Nick Mason’s first click track and the antique clocks that open ‘Time’

For the intro to “Time,” the band didn’t just sample a stock alarm — they went to a local antique clock shop and bought armfuls of old clocks and alarm bells. They recorded each one individually, then layered them in the studio to create that chaotic, overlapping wall of ticks and rings. The result sounds like a room full of timepieces all going off at once, which was exactly the point.

Nick Mason had never used a click track before Dark Side. For “Time,” engineer Alan Parsons set up a device that beeped a pulse into Mason’s headphones so he could lock into a steady tempo beneath all that loose, organic clock noise. Mason later said it felt unnatural at first, but it gave the track a precision that the disorienting intro needed to snap into a tight groove. The combination of hand-played alarms and machine-guided drums makes the song feel both human and mechanical.