Number Five - Musical Countdown to BIFF

The song Doomsday Clock by the alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins is this week's selection. The opening track for their 2007 album, Zeitgeist, starts with an energetic drum solo. At the time of this recording, Smashing Pumpkins was a reformed band led by singer and guitarist Billy Corgan and drummer Chamberlin from the original group along with newcomers including guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and Lisa Harriton on keyboard. Fans of the movie, Transformers, will recognize this song from the soundtrack.

The song title refers to the Doomsday Clock that since 1947 has been maintained by the directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the world is estimated to be to global disaster.


Is everyone afraid?

Is everyone ashamed?

They're running towards their holes to find out

Apocalyptic means are lost amongst our dead

A message to our friends to get out

There's wages on this fear, oh, so clear

Depends on what you'll pay to hear

They're bound to kill us all in whitewashed halls

The jackals lick their paws

Please don't stop

It's lonely at the top

These lonely days

Will they ever stop?

This doomsday clock, ticking in my heart, not broken

I love life every day, in each and every way

Kafka would be proud to find out

I'm certain of the end

It's the means that has me spooked

It takes an unknown truth to get out

I'm guessing I'm born free, silly me

I was meant to beg from my knees

Please don't stop

It's lonely at the top

These lonely days

Will they ever stop?

This doomsday clock, ticking in my heart

These lonely days, will they ever stop?

We gotta dig in, gas masks on

Wait in the sunshine, all bug-eyed

If this is living, sake's alive

Well, then they can't win, no one survives

Is everyone afraid?

You should be ashamed

Apocalyptic screams mean nothing to the dead

Kissing that ol' sun to know all there is

Come on, last call, you should want it all

Ah, it's lonely at the top

These lonely days, will they ever stop?

This doomsday clock, ticking in my heart

These lonely days, will they ever stop?

This ticking in my heart, is everyone afraid?