The Guardian's Laura Barton On Tobi Legend

[Guest son of stan]

Surprised this hasn't been posted elsewhere and I am sorry if it has. This is a rather good piece from yesterday's Guardian about Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By". Enjoy.

https://www.guardian...._medium=twitter

Edited October 23, 2010 by son of stan

[Agentsmith]

Surprised this hasn't been posted elsewhere and I am sorry if it has. This is a rather good piece from yesterday's Guardian about Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By". Enjoy.

https://www.guardian...._medium=twitter

well spotted stan, and eloquently put by ms. barton...fitting then that the broadsheets should find interest and originality in music from a bygone age as opposed to what purports to be "music" in this day and age!

[Ian Dewhirst]

Surprised this hasn't been posted elsewhere and I am sorry if it has. This is a rather good piece from yesterday's Guardian about Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By". Enjoy.

https://www.guardian...._medium=twitter

Yep. Very eloquent. Good to see someone in the mainstream media so visibly moved by the lyrics of the song plus she made some valid points re the Shakespear connection. I always thought the song was an absolute masterpiece and the lyrics were exceptional - almost like poetry really, so it's kind of cool to see it still making waves some 40 + years later. Good stuff.

Ian D

[Guest Paul]

It's very easy to take some songs for granted but 'Time Will Pass You By' is a very moving and evocative song.

Listen to it at the right time (...or the wrong time, if you know what I mean) and it will have a profound effect.

"Passing seasons all but fade away, into misty clouds of autumn grey..."

Sadly the art of songwriting has been in decline for many years and lyrics are often a casual afterthought these days.

Paul

[Sean Hampsey]

It's very easy to take some songs for granted but 'Time Will Pass You By' is a very moving and evocative song.

Listen to it at the right time (...or the wrong time, if you know what I mean) and it will have a profound effect.

"Passing seasons all but fade away, into misty clouds of autumn grey..."

Sadly the art of songwriting has been in decline for many years and lyrics are often a casual afterthought these days.

Paul

So true Paul.

I'd have said there's been little in the way of great songwriting these past 30 years.

Its why most 'modern / contemporary soul' is no longer soulful.

Theres just no 'art' 'purpose' or 'intention' in there any more.

New 'Soul' seems largely reliant purely on a rhythm (to shake yer bum to) rather than the soulful intensity which comes from outstanding lyrics superbly delivered by an excellent vocalist.

My simple ticklist for what makes a GREAT record goes something like this:

1. Great Lyrics

2. Great Vocals

3. Sincerity

4. Emotion

5. Great Musicianship

6. Great Arrangement

7. Great Production

Rhythm & Melody would be further down the list - yet these are the two components that most folk tend to look for in a 'choon' (these days).

Which explains why a lot of poor or sub-standard records get played (or become hits) over real quality.

Sean

[Dean]

well spotted stan, and eloquently put by ms. barton...fitting then that the broadsheets should find interest and originality in music from a bygone age as opposed to what purports to be "music" in this day and age!

Good piece, and nice to see an article with a NS connection that isn't cliche ridden. Just wanted to add in relation to "What passes for music these days". My son (now 20) pointed my 14 year old daughter in the direction of Hatebeak, a death metal thrash band fronted by an African Grey Parrot :lol: . Perhaps we may enjoy a younger interest at some future time if that's the alternative.

Edited October 23, 2010 by Dean

[Chalky]

Hail, Hail, Rock'n'Roll

Like many pop songs, there's something of the sonnet about Tobi Legend's northern soul belter Time Will Pass You By

• 
• • Laura Barton
  • guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 October 2010 22.45 BST

Sic transit gloria ... Wigan Casino in its heyday. Photograph: ITV / Rex Features

The final three records traditionally played at Wigan Casino's northern soul all-nighters were known as the Three Before Eight, and fittingly, for the closing notes of the night, all three were concerned with the passing of time. The sequence opened with Time Will Pass You By by Tobi Legend, followed with Long After Tonight Is All Over by Jimmy Radcliffe, and ended with I'm On My Way by Dean Parrish.

It's the Tobi Legend track I have always loved most. It is somehow undiluted by the schmaltz of Radcliffe's track, or the hey-ho-on-we-go of Parrish's number, and instead is simply a song about seeing the preciousness of life, about trying to live our lives better and brighter.

