| "This Time Tomorrow" | |
|---|---|
| Song by the Kinks | |
| from the album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One | |
| Released | 27 November 1970 |
| Recorded | 1970 |
| Studio | Morgan, Willesden, London |
| Length | 3:01 |
| Songwriter(s) | Ray Davies |
| Producer(s) | Ray Davies |
| Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One track listing | |
13 tracks
| |
"This Time Tomorrow" is the eighth track from the Kinks' 1970 album, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One . It was written by Ray Davies.
Ray Davies said of the song's inspiration:
I felt that I'd lost contact with my family. Because I'd been in a pop music bubble for five years, and I didn't know the people around me anymore. 'This Time Tomorrow' was about transience, and an ephemeral world. Clouds, and where do we play tomorrow, and what am I doing as a person tomorrow? It's a floating song, and I was floating into a different era. Going with the flow for a while, until I work out where I want to be. [1]
"This Time Tomorrow", like most of the other tracks on Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One , criticizes the music business. More specifically, the track complains of the monotony of being on the road. The singer, who is currently on a plane, wonders where he'll be "this time tomorrow." He fantasizes over what the future holds for him, pondering whether he'll still be on the plane, "watching an in-flight movie show", and dreaming of being "on a spaceship somewhere sailing across an empty sea." He'll "leave the sun behind [him] and watch the clouds as they sadly pass [him] by," and says he "can see the world and it ain't so big at all." "I don't know where I'm going, I don't want to see," the singer laments.
"This Time Tomorrow" opens with the sound of an aeroplane flying, followed by guitar and a National Steel resonator guitar. The song also features Kinks pianist John Gosling, with the song being one of Gosling's first ever appearances on a Kinks record. In fact, the song was among the tracks that Gosling attempted the first day he auditioned for the Kinks. [2]
"This Time Tomorrow" was first featured as the opening track on the second side of the Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One album, and was not released as a single.
"This Time Tomorrow" has generally received positive reviews from critics. In his album review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the song one of "three of [Ray Davies's] best melancholy ballads" on Lola Versus Powerman (the other two being "Get Back in Line" and "A Long Way From Home".) [3] Andrew Hickey said in his book, Preservation: The Kinks' Music 1964–1974, that the song is "one of the most affecting songs on the album" and "endlessly listenable." [4]
"This Time Tomorrow" appeared alongside "Strangers", and "Powerman" in the Wes Anderson 2007 film The Darjeeling Limited . [5] [ unreliable source? ] These songs were added to the film's soundtrack album. Paste Magazine placed this appearance at number nine on its list of the thirteen "Great Musical Moments in Wes Anderson Movies." [6] In 2005, "This Time Tomorrow" made an appearance in the French Philippe Garrel film Les amants réguliers . [7] [ unreliable source? ]
In May 2014, a cover of the song by Gaz Coombes was used in a TV advertisement "Never Standing Still" to mark the 150th anniversary of retailer John Lewis. [8] In 2020, the Kinks recording features during the end credits of episode 2 ("Gloria") of the TV series Mrs. America . In 2024, it was featured in episode 3 of the series Say Nothing on FX. [9]