"Time Will Crawl" is a song recorded by English singer David Bowie, serving as the second single for his seventeenth album, Never Let Me Down (1987). It was written by Bowie and produced by him and David Richards. Released in 1987 by EMI, the recording addresses the destruction of the planet by pollution and industry; the Chernobyl disaster was a direct influence on the lyrics. The accompanying video served as a teaser to Bowie's Glass Spider Tour (1987). Music critics were positive toward "Time Will Crawl", commending its lyrics and production, and describing it one of Bowie's best efforts of the mid– to late–1980s. Additionally, Bowie later called the song one of his favorites from his entire career. Commercially, the single peaked at number 33 on the UK Singles Chart and at number seven on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

"Time Will Crawl" was written and recorded by Bowie in mid– to late–1986 at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. He produced the recording alongside David Richards. Lyrically, the song addresses the pollution and destruction of the planet by industry. Bowie has cited hearing of the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986 as the genesis of the lyrics, and was in Switzerland at the time of the accident. He said, "I was taking a break from recording [...] it was a beautiful day and we were outside on a small piece of lawn facing the Alps and the lake. Our engineer, who had been listening to the radio, shot out of the studio and shouted: 'There's a whole lot of shit going down in Russia.' The Swiss news had picked up a Norwegian radio station that was screaming – to anyone who would listen - that huge billowing clouds were moving over from the Motherland and they weren't rain clouds." In a contemporary interview, Bowie confessed that the song "deals with the idea that someone in one's own community could be the one responsible for blowing up the world." At the time, he also stated that it was his favorite song from the album.

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