Time Passages

Al Stewart didn't like this song. Here's what he said in an interview with acousticstorm.com: "I'll tell you a funny story. I have never really cared for that song I know it was a big hit and all that. It was just one of those things where the record company asked me to write something that sounded like "Year Of The Cat" and we ended up doing that. But I didn't realize truly how bad a song it was until one day I was in an elevator and I was listening to what I thought was Muzak. About 30 seconds went by, and I finally began to recognize it and said to myself, 'This sounds pretty horrible.' Then, horror of horrors, I heard my voice come on, it actually was the record. So I'm thinking, 'Oh my God what have I done, this is terrible!' Hopefully in the last 25 years I've redeemed myself with other things, but "Time Passages" has just never thrilled me."

Stewart wrote this with the guitarist Peter White, who started touring as a member of Stewart's band in 1975 and collaborated with him for the next 20 years. In June 2010, Peter told us: "Al and I wrote this song together in 1977. I had come up with the electric piano riff which starts the song and together we put together the verse and the chorus, based on that recurring riff. There was no attempt or even conversation about writing anything similar to 'Year Of The Cat' which Al wrote with Peter Wood. The words and melody were mostly from Al and the musical bed and instrumental breaks were mostly my ideas and even if Al says he doesn't like the song, he has been playing it onstage consistently for the last 32 years! As soon as we added the saxophone in the studio there were obvious comparisons to YOTC. (The saxophonist was Phil Kenzie, who had also played the stellar solo on YOTC). But to say that the song was written to satisfy the record company - that was an issue that never even came up! And yes I'm very proud of this song, which still gets radio airplay every day!" (Learn more about Peter at www.peterwhite.com.)