Legend was born Bessie Grace Upton in Alabama, the daughter of the gospel singer Emma Washington. She began her career in Detroit, more commonly recording as Tobi Lark, and singing backing vocals for artists such as BB King and Wilson Pickett, Duke Ellington, Ben E King and Cannonball Adderley. This track was released in 1968, and written by the English-born engineer John Rhys, but it did little commercially until it was picked up by northern soul clubs in Britain. Earlier this week, I found a podcast in which Rhys talks about writing the song. "I didn't even know it had been released until 1982," he laughs, detailing the history of Time Will Pass You By's composition and recording before it was seemingly lost. "After that, I don't know what happened," Rhys says, "but somehow it got to England … and it was successful. So thank you, mother country … Thank you northern soul, so much."

Its verses cut a melancholy figure, its opening lines reflecting on the steady turn of the world: "Passing seasons ever fade away/ Into misty clouds of autumn grey/ As I sit here looking at the street/ Little figures, quickly moving feet." And then in zaps the chorus, a remonstration of sorts, or a call to arms: "Life is just a precious minute baby," it yells. "Open up your eyes and see it baby/ Give yourself a better chance/ Because time will pass you/ Right on by."

Like many pop songs, there's something of the sonnet about Time Will Pass You By; it's there in the song's intention of course, but there is something about Legend's track that has always reminded me specifically of Shakespeare's Sonnet 60. Legend's second verse, "I'm just a pebble on the beach and I sit and wonder why/ Little people running around/ Never knowing why," for example, seems to echo Shakespeare's lines: "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore/ So do our minutes hasten to their end;/ Each changing place with that which goes before,/ In sequent toil all forwards do contend."

Sonnet 60 is itself a song, of sorts, about life's "precious minute". Shakespeare was writing at the end of the 16th century, in an age when time had become increasingly mechanised, its measurements more accurate, and for the first time, clocks began to have minute hands – the sonnet's name is thought to reference the number of seconds in a minute. Time, perhaps, never seemed to pass by so keenly.

Legend's song also came at the end of a decade, written over a three-year stretch in which the magnitude of events meant that life perhaps seemed to gather speed – Vietnam, the assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, riots in LA, New York and, of course, Detroit. In 1968, the year of this song's release, ours was a world trying to reorder itself, the civil rights movement was under way in the US, there were protests across Europe, and Apollo 8 allowed us to see Earth in its entirety from space. "This big old world is spinning like a top," Legend sings, "Come on help me now and make it stop."

But Legend offers the sonneteer's age-old remedy: "All you have to do is live for now," she sings, "Come along with me I'll show you how." And how softly reassurance turns into seduction: "Take my hand I'll show you how to live/ Why wait until tomorrow?"

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

[Guest Paul]

So true Paul.

I'd have said there's been little in the way of great songwriting these past 30 years.

Its why most 'modern / contemporary soul' is no longer soulful.

Theres just no 'art' 'purpose' or 'intention' in there any more.

New 'Soul' seems largely reliant purely on a rhythm (to shake yer bum to) rather than the soulful intensity which comes from outstanding lyrics superbly delivered by an excellent vocalist.

My simple ticklist for what makes a GREAT record goes something like this:

1. Great Lyrics

2. Great Vocals

3. Sincerity

4. Emotion

5. Great Musicianship

6. Great Arrangement

7. Great Production

Rhythm & Melody would be further down the list - yet these are the two components that most folk tend to look for in a 'choon' (these days).

Which explains why a lot of poor or sub-standard records get played (or become hits) over real quality.

Sean

Absolutely right, Sean.

By the late 1970s the focus for many writers and producers was almost entirely on the rhythm pattern and tempo rather than the lyrics, melody and vocal performance.

And some people started to think they had to write a "disco song" to make a "disco record". Big mistake. The best dance and disco records were classic songs about joy, pain, sorrow and hope - not "shake it to left, shake it to the right, we're gonna boogie all night" kind of stuff. It made a lot of black music seem juvenile and how on earth can a singer be emotive and expressive with lyrics like that?

The 1980s were even worse because many people actually wrote songs using drum machines rather than keyboards and guitars. Nothing against drum machines (I still have two) but they were badly used in most cases. Some of those '80s tracks sounded like the "drummer" had four feet and six arms - and the drums tracks were usually too high in the mix.

Good songs are still being written but there are so few of them it's no wonder many people are more focused on the past.

