Too Much Time on My Hands
by Styx
- 129
- BPM
- B minor
- Key
- 10A
- Camelot
- 80
- Danceability
- 11
- Acousticness
Tommy Shaw got the idea for the lyrics of "Too Much Time on My Hands" from experiences in a bar in Niles, Michigan. The words are about an unemployed man who has given up on afternoon soaps and a bottle of cold brew.
Shaw wrote the song and sings it, and he also plays the lead guitar solo during the break. Styx released it as the second single from Paradise Theatre, their tenth album. It was the only top 10 single Shaw had with the band as a writer and vocalist.
The band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1972. It blends melodic hard rock guitar with acoustic guitar, and synthesizers with acoustic piano. Styx started with a progressive rock sound in the 1970s, then added pop rock and soft rock elements in the 1980s, when this single came out.
Too Much Time on My Hands runs at 129 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.86 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 465 ms. It is in B minor, Camelot 10A, which shares its notes with D major and mixes cleanly with E minor and F# minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.