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Time the Avenger Lyrics
Nobody's perfect
Not even a perfect stranger
But oh what a gal
She was such a perfect stranger
And you're the best in your field
In your office with your girls
And desk and leather chair
Thought that time was on your side
But now it's time the avenger
Nobody's permanent
Everything's on loan here
Even your wife and kids
Could be gone next year
And with what you have left
You'll be forever under pressure
To support her
And a lover who looks strangely
Like time the avenger
Time, time, hear the bells chime
Over the harbor and the city
Time, one more vodka and lime
To help paralyze that tiny little tick, tick, tick, tick
Nobody's perfect
Not even a perfect gent
When your property took the a train
I wonder where your manners went
You were standing at the station
In your briefcase
Was your aftershave and underwear
Can you hear the whistle blow?
Sounds like time the avenger
Time, time, hear the bells chime
Over the harbor and the city
Time to kill another bottle of wine
To help paralyze that tiny little tick, tick, tick, tick
Not even a perfect stranger
But oh what a gal
She was such a perfect stranger
And you're the best in your field
In your office with your girls
And desk and leather chair
Thought that time was on your side
But now it's time the avenger
Everything's on loan here
Even your wife and kids
Could be gone next year
And with what you have left
You'll be forever under pressure
To support her
And a lover who looks strangely
Like time the avenger
Over the harbor and the city
Time, one more vodka and lime
To help paralyze that tiny little tick, tick, tick, tick
Not even a perfect gent
When your property took the a train
I wonder where your manners went
You were standing at the station
In your briefcase
Was your aftershave and underwear
Can you hear the whistle blow?
Sounds like time the avenger
Over the harbor and the city
Time to kill another bottle of wine
To help paralyze that tiny little tick, tick, tick, tick
Song Info
Submitted by
maggotbrain On Apr 14, 2011
More The Pretenders
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Mystery Achievement
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A successful businessman with a wife and kids has an affair with a stranger and this leads to his ruin – at least, he loses his marriage. He loses his composure ("I wonder where your manners went"). As he sees this outcome on the way, he drinks to try to forget and ignore the problem, but he ends up leaving his home with just a briefcase full of possessions.
@rikdad that’s a SUMMARY, not a “meaning”
@rikdad that’s a SUMMARY, not a “meaning”
@force The category of comment there is "My Interpretation" which ought to appear clearly on your display if you look.
@force The category of comment there is "My Interpretation" which ought to appear clearly on your display if you look.
The main point of the song is that time passes. You're young and you feel invincible, but if you mess up, you will never have that perfect life again, which was anyway eventually going to end. But you can remarry, but you will always be less than you could have been, because not only part of your wages but part of your life was spent building a different family, and you have ruined your children's one first family.
I love that the lover herself comes to personify time the avenger. You know you will only be seeing her so many times, but she will go on.
Compare to Bowie's "Time" written quite soon after he became a success, but he has lost someone probably to suicide and he can't believe he can't go back, yet he knows he should have known about time.
Compare to Bowie's "Time" written quite soon after he became a success, but he has lost someone probably to suicide and he can't believe he can't go back, yet he knows he should have known about time.
This is an indictment of Living Large in the 80s (my mind goes to a place, when I hear TtA, and it’s one of the same “fat guys driving jeeps ‘Round the city wearing big diamond rings and silk suits” from Middle of the Road (on same album).