Chords for Looking into Time's unreleased songs
Tempo:
144.9 bpm
Chords used:
Ab
Eb
Gb
B
E
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Jam Along & Learn...
Time is one of ELO's most divisive albums.
It's the marmite of their [Ab] discography.
love this album, or think it's when ELO stopped being good.
Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but in any case,
Time sounded very different to what came before it.
band had already shaken things up on Discovery, their previous studio album,
in 1981, [E] along came Time,
synth-heavy [Gb] concept album about a man [Ab] who gets transported to the year 2095 against his will.
It's the marmite of their [Ab] discography.
love this album, or think it's when ELO stopped being good.
Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but in any case,
Time sounded very different to what came before it.
band had already shaken things up on Discovery, their previous studio album,
in 1981, [E] along came Time,
synth-heavy [Gb] concept album about a man [Ab] who gets transported to the year 2095 against his will.
100% ➙ 145BPM
Ab
Eb
Gb
B
E
Ab
Eb
Gb
Time is one of ELO's most divisive albums.
It's the marmite of their [Ab] discography.
People seem to either love this album, or think it's when ELO stopped being good. _
Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but in any case,
Time sounded very different to what came before it.
The band had already shaken things up on Discovery, their previous studio album,
when they cut part of their orchestra.
_ But then, in 1981, [E] along came Time,
a synth-heavy [Gb] concept album about a man [Ab] who gets transported to the year 2095 against his will.
The interconnected songs all play a part in the admittedly loose narrative,
documenting what the protagonist sees, how he feels, and his attempts to go home.
_ _ Ultimately, whether he manages to do this in the end is left fairly ambiguous.
_ The final song is Hold on Tight,
where the protagonist reinforces the idea of holding on to [E] your dreams.
_ Which [Gb] seems fairly hopeful, [Ab] but then again, who knows.
Anyway, Time is a single album, [Gb] and its story takes place over 13 songs.
_ Time wasn't always meant to be a single album, [Ebm] though.
You might already know, there are actually three songs set in its universe
that never made it to the original release of the album.
The [Gb] Bouncer, When Time Stood Still, and Julie Don't Live Here.
_ All of these songs were instead released as B-sides on [B] singles,
and were later included in the CD re-release of Time.
[Ebm] On top of those three songs, [Ab] however,
there are two more mysterious cut tracks that have never seen [Eb] the light of day in any way,
shape, or form.
We know this [Ab] thanks to a collector who owns early acetates with the original [Eb] Time tracklist,
which I'll show now.
The Wikipedia article for Time [Gm] offers names for these two [Ab] tracks,
Sad Affair and Time Transporter.
The edit that added the original tracklist along with these names
was only made in December 2020, and sadly offered no sources.
But I was intrigued.
_ Where did these names actually come from? _
So I took to the internet in search of answers.
[B] _ _ _
This search was made considerably more annoying by the fact that ELO have actually used the word
Sad Affair in a few of their songs.
The first mention of the song name Sad Affair [E] actually seems to date all the way back to 2005
on a website aptly named the Jeff [Gb] Lynne Song [B] Database.
Unfortunately, [Em] the website in its current state didn't provide any more details about Sad Affair.
However, [G] I had another plan.
The [D] Wayback Machine, an internet archive.
[Dbm] Luckily, there [E] were quite a few [Ab] captures of the site from around [C] _ 2006
that offered more information on the song.
This is [Dbm] an unreleased [B] outtake from the Time sessions, [Ab] the site owner wrote.
As described by [D] one of the engineers who worked on the album,
[Gbm] this information comes second hand and is suspect. _
Right.
_ [Dbm] The lyrics that this source [Ab] described are then shown.
So this was [A] the root of Sad Affair, a story which other websites and forum posts echoed.
As the site owner states here, it [E] doesn't seem like an [C] obvious lie,
but at the same [Gb] time, it's [E] second hand and unverifiable.
_ I was a little disappointed by this conclusion,
though I was glad to have found some [Ab] sort of answer. _ _
_ If we refer back to the original Time tracklist,
we can see that Time Transporter, the [Eb] second unreleased track,
_ directly [Ab] precedes Hold On Tight.
Now here's [B] where it gets interesting.
