The Cash Register Tape Loops and 7/4 Groove of 'Money'

The clinking coins and ripping cash register on “Money” aren’t sampled — they’re a homemade tape loop. Roger Waters recorded the sounds by dropping coins into a metal bowl, then cutting and splicing the tape into a repeating 7/4 pattern that cycled every seven beats. The band looped that onto a multitrack machine, letting it run continuously through the entire song as a rhythmic foundation.

That 7/4 groove didn’t come naturally. The band had to count along to the loop while playing, which Gilmour later described as a headache. David Gilmour’s bass line and Nick Mason’s drum part lock into that odd meter by treating the 4/4 feel of the cash register clicks as a guide — the loop’s accents fall on the strong beats of 7, but the band subtly pushes against them, giving the track that lurching, off-kilter swing. They never punched in a click track; the tape loop was the click.