Sign of the Times

Yesterday I was having another look at the video for Psychic Temple’s “When I Know,” as my sweety had commented about the drummer in the video. I hadn’t noticed him much in my earlier views of it, but a few shots of him show him really grooving to the music.

Immediately after that video finished, YouTube autoplay served up the audio track for “Sign of the Times” by English singer-songwriter Harry Styles (b. 1994). I don’t recall hearing the song before, but then again, I’m unfamiliar with most of his work, whether solo or as part of the English-Irish “boy band” One Direction.

Styles began his music career in 2010 on the British music competition TV series The X Factor, as a solo contestant. After he was eliminated, he joined One Direction, which entered and finished third in the competition that same year. Styles remained with the group until it went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016, and its members went on to solo projects.

I heard a few other Styles songs autoplay after listening to “Sign of the Times” again today, and found it to be quite different from the other ones I was hearing; the others were light, danceable pop, contrasted with “Sign of the Times.” The song, a mournful ballad, starts with solo piano and a transcendent sound of wind (which returns a couple of times through the song) introduces Styles’s vocal. Then in the first chorus, the song transitions into the big sound of an arena rock number, complete with classic rock guitar licks and solos and “caveman drum fills” (as the American music educator and producer Rick Beato [b. 1962] refers to the rock drumming effect). The song continues to build to an immense energy as it progresses into the bridge and the wind sound again returns, just into the outro.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Styles said about the song, “Most of the stuff that hurts me about what’s going on at the moment is not politics, it’s fundamentals… Equal rights. For everyone, all races, sexes, everything.” He continues, “‘Sign of the Times’ came from ‘This isn’t the first time we’ve been in a hard time, and it’s not going to be the last time. The song is written from a point of view as if a mother was giving birth to a child and there’s a complication. The mother is told, ‘The child is fine, but you’re not going to make it.’ The mother has five minutes to tell the child, ‘Go forth and conquer.'”

[Verse 1]
“Just stop your crying, it’s a sign of the times
Welcome to the final show
I hope you’re wearing your best clothes
You can’t bribe the door on your way to the sky
You look pretty good down here
But you ain’t really good

[Pre-Chorus]
We never learn, we’ve been here before
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets, the bullets?
We never learn, we’ve been here before
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets, the bullets?

[Chorus]
Just stop your crying, it’s a sign of the times
We gotta get away from here
We gotta get away from here
Just stop your crying, it’ll be alright
They told me that the end is near
We gotta get away from here

[Verse 2]
Just stop your crying, have the time of your life
Breaking through the atmosphere
Things look pretty good from here
Remember everything will be alright
We can meet again somewhere
Somewhere far away from here

[Pre-Chorus]
We never learn, we’ve been here before
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets, the bullets?
We never learn, we’ve been here before
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets, the bullets?

[Chorus]
Just stop your crying, it’s a sign of the times
We gotta get away from here
We gotta get away from here
Stop your crying, baby, it’ll be alright
They told me that the end is near
We gotta get away from here

[Pre-Chorus]
We never learn, we’ve been here before
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets, the bullets?
We never learn, we’ve been here before
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets, the bullets?

[Bridge]
We don’t talk enough
We should open up
Before it’s all too much
Will we ever learn?
We’ve been here before
It’s just what we know

[Outro]
Stop your crying, baby, it’s a sign of the times
We gotta get away
We got to get away, we got to get away
We got to get away, we got to get away
We got to, we got to, away
We got to, we got to, away
We got to, we got to, away

“Sign of the Times,” by Alex Salibian, Harry Styles, Jeff Bhasker, Mitch Rowland, Ryan Nasci and Tyler Johnson.
Lyrics retrieved from Genius.com.

The song is captivating and poignant, and now, knowing the meaning, quite heartbreaking hearing the dying mother’s first and last words to her baby: “Just stop your crying, have the time of your life / Breaking through the atmosphere / Things look pretty good from here / Remember everything will be alright / We can meet again somewhere / Somewhere far away from here.” And the ethereal vocal harmonies in the pre-chorus, bridge and outro add so much to the depth, mood and meaning of the piece. It’s a pretty incredible song.

The official music video, which has 1.1 billion views, is a powerful representation of the song’s narrative, and is also seen as a strong statement about Styles truly going solo in his career. A Billboard magazine feature on the video tells how cables suspended Styles from a crane and then a helicopter, flying as high as 1,550 feet above the Isle of Skye, Scotland. A YouTube video shows some of this behind-the-scenes work.

“Sign of the Times” was the lead single from Harry Styles’s self-titled debut solo album, released in 2017. Variety magazine described the 1970s soft-rock-influenced album as a “classic cocktail of psychedelia, Britpop, and balladry.”

Now you know a little about why this is my Song of the Day for Today. Thanks for joining me here.

Here’s the official music video from the Harry Styles YouTube/VEVO channel:

With warmest wishes,

Steve

Edit, March 14: today, my sweety showed me a recording of last night’s episode of the TV music competition program The Voice where one of the contestants in the blind auditions sang this song, the same day as I posted it. What a coincidence!