Today's problem is greed and lack of patience. Most people have the opportunity to programme, record and mix at home (at little cost) so it's common for one person to write, arrange, produce, perform and engineer his music all by himself. Some of them even do their own "mastering" (usually "brickwall" mastering) and design their own sleeves!

Years ago everyone had a specific role to play in the process, they did what they were best at and left other roles to other people.

I've only produced a few dozen sessions in my time but I always used arrangers and hired top musicians and backing vocalists etc. One one track at least 26 different people were involved, including engineers. It was expensive and it took more time but it was well worth it.

Sorry to go a bit off-topic, we were talking mostly about lyrics...

The biggest cause of naff lyrics in the last two decades has been greed, due to the kind of publishing deals where artists have a "minimum commitment" clause so they are forced to write a high portion (often 80%) of the songs they record, otherwise they don't qualify for their next advance. The result is that many artists write songs instead of collaborating or looking elsewhere for good material. My motto is "the best song wins, no matter who wrote it".

Very sad and a recipe for creative disaster.

Paul

[Ian Dewhirst]

Absolutely right, Sean.

By the late 1970s the focus for many writers and producers was almost entirely on the rhythm pattern and tempo rather than the lyrics, melody and vocal performance.

And some people started to think they had to write a "disco song" to make a "disco record". Big mistake. The best dance and disco records were classic songs about joy, pain, sorrow and hope - not "shake it to left, shake it to the right, we're gonna boogie all night" kind of stuff. It made a lot of black music seem juvenile and how on earth can a singer be emotive and expressive with lyrics like that?

The 1980s were even worse because many people actually wrote songs using drum machines rather than keyboards and guitars. Nothing against drum machines (I still have two) but they were badly used in most cases. Some of those '80s tracks sounded like the "drummer" had four feet and six arms - and the drums tracks were usually too high in the mix.

Good songs are still being written but there are so few of them it's no wonder many people are more focused on the past.

Today's problem is greed and lack of patience. Most people have the opportunity to programme, record and mix at home (at little cost) so it's common for one person to write, arrange, produce, perform and engineer his music all by himself. Some of them even do their own "mastering" (usually "brickwall" mastering) and design their own sleeves!

Years ago everyone had a specific role to play in the process, they did what they were best at and left other roles to other people.

I've only produced a few dozen sessions in my time but I always used arrangers and hired top musicians and backing vocalists etc. One one track at least 26 different people were involved, including engineers. It was expensive and it took more time but it was well worth it.

Sorry to go a bit off-topic, we were talking mostly about lyrics...

The biggest cause of naff lyrics in the last two decades has been greed, due to the kind of publishing deals where artists have a "minimum commitment" clause so they are forced to write a high portion (often 80%) of the songs they record, otherwise they don't qualify for their next advance. The result is that many artists write songs instead of collaborating or looking elsewhere for good material. My motto is "the best song wins, no matter who wrote it".

Very sad and a recipe for creative disaster.

Paul

Very true Paul. I've lost count of the amount of artists/groups or acts who seem to think that they can produce/arrange/play and write songs themselves and then hope to find an audience with 'em when the material or productions are quite obviously inferior. Full productions with proper musicians, great arrangements and great lyric writing are just three of the main casualties in this day and age and some of these areas will go the way of dry-stone walling if we're not careful.

Elsewhere I have constant arguements vis a vis the appeal of 'new' releases versus old releases and the arguements keep going in circles. I'm of the opinion that the amount of genuinely great releases per year might boil down to 10 tunes a year these days if you're lucky (and 5 of those would be likely to be Pop releases if the truth's known). Compare that the mid 60's to mid 70's and you can see how far apart the eras are. I can vividly remember having to do my record budgets reallly carefully because it seemed like there were 5 great records every week back then or aound 200-300 great releases every year.

I now look back to that same era and realise how blessed we really were. Real musicians, real instruments, proper producers, arrangers and musical directors, great lyricists, great melodic song-writers and often full orchestras. It's hard to compare with that array of talent with a laptop and a bedroom studio ay?

The Tobi Legend work of genius is obviously a masterclass of Soul and if that Guardian article encourages more people to listen to this music, then I'd say that's a good thing. Finding pieces of writing as good as that in the mainsteam media these days is almost as difficult as finding a genuine 100% breath-taking classic new release in a sea of bland computer-driven mediocrity.

But, hey. That's what we live for innit?

