"Child in Time" is a song by English rock band

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

, released on their fourth studio album, '' Deep Purple in Rock'' in 1970. It is the longest track on the album, running over ten minutes. The song's lyrics are loosely inspired by the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. The song is notable for showcasing singer

Ian Gillan Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945) is an English singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple. He is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice. Initially influenced by Elvis Presley, Gillan ...

's full vocal range and the instrumental jam section between guitarist

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English lead guitarist. He was a founding member and the guitarist of Deep Purple, one of the pioneering bands of hard rock. After leaving Deep Purple in 1975, Blackmore formed the band Rainbow ...

and organist Jon Lord.

History and characteristics

said that the organ riff in "Child in Time" is based on It's a Beautiful Day's 1969 song " Bombay Calling". It's a Beautiful Day in return borrowed Purple's "Wring That Neck" and turned it into "Don and Dewey" on their second album '' Marrying Maiden'' (1970). The song started with organist Jon Lord playing "Bombay Calling", which the band then re-arranged and changed the structure. Gillan had never heard the original song, and created lyrics about the Cold War to fit the music, later saying it "reflected the mood of the moment". The band then worked out instrumental lines to accompany this. Gillan is quoted as saying that the song was created "using the Cold War as the theme", adding "the words came easily because we were all aware of the nuclear threat looming over us at what was probably the height of the Cold War." With themes of war and inhumanity, the song is regarded as a heavy metal anthem and an example of

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

. A staple of the Deep Purple live concerts in 1970–73 and later after their initial reunion tours of 1985 and 1987–88, the song was not featured regularly at concerts after 1995. It was re-added to the setlist for the band's 2002 European tour, with its final appearance in Deep Purple's live set was at

Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

's Opera Theatre's scene in March of that year. A live version appeared on the 1972 live album '' Made in Japan''. Other live versions can be found on the '' Scandinavian Nights''/'' Live in Stockholm'' live album, recorded in September 1970 and the BBC recordings released as Deep Purple In Concert. Gillan also featured a live jazz influenced version of the song in his Ian Gillan Band project of the late 1970s on '' Live at the Budokan'' album. A shortened version, with vocals by Candice Night and preceded and followed by their instrumental " Mond Tanz", appeared on the

Blackmore's Night Blackmore's Night is a British-American neo-medieval folk rock band formed in 1997, consisting mainly of Ritchie Blackmore (acoustic guitar, hurdy gurdy, mandola, mandolin, nyckelharpa, and electric guitar) and Candice Night (lead vocals, lyr ...

album '' The Village Lanterne''.

Charts

Accolades

"Child in Time" was ranked no. 1 on Radio Veronica's "Super All-Time List" in 1989. The song ranked at no. 16 in ''

Guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

s 1998 readers poll of Top 100 Guitar Solos of All-Time. English disc jockey

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

's 1976 list of Festive Fifty featured the song at no. 25. It was second, third or fourth place for many years on the annual Dutch Top 2000 songs of all time.

Covers and references in popular culture

* Ian Gillan performed the song with his Ian Gillan Band on the 1976 album '' Child in Time''. * The song was covered by

Yngwie Malmsteen Yngwie Johan Malmsteen (; born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck, on 30 June 1963) is a Swedish-American guitarist. He first became known in the 1980s for his neoclassical metal, neoclassical playing style in heavy metal music, heavy metal, and has ...

for his 1996 album '' Inspiration''. *The song was covered by Rata Blanca and Tarja in a show in Buenos Aires on 9 June 2009. *

Anu Malik Anwar Sardar "Anu" Malik (born 2 November 1960) is an Indian music composer, singer, music arranger and score composer. He is the recipient of a National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards, who primarily composes music for the Hindi film ...

drew inspiration from this song for the opening and closing portions of ''Aisa Zakhm Diya'' from the

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

film '' Akele Hum Akele Tum''. *The studio version of the song is played by character Dusty (

Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character actor, character roles—eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical productio ...

) during a driving montage in the 1996 film ''

Twister Twister most commonly refers to a tornado. Twister or Twisters may also refer to: Aviation * Pipistrel Twister, a Slovenian ultralight trike * Silence Twister, a German homebuilt aircraft design * Wings of Change Twister, an Austrian paragli ...

''. The live footage playing on his television is from Deep Purple's appearance at the California Jam in 1974, though "Child in Time" was not performed during this set. *It was used in the final sequence of the 1999 Kevin Macdonald documentary '' One Day in September'' examining the 5 September 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Arabic terrorists at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. *The 2022 Netflix series ''

1899 Events January * January 1 ** Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (February 1899), p ...

'' features the song in the second episode before the end credits.

References

External links

Video Clip of Deep Purple – Child In Time 1970
available under the open "

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...