Canned Heat - Future Blues - 04 - My Time Ain't Long

Future Blues was the fifth album by Canned Heat, released in 1970; an album containing five original compositions and three covers. It was the last to feature the band's classic lineup, as Larry Taylor and Harvey Mandel departed soon after its release and songwriter Alan Wilson died later that year. It was also the only classic-era Canned Heat studio album to feature Mandel, as Henry Vestine had been the lead guitarist on the previous albums.

Some controversy was sparked by the moon landing/Iwo Jima album cover and the upside down American flag. The upside-down flag was Wilson's idea and was a response to his love of nature, growing environmentalism and concern that humankind would soon be polluting the moon as well as the Earth (as reflected in his song "Poor Moon").

Controversially, the album cover depicted five astronauts on the moon, in the famous Iwo Jima pose, planting an upside-down American flag to signal distress as the earth was plainly immersed in pollution in the background. Some segments of the public viewed the upside-down flag as a serious affront, causing major retailers K-Mart, Sears and Woolworth’s to refuse to stock the album. The row over the cover art (ironically, not the cover’s socio-ecological message) threatened to overshadow the music, which was hailed by the New York Times as being “as magnificent a blues-rock album as has ever been made!”

My time ain't long lyrics (Alan Wilson)
Don't the moon look pretty
Shining down through the trees?
Don't the moon look pretty
Shining down through the, shining down through the trees?

I can hear the waves
Lapping up on the shore
I can hear the waves
Lapping up on the, lapping up on the shore

Well I know
Know my time ain't long

If a girl deserts me
I wonder what will I do?
If a girl deserts me
Wonder what will I, wonder what will I do?

Well I'll like to stay here
For a great long time
Well I'll like to stay here
For a great long, for a great long time

Well I know
Know my time ain't long