a short site about The Divine Comedy

French version

Ten Seconds To Midnight

Lyrics & Music: Neil Hannon

Published by: Damaged Pop Music / BMG Music Publishing Ltd.

Originally interpreted by: The Divine Comedy

 

To see the lyrics, click on the name of the version you are interested in (on the left).

 

Tabs/Scores

Informations

It's been played live more than you might think: in '94, '96, '97, '99 (for New Year's Eve among others) and in '02.

It's almost the conclusive song of the album. It's the night, almost midnight, and the narrator is musing on man's story. As such, it's full of philosophical quotes: Archimedes' Eureka and René Descartes' "I think therefore I am".

It's very hard not to link this song to the rest of Promenade. The narrator is also the hero of the album, the other person who's with him being the heroin. It tells of man's quest of happiness through love (found in 'Tonight We Fly'). The "house where [they] first met" could be the "summerhouse", but is more likely to be the house in 'Geronimo', unless the two paces are the same.

The song is a countdown: ten, nine, eight, seven (turns to six), five, therefore/four, three, two (of us), one (wet Sunday). Neil said the scene was supposed to take place at the turn of the century, on New Year's Eve.