Pink Floyd’s ‘Time’: A Meditation on the Passage of Time and Mortality
My tryst with Pink Floyd started with The Wall. For years I had not given The Dark Side of the Moon a chance. But at some point of time, I gave it a shot and I remember playing it back again as soon as it was over.
Time is one of my favourite tracks on the album. The song is a meditation on the passage of time, and explores themes of aging, mortality, and the fleeting nature of life.
The opening drum section by Nick Mason, seems like an anticipation towards something and there are times during the section when you think the beat would drop and the song would start, but they extend it creating tension in your mind with anticipation.
The lyrics of Time were written by Roger Waters, the band’s bassist and primary lyricist. The song begins with the lines “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day / You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way”, which establish the theme of the passage of time and the way in which younger people often squander their time on meaningless activities.
These verses remind me of my college days, especially my musical inclination with few of my friends. We hardly had any skill, but worked hard to play cover songs. At one point, I thought music is my future, but just wasted away time without giving it all to really learning music. Although life’s been great, I always think of an alternate reality where we were all musicians.
The lyrics then go on to describe how time can seem to drag on interminably in moments of boredom or despair, while as you get older, it seems to pass by in an instant. This is something that made me think, think deep about my past.
Rick Wright’s lines “And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun” is a very direct tease to the time wasted in chasing mundane and useless things which could’ve been better invested.
Second section of the song moves on to the lyrics -
“And 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”
This is one of the most hard hitting portion of the lyrics for me personally where I dread the phase in life I am racing against my limited time with many things left to do. In a way, this is the part of the song that made me rethink my life and make some positive changes that in a long run should take me on a drastically different path than where I should’ve headed otherwise.
Musically, Time is a complex and multi-layered composition that employs a range of musical techniques to create a sense of movement and progression. The song is built around a repeating piano figure that serves as a driving force, while the guitar and bass play countermelodies that add depth and texture. The song also features a clock-like ticking sound in the beginning by Waters on muted bass strings setting a rhythmic element, further reinforcing the theme of time.
The circumstances surrounding the release of The Dark Side of the Moon were marked by a high level of tension within the band. Pink Floyd had been struggling to maintain their creative and commercial momentum following the release of their previous album, Meddle, and were under pressure to deliver a hit record. The recording process was reportedly fraught with conflict, as the band members struggled to come to creative agreement on the direction of the album.
The album was played in its entirity multiple times before it was recoreded and released like the live at Rainbow theatre in ‘72, so some portion of the listeners were already aware of the songs. These compilations are available on some streaming services like Apple Music. Few songs sound different on these live shows and Time itself isn’t the same as that on the record.
Despite the challenges faced by the band during the making of The Dark Side of the Moon, the album proved to be a critical and commercial success, eventually becoming one of the best-selling records of all time. “Time” was one of the standout tracks on the album, and has since become one of Pink Floyd’s most beloved and enduring songs.
Time is a powerful and thought-provoking song that explores the universal theme of the passage of time. Through its complex and evocative lyrics and its innovative and ambitious musical arrangements, the song manages to capture the complexities and contradictions of the human experience of time. Despite the difficulties faced by the band during the recording process, Time stands as a testament to Pink Floyd’s creativity and enduring artistic vision.
