These Are the Times

These Are the Times
Written By Styx
Lead Vocals By James Young

I hear voices from beyond the veil
They reverberate in mystery
There are shadows in my heart
And they multiply in memory

And the comrades that I’ve lost out there
In the scattered ruins still speak to me

If the flickering light of your campfire dims
The world grows smaller
It’s closing in
I’m standing here
And I want you to live

I know

These are the times we find out who we really are
This will be when a true friend stands at your side
Someone like me who wants to

Believe in the days of high times and innocence
Drawing the lines and shouting back to the night
Someone like me who wants you to live

And from those who’ve seen the light beyond
We know the end will bring tranquility
But the voices of the friends they heard
Brought them back to this reality

Tough the beacon of light in your life seems dim
The sun’s coming up on the world we’re in
There are choices here
And I want you to live

I know

These are the times we find out who we really are
This will be when a true friend stands at your side
One more like me

Who wants to believe in the truth of all we experienced
To live again to jump back into the fight
Someone like me who wants you to live

Pouring light from the sky
Portends you and I
Disappears in the night

I still remember

I hear voices from beyond the veil
Like a faint unfinished symphony

Though the beacon of light in your life seems dim
The sun’s coming up on the world we’re in
I’m standing here
And I want you to live

I know

These are the times we find out who we really are
This will be when a true friend stands at your side
One more like me

Who wants to believe in the truth of all we experienced
To live again to jump back into the fight
Someone like me who wants you to live

I want you, I want you, I want you to live
I want you, I want you, I want you to live
I want you to live

I still remember.

Interpretation

JY explains:

"These Are the Times is really an intervention song and what the lyrics are have kind of evolved - what they are at this stage and what they were when Tommy and I first wrote it. When we first started working on it was seven years ago, it was more about, Tommy was heavily involved, and still is, with drug interventions, and very supportive of a lot of groups that do work in that field and I've been through a number of those, notably with our dearly departed first drummer John Panozzo. 

The song was about intervening in someone's life, kind of in a way that Chuck (Panozzo), who is now openly a gay man who has come out and announced that he's HIV-positive and his struggles with this - it's about supporting him. 

Ultimately, what the lyrics finally evolved into, in a way, was the passing of my younger brother from a lymphoma and when we had to take him off life support. When we were in his room, everyone was around crying and it was very emotional and from the next room comes the sound of Jimi Hendrix' Purple Haze. This is in the intensive care unit and I said, 'This is my brother speaking to me, speaking to us.' And it lightened the mood. 'I hear voices from beyond the veil,' it sort of inspired that line, Tommy and I collaborated on that. 

So that song has kind of become about helping those, that there is something to live for, for those that think there isn't."