‘Time After Time’: The Jack the Ripper movie that inspired two very different songs
There are no standard rules for where songwriters get their inspiration from. Even though it’s easy for someone to look at a failed relationship as the catalyst for making heartbreaking music, what gets a songwriter going could be anything from how they woke up one morning to one particularly bad cup of coffee they drank. Whereas other songs might jump out to certain artists as a main inspiration, two completely disparate songs from the 1980s found their calling in Jack the Ripper.
At the same time, talking about something violent has often been great for artists to work with. Although many people have tried to talk about what was going on in their lives, it’s much more interesting when songs become as much about reporting as they are about someone’s feelings, like what Bob Dylan did with ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’ or Kendrick Lamar has been doing on tracks like ‘Alright’.
Regarding sinister material, though, Jack the Ripper’s tale seems like ideal fodder for a horrific tune. But while documenting what it’s like to be inside a killer’s mind is usually enough for psychological studies instead of songs, it’s worth it to take a look at the people who are closest to the aforementioned killer.
In the movie Time After Time, we follow HG Wells as he starts following Jack the Ripper as his friend rather than a psychopath. While anyone else would probably be terrified knowing that getting on their mate’s bad side could come with a death sentence, Wells always dwells on trying to find peace even when things look grim.
It’s still about a serial killer, so naturally, that makes it ideal fodder for a band like Iron Maiden. While taking a break from their endless songs about war or historical events, ‘Caught Somewhere in Time’ is about Time After Time directly, with Bruce Dickinson putting the listener in that exact scenario and wondering if they would be scared to take that leap if they were in Wells’s shoes.
Despite Maiden doing an exquisite job at making a spoiler-free review of the movie, Cyndi Lauper also found some merit to the film when making her own song ‘Time After Time’. Although the idea of the 1980s pop star singing about someone who kills people would have been a sight to behold, her version of the tune begins and ends with the title of the movie.
Whereas most of She’s So Unusual was being fleshed out, Lauper’s co-writer, Robert Hyman, remembered her watching the movie and becoming immediately inspired, saying, “When she saw Time After Time, something clicked. She said, ‘I think I have a title.’” Dickinson might still be singing like he’s trying to scare you, but Lauper’s tune is enough to bring someone to their knees if they’ve been in a bad relationship.
Even though it’s hard to let that person go, hearing Lauper sing about always being there for her other half no matter what is the best kind of reassurance one could ask for. Although the thought of Caught Somewhere in Time After Time writes itself as a promotional tool, there’s probably a slim chance that Lauper and Maiden were ever going to tour together.