Hold On Tight was re-released as part of the 2001 compilation [Gb] album Flashback,
and this version has an extended [Eb] introduction not present on the original Time [Bb] release,
which I'll play now.
[Ab] If this audio sort of paints a [E] picture in your head,
[Bm] keep that in mind, it'll be important later. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
I think it's fair to assume that this introduction [Ab] was originally intended as an interlude
to create a smooth transition between Time Transporter and Hold On Tight,
[G] and as such, probably contains elements from Time Transporter.
That got me excited, but I still couldn't come up with a source for the [Abm] name Time Transporter.
It seemed fairly credible, given that Rain Is Falling,
another song from Time, [B] uses those very words.
I just couldn't find a source.
[Bm] So, out of options, I decided to head to [Ab] the ELO subreddit
and ask if anyone could provide any more information.
A few commenters proposed their own ideas,
hopeful [B] that Time's upcoming anniversary would provide an official release for these songs.
And then, a few hours later,
[Ab] a user by the name _ _ MarioFreak4500 left a comment that answered just about [Eb] all of my questions.
_ [B] Now, if when you listened to Hold On Tight's extended intro,
you thought, this sounds a bit time machine-y,
[Db] _ congrats, [Eb] that's where the name of the song [Ebm] comes from.
As _ [Eb] _ [Ebm] MarioFreak4500 put it,
there [E] is an intro before Hold On Tight,
featuring [Gb] bell chimes in a synthesized progression
that sounds similar to stuff found on Time.
[Ab] Listening to it paints a picture of travelling backwards in time,
presumably to 1981.
_ Without any other clues [G] to point towards it currently,
and based on the sound of the intro,
D3, the track number the song would have had,
[Abm] has been dubbed Time Transporter,
something referenced in Rain Is Falling.
It's a placeholder title and nothing [Gb] more.
They also went on to say that the Sad Affair post on [Bm] JeffLen's song database
was taken down if the information [Ab] was unverifiable and potentially a hoax.
That explains why I couldn't find it on the current version of the website.
These song names [B] were conjecture and nothing more.
It's unfortunate, but it doesn't take away from the fact
that we know these [Ab] songs [Eb] do exist in some form.
This all begs the question,
what place did the cut [B] songs have in Time's narrative?
To answer this question, or at least theorize about the answer,
we need to [Bb] look at Time's other three cut songs.
The Bouncer, When [Eb] Time Stood Still, and Julie Don't [Db] Live Here.
[Eb] The latter two of these songs, along [E] with Sad Affair,
[Gb] would have formed the majority of the album's B-side.
This makes considerable sense when you compare the [Ab] lyrics of When Time Stood Still
and the final track of the original A-side, The Way Life's Meant to Be.
They clearly [G] parallel each other.
This side of the album seems like it would have focused
on the protagonist's relationship with his partner from 1981, [Abm] Julie. _
Julie Don't Live Here focuses on him returning to what used to be their home,
only to find that Julie [B] has been gone for many years.
Another Heartbreaks is a primarily [Bm] instrumental piece
based around the feeling of heartbreak [Ab] its name describes.
Sad Affair slots right in between these two.
My own personal theory, based on nothing [Gbm] but the placement of the song,
[B] is that Sad Affair had the protagonist [Ebm] find out more about the life Julie led after his disappearance.
Maybe he finds out that she eventually moved on and found someone else,
[Abm] hence his subsequent heartbreak.
[B] Time Transporter takes place right after The Bouncer,
which, along with 21st Century Man,
seems like it [Bb] would have been the emotional turning point of the album.
[Eb] In The Bouncer, the protagonist [Ab] is hopeful that maybe he can make [Eb] it home after all.
[E] He describes some of the things [Ab] he can't wait for when he's back with Julie.
_ [Gb] Naturally then, the idea that Time Transporter would have [Ab] described his journey back in time
makes a lot of sense.
This still doesn't entirely clear up the ambiguous ending that Hold On [G] Tight provides,
and you know what, maybe that's okay.
It leaves it up to the listener's own interpretation.
_ [Abm] _ _ I didn't uncover as many [Ab] concrete facts as I would have liked to.
Like the ending of Time, [Gb] the conclusion to this story right now isn't entirely clear,
but there's [Bm] still hope for the future.
All of this fan [Ab]
conjecture just goes to show that these lost songs are something people
are interested in.
Like some of the commenters on the Reddit post I made,
[Gb] I'm hopeful that ELO's 50th anniversary and Time's 40th anniversary [Ebm] will see the
release of more previously unheard material.
As of the recording of this video, nothing has been [Ab] announced,
although ELO's brand [B] accounts promise there are more announcements to come.
Until then, I guess we'll just have to hold on tight.
[Bm] Thanks for watching. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _
It's the marmite of their [Ab] discography.
People seem to either love this album, or think it's when ELO stopped being good. _
Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but in any case,
Time sounded very different to what came before it.
The band had already shaken things up on Discovery, their previous studio album,
when they cut part of their orchestra.
_ But then, in 1981, [E] along came Time,
a synth-heavy [Gb] concept album about a man [Ab] who gets transported to the year 2095 against his will.
The interconnected songs all play a part in the admittedly loose narrative,
documenting what the protagonist sees, how he feels, and his attempts to go home.
_ _ Ultimately, whether he manages to do this in the end is left fairly ambiguous.
_ The final song is Hold on Tight,
where the protagonist reinforces the idea of holding on to [E] your dreams.
_ Which [Gb] seems fairly hopeful, [Ab] but then again, who knows.
Anyway, Time is a single album, [Gb] and its story takes place over 13 songs.
_ Time wasn't always meant to be a single album, [Ebm] though.
You might already know, there are actually three songs set in its universe
that never made it to the original release of the album.
The [Gb] Bouncer, When Time Stood Still, and Julie Don't Live Here.
_ All of these songs were instead released as B-sides on [B] singles,
and were later included in the CD re-release of Time.
[Ebm] On top of those three songs, [Ab] however,
there are two more mysterious cut tracks that have never seen [Eb] the light of day in any way,
shape, or form.
We know this [Ab] thanks to a collector who owns early acetates with the original [Eb] Time tracklist,
which I'll show now.
The Wikipedia article for Time [Gm] offers names for these two [Ab] tracks,
Sad Affair and Time Transporter.
The edit that added the original tracklist along with these names
was only made in December 2020, and sadly offered no sources.
But I was intrigued.
_ Where did these names actually come from? _
So I took to the internet in search of answers.
[B] _ _ _
This search was made considerably more annoying by the fact that ELO have actually used the word
Sad Affair in a few of their songs.
The first mention of the song name Sad Affair [E] actually seems to date all the way back to 2005
on a website aptly named the Jeff [Gb] Lynne Song [B] Database.
Unfortunately, [Em] the website in its current state didn't provide any more details about Sad Affair.
However, [G] I had another plan.
The [D] Wayback Machine, an internet archive.
[Dbm] Luckily, there [E] were quite a few [Ab] captures of the site from around [C] _ 2006
that offered more information on the song.
This is [Dbm] an unreleased [B] outtake from the Time sessions, [Ab] the site owner wrote.
As described by [D] one of the engineers who worked on the album,
[Gbm] this information comes second hand and is suspect. _
Right.
_ [Dbm] The lyrics that this source [Ab] described are then shown.
So this was [A] the root of Sad Affair, a story which other websites and forum posts echoed.
As the site owner states here, it [E] doesn't seem like an [C] obvious lie,
but at the same [Gb] time, it's [E] second hand and unverifiable.
_ I was a little disappointed by this conclusion,
though I was glad to have found some [Ab] sort of answer. _ _
_ If we refer back to the original Time tracklist,
we can see that Time Transporter, the [Eb] second unreleased track,
_ directly [Ab] precedes Hold On Tight.
Now here's [B] where it gets interesting.
Hold On Tight was re-released as part of the 2001 compilation [Gb] album Flashback,
and this version has an extended [Eb] introduction not present on the original Time [Bb] release,
which I'll play now.
[Ab] If this audio sort of paints a [E] picture in your head,
[Bm] keep that in mind, it'll be important later. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
I think it's fair to assume that this introduction [Ab] was originally intended as an interlude
to create a smooth transition between Time Transporter and Hold On Tight,
[G] and as such, probably contains elements from Time Transporter.
That got me excited, but I still couldn't come up with a source for the [Abm] name Time Transporter.
It seemed fairly credible, given that Rain Is Falling,
another song from Time, [B] uses those very words.
I just couldn't find a source.
[Bm] So, out of options, I decided to head to [Ab] the ELO subreddit
and ask if anyone could provide any more information.
A few commenters proposed their own ideas,
hopeful [B] that Time's upcoming anniversary would provide an official release for these songs.
And then, a few hours later,
[Ab] a user by the name _ _ MarioFreak4500 left a comment that answered just about [Eb] all of my questions.
_ [B] Now, if when you listened to Hold On Tight's extended intro,
you thought, this sounds a bit time machine-y,
[Db] _ congrats, [Eb] that's where the name of the song [Ebm] comes from.
As _ [Eb] _ [Ebm] MarioFreak4500 put it,
there [E] is an intro before Hold On Tight,
featuring [Gb] bell chimes in a synthesized progression
that sounds similar to stuff found on Time.
[Ab] Listening to it paints a picture of travelling backwards in time,
presumably to 1981.
_ Without any other clues [G] to point towards it currently,
and based on the sound of the intro,
D3, the track number the song would have had,
[Abm] has been dubbed Time Transporter,
something referenced in Rain Is Falling.
It's a placeholder title and nothing [Gb] more.
They also went on to say that the Sad Affair post on [Bm] JeffLen's song database
was taken down if the information [Ab] was unverifiable and potentially a hoax.
That explains why I couldn't find it on the current version of the website.
These song names [B] were conjecture and nothing more.
It's unfortunate, but it doesn't take away from the fact
that we know these [Ab] songs [Eb] do exist in some form.
This all begs the question,
what place did the cut [B] songs have in Time's narrative?
To answer this question, or at least theorize about the answer,
we need to [Bb] look at Time's other three cut songs.
The Bouncer, When [Eb] Time Stood Still, and Julie Don't [Db] Live Here.
[Eb] The latter two of these songs, along [E] with Sad Affair,
[Gb] would have formed the majority of the album's B-side.
This makes considerable sense when you compare the [Ab] lyrics of When Time Stood Still
and the final track of the original A-side, The Way Life's Meant to Be.
They clearly [G] parallel each other.
This side of the album seems like it would have focused
on the protagonist's relationship with his partner from 1981, [Abm] Julie. _
Julie Don't Live Here focuses on him returning to what used to be their home,
only to find that Julie [B] has been gone for many years.
Another Heartbreaks is a primarily [Bm] instrumental piece
based around the feeling of heartbreak [Ab] its name describes.
Sad Affair slots right in between these two.
My own personal theory, based on nothing [Gbm] but the placement of the song,
[B] is that Sad Affair had the protagonist [Ebm] find out more about the life Julie led after his disappearance.
Maybe he finds out that she eventually moved on and found someone else,
[Abm] hence his subsequent heartbreak.
[B] Time Transporter takes place right after The Bouncer,
which, along with 21st Century Man,
seems like it [Bb] would have been the emotional turning point of the album.
[Eb] In The Bouncer, the protagonist [Ab] is hopeful that maybe he can make [Eb] it home after all.
[E] He describes some of the things [Ab] he can't wait for when he's back with Julie.
_ [Gb] Naturally then, the idea that Time Transporter would have [Ab] described his journey back in time
makes a lot of sense.
This still doesn't entirely clear up the ambiguous ending that Hold On [G] Tight provides,
and you know what, maybe that's okay.
It leaves it up to the listener's own interpretation.
_ [Abm] _ _ I didn't uncover as many [Ab] concrete facts as I would have liked to.
Like the ending of Time, [Gb] the conclusion to this story right now isn't entirely clear,
but there's [Bm] still hope for the future.
All of this fan [Ab]
conjecture just goes to show that these lost songs are something people
are interested in.
Like some of the commenters on the Reddit post I made,
[Gb] I'm hopeful that ELO's 50th anniversary and Time's 40th anniversary [Ebm] will see the
release of more previously unheard material.
As of the recording of this video, nothing has been [Ab] announced,
although ELO's brand [B] accounts promise there are more announcements to come.
Until then, I guess we'll just have to hold on tight.
[Bm] Thanks for watching. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _