Changes

| album =''[[Pretty Hate Machine]]''
| length =4:47
| BPM = 94
| versions =The Only Time<br>The Only Time (''[[Purest Feeling (halo)|Purest Feeling]]'')<br>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's a rather dancable track about new experiences and indulging (song)|Down In It]]" in its use of the dirty side of lifesame recognizable melodic synth voice.
===Song Credits===
*Production: [[Trent Reznor]], [[Keith LeBlanc]], [[John Fryer]]
*Engineering: John Fryer, Keith LeBlanc, [[Kennan Keating]], [[Ken Quartarone]]
*Mix: Keith LeBlanc
*''[[Pretty Hate Machine]]''
*''[[Closure]]''
 
===Video Games===
*''[[Rock Band|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 [[samples|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 (Demo)===
An early version of the song found on [[''Purest Feeling (halo)|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==
Last performed during the [[Self-Destruct Tour]]with new guitar riffs, the song has pushed its way back to the surfacein brief, the its melody being used for an interpolation/breakdown during the final verse of "[[Closer]]" on the [[Live: With Teeth]] tour. It is unclear if it will be played live again, thoughand continuing to this day.
==Lyrics==
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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