You're lucky you heard "Time" as an adolescent.
I heard it as a young man. It was devastating.
That idea that you'd missed the boat, didn't 'hear the starting gun', that you'd spend the rest of your life in a cul-de-sac, trying to claw your way out; it can be horrible to find yourself in that condition, whether caused by your own bad luck, or stuck in hopeless circumstances.
It must be familiar to underclass, unemployed youth in a caste-ridden society, like Britain. Maybe that's why the blues caught on in the UK, why they resonated with it. The music of the American Negro, adopted by the British proletariat. Can you dig it?
"Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death." Wow.