The Only Time
The Only Time (Purest Feeling)
The Only Time (Closure)
"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
Song Credits
- Production: Trent Reznor, Keith LeBlanc, John Fryer
- Engineering: John Fryer, Keith LeBlanc, Kennan Keating, Ken Quartarone
- Mix: Keith LeBlanc
Appearances
Halos
Video Games
- Rock Band 3 (available for download)
Other
Versions
The Only Time
This is the final album version. The track begins with Reznor's vocal and a bass line that sounds like a keyboard slap bass preset. As the verse moves along, a minimal and sleek-sounding drum track gradually comes in. Near the end of the first verse, there is a very brief appearance of sampled background vocals recorded for "So Alive" by Love And Rockets (a track also produced by John Fryer.) As the chorus kicks in, the bass switches to a more picked bass guitar sound, the drum track becomes much louder and more aggressive and the low-pitched "Down In It" synth voice comes in, playing an ascending melody. During the second half of the chorus, the instrumentation of the verse returns, and the high-pitched "Down In It" synth voice comes in. The song continues on in much the same pattern, with minor variances. A distorted guitar overdub in the instrumental end of the song segues directly into "Ringfinger."
The Only Time (Purest Feeling)
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." This version features a heavy guitar riff added during the second verse, as well as an aggressive bridge section with more heavy guitar and a descending synth melody.
Live
The song was performed faithfully to the album version during most of the Pretty Hate Machine Tour. Starting with the Lollapalooza Tour, new guitar and synth riffs were added to the song's final section. Last performed during the Further Down The Spiral Tour, 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
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