One listen.

A while ago I listened to the album this song is from and I didn’t find myself getting into it. However, I didn’t get rid of it and instead put it to the side.

I heard a bit of “A Piece of Time” for the first time in a while a few days ago and decided to write about it, hammered it out yesterday, and below is the result. I’m surprised I wrote as much as I did, and I’m glad I did, too.

Whilst I wrote I found themes of memory and loss coming to me. There also was the passage of time and ow things change whether we want them to or not. These are probably obvious, but I felt it worth mentioning.

Andy Summers’ “A Piece of time” is from The Golden Wire.

I hope you enjoy.

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A gentle beat kicks in. It has a pulse and it flows, and soon guitar rises up in brief bits. Synth seems to draw long and emotive, and builds an atmosphere. Indeed, this is all a build. It’s building to something, and more percussion here and there, but it remains gentle. Almost like controlled, paced breathing.

The space grows richer in sound. It expands. It widens and deepens, and there could be reflection in this. Something introspective. Thinking of moments as more guitar comes in and rings out also though ripples, as though rain increasing in its thickness, and it disappears. Or doesn’t.

A new sound appears, sort of busy, sort of not, and the percussion increases. It strikes out and strikes loudly, its shape changing. Other sound wafts around and fills out, and some guitar flickers and rises up. And down. It is disconnected and comes in parts, and the sounds grow heavier as the guitar continues its rises and falls. It continues to race, flashing on by.

A return to the main melody and the beat is different once more. That reflection and introspection grows deeper, and there could be something mournful in this. There could be something happy, though coloured by a heaviness.

That guitar that rung out and rippled returns, and it carries something more overtly joyous in it whilst it lasts.

Soon back to the weight, back to the inevitability of time, and how it leaves memories of full experiences to flash on by in an instant. What changes over time, what is left behind. What is gained, and how things change. A dire moment may be just a moment, and may not carry much of anything beyond that initial feeling.

Guitar plays out, plays rapidly. It plays fast and seems to wail. It seems to be searching and looking, and maybe it finds a connection or thread that it feels the need to chase after. In all this emotion, it finds what it seeks, and it goes after it the best it can, and it continues as everything fades away and the song ends.