Nuclear fall out was a real fear as the Cold War stretched into the early 80s. Interlaced with humor and irony, that anxiety played out in “Seconds”. “I’ve always felt physically ill at the concept of nuclear fall-out,” Bono told author Niall Stokes. “We are the first generation of people to have to live with that possibility.”
Way ahead of their time, the band lifted a sample from a 1982 TV documentary about girls going through military training entitled Soldier Girls. The clip features the girls repeating this stanza: “I want to be an airborne ranger/I want to live the life of danger.” If you turn the balance fully one way during this extract, you can hear speech. It has been transcribed as follows:
I can’t, I can’t do it
This is all I got
I can’t give nothing to anybody else anymore
It’s been stripped, it’s been taken…
Many people assume that the lead vocals of the first stanza are sung by Bono. It’s actually The Edge.
Click here to download the guitar tab for Seconds
Takes a second to say goodbye
Say goodbye, oh, oh, oh
It takes a second to say goodbye
Say goodbye, oh, oh, oh, say bye bye…
Where you going to now…
Lightning flashes across the sky
East to west, do or die
Like a thief in the night
See the world by candlelight.
Fall, rise and…Fall, rise and…
In an apartment on Time Square
You can assemble them anywhere
Held to ransom, hell to pay
A revolution everyday
USSR, GDR, London, New York, Peking
It’s the puppets, It’s the puppets
Who pull the strings
Fall, rise and…Fall, rise and…
Say goodbye, say goodbye
Say goodbye, say goodbye
Say goodbye
It takes a second to say goodbye
Say goodbye, oh, oh, oh
Push the button and pull the plug
Say goodbye, oh, oh, oh
Fall, rise and…Fall, rise and…
And they’re doing the atomic bomb
Do they know where the dance comes from
Yes they’re doing the atomic bomb
They want you to sing along
Say goodbye, say goodbye
Say goodbye
Say goodbye.
Subpages: