Time
by Pink Floyd
- 122
- BPM
- F# minor
- Key
- 11A
- Camelot
- 36
- Danceability
- 52
- Acousticness
Pink Floyd's "Time" became the fourth track on The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, and in the United States it was also issued as a single. Roger Waters wrote the lyrics, the band composed the music together, and David Gilmour and Richard Wright shared the lead vocals. It was the only song on the album to credit all four members for writing, and the last in the band's catalog to do so.
The opening chorus of clocks and alarms started as something else. Alan Parsons had recorded them in an antique store as a quadrophonic test, and when the band was working on the song he mentioned the tape. They wheeled it out, listened and said to stick it on. A two-minute passage followed, led by Nick Mason on rototoms, with Waters picking muted strings on his bass to make the tick-tock.
Waters got the lyrical idea when he realized he was no longer preparing for anything but was in the middle of life, something he placed at ages 28 and 29. The band played it live from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1987 to 1994. Gilmour has played it on every solo tour since the Division Bell Tour.
Time runs at 122 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.97 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 492 ms. It is in F# minor, Camelot 11A, which shares its notes with A major and mixes cleanly with B minor and C# minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.