Song of the Day — December 3
The Tarney/Spencer Band — “No Time to Lose”
The Tarney/Spencer Band — “No Time to Lose”
03.December.2020
Tarney/Spencer Band
“No Time to Lose”
1979
I suspect unless you were a member of this band, one of the label reps, or one of the handfuls of radio program directors who programmed it, you have never heard of this song.
It was not a hit.
Australian Trevor Spencer (drums) and Alan Tarney (guitar, vocals) kicked around in London's various bands for awhile. They also worked as session musicians for Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John, and Bonnie Tyler, among others, before joining forces.
The Tarney/Spencer Band took shape in 1975 when they paired up and decided to take a run at commercial success themselves.
By 1976, their first single, “I’m Your Man Rock and Roll,” was released in the UK but failed to reach the top 30. Yet it still garnered an appearance on BBC’s Top of the Pops. The same year, Tarney/Spencer Band released their self-titled debut album.
In 1976, “I’m Your Man Rock and Roll” was released in the US. It charted on Cashbox, then a music industry trade magazine. Peaking at #71 on Cashbox, the song got enough attention to land them a deal with A&M Records.
For their second album in 1978, Three’s a Crowd, they brought in American record executive and producer David Kershenbaum (Cat Stevens, Duran Duran, Joe Jackson, etc.). That record picked up modest airplay in the US and peaked at #174 n the Billboard Album Chart, and the lone single, “It’s Really You,” peaked at #86 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Momentum was gathering behind Tarney/Spencer Band. At the time, their sequestered, almost carpeted, “sound” was also gaining steam. Artists like Gerry Rafferty, with “Baker Street” and the Alan Parsons Project, with “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You,” were racking up massive success.
It seemed, and sounded, like The Tarney/Spencer Band seemed, and sounded, poised to breakthrough.
Their third album, Run for Your Life, was again produced by David Kershenbaum. Unfortunately, it suffered the same success as the second album. It reached #181 on the Billboard Album Chart, and the single, “No Time To Lose,” peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100.
I’m guessing anyone reading this has probably never heard the song. And I’m not even so sure what I find so captivating about the song. It sounds like a lot of the stuff from that period. It wasn’t necessarily better, and it certainly wasn’t worse.
For me, as a young kid, “No Time To Lose” straddled that fence between “rock” and stuff your hip older neighbors would get high to …but it wasn’t disco or soft rock.
For me, for music to work, I have to be first drawn in by one of two things. Either I need to have a visceral reaction to the music, OR I need to be intrigued by the lyrics — preferably both.
Even as a kid, what struck me about “No Time To Lose” was the wording. It’s not terribly unique wordplay, but it is unique. The music is good, fine, but for some reason, how the lyrics are assembled and sung is really unique.
No Time To Lose
Every day I walk in shadows
I know not what it is
Heading for
And as the evening lies dying
A gentle heart dies near me sighing
It’s still the same
You’ll never change
You can never understand
We can now be like water
Don’t need more to find our way
Just get on where we came
It’s a game
What a game
No time to lose
No time to lose
Go with the flow
Never let go
No time to lose
There ain’t no way to see forever
It’s only day to day
I’m living for
Like a wheel you keep me turning
Put your love inside me burning
Questions plain
When you’re lovin’ me
You can never understand
We can now be like water
Don’t need more to find our way
Just get on where we came
It’s a game
What a game
No time to lose
No time to lose
I was a kid, so I had no idea about love or anything like that (a few people might argue that I still don’t), but the nebulous nature in which songs resonate with listeners remains a mystery.
Some songs resonate because they’re jammed down our throats, and we’re told it’s good. Other songs are so ubiquitous, listeners eventually acquiesce.
Others naturally find their way into your psychological and emotional ecosystem. “No Time To Lose” was like that for me. It’s remained in my ecosystem for all these years.
After lack of success with Run For Your Life, Trevor Spencer and Alan Tarney closed up shop and threw in the towel.
Trevor Spencer left the UK and moved back to Australia and built a recording studio, Sh-Boom Studios, working with many Australian artists.
Alan Tarney settled into a life as a songwriter and producer. In addition to helping resurrect Cliff Richard’s career in the late 70s and 80s, Tarney became notable for working with another band — a Norwegian synth-pop band.
Wait for it …
Alan Tarney was the guy behind the boards for a-ha’s “Take on Me.”
Yep, he produced one of the biggest songs of the early 80s and certainly one of the most influential videos. To have a record that big and impactful on your CV is not too shabby. Tarney would work with a-ha for their first three albums.
In 1979, music video was beginning to gain some traction. Labels were using them as promotional tools. Yea, they still do, but in 1979 there weren’t hundreds of outlets for them to be seen. There was maybe Solid Gold and American Bandstand, Soul Train, and trade shows/gatherings if the band couldn’t perform.
And in the case of The Tarney/Spencer Band, it’s a good thing music video wasn’t a big thing in 1979.
The video for “No Time To Lose” is ridiculous. Lead singer Alan Tarney rocking what appears to be the precursor to Law & Order’s Lennie Briscoe’s Members Only jacket and an ill-advised shag haircut. But this was 1979, and for all the video's flaws, it did capture the craze of the moment.
Rollerskating. Nope, not rollerblading, rollerskating. The video is awesomely absurd in retrospect.
But the song? Oh, the song is still great. Indeed, a little dated but no more dated than the brilliant Saxophone opening of “Baker Street” or anything by the Alan Parson’s Project.