I’m not sure when I bought 80’s band, The Human League, third studio record Dare but I know I picked it up because of the track “Don’t You Want Me” was on it. The only reason I know the song is because of a Chips Ahoy! commercial from 2007. A car full of cookies is singing the song as one by one a hand from the sky pulls them from the convertible they’re in.

When I listen to a record for the first time I listen to it from beginning to end. “Don’t You Want Me” is the last track on the record so I figured they saved the best for last. The first track “The Things That Dreams Are Made Of” stood out to me since I was managing a bougie Brooklyn ice cream parlor at the time and the singer mentions ice cream while listing some of his favorite things. The rest of the first side of the record is classic new wave, nothing too deep, and as I flipped it I was ready to hear more of the same.

The third song on the B-side is the reason I’m writing this post. “Seconds” starts with a drum loop with some synth, very minimal, then the synth drops out at around 38 seconds followed by a rush of synths seconds later. It has all the elements that we’ve come to expect from a classic New Wave track. I hadn’t really been paying attention to the first two verses and It wasn’t until the third verse kicked in that I was intrigued by what the song was about. Philip Oakey sings, “It took seconds of your time to take his life”, and it piqued my interest. What drew me in was the repetition, as for the rest of the song is just him repeating those words. Whose life had been taken?

I had to listen to the song over again so I could get more clarity. Upon the second spin the lines, “Hiding from the sun, Waiting for the golden one, Waiting for your fame, After the parade has gone”, set the scene and the following lines, “Your knuckles white as your fingers curl, The shot that was heard around the world”, made it clear that the song was about an assassination. Still I couldn’t figure out who was assassinated.

“Seconds” was written 18 years after the Kennedy assassination, and, I was born 4 years after this song came out which is why I did not connect the dots sooner. Hell, my mom wasn’t even born when Kennedy was murdered. The immensity of this historical event is lost on me. It is interesting that it had such an effect on a band from the U.K. and would inspire them to write this song.

It’s a perfect bouncy 80’s bop referencing Kennedy’s assassination. Which is a weird thing to say, but it totally works. Give it a listen and let me know what you think of the song