These Colours Don
EDIT: Just as a warning, you'll see me discussing the religious analogies throughout the song. I don't believe in being overly PC on this forum, so I'm not going to add 'hypothetical' or 'possible' every time I talk about God. I don't want to push my beliefs on anyone here, but I just want to make it clear that since the song doesn't account for every religious belief, I won't get stuck in technicalities of faith. This is just in case any atheist get offended by my style of writing.
Well, time for me to actually discuss this song.
Firstly, the intro chills me to the bone. The excessive distortion, combine with palm muting, gives both an aura of calm, and yet the same time, the feeling of repressed anger, of something about to explode. The strange timing also grabs the listener's attention...the intro is melodic, and yet something is not right. Bruce's vocals join in at a strange time for a Maiden song...rather than waiting for the start of the next phrase or repeat of the intro riff, he begins with
We are not the sons of God a few beats in. All this strikes the listener suddenly, just as the detonation of the first bomb must have struck the onlookers.
We are not the sons of God
We are not his chosen people now
We have crossed the path we trod
We will feel the pain of his beginning
Throughout, holy imagery is used, and to good effect. Bruce has made the point that the Manhattan Project was man playing God, and this metaphor is used throughout the songs. The idea that through the massive destruction that Trinity resulted in, we renounced any claims to being 'Children of God' is an interesting one. Clearly, 'crossing the path he trod' refers to the massive energies involved in the process of nuclear fission on such a scale. Indeed, the detonation of the bomb must have seemed to those present to be like the first throes of the Universe. 'In the beginning there was darkness...then there was light'. Such energy was soon to be unleashed on civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Another interesting point of the opening verse is the way in which the song progresses to the main riff. Traditionally, a main riff would enter
after '...his beginning'. Maiden, on the other hand, throw it in quite suddenly in the middle of a syllable...this serves to shock the listener, and is no doubt (again) emphasising the suddeness of the Trinity detonation.
Shadow fingers rise above
Iron fingers stab the desert sky
Oh behold the power of man
On its tower, ready for the fall
The echo effect on 'shadow' is also quite effective...perhaps echoing the roar of the nuclear wind. The shadow fingers could possibly be the last traces of night, drifting away as dawn breaks (the Trinity 'Gadget' was detonated at 5:29 A.M. in the 16th July 1945)...the iron fingers are the struts of the tower supporting the gadget, 20m above the New Mexico earth (It was placed this way to give a better indication of how the bomb would react when dropped from an airplane...also, this would cause the minimal fallout from radiation) and the tower, 730 m away, which supported 'Jumbo'. 'Jumbo' was a huge steel canister, designed to recover the plutonium from 'The Gadget' in case of failure. It was originally to be placed on the same tower as Gadget, but last minute changes to the plan resulted in it being used as a measure of the power of the bomb. Jumbo survived the detonation...the tower did not.
Ground zero:
The last two lines are fairly explanatory. The former is mocking the culmination of many scientists' work in a force of pure destruction. The tower has been mentioned, but 'the fall' could refer to either the physical fall of the bomb, or the fall of man. The fact that the line does not read '...ready for
its fall' leaves the line open for such a
double entendre (not the one you're thinking of, Mav!), and is a nice, subtle touch.
Knocking heads together well
Raze a city, build a living hell
Join the race to suicide
Listen for the tolling of the bell
'Knocking heads together' can be interpereted in a few ways. It could refer to simple violence, or to the 'knocking together' of the heads of the scientists involved by the US government, pushing them to complete the work on the bomb. The other lines are self-explanatory, and the last line is clearly referring to the tolling of a funeral bell. As John Donne once wrote, 'Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.' Again, this verse emphasises the self-destruction that could ensue from the bomb. Thankfully, this has not happenned yet, but we have been very close to the proverbial 'World War III'.
Out of the universe, a strange love is born
Unholy union, trinity reformed
Again, these lines are fairly simple. The first refers (again) to the idea that the scientists (many of whom studied to better humanity) would use their knowledge, which could have solved so many problems in the world, to create even more. The second line is another reference to God, and also a play on words. The unholy union could refer to both the often taboo joining of science and militarism; on this scale, it could only result in more misery and fear for mankind. Also, the nuclear bomb is detonated by a 'union' of the explosive with the fissile material, and this line could refer to that. The trinity is another reference to God, and of how powerful the detonation was. It is also a play on words, as the test site was known as...Trinity.
