“Child in Time” is a song by the English rock band Deep Purple. Loosely inspired by the Vietnam War[1], it is featured on the band’s 1970 album Deep Purple in Rock and runs for over 10 minutes. “Child in Time” was ranked no. 1 on Radio Veronica’s “Super All-Time List” in 1989. The song ranked at no. 16 in Guitarist’s 1998 readers poll of Top 100 Guitar Solos of All-Time. English disc jockey John Peel’s 1976 list of Festive Fifty featured the song at no. 25. Placed 2nd, 3rd or 4th place most years of the annual Dutch Top 2000 songs of all time.
Ian Gillan has said that “Child in Time” is based on It’s a Beautiful Day’s psychedelic song “Bombay Calling”. It’s a Beautiful Day in return borrowed Purple’s “Wring That Neck” and turned it into “Don and Dewey” on their second album Marrying Maiden (1970). As Ian Gillan put it in a 2002 interview, “There are two sides to that song – the musical side and the lyrical side. On the musical side, there used to be this song ‘Bombay Calling’ by a band called It’s A Beautiful Day.
It was fresh and original, when Jon was one day playing it on his keyboard. It sounded good, and we thought we’d play around with it, change it a bit and do something new keeping that as a base. But then, I had never heard the original ‘Bombay Calling’. So, we created this song using the Cold War as the theme, and wrote the lines ‘Sweet child in time, you’ll see the line.’ That’s how the lyrical side came in.
Then, Jon had the keyboard parts ready and Ritchie had the guitar parts ready. The song basically reflected the mood of the moment, and that’s why it became so popular. With themes of war and inhumanity, the song is regarded as a heavy metal anthem and an example of art rock.”
A staple of the Deep Purple live concerts in 1970–73 and later after their initial reunion tours of 1985 and 1987–88, the song was not featured regularly at concerts after 1995. It was re-added to the setlist for the band’s 2002 European tour, with its final appearance in Deep Purple’s live set was at Kharkiv’s Opera Theatre’s scene in March of that year
A live version later appeared on the 1972 live album Made in Japan. Another live version can be found on the Scandinavian Nights / Live in Stockholm live album, recorded in September 1970. Gillan also featured a live jazz influenced version of the song in his Ian Gillan Band project of the late 1970s.
Child in Time Lyrics (1972)
Sweet child in time, you’ll see the line
Line that’s drawn between the good and the bad
See the blind man shooting at the world
Bullets flying, ooh taking toll
If you’ve been bad – Oh Lord I bet you have
And you’ve not been hit oh by flying lead
You’d better close your eyes, aahaouho bow your head
Wait for the ricochet
Sweet child in time, you’ll see the line
Line that’s drawn between the good and the 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, aahaao bow your head
Wait for the ricochet
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