No Time

Album: American Woman (1970)
Charted: 5
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song about moving on and finding your true calling was written by Guess Who guitarist Randy Bachman and lead singer Burton Cummings.

    In our interview with Bachman, he explained that musically, the song was inspired by two tracks on the Buffalo Springfield Again album: "Rock & Roll Woman" and "Hung Upside Down." Neil Young of Buffalo Springfield (a fellow Canadian) played an acetate of the album for Cummings and Bachman when his travels took him to Winnipeg. The they heard it, they loved the country-rock sound and set out to write something like it. "That was our country-rock song," Bachman said. "Me and Burton trying to be like Neil and Stephen Stills."
  • According to Randy Bachman, the guitar lick on this song is an inversion of what Stephen Stills played on the Buffalo Springfield track "Hung Upside Down." When Bachman heard the theme song to the TV show Law & Order (composed by Mike Post), it sounded familiar. "It's the same riff," Bachman told us. "It's just recycling the riff in a different context."

    Note that Bachman doesn't fault Post for lifting the riff: Randy believes that just about any modern music music is based on something that came before.

Comments: 3

  • Damamae from IdahoThe 'killing floor' is an old blues metaphor. It can mean anything from a slaughterhouse to a bad breakup to the war in Vietnam - any kind a hell on earth. Check out Howlin' Wolf's 'Killin' Floor'...
  • Joe Granger from Oly, WaAll these years I thought the line was “No time for the killing wars”, not “floors” because it made sense during the Vietnam protests.
  • Dave Cinelli from Somewhere In The Great State Of NyThe big give away is the line "No time for the 'Killing Floor'", meaning he's being taken advantage of by quite possibly a gold-digger.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Janis Ian

Janis IanSongwriter Interviews

One of the first successful female singer-songwriters, Janis had her first hit in 1967 at age 15.

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

Jimmy Jam

Jimmy JamSongwriter Interviews

The powerhouse producer behind Janet Jackson's hits talks about his Boyz II Men ballads and regrouping The Time.

Dar Williams

Dar WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

A popular contemporary folk singer, Williams still remembers the sticky note that changed her life in college.

Commercials

CommercialsFact or Fiction

Was "Ring Of Fire" really used to sell hemorrhoid cream?

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.