As an aside, I can remember hearing Tobi Legend for the first time ever in a pub in Huddersfield circa 1972 - I think Howard Earnshaw brought it in and it's a credit to the track that it still moves me as much today as it did the first time I heard it. Everything but the kitchen sink on that record!

Ian D

[Mark Jones]

she made some valid points re the Shakespear connection. I always thought the song was an absolute masterpiece and the lyrics were exceptional - almost like poetry really

Ian D

I think the Bard would have approved of Northern Soul...it's usually those tunes with poetic thought provoking lyrics that get me up dancing, singing along as I do.

Rita and The Tiaras is another that comes to mind.

Edited October 24, 2010 by soulechoes

[Guest Paul]

...Rita and The Tiaras is another that comes to mind.

It's interesting to note that 'Time Will Pass You By' and 'Gone With The Wind Is My Love' were both written by white men (which may or may not be relevant) and the lyrics to both songs were inspired by older works.

Paul

[The Tempest]

A record always blighted with sadness for me , been to three mates funerals over the last 25 odd years and this has been their ender , literally !!!

Edited October 24, 2010 by 123-motown

[Dean]

A record always blighted with sadness for me , been to three mates funerals over the last 25 odd years and this has been their ender , literally !!!

In a way that is its own tribute to the meaningful emotive lyrics. I suspect there will be a lot more action for this tune at funerals over the next 30 years.Could move Frank and My Way off the top spot. I quite fancy Burning Sensation or My World is on Fire for a good cremation.

[Guest Dave Turner]

So true Paul.

I'd have said there's been little in the way of great songwriting these past 30 years.

Its why most 'modern / contemporary soul' is no longer soulful.

Theres just no 'art' 'purpose' or 'intention' in there any more.

New 'Soul' seems largely reliant purely on a rhythm (to shake yer bum to) rather than the soulful intensity which comes from outstanding lyrics superbly delivered by an excellent vocalist.

My simple ticklist for what makes a GREAT record goes something like this:

1. Great Lyrics

2. Great Vocals

3. Sincerity

4. Emotion

5. Great Musicianship

6. Great Arrangement

7. Great Production

Rhythm & Melody would be further down the list - yet these are the two components that most folk tend to look for in a 'choon' (these days).

Which explains why a lot of poor or sub-standard records get played (or become hits) over real quality.

Sean

Good post Sean, pretty much says it for me as well.

To my way of thinking soul isn't a beat. Soul is amongst other things lyrics sung with meaning, intensity and a kind of reality often taken from the writer's own life experiences and put over by an artist who believes in what he/she's singing. The beat, melody etc etc are just additional factors that make a track more (or less) enjoyable to listen (or in fact dance to). Discounting the obvious genres of say doowop, blues, jazz etc a lot of black music isn't soul IMO. It often comes under the soul umbrella simply because it's a black artist, or just has a certain danceable beat but to my mind isn't soul as there's just no passion or believability about it.

Right then, that's my load o' bollox for the day

[Sean Hampsey]

Good post Sean, pretty much says it for me as well.

To my way of thinking soul isn't a beat. Soul is amongst other things lyrics sung with meaning, intensity and a kind of reality often taken from the writer's own life experiences and put over by an artist who believes in what he/she's singing. The beat, melody etc etc are just additional factors that make a track more (or less) enjoyable to listen (or in fact dance to). Discounting the obvious genres of say doowop, blues, jazz etc a lot of black music isn't soul IMO. It often comes under the soul umbrella simply because it's a black artist, or just has a certain danceable beat but to my mind isn't soul as there's just no passion or believability about it.

Right then, that's my load o' bollox for the day

Well its the best load o'bollox I've read in a long while Dave!

Just Brilliant!

And sums it all up beautifully.

Sean

[Guest Geordie Soul Fan]

Surprised this hasn't been posted elsewhere and I am sorry if it has. This is a rather good piece from yesterday's Guardian about Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By". Enjoy.

https://www.guardian...._medium=twitter

Great article, thanks for adding it, loved reading it. This is already one of my favourite tunes, love it.

I wish their football 'writer' Louise Taylor had half the talent Ms Barton has, fantastic piece.

[Ianw]

A fantastic piece. Laura's from Wigan, so I'm sure this is from the heart.

[Guest pharoahsoulero]

great write up,always loved the track,it was an unfortunate upshot that by being roped into the 3 before eight it became almost unplayed in the guts of the evening during the last years of the casino

[Soulman]

"great arrangements and great lyric writing are just three of the main casualties in this day and age and some of these areas will go the way of dry-stone walling if we're not careful."

Oi Dewhirst....

I'll have you know that dry stone walling is alive and well. In fact there are many a Sunday voluteer dry stone waller that have come across bricks, broken bottles and sticks while under taking their art. Now you couldn't make a song about that could you?

[Theresa]

It's interesting to note that 'Time Will Pass You By' and 'Gone With The Wind Is My Love' were both written by white men (which may or may not be relevant) and the lyrics to both songs were inspired by older works.

Paul

Nice thread

Not just Shakespeare though - also in the lyrics 'And it waits for no man...' is from Chaucer

I remember reading that Weller is a big fan of this track, and always wondered about his iconic 'Broken Stones' beginning with 'Like pebbles on a beach...',

but I only recently clocked (while listening to maudlin tunes recently, lol) that his 'There's No Drinking After You're Dead' is heavily influenced by it, and even includes the line 'Time will pass you by':

Come, taste the wine

Come, lose yourself

Taste this time

But keep it well

Only love it all

With heart and head

For there is no drinking

After you're dead

Dive and swim

In the amber ocean

See all that you can

In this new emotion

Embrace it now

Before its skin sheds

For there is no drinking

After you're dead

Stand back to back

With yourself again

As you spin and reel

Like a new found friend

And have it all

With heart and hands

For there is no lovemaking

After you're dead

Today is but a second

If tomorrow you may die

And empty pages glistening

To eternity's lie

And time is money's worth

Encased upon the wall

That brings our day of reckoning

Much closer to us all

Time will pass you by

Light the candle

And burn it well

For only time knows

What it cannot yet tell

Only love it all

With heart and head

For there is no drinking

After you're dead

[Professorturnups]

I was travelling from Norwich to one of my first ever All-Nighters at the Fleet , Peterborough in 1978 and we managed to get lost on the way. My friend got out of the car and said "I'll pop in this pub and get directions, stay in the car and listen to this..." The intro to this record simply grabbed me by the goolies and for three minutes I was in soul heaven!

"A life changing experience"

Mark C

[manus]

Nice thread

Not just Shakespeare though - also in the lyrics 'And it waits for no man...' is from Chaucer

I remember reading that Weller is a big fan of this track, and always wondered about his iconic 'Broken Stones' beginning with 'Like pebbles on a beach...',

but I only recently clocked (while listening to maudlin tunes recently, lol) that his 'There's No Drinking After You're Dead' is heavily influenced by it, and even includes the line 'Time will pass you by':

Come, taste the wine

Come, lose yourself

Taste this time

But keep it well

Only love it all

With heart and head

For there is no drinking

After you're dead

Dive and swim

In the amber ocean

See all that you can

In this new emotion

Embrace it now

Before its skin sheds

For there is no drinking

After you're dead

Stand back to back

With yourself again

As you spin and reel

Like a new found friend

And have it all

With heart and hands

For there is no lovemaking

After you're dead

Today is but a second

If tomorrow you may die

And empty pages glistening

To eternity's lie

And time is money's worth

Encased upon the wall

That brings our day of reckoning

Much closer to us all

Time will pass you by

Light the candle

And burn it well

For only time knows

What it cannot yet tell

Only love it all

With heart and head

For there is no drinking

After you're dead

And the bard of Wales Dylan Thomas may have had a hand in it too Theresa as he invites the listener during Under Milkwood to " Listen. Time passes" Interesting to see the writer of TWPYB John Rhys has a Welsh surname. "Time will pass you by" one of the best ever I think.

Manus

[Guest]

Surprised this hasn't been posted elsewhere and I am sorry if it has. This is a rather good piece from yesterday's Guardian about Tobi Legend "Time Will Pass You By". Enjoy.

https://www.guardian...._medium=twitter

the lyrics are so poignant and the record is arranged and sung superbly.

its a timeless classic

it will always be a great record

and its great to see a nice piece in a high brow paper about NS !

[Ian Dewhirst]

Oi Dewhirst....

I'll have you know that dry stone walling is alive and well. In fact there are many a Sunday voluteer dry stone waller that have come across bricks, broken bottles and sticks while under taking their art. Now you couldn't make a song about that could you?

:lol:

"Bricks, Broken Bottles & Sticks"? Nah, no one will ever write a record about that!

Ian D

[Ady Croasdell]

Nice thread

Not just Shakespeare though - also in the lyrics 'And it waits for no man...' is from Chaucer

I remember reading that Weller is a big fan of this track, and always wondered about his iconic 'Broken Stones' beginning with 'Like pebbles on a beach...',

but I only recently clocked (while listening to maudlin tunes recently, lol) that his 'There's No Drinking After You're Dead' is heavily influenced by it, and even includes the line 'Time will pass you by':

Come, taste the wine

Come, lose yourself

Taste this time

But keep it well

Only love it all

With heart and head

For there is no drinking

After you're dead

Dive and swim

In the amber ocean

See all that you can

In this new emotion

Embrace it now

Before its skin sheds

For there is no drinking

After you're dead

Stand back to back

With yourself again

As you spin and reel

Like a new found friend

And have it all

With heart and hands

For there is no lovemaking

After you're dead

Today is but a second

If tomorrow you may die

And empty pages glistening

To eternity's lie

And time is money's worth

Encased upon the wall

That brings our day of reckoning

Much closer to us all

Time will pass you by

Light the candle

And burn it well

For only time knows

What it cannot yet tell

Only love it all

With heart and head

For there is no drinking

After you're dead

I got Paul an original recently for £300 to play in his DJ sets and soirees. The old boot I got him years ago must have worn out.

[Ady Croasdell]

Tobi told me how the song was recorded. It was such an incredibly tough song to record, they did it in a series of small segments and spliced it all together. She has never sung the song in its entirety, even when she recorded it. That was one of the reasons she declined to sing for us at Cleethorpes last year.

[Charlie Rees]

A fantastic piece. Laura's from Wigan, so I'm sure this is from the heart.

According to an interview with Quercus books in August she is currently working on a series of short stories about northern soul for Radio 4.

[Guest mel brat]

A great song that still has the power to move one emotionally (and physically) despite it's overexposure perhaps. One of the best of it's kind. Incidentally, I was looking at it just this very evening, the first time out of it's bag in several years.

Little coincidences like that appear to be happening to me quite frequently lately - It's all getting a bit spooky actually.

Edited November 6, 2010 by mel brat

[Wilxy]

Great song.....Great thread.....

[Roburt]

AS DIRECTED ELSEWHERE ...

Has it ever been documented (I guess so), how this song ended up being recorded by Tobi Lark while she was on a tour (with King Curtis ?) of the US east coast.

Tobi had quite a turbulent time from the mid 60's on. Her marriage broke up & she moved to Montreal with her son. Luckily, there she continued to perform live at clubs such as Rockheads around 1966 (see related ad). She then performed @ Expo67 & got into the musical HAIR. Having moved to Toronto she was (by then) famous enough to get picked to go on big tours back on the US east coast. She signed up for one that took her over to the Boston / Hartford / New York areas. A radio DJ (JOEY Reynolds of WKBW/WDRC) in that area MAY have got involved with Tobi & he MAY have set up a recording session at Trod Nossel Studios in Wallingford (which had till 1966 been SYNCRON Sound Studios). Anyway the Tobi Legend 45 label states ... IMAGINEERED BY JOEY (Reynolds ?) at SYCRON 68 and it escaped on Mala in February 68 ... so that recording session would have taken place around the winter period 67/68. But Tobi's son died and that put her off performing, so it seems she lost interest in singing live / recording some years after the Tobi Legend 45's escaped (Feb / April 68). Not that she knew it had been released.

How a Detroit penned song ended up being recorded in the New England / New York area (unless Tobi had taken it with her & was performing it live in her shows in 67/68), I guess we'll never truly understand.

Going by Ady's post above (the song being cut as a number of separate sections which were then spliced together), I'd guess she wasn't performing it in her live shows back then.

Tobi, established her career in Canada at this club ...       

Edited August 29, 2023 by Roburt

[Roburt]

After Tobi cut "Time Will Pass You By" she headed back to Toronto.

In 1969, she was hired to play the parts of Dionne (the part played by Melba Moore in the Broadway show) & Abraham Lincoln in the Canadian stage version of HAIR which ran for around 18 months @ the  Royal Alexandre Theatre in the city. This gave her an even higher profile, led to her getting a record deal with Nimbus Records in 1970. With the label, she had a hit 45, it's sales leading to the single also gaining a US release.