MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
Time Warp (Rocky Horror Picture Show)
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4:03
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/music/time-warp-rocky-horror-picture-show-1874
Description

Crazy is the word here. This song is a fragment from a famous musical (made also into a movie) called Rocky Humour Picture Show. It's cool, weird, wild, and funny. This song got very famous and there is also a more modern pop version of it. The dance was a success in Britain and got popular for parties, birthdays, wedding and all sorts of celebrations and it is still popular today there. Go to links to see the pop version and learn how to dance it.


Damian's Time Warp.


The lyrics for the pop version change a little bit, here they are:


Time warp, t-t-t-t-time time warp
t-t-t-t-time
Are you ready?
- Yeah
So you think you can do the time warp, eh?
- Alright
Well, let me tell you:


It's astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll
But listen closely
Not for very much longer
I've got to keep control.

It's just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
Pull your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane
Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

It's so dreamy
Oh fantasy, free me
So you can't see me
No not at all
In another dimension
With voyeuristic intention
Well secluded
I'll see all

It's just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
Pull your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane
Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again


Put your right hand up above your head
And your left hand too like a ++++
Bring both hands slowly to your hips
And move your body and lick your lips
Lick your lips

Now jump to the lef
And step to the right
You got the Time Warp
Now get it right

Let, let, le-le-le-le-let's exercise, let's exercise
Let, let, le-le-le-le-let's exercise, let's exercise
Let, let, le-le-le-le-let's exercise, let's exercise
Let, let, le-le-le-le-let's exercise, let's exercise

It's just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
Pull your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane
Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

Transcript

It's astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll
But listen closely
Not for very much longer
I've got to keep control

I remember doing the Time Warp
Drinking those moments when
The blackness would hit me
And the void would be calling
Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

It's just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
With your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane
Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

It's so dreamy
Oh fantasy, free me
So you can't see me
No, not at all
In another dimension
With voyeuristic intention
Well secluded, I see all

With a bit of a mind flip
You're into the time slip
And nothing can ever be the same
You're spaced out on sensation
Like you're under sedation
Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

Well I was walking down the street
Just a-having a think
When a snake of a guy gave me an evil wink
He shook-a me up, he took me by surprise
He had a pick up truck and the devil's eyes
He stared at me and I felt a change
Time meant nothing, never would again

Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

It's just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
With your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane
Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

It's just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
With your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane
Let's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again

Explanations

ASTOUNDING= Shocking, very surprising.

FLEETING= Moving very quickly.

MADNESS= Craziness, the act of being mad (AmE= crazy).

TOLL= A fixed charge or tax for a privilege. If something takes its toll it means that you have to pay a price for it, that it has unwanted consequences.

TIME WARP= Here it is just the name of the dance, but look at the “Song Meaning” section to understand why they call this dance “Time Warp”. A time warp is a distortion in the flow of time, either because time stops, or goes extremely slow or because you turn back in time and go to the past or because the past feels like present. For example, if you are deep into your memories and are re-living a past scene intensely, so intensely you feel you are living it again now, when you come back to reality you can say that you had a time warp. The most common use, though, is when you see on TV a slow motion of something fleeting, for example, a drop of water falls into a glass of water and it takes 1/2 second, but you can see it very slowly and it takes 1/2 minute. That’s a time warp because time was distorted.

THE BLACKNESS= Darkness (here it refers to an evil sensation).

THE BLACKNESS WOULD HIT ME= Darkness used to hit me. We can use WOULD to express a habit in the past, the same as USED TO, but they are not always the same:
USED TO can express a habit or a state (a situation), but WOULD can only express a habit
- I used to get up at 8 o’clock, but now I get up later = I would get up at 8 o’clock, but now I get up later.
- That house used to look very old, but now they have repaired it. (a state. We can’t say: “that house would look very old”)
We can also use the simple past for past habits (the same as we use the simple present for present habits), but it is more ambiguous (sometimes we can’t tell if it’s a repeated habit or just one action):
- When I was a child I got up at 8 o’clock every day (here, the phrase “every day” tells us that it is a habit)

THE VOID= Something void has nothing inside, and the void is the nothingness, the emptiness.

HIPS= The prominent part of the sides of your body between your legs and your stomach.

YOU BRING YOUR KNEES IN TIGHT= You put your knees inside, together, tightly (pressing strongly).

PELVIC= Adjective referring to the pelvic region, all the area between your legs and your stomach (the hips are the bony edges on the sides of the pelvis).

THURST= A thrust is a quick strong push.

INSANE= Mad (BrE), crazy (AmE).

DREAMY= Unreal.

WITH VOYEURISTIC INTENTION= A voyeur /vwɑ:jɜ:*/ is a person (especially hidden) who likes watching others doing something (especially, but not necessarily, something sexual). The adjective is “voyeuristic”, so if you do something with voyeuristic intention, you do it because you enjoy watching.

WELL SECLUDED= Very hidden, hiding very well.

A BIT OF A...= A little of...

FLIP= (verb) to turn over.

A MIND FLIP= A change of mind.

SLIP= (verb) to shift position, to slide out of a place, to move silently smoothly and slowly.

THE TIME SLIP= A situation when you slowly move into a different time.

YOU’RE SPACED OUT ON SENSATION= To space out is to become giddy or disoriented, so if you’re spaced out on sensation, your sensations become unreal, like in a dream.

LIKE YOU’RE UNDER SEDATION= As if you were sedated. To be sedated is to be under the effect of an anaesthetic, like when you are having an operation and they sedate you (you don’t feel any pain because you are in a deep artificial dream).

A-HAVING / SHOOK-A= This A doesn’t mean anything, it is just to get an extra syllable for the rhythm of the music.

A SNAKE OF A GUY= A guy who is like a snake (somebody you can’t trust). A guy is a boy or man (colloquial English, especially in America).

EVIL= Malicious, very bad.

WINK= To wink is to quickly close just one eye as a sign. A wink is the act of winking.

HE SHOOK ME UP= To shake (shake-shook-shaken) is to tremble strongly or move intensely to and fro with short jerks (little movements). If the man shook her, she suddenly felt a strong emotion about him (because she was afraid or shocked or attracted to him, or all three things).

HE TOOK ME BY SURPRISE= He surprised me. If somebody or something takes you by surprise, you are surprised by them/it:
- Sorry I cried, but when you suddenly turned off the lights it took me by surprise.

A PICK UP TRUCK= A kind of car open at the back (see picture).

THE DEVIL’S EYES= The eyes of the Devil. The Devil is Satan, the prince of evil spirits and king of hell.

STARED= To stare is to look intensely and fixedly. Notice the preposition AT: to stare at somebody/something.


SAY= We often use this word in conversational English to call people's attention before speaking, so they're listening to you. So it means nothing.


MADISON= The Madison is a novelty dance that was popular in the late 1950s to mid 1960s.

Meaning

A time warp is when time changes in some way. In this song they are talking about a time warp, but we don't know what it is until the end. A woman is talking about what she felt the first time he saw this man. He looked at her with an evil look and she instantly fell in love with a very strong emotion. At that moment she fell into a time warp, time slowed down, changed, distorted, everything looked unreal (yea, the usual stuff with love at first sight).


She was so thrilled about it that she wants to have that sensation again, so she repeats again and again "let's do the time warp again". Sorry lady, that feeling only appears the first time.


Yea, she falls in love with an evil man, but to understand this you must know that this gothic musical is about horror. A couple trapped inside an old mansion in a terrorific night, with all sorts of strange things happening around them.