Time by Pink Floyd This is about how time can slip by, but many people do not realize it until it is too late. Roger Waters got the idea when he realized he was no longer preparing for anything in life, but was right in the middle of it. He had just turned 28. The song starts with layers of clock noises that were put together by their engineer, Alan Parsons. Each clock was recorded separately at an antiques store, and the band blended them together. Parsons wanted to use the clocks to demonstrate a new quadraphonic sound system, but they ended up using it to open the song instead. This was the only song on Dark Side Of The Moon that all 4 members received a writing credit for. The album has sold over 34 million copies and was on the US charts for 762 consecutive weeks (14 years). It still sells around 8,000 copies a week in the US. On their 1973 tour, they played this just after a 4-foot model plane was released from the back of the venue, crashing into the stage and exploding. Floyd always used lots of visual effects at their shows, and had the money to make them very elaborate on this tour. The band played this live long before it was released. They played the whole album in February, 1972 at the Rainbow Theater in London, over a year before it came out. This contains a reprise back to the rhythm of "Breathe," which appears two songs earlier on Dark Side of the Moon. "On The Run", an instrumental, is in between. At the time of recording only a few tom-tom drums were available for the intro. To get the right mix and sound, the band had to tune each drum after hitting it, record it, and then blend and mix into a finalized percussion track. This was a time intensive process. The sound at the begining of the song is made by Waters' bass.



Lyrics for: Time

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day.
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town,
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking.
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines.
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.

Home, home again.
I like to be here when I can.
And when I come home cold and tired,
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire.

Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.