America: What Time Is Love? is a beefed-up, guitar-heavy remix of The KLF’s 1990 Live A Trancentral version in celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of the discovery of America by The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu in 992 (or so they claimed). While the single’s slightly updated verses were once again performed by Azat Bello, AWTIL also features the vocal talent of Glenn Hughes (of Deep Purple fame) during refrains.
Despite being listed as a 1992 single, US releases of America: What Time Is Love? were published on Arista four months ahead of the UK release on KLF Communications.
Promotion & Advertising
The UK release of America: What Time Is Love? was first announced through an 1/4 page advert in the NME on 22 February 1992, including a quote from the lyrics sung by Azat Bello.
One week later a full page advert appeared in the NME on 29 February 1992. The ad features an image of The KLF’s T Speaker wrapped in a US flag with small pyramid blaster logos replacing the stars, as well as a transcription of the single’s intro as narrated by Scott Piering.
Just when all seemed lost, they discovered… America!KLF Advert
Reviews
Tracks & Formats
KLF USA 4
| 7″ Single / 24 Feb 1992 | ||
| A | America: What Time Is Love? (Radio) | 3:30 |
| B | America No More | 6:03 |
KLF USA 4
| 7″ Multicolored Single / 1992 | ||
| A | America: What Time Is Love? (Edit) | _:__ |
Limited gift edition of 50 copies for friends and relatives.
KLF USA 4C
| Cassette Single / 24 Feb 1992 | ||
| A1 | America: What Time Is Love? (Radio) | 3:30 |
| A2 | America No More | 6:03 |
KLF USA 4T
| 12″ Single / 24 Feb 1992 | ||
| A | America: What Time Is Love? (Uncensored Version) | 9:02 |
| B | America No More | 6:07 |
The 2-track 12″ single featuring the full 9 minute version of AWTIL is included in Lazlo’s original discography but not listed on Discogs. A quick survey revealed that nobody seems to own a copy of this particular release so chances are it might not exist at all…
KLF USA 4X
| 12″ Single / 1992 | ||
| A | America: What Time Is Love? | 7:34 |
| B | America No More | 5:56 |
KLF USA 4CD
| CD5 Single / 2 Mar 1992 | ||
| 1 | America: What Time Is Love? (Radio Edit) | 3:30 |
| 2 | America No More | 6:07 |
| 3 | America: What Time Is Love? (Uncensored Version) | 9:02 |
| 4 | America No More (Just The Pipe Band) | 3:18 |
KLF 92 PROMO 1
| 12″ Single / 1991 | ||
| A | America: What Time Is Love? (Promo Edit) | 5:28 |
| B | America No More | 6:07 |
KLF 92 PROMO 2
| 12″ Single / Dec 1991 | ||
| A | January: What Time Is Love? | 7:23 |
January: What Time Is Love? drops the lyrics during the refrains and the recital of city and state names during the second half of the track. It also replaces the spoken intro with a bagpipe performance of “Auld Lang Syne”.
KLF 92 PROMO 3
| 12″ Single / 1992 | ||
| A | What Time Is Love? (Acid Mix) | 5:49 |
Pressed in a limited run of 20 copies Bootlegs exists and are presumed to have been produced by Mike Dutton as the lettering in the runout grooves of this and the single-sided Madrugada Eterna bootleg share a lot of similarities.
KLF PUB 1
| 7″ Single / 1992 | ||
| A | America: What Time Is Love? | 3:30 |
| B | Justified And Ancient (Stand By The JAMS) | 3:37 |
Jukebox promo.
KLF USA 4T (the rumoured pressing with Uncensored) may be traced back to that French mail-order “European Exclusivity/Worldwide Exclusivity” picture disc which uses British runouts/matrixes, but the one for the A-side is KLF USA 004 X.
The origins of its early US release is debateful. The most likely is that it was put out on Arista’s request after they asked for new content to support the US re-release of WTIL (the result was later re-edited for UK release), hence why one image you posted said “What Time Is Love US Mix” on a DAT tape.
Another theory (from someone’s “KLF album-by-track-by-single”) project is that most radio stations rejected the Live At Trancentral mix, forcing Arista to tell the KLF to “Americanise” the LAT mix. Instead, they made an utter joke with everything that came to mind after they heard the word “America”, including the launch of The Voice Of Rock’s revived career. They somehow accepted it. This seems skeptal as he ignored the fact that the commercial 7″ had a slight edit of the LAT single mix (better than the US album mix).
That sounds plausible and like a very KLF-ish thing to do. “They want more America? We will give them more!”
Are you thinking of the first theory or the second theory?
Second. IIRC one of the later books (Turn Up The Strobe?) tells how Bill was at the phone talking to Jimmy, asking him to add even more bombast to what he played him over the phone. Sounds like they wanted to go all the way up to 11 with it.
All these years later, I will turn off NPR and blast this at full volume into the small hours of the night 2-3 times a year when the urge hits me… and I’m still haunted by not know who the stunner dancing topless with the sword behind the drummer was.
That’s Cressida Bowyer, Jimmy’s wife around the time. She also prominently features in the Stadium House trilogy videos, most notably in the final shot of “Last Train…” and the little red devil in “What Time Is Love?”.