An Out Of Time Playlist

Almost every song you hear on the radio , or you stream is in 4/4 time , Yes some are slow and some are fast but they are mostly 4/4 time. Classical Music does not have this constraint but Classical Music is hardly your perfect pop song despite actually hitting the charts via Waldo De Los Rios “Mozart 40” and various classical TV themes. Stars On 45 Had one which was played to a disco beat and the Portsmouth Sinfonia released a “Classical Muddley” (but they couldn’t really play , but were the orchestra on “Put A Straw Under Baby” on Brian Eno’s “Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy”.

The full playlist is available on YouTube here.

So what songs do we have that are “Out Of Time”? (And no , that Jagger/Richards composed Chris Farlowe Hit does not count)

So where to start

Malcolm McLaren , Jeff Beck and Bootsy Collins - House of Blue Danube

Thi should not work in a million years but I love it. McLaren charged Collins and Beck with marrying Richard Strauss’ “Blue Danube” which is in Waltz time ¾ with and house rock bass and metal under beat which is 4/4 and it imperfectly works. It is the lead piece.

Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill

A hit single when he left Genesis , who were no strangers to non-standard time signatures , but this gentle acoustic hit was in 7/4 time. The 7/4 stomp of "Solsbury Hill" is one of its indelible and striking features, that feeling of a beat missing in every measure giving the song a constant sense of struggle -- and subsequently, of endurance, indicative of what was to come in his solo career , although he is very successful now.

Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit

This is simply in Waltz time with Grace Slick belting out Lewis Carrol / Alice In Wonderland drug induced images for what I think was a hit in the sixties and sounds just as powerful now.

Grateful Dead - Estimated Prophet

The opening song from their , in my opinion , excellent late seventies album “Terrapin Station” . This is in 7/4 time with a reggae feel but with some gorgeous lyrics (“There’s an Angel Standing In A Shaft of Light”) and harmonies. My review and opinion of the album is here.

Pink Floyd - Money

Another 7/4 time song that opened side two of “Dark Side of the Moon” , it was released as a single in the USA m but I bought the album when it first came out and have a 180g vinyl reissue in my collection.

Devo - Jocko Homo

The title is taken from a 1924 anti-evolution tract called Jocko-Homo Heavenbound by Bertram Henry Shadduck, where it is explained as meaning "ape-man". The song revolves around an idiosyncratic descending guitar riff and absurdist lyrics

It begins in the unusual time signature of 7/8 time, but switches part way through to common 4/4 time for the call and response sections

2+2=5 = Radiohead

The intro to this Radiohead song is in ⅞ time then moves to 5/2 time before hitting the standard 4/4 time signature. This was the third and final single from the “Hail To The Thief” album and reached number 15 in the charts when such things mattered.

The title is a reference to the slogan 2 + 2 = 5 from the 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. The song's alternative title, "The Lukewarm", references Dante's “Inferno”, in which the "lukewarm" are those in hell who did nothing wrong but did not oppose wrongdoing.

So there amends our “Out Of Time” playlists , all songs that appeared as singles and charted.