"Child in Time" is a song by the English rock bandDeep Purple. Loosely inspired by the Vietnam War, it is featured on the band's 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock and runs for over 10 minutes.
History and characteristics
Deep Purple's Ian Gillan has said that "Child in Time" is based on It's a Beautiful Day's psychedelic song "Bombay Calling". It's a Beautiful Dayin return borrowed Purple's "Wring That Neck" and turned it into "Don and Dewey" on their second albumMarrying Maiden. As Ian Gillan put it in a 2002 interview, "There are two sides to that song - the musical side and the lyrical side. On the musical side, there used to be this song 'Bombay Calling' by a band called It's A Beautiful Day. It was fresh and original, when Jon was one day playing it on his keyboard. It sounded good, and we thought we'd play around with it, change it a bit and do something new keeping that as a base. But then, I had never heard the original 'Bombay Calling'. So, we created this song using the Cold War as the theme, and wrote the lines 'Sweet child in time, you'll see the line.' That's how the lyrical side came in. Then, Jon had the keyboard parts ready and Ritchie had the guitar parts ready. The song basically reflected the mood of the moment, and that's why it became so popular." With themes of war and inhumanity, the song is regarded as a heavy metal anthem and an example of art rock. 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 Kharkiv's Opera Theatre's scene in March of that year. A live version later appeared on the 1972 live albumMade in Japan. Another live version can be found on the Scandinavian Nights / Live in Stockholm live album, recorded in September 1970. Gillan also featured a live jazz influenced version of the song in his Ian Gillan Band project of the late 1970s.
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's 1998 readers poll of Top 100 Guitar Solos of All-Time. English disc jockey John Peel's 1976 list of Festive Fifty featured the song at no. 25. Placed 2nd, 3rd or 4th place most years of the annual Dutch Top 2000 songs of all time.
Ian Gillan covered the song on his 1976 solo album Child in Time.
The song was covered by Yngwie Malmsteen on his 1996 album Inspiration.
Jon Lord's solo organ introduction was sampled by Big Audio Dynamite and used in the introduction to their song "Rush".
A portion of this song was featured in the 1996 films Twister, Breaking the Waves and in 23.
The song is used in the 1999 Academy Award winning documentary One Day in September, which is about the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. It plays during a rapid montage of the violent aftermath of the concluding airport shootout.
This song was used in the finale of as Eddie and Richie begin traveling back in time to the dawn of time.
The song was covered by Cactus Jack on their 2003 album Deep Purple Tribute.
A new truncated version also appears on 2006 studio albumThe Village Lanterne by Blackmore's Night, titled "Mond Tanz / Child in Time".
A portion of this song was featured in the 2007 BBC television documentary The Secret Life of the Motorway, in the last programme of the 3 part series.
The intro of this song was used as basis for the U.U. intro-version of the "Exterminate! " performed by the German dancefloor project Snap!
The song was covered by the Japanese metal band Liv Moon in 2010 with a length of 7:59 minutes.
Anu Malik drew inspiration from this song for the opening and closing portions of Aisa Zakhm Diya from the Hindi film Akele Hum Akele Tum.
The song is used for the Flowers By Kenzo commercial in France.
The song is prominently referenced in Sérotonine, a novel by french author Michel Houellebecq, released in 2019. At night two male characters, both drunk and desperate, listen repeatedly on a high-end vintage audio system to a 1970 bootleg recording of "Child in Time", from a concert in Duisburg ; the dramaturgy of the song is meticulously described, and the narrator recalls that night as "aesthetically... the most beautiful moment in my life", the kind of which is recalled when one is about to die.
