In 1973 Pink Floyd released their best-selling album “The Dark Side of the Moon”. The fourth track on the album is one of Pink Floyd’s most celebrated songs: “Time”. The song is arguably the most all-encompassing track in Pink Floyd’s rich repertoire, featuring songwriting contributions from all band members (a rarity for the band). In this article, I’m going over 6 reasons why Pink Floyd’s ‘Time” is such an amazing song.
1. Alan Parsons Unique Clock Intro
Pink Floyd’s “Time” starts in an unusual way: Ringing clocks! The sequence – recorded by engineer Alan Parsons – was initially a quadrophonic test, but elements of the test were eventually used on the song. Parsons introduced the idea to the band after hearing them work on the song.
David Gilmour reflected on it during an interview with The Source. “We were doing the song “Time,” and he [Parsons] said ‘Listen, I just did all these things, I did all these clocks,’ and so we wheeled out his tape and listened to it and said “Great! Stick it on!”
“That was my idea to bring in these recordings of antique clocks,” Parsons told Uncut Magazine. “All recorded one at a time, on a portable tape machine. Then we transferred them all onto a multi-track tape, and made them all tick and chime in sync. Pink Floyd liked that.”
2. Nick Mason’s Iconic Drum Solo
The ringing clocks are followed by a 2-minute-long drum solo by Nick Mason. The drum solo is backed by a tick-tocking sound created by Roger Waters by picking muted bass strings [fades into the song at 0:37]. Mason admitted “Time” is one of his favorite songs on Dark Side of the Moon, partially because of the iconic drum solo. In the song he uses rototoms (shell-less drums), which someone left behind in the studio.
“I’d never seen rototoms before,” Mason reflected. “And it was just one of those things where you go ‘Hey, these are good, let’s see what we can do with these.”
3. The Song’s Outstanding Lyrical Content
Part of the greatness of Dark Side of the Moon was the lyrical feat Roger Waters made from Pink Floyd’s previous work. Overall, the album lyrically addresses the pressures of life, including money and mortality.
“Time” specifically addresses the theme of mortality. “I was 29 years old before I suddenly realized that this was life and it was happening and it was not a preparation for something,” Roger Waters said about the song. “This was life happening now and one should grasp the nettle.”
The lyrics of the song rank among the greatest in Pink Floyd’s and Roger Waters’ repertoire, if not the very greatest.
4. Gilmour’s Iconic Guitar Solo
“Time” is known for featuring one of David Gilmour’s most iconic guitar solos. It appears unusually early for a guitar solo, after the first bridge. The solo is considered one of the greatest ever recorded, with Guitar World ranking it number 21 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos. The only Pink Floyd solo that ranked higher was – of course – “Comfortably Numb”.
Read more: The 10 Best Pink Floyd Songs of All Time
5. Great Shared Lead Vocals
David Gilmour and pianist Richard Wright share lead vocals on “Time”. Gilmour sings the verses and Wright sings the bridges. It was the last song Wright sang lead vocals on until 1994 (“Wearing the Inside Out”).
Gilmour’s striking voice in the verses is contrasted by Wright’s mellow voice in the bridges, aligning perfectly with the atmosphere of the song.
6. Time Features Another Pink Floyd Song
“Time” features 2 songs in 1. At the end of the song it blends into a reprise of “Breathe (In the Air)”, which is also a standalone track on The Dark Side of the Moon.
“The decision to place Breathe Reprise after Time arose during the process of working the piece up live before we started recording, referred to as ‘Home Again’ during the recordings,” Waters told MOJO in 1998. “It was simply the third verse of ‘Breathe’, detached for structural/emotional reasons.”
The reprise gives a grounded ending to the song, finishing the journey that is “Time”.
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Conclusion
Overall, “Time” by Pink Floyd is such a great song because of Alan Parsons’ unique intro, Nick Mason’s great drum solo, Roger Waters’ extraordinary lyrics that are delivered perfectly by David Gilmour and Richard Wright, and Gilmour’s iconic guitar solo. The fact that all band members were involved in the songwriting process of the song makes it one of the most all-encompassing Pink Floyd tracks ever.
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