‘Time To Hide’ is the eighth song on Wings’ fifth studio album Wings At The Speed Of Sound.
It was the first Wings song written solely by Denny Laine. ‘Time To Hide’ originally had the working title ‘If I Have To Run’.
It was my song. And the fact that Paul wanted to record it was a compliment. His contribution was helping with the arrangement, mine was more the arrangement of verses, choruses. Then we’d go to the half-tempo thing in the middle, and that was to show off the harmonies. Wings was a great harmony band.
Wings At The Speed Of Sound deluxe edition liner notes
‘Time To Hide’ was recorded at Abbey Road. The basic track was laid down on 5 January 1976, and it was completed with further overdubs on 19 February.
Paul McCartney played an electric guitar using a Gizmotron – a device invented by 10cc’s Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, which attached to a guitar and bowed the strings to simulate the sound of orchestral string instruments. He had previously used it on ‘Spirits Of Ancient Egypt’.
Half of the thing was harmonica – it was a little chance because I used to play a lot of harmonica with The Moody Blues – and the other half was Paul playing guitar with Gizmo, which gave it a really different sound.
Wings At The Speed Of Sound deluxe edition liner notes
Live performances
Wings performed ‘Time To Hide’ during their Wings Over The World Tour in 1976.
A recording from New York’s Madison Square Garden on 25 May 1976 appears on the live album Wings Over America.
