Time's Up by Living Colour

Album: Time's Up (1990)

License This Song

lyrics

Songfacts®:

Long before climate change became a hot-button political issue, Living Colour released this apocalyptic song about the consequences of environmental destruction. "It just seemed very bleak," lead singer Corey Glover said in his Songfacts interview. "Like we didn't have much more time to really fix these things, that we needed to look at the world that we live in. That if we are the stewards of this world, we're not doing a very good job."
Guitarist Vernon Reid is the primary songwriter in Living Colour, but all members contribute. This one is a group composition, credited to Reid, Muzz Skillings, Corey Glover and Will Calhoun.
This was the title track to the second Living Colour album. It didn't sell nearly as well as their debut Vivid (and didn't contain any radio hits), but was applauded by critics and awarded a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Living Colour won the same award the previous year for "Cult of Personality."

Comments: 1

Cjsf from The Space Coast"Long before climate change became a hot-button political issue"? I remember, even as a kid, the congressional hearings on climate change in 1988. The scientists and others were clearly saying then that if we made relatively small changes then, we might avoid the worst effects a generation or so down the road, and perhaps emerge with a stronger, more resilient economy. We all know how that played out. For anyone paying attention to politics and socioeconomics at the time (like Living Colour obviuously did) this was a very big issue by 1990. For some time it was overshadowed in popular media by "The Ozone Hole", just as Acid Rain had overshadowed broader climate concerns a decade or so earlier.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Where It's AtBeck

Beck's "Where It's At" is a nod to the early years of hip-hop when DJs would use two turntables to loop drum breaks, and a microphone to hype the crowd ("two turntables and a microphone...").

Up-Up and AwayThe 5th Dimension

Jimmy Webb was inspired to write The 5th Dimension song "Up-Up and Away" after seeing a hot-air balloon his friend flew on promotions for the Southern California radio station KMEN.

Soul Bossa NovaQuincy Jones

The Austin Powers theme is "Soul Bossa Nova," written by Quincy Jones in 1962 - the same year the first James Bond movie was released.

Ballroom BlitzSweet

Sweet's hit "Ballroom Blitz" was inspired by an incident in 1973 when the band were performing in Scotland and driven offstage by a barrage of bottles.

Everything Your Heart DesiresHall & Oates

The Hall & Oates hit "Everything Your Heart Desires" has no rhymes.

Ho HeyThe Lumineers

"Ho Hey" by The Lumineers is about New York City, where lead singer Wesley Schultz moved to make it in music. He was dismayed to find many "trust fund kids" in the music scene while he struggled to pay the rent.