Life in the Time lyric musings 🤔
Was giving it a good listen today (no different to any other day since the album release to be fair haha) and though it could be relevant to any number of things, I get the impression its related to the band and strained relationships, and maybe even specifically the Bond Brothers. This is my thoughts after listening to it, basing it on the song being about Chris Bond (and Bear too) leaving. I'm no literature analyst by any stretch of the imagination, so apologies...bare with me 😂
"How was i to know kinship there in the reverie" caught up in all the touring and gigs, and with Ben admittedly difficult to work with at times, easy to forget that the people your gigging with are also friends.
"How was i to sing, happens all the time they say" as in how was Ben to carry on after the fractious split, and the advice given to him that these things happen in music.
"You and i were supposed to know each other better than the clouds these days" in past tense so potentially an old relationship, however saying that they should be closer than ever given the time passed if things had been different. Almost a regretful tone they should still be close.
"It's a maddening century" could indicate frustration and maybe regret at how things played out.
"Clearly honest always" & "Guess it goes to show, we don't speak half-truths each" as in neither of the parties held back in saying how they felt. The "Goes to show" line could hint at the plain speaking having some kind of final effect.
This ones a stretch and a bit contrived haha, but here goes "it was all a show then, blue river true, running through you always". Could be read as "it was all a show...then" as in everything was going well and functioning, then problems with the band began. Or..."it was all a show then" as in everything seemed fine from Ben's perspective but problems were there and not being talked about. "Blue river true, running through you always". This is the stretch but hear me out haha. Blue river could be (at least to me) a metaphor for vanilla/safe/easy listening type music (a la Elvis Presley "Blue River"). While I don't think anyone wanted Ben to be the next Elvis, its well talked about that Chris Bond was much happier producing Ben's earlier stuff, and wasn't a fan of the newer sound. He still works on that sort of music to date. My thinking on this is that there were rifts caused by changes in the dynamics of both the music and the band, and while Chris Bond was faithful and "true" to the sound of early stuff, Ben was moving on.
"Some go out to Rikers in a moments grace" while Rikers is a prison, i think thats just imagery for someone leaving to somewhere permanently. In this instance the Bonds leaving the band permanently and "in a moments grace" being without consideration or warning.
"I was hanging on coat tails" hanging on coat tails meaning benefitting from someone else's merits. Maybe Ben felt like he was being held to ransom on the work the Bonds put in and the success it brought him, and wanted more autonomy in the future of his own music.
"Fair thee wells" a simple goodbye and good luck.
Like i say could be a total stretch and with Bens lyricism being so ambiguous it could be about any number of things, and likely snippets of lots of different aspects of things brought into one song. However I like the idea that he's giving a nod to the situation, and to be honest having a split from a friend/producer/bandmate is a pretty big life event so to not put aspects of it into a song as a songwriter is unusual in my view. And as Ben put it out somewhere in the ether of promoting the single; “‘Life In The Time’ is about the settling of disputes, friends buried in the hillside and drifting apart.” So maybe i'm on to something 🤣