The upshot: Pink Floyd has sold more albums worldwide than the Beatles. You can read his 51 pages of Pink Floyd sales data here. He obsessively collects worldwide sales data.

Over the years, I’ve become extremely impressed with an amateur music-industry analyst who lives in France, Guillaume Vieira.

The members of the band - Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright - approached their work seriously and blew minds in the process.Īnd it’s possible this perennially popular band has had its popularity underestimated. Its mid-’70s sonic triumphs - including The Dark Side of the Moonand Wish You Were Here - are both aural delights and meaningful works of art whose message is conveyed through sound.

Let us pause and enjoy Pink Floyd’s “Time”.Pink Floyd may be the only rock band that can credibly be compared to both the Beatles and Spinal Tap. I’m getting ahead of myself here, though. In the natural sequence of events, then, “The Great Gig in the Sky” would represent the afterlife. The song then transitions beautifully into the exploratory “The Great Gig in the Sky”. The final minutes of “Time” can also be seen as a reprise of “Breathe (In The Air)” (also referred to as “Home Again”), which I would interpret as the actual moment that death happens. The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say Lyrics from “Time” by Pink Floyd Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines There is a solemn nostalgia that enters the mix, both lyrically and musically as we reach the end of “Time”:Įvery year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.”Īs the rest of the song progresses, the narrator grows older and older, and things slow down for them. Guitarist David Gilmour sings: “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.”Īlmost instantly, as in the very next line, things change: “And then one day you find ten years have got behind you / In the first verse, “Time” shows us where we all begin, as a kid and feeling like you have all the time in the world. There is always this feeling like you’re working toward some eventual goal that will plateau and you’ll finally be able to enjoy your life, but it is important, as Pink Floyd reminds us, to remember that we are actually living our lives in the moment. This concept of preparing for something that Waters refers to is something that many people can relate with, myself included. I’ve been told that I was preparing for something.’ Roger Waters on “Time” The bits in the song where it goes, ‘No one told you when to run/You missed the starting gun,’ it’s about my experience of being 29 years old and certainly going, ‘Fuck me. Roger Waters discussed the meaning of “Time” with Rolling Stone in 2019, many years after the song’s release:

This is part of an extended introduction lasting nearly two minutes, a meta-commentary of sorts that serves to remind you of the precious time you’ll waste listening to Pink Floyd sing about wasting time. “Time” opens ringing clocks that will certainly grab your attention, or wake you up, depending on how you look at things. This meaning is spelled out in the 7 minute epic, packed with lyrical images about lost opportunities and a dreadful outlook on life. With lyrics penned by Roger Waters, the song is a lamentation on wasting valuable time that you will someday wish you had back. Pink Floyd’s “Time” is a wonderful study in existentialism coming from the 1973 psychedelic classic, Dark Side of the Moon.

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