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Spirit of the Times
John Taylor Japan Album
song by John Taylor
Released 23 November 1999
Recorded 1999
Genre Pop, Rock
Length 6:29 minutes
Label Cutting Edge Records / Avex Trax
Producer(s) John Taylor
Hein Hoven
John Taylor

"Spirit of the Times" is a song by John Taylor, originally released on The Japan Album by Cutting Edge Records / Avex Trax on 23 November 1999.

About the song[]

The song was written by John Taylor, who also produced the track with Hein Hoven.

This is an up-tempo pop song with distorted vocals, which features a hallucinogenic flavour. The lyrics include many references to Birmingham, the city where the band were formed in the late 1970s. These references include New Street, a location where Duran Duran performed at the Odeon in the early 1980s.

Other references include Bob Lamb, who recorded demo tracks for Duran Duran at his Mosley studios. The Saturday morning children's TV show Tiswas is mentioned, broadcast from Birmingham city center studios. There are two former Birmingham nightclubs mentioned, which are Barbarella's and the Rum Runner.

The album MetaFour includes a demo version of the song, which was originally called "Zeitgeist".

Other appearances[]

Albums:

Lyrics[]

I've come from london town
but you know it really gets me down
I think I've done my time there
and I really don't want to die there

I've lived in paris france
the scene of my first great romance
black roadster on the driveway
I thought I had arrived

it's my life
the spirit of my times
the zeitgeist
the spirit of my times

the spirit of the times
the spirit of the times


you could say I've been an island man
a rocky shoreline hard to land in india
the caribbean
my red eyes in time for sunrise

it's my life
the spirit of my times
the zeitgeist
spirit of my times

spirit of the times
spirit of the times
spirit of the times


baker man baker man bake me a cake
bake me a cake just as fast as you can make it
baker man baker man bake me a cake
bake me a cake just as fast
just fast as you can

and now that I'm in hollywood
I feel that here I'm understood
there's fifty minutes to the hour
and twelve steps to every ivory tower

spirit of the times
spirit of the times
spirit of the times

prefects from birmingham
chamberlain's birmingham
christ wasn't perfect
he could have been from birmingham
rotunda
new street
jasper carrot's birmingham
tiswas
rum runner
swordfish up the alleyway
steel pulse
bob lamb's
moseley inna birmingham
underworld in our world
minutes up the motorway

barbarellas
barbarellas
barbarellas
barbarellas
barbarellas
barbarellas
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