The authorship and composition of this song is credited to David Gilmour and Richard Wright for the music and Roger Waters for the lyrics.[2]Dark Side, admitted the latter, "is a little adolescent and naïve in its preoccupations, but I'm not belittling it. It's like a rather wonderful, naïve painting. 'Breathe in the air / Don't be afraid to care' – that's the opening couplet. Well, yeah, I can cop that, but it's kind of simplistic stuff."[3]
The song is slow-paced and rich in texture, and features Gilmour playing the electric guitar with a Uni-Vibe and lap steel guitar with a volume pedal and several overdubs.[4] On the original album, it is a separate track from "Speak to Me", the sound collage that opens the first side.[2] Since this track segues into "Breathe" via a sustained backwards piano chord, the two are conjoined on most CD versions of the album.[5] A one-minute reprise features at the end of the song "Time",[2] without the slide guitar and using Farfisa organ and Wurlitzer electronic piano in place of Hammond organ and Rhodes piano.
The chords for much of the song alternate between E minor(add9) and A major, with a turnaround appearing before the verses and then functioning as a chorus, consisting of C major seventh, B minor seventh, F major seventh, G major, D7(♯9) and D7(♭9).[6] Wright admitted to having lifted the D7(#9) in the progression from Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. It is an exact quote from bar 9 of "All Blues" even though the 2 songs are in different keys.[7]
Along with the other Pink Floyd tracks "Time" and "The Great Gig in the Sky", "Breathe" is seen as Gilmour "carving out a more distinctive style" with the introduction of blues-based chords and solos.[8] "Breathe" has also been seen to "embrace ecology".[9]
The Pulse CD and DVD features a live version of the song[2] with a run time of 2:33.
The song was played at the Live 8 concert and features on the DVD. For that performance, "Breathe" and "Breathe (Reprise)" were combined to form one song. Although Pink Floyd themselves had never done this before, the London Philharmonic Orchestra had previously covered the song in this manner on their 1995 album Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd.
Live versions with Richard Wright appear on the Gilmour solo Remember That Night DVD and Live in Gdańsk CD. The Live in Gdańsk version is titled "Breathe (In the Air)" rather than just "Breathe".
"Breathe (Reprise)" appears (along with "Time") on Gilmour's 2017 live video and album Live at Pompeii.
Fender 'Duo 1000' double-neck steel guitar (1962), purchased in Seattle in October 1970 by Gilmour, and used on "Breathe"; displayed at the Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains exhibition
Brit Floyd plays Breathe (Reprise) as a staple, directly following Time. It can be found on all CDs and DVDs. Space and Time Live in Amsterdam also contains Breathe.
Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters released "Breathe" alongside "Speak to Me" on 21 September 2023 as the third single in promotion of his seventh studio album, The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, a complete recreation of the original album The Dark Side of the Moon. The two tracks came with a lyric video.[19]
Around early 2023, Waters announced that in celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, he would be releasing a complete recreation of the record that wouldn't feature the rest of Pink Floyd members, trying to re-address the emotional and political statements made on that record.[20] The album was released on 6 October 2023, preceded by the singles "Money" and "Time", with "Breathe" and "Speak to Me" being released together as the final singles.[21]
