Songfacts®:

• "Playing For Time" is an introspective song that examines the art of crafting memories, and questions whether time holds us captive or has the power to liberate us.
  
  Gabriel was influenced in part by Danny Hillis's invention The 10,000 Year Clock, which is an idea designed to encourage us to think long term. He also took influence from the nonprofit organization Long Now Foundation.
  
  "I'm sure that if we have a chance of surviving the existential problems that we now face we have to start thinking much bigger and longer to make some real headway," said Gabriel. "So, I think what they do is enormously valuable and there are some amazing talks on their website, so for those that want a deep dive into the role of time and long-term thinking, the Long Now Foundation is a wonderful place to start."
• Gabriel spent over a decade working on "Playing For Time." He originally performed it with only piano and bass instrumentation as the opening song on his Back to Front Tour from 2012 to 2014, using it to open almost all shows. It was originally titled "O But" (later "Daddy Long Legs").
• This is the third version of "Playing For Time." Gabriel tried one with the band and another that was more acoustic, before coming up with this piano version, which he felt was most true to the song. "It's quite a backwards looking song, in a way, with the chromatic elements and some of the movements and arrangements," he commented to Uncut magazine.
  
  "When I was performing it before, on tour, I tried some different lyrics and a couple of different subjects for the song," Gabriel continued. "But the sense of time and memory, dreams, reflections emerged later on, I think, the third time round."
  
  "The end bit, which is new and I didn't play live, felt like an important conclusion to the song," Gabriel added. "I guess it still asks some more questions than it answers, but it feels to me a more complete journey."
• Gabriel recorded "Playing For Time" at Real World Studios in Bath and The Beehive in London with Tom Cawley on piano.
  
  Freelance jazz pianist Tom Cawley regularly leads the house band at Ronnie Scott's club and is also a professor of jazz piano at the Royal Academy of Music.
• The orchestral arrangement, by Ed Shearmur, was recorded at British Grove Studios in London. Many of the players previously featured in the New Blood Orchestra.
  
  "Ed Shearmur did an amazing job on the arrangements," said Gabriel. "I was quite moved the first time I heard that end string section. There's one line that really gets me going. So, I think now it is a better journey than when I was doing it first."
• Gabriel recorded "Playing for Time" for his 10th studio album I/O. Two versions of the song were released as singles: the "Bright Side Mix" (mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent) and the "Dark Side Mix" (mixed by Tchad Blake).