U2 - SECONDS

In 1983, Irish rock band U2 released War - their third album, and their most political album. The album opens with Sunday Bloody Sunday, and it is followed by Seconds, which is followed by New Year's Day. The album and it's title were inspired by the global unrest in 1982, and the looming threat of a nuclear war. U2's War album was the band's first number one album in the UK, achieved after knocking Michael Jackson's Thriller off the top of the charts. War only reached number 12 on the US charts, however it was their first gold-certified album there. The song Seconds marked the first recording of The Edge singing lead vocals - which he only does for seconds on the first verse of the song. Not only was it unusual for The Edge to sing lead on the verse - "it takes a second to say goodbye" - it was also unusual that The Edge wrote the lyrics for that line. The rest of the song was written by Bono, as usual, who had asked The Edge to help on this song. U2 has not performed the song live in concert in almost 40 years - since July 7, 1985.