# Dimly Remembered: Song with "Tick tock" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169 "2003-10-29T04:06:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/1 "2003-10-29T04:06:58Z")
Actually it came up in conversation, someone asked about “that song that had ‘tick tock’ as part of the lyrics” and I said I remembered it. Other people chimed in and after a few moments it became apparent that the original speaker and most of the others were remembering a different one (and after a moment or two I remembered the one they were thinking of as well): sort of a cheerful hippie-esque thing about how everyone is going to love each other some day with the refrain “tick tock, tick tock baby, time’s ticking away”. But I’d been thinking about a different one and when I tried to describe it I just got blank looks. It was on the radio circa 1991, 1992, thereabouts, on the rock stations, a much darker song. Singer sang in the bottom of his vocal range, more low-pitched than most songs, kind of brooding and gloomy. And afer some line about time, “tick…tock…” rather slowly. This ring a bell with anyone? ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/2 "2003-10-29T04:08:53Z")
REM, it’s from the _Automatic for the People Album_, it’s called “Drive.” ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/3 "2003-10-29T04:12:59Z")
REM - Automatic for the People - Drive [http://www.lyred.com/lyrics/R~E~M~/Automatic+For+The+People/Drive/](http://www.lyred.com/lyrics/R%7EE%7EM%7E/Automatic+For+The+People/Drive/) ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/4 "2003-10-29T04:38:25Z")
Ok can someone please kill me in my sleep? The first thing I thought of was, “Tick tock, you don’t stop stop! (to tha ha) Tick tock you don’t stop stop…” ---
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/5 "2003-10-29T04:55:13Z")
**Slacker** you definitely deserve to be for putting that horrific song in my head. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/6 "2003-10-29T05:32:00Z")
My first thought, purely by the title of the thread, was the new Metallica song, where James Hetfield screams “tick tick tick tock!” Oh, and **Slacker**? You’re thinking of _I Wanna Sex You Up_ by Color Me Badd. ---
**Author:** ![Kyomara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/7 "2003-10-29T05:56:33Z")
Maybe, but “to the tick tock you don’t stop” is a really old rap sample. “C.M.B.” from OK never wrote it themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/8 "2003-10-29T14:17:45Z")
My grandfather’s clock? ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/9 "2003-10-29T14:24:09Z")
Strange… I thought it might be Placebo’s Without You I’m Nothing. Am I imagining it, or did that song also have “Tick… tock…” as part of the lyrics? ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/10 "2003-10-29T14:50:50Z")
My first thought is the Marshall Crenshaw tune “What time is it.” ---
**Author:** ![roadrunner70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@roadrunner70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roadrunner70)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/11 "2003-10-29T14:56:03Z")
“Like Clockwork” by the Boomtown Rats also had tick tock in the lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/12 "2003-10-29T15:09:34Z")
That sounds like the Stevie Ray/Jimmy Vaughan song. From their album double trouble. [here](http://www.twin-music.com/lyrics_file/srv/family/tick.html) ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/13 "2003-10-29T15:12:00Z")
Correction, album was family style as in the link. ---
**Author:** ![Stover9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Stover9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stover9)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/14 "2003-10-29T15:19:16Z")
Amazingly, about a month ago, I awoke at 7:00am like every other morning. This particular morning, however, the music and lyrics “Tick…tock…tick…tock…maybe I ride, maybe you walked Maybe you rocked around the clock, maybe…” were slowly washing around in my head as I drifted between sleep and consciousness. Have no reason to have had it in my head. I’ve been waiting to hear it on radio or something, but alas, I see it here. REM’s “Drive” ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/15 "2003-10-29T15:28:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \* > \*\*My grandfather’s clock? \*\* That was my first thought, too . . . There’s also a prison song from the 1920s with a lot of “tick tocks” in it; cannot remember the title. ---
**Author:** ![Dizzy\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dizzy\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dizzy_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/16 "2003-10-29T15:57:27Z")
Leroy Anderson’s “Syncopated Clock”? There was a man like you and me, as simple as a man could ever be; And he was happy as a king, except for one peculiar thing. He had a clock that worked all right, It worked all right, but not exactly quite; Instead of going “tick, tock, tick,” the crazy clock went “tock, tick, tock.” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/17 "2003-10-29T16:16:54Z")
“Drive” is it, all right. thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/18 "2003-10-29T16:17:01Z")
Truly people, I am the man, you don’t have to keep guessing. I guess I should have taken some excerpts. 1. **"One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dream That all the people of the world got together on the same wavelength And began helping one another Now in this dream, universal love was the theme of the day Peace and understanding and it happened this way"** Hippy peace and love stuff : check. 1. **Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock people, time’s tickin’ away** Refernce to line remembered from chorus : check. :waiting for high fives and woo woos: ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/19 "2003-10-29T16:19:23Z")
:sheepish look on face: Okay damn, I just reread the OP. This was the song he was **not** thinking of. Move along people, nothing to see here. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169/20 "2003-10-29T16:29:34Z")
No, no, no, no. The Chambers Brothers, "Time Has Come Today. From the Age of Psychedelia. "[lyrics](http://www.joanjett.com/Lyrics/lyrics/TimeHasComeToday.htm). They don’t say “tick, tock,” but they are definitely in the song. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dimly-remembered-song-with-tick-tock/210169.md?page=2)