Time (Pink Floyd song)
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| The Dark Side of the Moon | ||
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| Album by Pink Floyd | ||
| Released | March 2, 1973 | |
| Recorded | Abbey Road June 1972-January 1973 |
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| Genre | Progressive rock Electronic music Musique concrète Song cycle |
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| Length | 43:00 | |
| Label | Harvest (UK) Capitol (US) |
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| Producer(s) | Pink Floyd | |
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"Time" is the fourth track[1] from British progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon, and the only song on the album credited to all four members of the band. It is noted for its long introductory passage of clocks chiming and alarms ringing, recorded as a stereo test by Alan Parsons, not specifically for the album.
The song is a memento mori describing the phenomenon in which time seems to pass more quickly as one ages, often leading to despair in old age over missed opportunities of the past.
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[edit] Composition
Each clock was recorded separately in an antiques store. This is followed by an eerie two-minute passage dominated by Nick Mason's rototoms. With David Gilmour singing lead on the verses and with Richard Wright singing lead on the bridges and with various female singers providing backup vocals, the lyrics of the song deal with Roger Waters's realization that life was not about preparing yourself for what happens next, but about grabbing control of your own destiny (he attributes his earlier ignorance of this to his mother's obsession with education). A guitar solo from Gilmour provides the refrain over the same chord progressions as the verse and chorus. A reprise of the album's opener "Breathe" brings the song to a close, before it segues into "The Great Gig in the Sky".
The song is the second longest on the album[2], after "Us and Them", and is renowned for Gilmour's guitar solo after the first verse, which is often considered to be one of his best and among the best ever.
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[edit] Trivia
- The song's opening is used at the end of the trailers for the second series of Life on Mars (TV Series)
- The song's opening was used as the main menu music for the PC version of Destruction Derby 2.
- This song was another successful single on the album, reaching #101 on the Billboard charts.
- The Beastie Boys sampled "Time" for their song "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun", which appeared on their album Paul's Boutique.
- The Killers covered this song multiple times during their Hot Fuss tour after having their song On Top segue into it.
- The Prodigy sampled the alarm bell for their tracks "Claustrophobic Sting" and "Wake Up Call"
- After the clocks finish ringing, this song's tempo is exactly 120 beats per minute, meaning each beat is one half-second of real time.
[edit] Alternative and Live versions
- A live version of the song can be heard on the P*U*L*S*E concert DVD and CD.
- Another live version was played on the Delicate Sound of Thunder CD and concert video. It does not include the "Breathe (Reprise)" section at the end.
- On the Roger Waters solo In the Flesh: Live tour DVD and CD, a version sung by him is played.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The track number depends upon the edition of the album; some releases merge the two tracks "Speak to Me" and "Breathe," for instance.
- ^ This includes the reprise of Breathe. When subtracting that song, it reduces the running of Time down to 5:56, thus making it the third-longest song on the album (right behind Money).
