I heard One Direction boy band alum Harry Styles’ single off his forthcoming solo debut album called “Sign of the Times” and was immediately drawn to it. I felt silly being a Gen Xer really feeling a song by a kid from a group my small kids love.
However, it gives me some Jim Morrison, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Journey, Beatles, David Bowie vibes and I think that’s the appeal to older generation of music lovers.
I checked out the audio video on YouTube and lo and behold, the top comments were by fans of good music in their 40s and 50s also remarking how much they love the tune.
This kid has a hit. The song debuted #5 on the Billboards Hot 100. Upon doing further researcher on the lyrics, I learned that the song is about a young mother who is about to deliver her baby but is told that she has just 5 minutes after giving birth to greet her baby. She dies after. How tragic.
He talked about it in a recent Rolling Stones cover interview promoting this new project. From the interview, he says:
“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. … ’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.’”
In the song, the dying mom is talking to her new born infant in these lyrics:
Just stop your crying, it’s a sign of the times
Welcome to the final show
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 goodWe never learn, we been here before
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets? The bullets
We never learn, we been here before
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets? The bulletsWe don’t talk enough, we should open up
Before it’s all too much
How heart wrenching and beautiful, no? Wow! I’m looking forward to this kids’ album when it is released on May 12th. He recorded much of the album in his studio complex in Jamaica. Nice!
Watch the video here:
Also, love the SNL performance where he is outfitted in a plaid jacket, looking much like the 1960s British rockers and nothing like a young kid.