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The Only Time

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Album:Pretty Hate Machine
Length:4:47
Tempo:94 BPM
Versions:The Only Time
The Only Time (Purest Feeling)
The Only Time (Closure)
Live:VIVIsectVI Tour through Further Down The Spiral Tour

"The Only Time" is the ninth track on the 1989 release Pretty Hate Machine.

The song references "Down In It" in its use of the same recognizable melodic synth voice.

Contents

  • 1 Song Credits
  • 2 Appearances
    • 2.1 Halos
    • 2.2 Video Games
    • 2.3 Other
  • 3 Versions
    • 3.1 The Only Time
    • 3.2 The Only Time (Demo)
    • 3.3 The Only Time (Closure)
  • 4 Live
  • 5 Lyrics

Song Credits

  • Production: Trent Reznor, Keith LeBlanc, John Fryer
  • Engineering: John Fryer, Keith LeBlanc, Kennan Keating, Ken Quartarone
  • Mix: Keith LeBlanc

Appearances

Halos

  • Pretty Hate Machine
  • Closure

Video Games

  • Rock Band 3 (available for download)

Other

  • Purest Feeling

Versions

The Only Time

This is the final album version. A distorted guitar overdub in the instrumental end of the song segues directly into "Ringfinger."

The Only Time (Demo)

An early version of the song found on Purest Feeling.

The Only Time (Closure)

This live version begins with Reznor explaining that "this is a song about fucking."

Live

Last performed during the Self-Destruct Tour with new guitar riffs, the song has pushed its way back to the surface in brief, its melody being used for an interpolation/breakdown during the final verse of "Closer" on the Live: With Teeth tour and continuing to this day.

Lyrics

    I'm drunk
    And right now I'm so in love with you
    And I don't want to think too much about what we should or shouldn't do
    Lay my hands on Heaven and the sun and the moon and the stars
    While the Devil wants to fuck me in the back of his car
    Nothing quite like the feel of something new
    
    Maybe I'm all messed up
    Maybe I'm all messed up in you
    
    But this is the only time I really feel alive
    This is the only time I really feel alive
    
    I swear
    I just found everything I need
    The sweat in your eyes the blood in your veins are listening to me
    Well I want to drink it up and swim in it until I drown
    My moral standing is lying down
    Nothing quite like the feel of something new
    
    Maybe I'm all messed up
    Maybe I'm all messed up in you
    
    But this is the only time I really feel alive
    This is the only time I really feel alive
    
    I can't help thinking Christ never had it like this

The final line appears only in the liner notes.

In the final album cut, the line

    Well I want to drink it up and swim in it until I drown

is changed to

    Well I want to rip it up and swim in it until I drown


Previous track - "That's What I Get" Track 9 from Pretty Hate Machine Next track - "Ringfinger"
Retrieved from "https://www.nin.wiki/index.php?title=The_Only_Time&oldid=32615"
Last edited on 18 March 2011, at 23:46
  • This page was last edited on 18 March 2011, at 23:46.
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