"Seconds" is the second track on U2's

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

album, ''

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

''. The track, with its recurring lyric of "it takes a second to say goodbye", refers to

nuclear proliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries, particularly those not recognized as List of states with nuclear weapons, nuclear-weapon states by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonl ...

. It is the first song in the band's history not sung solely by

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...

, as

the Edge David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known as the Edge or simply Edge,McCormick (2006), pp. 21, 23–24 is a British-Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing vocalist o ...

sings the first two

stanzas In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

. There is a break of approximately 11 seconds in the song at 2:10 featuring a sample of a 1981 documentary film titled '' Soldier Girls''. Bono said that he was watching this documentary while he was waiting in the

green room In show business, the green room is the space in a theatre, or a similar venue, that functions as a waiting room and lounge for Performing arts, performers before, during, and after a performance or show when they are not engaged on Stage (thea ...

Windmill Lane Studios Windmill Lane Recording Studios (earlier Windmill Lane Studios) is a recording studio in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It was originally opened in 1978 by Brian Masterson and James Morris on Windmill Lane, and it subsequently relocated in ...

and he recorded it. The band felt it would fit well into the song as unsettling evidence of soldiers training for an atomic bomb explosion.

Writing and inspiration

During his writer's block period in 1982, Bono felt it was lonely writing lyrics, so he asked the Edge to assist in writing, but the guitarist wasn't interested in such a goal. The Edge finally wrote the line "It takes a second to say goodbye". Bono wrote the remainder of the lyrics. On the recording, the Edge sings the first verse of the song. Lyrics in the song about dancing to the atomic bomb is a reference to " Drop the Bomb," a song by Go-go group Trouble Funk, who were U2's labelmates on

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

Reception

In a ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' review of the album itself, editor J.D. Considine wrote, "'Seconds,' ... opens with a sleepy funk riff driven by a cheerful toy bass drum. It's a pleasant juxtaposition, but as the song's subject matter becomes clear – the insanity of nuclear blackmail, where, as Bono Vox puts it, 'the puppets pull the strings'—you realize that this jolly noisemaker is no more an innocent plaything than is the one in Günter Grass' ''

The Tin Drum ''The Tin Drum'' (, ) is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass, the first book of his Danzig Trilogy. It was adapted into a 1979 film, which won both the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980. To "beat a ti ...

''." In 2008, for a review of new reissues of the band's first three albums, ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' editor Joe Tangari wrote "'Seconds' rides a hypnotic bass line to a final verse that conflates nuclear standoff with a dance craze".

Live performances

"Seconds" accordingly became the first song to feature the Edge on lead vocals live when it debuted at the first concert of the

War Tour The War Tour was a concert tour by the Irish Rock music, rock band U2, which took place in 1982 and 1983 in support of the group's third album ''War (U2 album), War''.Exact delineation of this tour is subject to various interpretations. U2's w ...

on 26 February 1983. It was a regular inclusion in the first half of the band's main sets for the

during 1983 and during the Unforgettable Fire Tour during 1984 and 1985. A live performance of the song at

Red Rocks Amphitheatre Red Rocks Amphitheatre (also known colloquially as simply Red Rocks) is an open-air amphitheater in the Western United States, western United States near Morrison, Colorado, approximately southwest of Denver. It is owned and operated by the c ...

is featured on the concert film '' U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky'', recorded on 5 June 1983. On 3 November 2023, they played the song again during a concert during their U2:UV Ultraviolet Achtung Baby Live at Sphere residency, marking the first performance of the song since 7 July 1985.

Other versions

* Mundy contributed a cover version to '' Even Better Than the Real Thing Vol. 3'', a charity album composed entirely of U2 songs and released in 2005. *

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released an iTunes Store-exclusive cover of this song in 2005. *

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars (also called Refugee All Stars) is a band from Sierra Leone which was formed by a group of refugees displaced to Guinea during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Since their return to Freetown in 2004, the band has tour ...

released a cover of the song in 2007, featuring

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of lead vocalist Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarists Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry and B ...

's guitarist Joe Perry.

References

External links

Seconds' performance history from U2-Vertigo-Tour.com
- Lists all known performances of "Seconds". {{U2 songs 1983 songs U2 songs Songs written by Bono Songs written by the Edge Songs written by Adam Clayton Songs written by Larry Mullen Jr. Songs about nuclear war and weapons Song recordings produced by Steve Lillywhite