Time Away

Album: Back Street Crawler (1973)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Like so many talented rock musicians from the 1960s onwards, Paul Kossoff found not only fame but heroin addiction at the end of the rainbow.

    In an October 1975 interview with New Musical Express shortly after his discharge from a six-week spell in hospital, he said he had been clinically dead for 35 minutes. He had though visited his record company the previous Friday, and was planning to travel to the United States later that year.

    The title of this lengthy, haunting blues-type jam was inspired by an earlier experience, which has been described as (only) near death.
  • The track's ethereal sound was obtained by playing a Fender Stratocaster through a Marshall-powered Leslie cabinet.
  • Kossoff kept his promise, but in March the following year he boarded a plane at Los Angeles, and by the time it arrived at New York he was dead, and this time there was no reviving him. He was still only 25 years old.
  • The full version of "Time Away" runs to nearly twenty minutes, and is a fitting epitaph for a guitarist who although ranked #51 in the world by Rolling Stone had yet to reach his full potential. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for all above

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Desmond Child

Desmond ChildSongwriter Interviews

One of the most successful songwriters in the business, Desmond co-wrote "Livin' La Vida Loca," "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" and "Livin' On A Prayer."

The Police

The PoliceFact or Fiction

Do their first three albums have French titles? Is "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" really meaningless? See if you can tell in this Fact or Fiction.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin GayeFact or Fiction

Did Marvin try out with the Detroit Lions? Did he fake crazy to get out of military service? And what about the cross-dressing?

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Dave Edmunds

Dave EdmundsSongwriter Interviews

A renowned guitarist and rock revivalist, Dave took "I Hear You Knocking" to the top of the UK charts and was the first to record Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk."

Wherefore Art Thou Romeo Lyric

Wherefore Art Thou Romeo LyricMusic Quiz

In this quiz, spot the artist who put Romeo into a song lyric.