It's Five O'Clock is the title track on a 1969 album by the Greek band Aphrodite's Child that was also issued as a single. It subsequently appeared on a 1987 album by the lead singer Demis Roussos and in German and French by an Italian singer Milva in 1981. Vangelis wrote the music and Richard Harvey the lyrics. The striking thing about the song for me is that it is able to conjure up exactly what it claims to - "It's five o'clock And I walk through the empty streets Thoughts fill my head ... It's five o'clock And I walk through the empty streets The night is my friend." This is a quality it shares with Good morning, Good morning by the Beatles - "Heading for home you start to roam then you're in town Everybody knows there's nothing doing Everything is closed it's like a ruin ... And you're on your own you're in the street ... Then you decide to take a walk by the old school." It's Five O'Clock is a simple presentation of the pessimistic and nostalgic feeling that comes over all of us from time to time and that unchecked can lead to emptiness and suicidal thoughts. Thankfully, if treacherously, this song ends positively with the words - "The night is my friend And in him I find sympathy He gives me day, gives me hope and a little dream too." The Hammond organ is both evocative and very much of its time. Three and a half minutes of genius.
