When your 40 and you look back at your life and see what you could have been, you get a song like TIME. The first portion of the song (the first 9 lines) are about how he, or us, or whomever the song is about wasted childhood away, didnt take initiative to follow ones dreams and failed to make something of ones self until "ten years had got behind you". The lines " no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun" perfectly describe the feeling of a failed opportunity at life.
"And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun,but its sinking" The midlife crisis hits. Upon the realization that you've wasted your entire life you try to make up, to "catch up with the sun" and force a respectable existence out of the relatively short amount of years you have left.
"Plans that either come to nought, or half a page of scribbled lines" The short burst of energy that is the midlife crisis has failed to procure any meaningful gains in ones life and you return to the normalcy of "hanging on in quite desperation". At this age "the time is gone, the song is over", you had your chance and you failed. There is nothing left to do but wallow in your depression and waste what time you have left at home, "warming my bones beside the fire"
Time has slipped away from your control and now controls you. You wait for death while
"Far away across the field The tolling of the iron bell Calls the faithful to their knees To hear the softly spoken magic spells " The faithful are all the other people who let themselves be controlled by time, and they are in their graves (i.e. across the field, in the cemetery by the church)
This song is about the midlife crisis that many of us will go through when we hit old age, and how futile it is to attempt to reverse time. If any form of advice could be etched from this song it would be to make something of yourself while you still can, while your young.
Pretty good description! Exactly how i feel/hear/understand this great song.
Since I discovered it, it became -with It's raining again by Supertramp- my daily songs, just to remind me...
Pretty good description! Exactly how i feel/hear/understand this great song.
Since I discovered it, it became -with It's raining again by Supertramp- my daily songs, just to remind me...
Anyhow, I'm going to steal your comment to put in the book 'of goodies' to leave behind, just for my kiddies, in case I don't live long enough to explain them!
Anyhow, I'm going to steal your comment to put in the book 'of goodies' to leave behind, just for my kiddies, in case I don't live long enough to explain them!
Thanks for putting this interpretation so clearly!
Sorry that I stole. But I'll quote you.
;-)
Thanks for putting this interpretation so clearly!
Sorry that I stole. But I'll quote you.
;-)
Great interpretation, but I disagree with the church part. When it's said the faithful kneel, no graves are implied. This might be instead the solution to the problem of lost time exposed by the rest of song: while one wastes it besides the fire, the religious devote their lives to something bigger.
Great interpretation, but I disagree with the church part. When it's said the faithful kneel, no graves are implied. This might be instead the solution to the problem of lost time exposed by the rest of song: while one wastes it besides the fire, the religious devote their lives to something bigger.
Of course, Pink Floyd never meant to say the answer is to become a catholic monk, but maybe to have faith in your dreams.
Of course, Pink Floyd never meant to say the answer is to become a catholic monk, but maybe to have faith in your dreams.
When your 40 and you look back at your life and see what you could have been, you get a song like TIME. The first portion of the song (the first 9 lines) are about how he, or us, or whomever the song is about wasted childhood away, didnt take initiative to follow ones dreams and failed to make something of ones self until "ten years had got behind you". The lines " no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun" perfectly describe the feeling of a failed opportunity at life.
"And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun,but its sinking" The midlife crisis hits. Upon the realization that you've wasted your entire life you try to make up, to "catch up with the sun" and force a respectable existence out of the relatively short amount of years you have left.
"Plans that either come to nought, or half a page of scribbled lines" The short burst of energy that is the midlife crisis has failed to procure any meaningful gains in ones life and you return to the normalcy of "hanging on in quite desperation". At this age "the time is gone, the song is over", you had your chance and you failed. There is nothing left to do but wallow in your depression and waste what time you have left at home, "warming my bones beside the fire"
Time has slipped away from your control and now controls you. You wait for death while "Far away across the field The tolling of the iron bell Calls the faithful to their knees To hear the softly spoken magic spells " The faithful are all the other people who let themselves be controlled by time, and they are in their graves (i.e. across the field, in the cemetery by the church)
This song is about the midlife crisis that many of us will go through when we hit old age, and how futile it is to attempt to reverse time. If any form of advice could be etched from this song it would be to make something of yourself while you still can, while your young.
Pretty good description! Exactly how i feel/hear/understand this great song. Since I discovered it, it became -with It's raining again by Supertramp- my daily songs, just to remind me...
Pretty good description! Exactly how i feel/hear/understand this great song. Since I discovered it, it became -with It's raining again by Supertramp- my daily songs, just to remind me...
Anyhow, I'm going to steal your comment to put in the book 'of goodies' to leave behind, just for my kiddies, in case I don't live long enough to explain them!
Anyhow, I'm going to steal your comment to put in the book 'of goodies' to leave behind, just for my kiddies, in case I don't live long enough to explain them!
Thanks for putting this interpretation so clearly! Sorry that I stole. But I'll quote you. ;-)
Thanks for putting this interpretation so clearly! Sorry that I stole. But I'll quote you. ;-)
Great interpretation, but I disagree with the church part. When it's said the faithful kneel, no graves are implied. This might be instead the solution to the problem of lost time exposed by the rest of song: while one wastes it besides the fire, the religious devote their lives to something bigger.
Great interpretation, but I disagree with the church part. When it's said the faithful kneel, no graves are implied. This might be instead the solution to the problem of lost time exposed by the rest of song: while one wastes it besides the fire, the religious devote their lives to something bigger.
Of course, Pink Floyd never meant to say the answer is to become a catholic monk, but maybe to have faith in your dreams.
Of course, Pink Floyd never meant to say the answer is to become a catholic monk, but maybe to have faith in your dreams.