{"id":56022,"date":"2026-10-11T13:41:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T13:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/?p=56022"},"modified":"2026-10-11T13:41:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T13:41:56","slug":"retrospectively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/2026\/10\/11\/retrospectively\/","title":{"rendered":"Retrospectively"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[Silence]<br \/>\n[Instrumental Intro: Whistle, Deep Sub-Bass Synth, Acoustic Guitar, Organ, Flute, Drums, Saxophone, Percussion]<\/p>\n<p>[Intro]<br \/>\nYesterday&#8230;<br \/>\n(Tomorrow&#8230;)<br \/>\nToday&#8230;<br \/>\n(Have you ever looked this way?)<\/p>\n<p>Look ahead!<br \/>\n(Look behind!)<br \/>\nWho&#8217;s observing?<br \/>\n(Who&#8217;s in mind?)<\/p>\n<p>[Verse 1]<br \/>\nI saw tomorrow in a dream last night<br \/>\nIt looked like yesterday in a different light<br \/>\nThe future came knocking, the past walked in<br \/>\nAnd the present couldn&#8217;t tell where to begin<\/p>\n<p>[Refrain]<br \/>\nThe future&#8230;<br \/>\n(Is sure&#8230;)<br \/>\nEasy to see<br \/>\n(Retrospectively)<\/p>\n<p>Once memory,<br \/>\n(Then what&#8230; really?)<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental: Whistle Solo]<\/p>\n<p>The past&#8230;<br \/>\n(Might last&#8230;)<br \/>\nIndefinitely,<br \/>\n(But really&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p>If there&#8217;s no one to see?<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental: Whistle Solo]<\/p>\n<p>[Verse 2]<br \/>\nThe clock keeps ticking, the seconds fly<br \/>\nBut what is a moment as it passes by?<br \/>\nA fraction of now that we try to hold<br \/>\nTurns into a story that we&#8217;ve often retold<\/p>\n<p>[Refrain]<br \/>\nThe future&#8230;<br \/>\n(Is sure&#8230;)<br \/>\nEasy to see<br \/>\n(Retrospectively)<\/p>\n<p>Once memory,<br \/>\n(Then what&#8230; really?)<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental: Whistle Solo]<\/p>\n<p>The past&#8230;<br \/>\n(Might last&#8230;)<br \/>\nIndefinitely,<br \/>\n(But really&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p>If there&#8217;s no one to see?<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental: Whistle Solo]<\/p>\n<p>[Bridge]<br \/>\n[Instrumental: Guitar Solo]<br \/>\nIs the past still there?<br \/>\n(When nobody knows?)<br \/>\nDoes tomorrow exist?<br \/>\n(Before it unfolds?)<\/p>\n<p>Is the present a point?<br \/>\n(That we cannot retain?)<br \/>\nOr a river of change<br \/>\n(That keeps flowing again?)<\/p>\n<p>The observer observes<br \/>\n(But the observer&#8217;s involved)<br \/>\nThe question keeps turning<br \/>\n(And remains unresolved)<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental]<br \/>\n(Tick-tock&#8230;)<br \/>\n(Who&#8217;s watching the clock?)<\/p>\n<p>(Flashback&#8230;)<br \/>\n(What do you know?)<br \/>\n(Fast forward&#8230;)<br \/>\n(Where will it go?)<\/p>\n<p>(Rewind!)<br \/>\n(What did we find?)<\/p>\n<p>[Breakdown]<br \/>\nThe future!<br \/>\n(Will endure!)<\/p>\n<p>The present!<br \/>\n(Experienced!)<\/p>\n<p>The past!<br \/>\n(Passed!)<\/p>\n<p>[Refrain]<br \/>\nThe future&#8230;<br \/>\n(Is sure&#8230;)<br \/>\nEasy to see<br \/>\n(Retrospectively)<\/p>\n<p>Once memory,<br \/>\n(Then what&#8230; really?)<\/p>\n<p>The past&#8230;<br \/>\n(Might last&#8230;)<br \/>\nIndefinitely,<br \/>\n(But really&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p>If there&#8217;s no one to see?<\/p>\n<p>[Final Refrain]<br \/>\nThe future&#8230;<br \/>\n(Is sure&#8230;)<br \/>\nEasy to see<br \/>\n(Retrospectively)<\/p>\n<p>We knew it all along!<br \/>\n(Or so we believe!)<\/p>\n<p>[Outro]<br \/>\nThe past&#8230;<br \/>\n(Might last&#8230;)<br \/>\nIndefinitely,<br \/>\n(But really&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p>What remains of history<br \/>\n(When there&#8217;s no one to see?)<\/p>\n<p>The future&#8230;<br \/>\n(Is sure&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p>Easy to see&#8230;<br \/>\n(Retrospectively.)<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental: Whistle Solo]<\/p>\n<p>[Silence]<\/p>\n<p>[End]<\/p>\n<p>From the album <strong>&#8220;<a href=\"\/albums\/Feedback-Coupling\/\">Feedback Coupling<\/a>&#8220;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Silence] [Instrumental Intro: Whistle, Deep Sub-Bass Synth, Acoustic Guitar, Organ, Flute, Drums, Saxophone, Percussion] [Intro] Yesterday&#8230; (Tomorrow&#8230;) Today&#8230; (Have you ever looked this way?) Look ahead! (Look behind!) Who&#8217;s observing? (Who&#8217;s in mind?) [Verse 1] I saw tomorrow in a dream last night It looked like yesterday in a different light The future came knocking, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,1],"tags":[163],"class_list":["post-56022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4d-music","category-chaos-theory","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56022"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56025,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56022\/revisions\/56025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}