Only Time Will Tell

Asia keyboard player Geoff Downes and lead singer/bass player John Wetton wrote this song, which finds a man learning that the woman he loved never loved him in return, only using him for her own gain. He walks out on her, refusing to live a lie, and predicting that she will probably have a lonely future, but "only time will tell." In our interview with John Wetton, he explained that the songs he wrote came from personal experience, and were often very vivid. In this song he's saying, "I know this new guy is not as good as I am, but only time will tell. But you're making a big mistake." The lyrical kiss-off led some to accuse Wetton of misogyny, but he points out that the song follows a dialogue he started in the song "Heat of the Moment," where he apologizes for past transgressions.

John Wetton was a member of the band Wishbone Ash when he started working on this song. This was toward the end of 1980 when that band was recording their Number the Brave album at Criteria Studios in Miami, and Wetton would stay late after sessions to work up ideas, many of which ended up on the first Asia album. During this time, Wetton's musical hero John Lennon was killed, which made the experience even more vivid.

The video was directed by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme (Godley & Creme), who also did Asia's video for "Heat of the Moment." Both videos broke up the screen into smaller boxes, with "Only Time Will Tell" showing the band members inside TV sets. A gymnast also shows up throughout the video doing some slow motion tumbling; this didn't make a lot of sense, but did make for an interesting visual, which in 1982 worked very well (first gymnast on MTV!). In a Songfacts interview with Godley, he explained: "We just felt it would look interesting - it's as simple as that. I don't think we were driven by it having any meaning initially. It was just the memories that came to mind as a device that might look rather interesting and it felt like the music felt to a degree." Godley & Creme would later direct some of the most acclaimed videos of the era, including "Every Breath You Take" by The Police and "Rockit" by Herbie Hancock.