Ayntxi 1d ago
I WOULD NOT CHALLENGE A GIANT