Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Album

Chicago Transit Authority

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Jazz-Rock

Media Type

45s

Duration

3:20

Composer(s)

Robert Lamm

Entered Chart

Nov 7, 1970

Peak Date

Jan 2, 1971

Released

November 4, 1970

Recorded

November 4, 1970

Catalog #

Columbia 45264

B-Side

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A track from Chicago's first album, this is an example of an early song featuring their horn section of Walter Parazaider, James Pankow and Lee Loughnane. It's also an example of a very cerebral lyric which asks the kind of existential question commonly posited in the '60s. The song stresses the importance of taking time to appreciate the small pleasures in life instead of rushing from one place to another against the clock. ADVERTISING Chicago singer and keyboard player Robert Lamm wrote this song and sang lead. He explained on The Chris Isaak Hour: "I was a teenager walking down the street in Brooklyn, New York where I grew up. I walked by a movie theater and there was an usher standing outside taking a cigarette break. I said to him, 'Hey man, what time is it?' and he said, 'Does anybody really know what time it is?' I remembered that when I was trying to write this sort of Beatle-esque shuffle and just explore the idea of 'Does anybody really know what time it is?'" The album version runs 4:33 and contains a piano intro by Robert Lamm that was removed for the single release, which was cut down to 3:17. Lamm would often play the intro when they performed this song live, which can be heard on their Chicago At Carnegie Hall album. This song first appeared on the Chicago Transit Authority album in 1969, but it wasn't released as a single until late 1970, long after their second album had been issued. This is because of "Make Me Smile," part of a suite of songs on that second album that the record company edited down for single release. When it became a hit, they learned that by chopping down Chicago's songs a bit, they could find a home among the popular tunes on AM radio. "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?," in shortened form, reached its peak of #7 the first week of 1971. The jazz guitarist Grant Green released a 5:10 instrumental cover of this song on his 1971 album Visions. This was the first song the band recorded together. They had been playing live for over a year, but the studio was a new experience for them. In the 2000 Adam Sandler film Little Nicky, this song is used for comedic effect when it was played backwards to show that it contains satanic messages. Sandler, in character as the spawn of Satan, explains that Ozzy Osbourne "always came straight with his messages," but Chicago was more nefarious. He puts on the album, plays this song, then spins it backward to reveal: "I command you in the name of Lucifer to spread the blood of the innocent!"

As I was walking down the street one day
A man came up to me and asked me
What the time was that was on my watch, yeah
And I said

(I don't) Does anybody really know what time it is
(Care) Does anybody really care
(About time) If so I can't imagine why
(Oh no, no) We've all got time enough to cry

And I was walking down the street one day
A pretty lady looked at me and
Said her diamond watch had stopped cold dead
And I said

(I don't) Does anybody really know what time it is
(Care) Does anybody really care
(About time) If so I can't imagine why
(Oh no, no) We've all got time enough to cry

And I was walking down the street one day
(People runnin' everywhere)
Being pushed and shoved (don't know where to go)
By people trying to beat the clock (I don't know where I am)
Oh no, so I just don't know (I can't see past the next step)
I don't know, I don't know-ow
And I said
Yes I said
(I don't have time to. I don't have time to look around)
(I just run around everywhere)
(I don't) Does anybody really know what time it is
(Care) Does anybody really care
(About time) If so I can't imagine why
(Oh no, no) We've all got time enough to die

Everybody's worryin'
(I don't care) I don't care
(About time) About time
(Oh no, no) I don't care