Saturday, March 7, 2026

"Time to Get Alone" [Alternate Early Version]

I recently listened to 1967: Sunshine tomorrow and had a few realizations about the alternate early version of "Time to Get Alone."

In the line "It's so quiet, we can hear for a country mile" (which isn't in the version on 20/20), the phrase "country mile" is sung to notes of all different pitches (F A C), giving a sense of this breadth.  The rather large interval (a fifth) also contributes to the sense of distance.

The instrumental section (also absent from the 20/20 version) seems to borrow a musical figure from the SMiLE sessions.  What I think is trombone plays something like this (the eighth notes are played more loosely than indicated):


(If I'm not mistaken, the song is in D major, but this whole section drops to C major.)

Excepting the A in the sixth measure, the intervals in the last four measures match those in the glockenspiel part in "Look (Song for Children)," which is something like this (again with the eighth notes played more loosely than indicated):


While the meters of the two songs are different, the rhythms of the two figures are also roughly the same:  a pair of eighth notes followed by a note with a longer value to fill out the remainder of the measure.