Artists
Ian Gillan – lead vocals
Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
Jon Lord – organ, keyboards
Roger Glover – bass
Ian Paice – drums
Written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord & Ian Paice. Produced by Deep Purple, recorded 1970. Released as the third track (10:17, later edited to about 4:15 for a single) on Deep Purple in Rock (Harvest Records, 3 June 1970). Though never issued as a commercial single, it became one of the band’s signature live staples.
“Child in Time” grew directly out of It’s a Beautiful Day‘s instrumental “Bombay Calling,” which Jon Lord was playing around with on keyboards one day; the band liked it and reworked it into something new, with Ritchie Blackmore building out guitar parts alongside Lord’s keyboard foundation. Ian Gillan wrote the lyrics separately, without having heard the It’s a Beautiful Day original, framing the song as a protest against the futility of the Cold War. The whole Mark II lineup shares the writing credit as a result. The song became a defining piece of the band’s live sets throughout the 1970s and has since been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, cited by musicians from Metallica’s Lars Ulrich to countless prog and metal acts as a major influence.
Deep Purple – Child In Time Lyrics
Sweet child, in time, you’ll see the line
The line that’s drawn between good and bad
See the blind man shooting at the world
Bullets flying, oh, taking toll
If you’ve been bad, Lord, I bet you have
And you’ve not been hit, oh, by a flying lead
You’d better close your eyes
Oh, bow your head
Wait for the ricochet
Oh, I wanna hear you sing
Sweet child, in time, you’ll see the line
The line that’s drawn between good and bad
See the blind man shooting at the world
Bullets flying, mm, taking toll
If you’ve been bad, Lord, I bet you have
And you’ve not been hit, oh, by flying lead
You’d better close your eyes
Oh, bow your head
Wait for the ricochet
Oh, I gotta hear you sing
Oh, you are
Oh, oh, oh
Oh no
Oh, oh no, oh, uh
Uh, ain’t gonna do, oh no
Oh, oh no
Ah, ah, oh
Ah, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Ah, ah
To listen to other songs from the the Teleskop 20 program click here.