Yellow sun its evil twin
In the black the wings deliver him
We will split our souls within
Atom seed to nuclear dust is riven
Again, these lines refer to the brightness, the power, the destruction of the detonation. Interestingly, the processes that occur in nuclear detonations and the reactions within the sun are opposite; in the sun, Hydrogen atoms are fused together to form heavier Helium atoms...the energy released results in the light and warmth of the Sun. Nuclear fission, which occurs in most Uranium/plutonium reactions in both nuclear weaponry and nuclear reactors, is the splitting of atoms of Uranium or plutonium by firing neutrons at them. This causes a chain reaction, which in turn leads to the mushroom cloud from nuclear weaponry. The wings could refer to the flight of the Inola Gay, and the unleashing of the destruction on Japan. I can't find any obvious relation to Trinity in that line, so it is more likely that it is a slight scene jump. 'Spliting' our souls is another analogy to the nuclear reaction, and the 'splitting' of the atom. The final line is another Biblical reference...'ashes to ashes, dust to dust'. However, the lyricist (Bruce, most probably) has cleverly altered this to refer more directly to the effects of the bomb. This is in fact one of my favourite lines from the song.
Now, for the refrain. The sudden switch to a quiet riff is highly effective, and Bruce manages to make a chorus of repeated phrases varied and chilling. The final shout of 'Brighter than a Thousand Suns!' is typical of this record, and shows that Bruce's vocals are still as strong as ever. I don't really need to explain these lines, as the blast was said to be 'brighter than a thousand suns' by eyewitnesses.
Bury your morals and bury your dead
Bury your head in the sand
E=mc2 you can relate
How we made God with our hands
This verse is also highly effective, not least because it offers a shift in perspective from the historical to the critical (which is coupled by a riff and time change). The different phrases associated with the verb 'bury' all work well in this context, as the scientific world (for the most part) allowed Nuclear proliferation to take place after the war, instead of seeking for disarmament as a whole (yes, I know Oppenheimer and Einstein campaigned tirelessly for this, but if all the scientific world had worked as one, then the messy situation of the fear of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) might not have taken place). Also, the E=mc2 reference is a possible pointer at Einstein. Made famous for his theory of relativity, when he fled the Third Reich in the late 1930's, he became an American citizen and urged President Roosevelt to develop nuclear weapons before Hitler did. Other than that, I don't believe the theory of relativity figures into the Trinity site anywhere. If someone knows more about this, feel free to correct me.
The second verse of this section is nearly the same, except for the reference to Robert Oppenheimer, which has been covered before, so I don't feel I need to go into that in any more detail.
All nations are rising through acid veils of love and hate
Chain letters of Satan, uncertainty leads us all to this
All nations are rising through acid veils of love and hate
Cold fusion and fury
This verse is a direct departure from the historical event of the Trinity test, and moves fairly smoothly into the later effects of the nuclear bomb. Indeed, shortly after the War was over, the USSR detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1949. This would lead to an escalation of the Cold War, and the fear of total destruction at the hands of one of the superpowers. Throughout the Cold War, both the USA's and the USSR's foreign policy were dictated by the uncertainty of whether the other was willing to use nuclear weaponry to destroy the other. And as it was not until the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis that the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty was signed (1968), many nations (although not all) would come into possession of nuclear weapons, either placed there by the US to control the USSR, or given by the Soviets to their buffer states.
Divide and conquer while ye may
Others preach and others fall and pray
In the bunkers where we'll die
There the executioners they lie
Divide and conquer refers to the splintering of the allies in the aftermath of World War II, and the fear of MAD by every nation. As Bruce said, his generation lived in fear of the 'four minute warning'. There was a prevalent fear of nuclear fallout on a major city, and the idea that destruction would be inevitable for those in the target city.
Bombers launch with no recall
Minute-warning of the missile fall
Take a look at your last sky
Guessing you won't have the time to cry
Another fear was that of mistakes. And I'm talking of something worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis. Stanislav Petrov. The name may not mean much to you, but we all quite probably owe our lives to him. On September 26, 1983, shortly after midnight, Stanislav Petrov was working in the long-range missile warning base he had been assigned to, shortly outside Moscow. It was his job to alert the Soviet commanders if Soviet satellites and computers detected a long-range missile strike against the USSR. The Soviet Union would then retaliate with a full nuclear counter-attack. On this fateful night, Lt. Col. Petrov detected a missile, heading straight for the USSR. He dismissed it, thinking that the USA would not launch one missile against the USSR...besides, the accuracy of the computer system was questionable.
A short time later, another missile was detected. And a third. And a fourth. Now Petrov began to get worried. Alarm bells were ringing all around the base, and he had to make a decision. On screen, in Russian, the word 'Start' flashed up...pressing this would alert the Soviet command to the threat, and they would respond with full retaliation. Unfortunately, he had no time to question other sources: the Soviet land-based radar could not detect anything beyond the horizon, and by then it would be too late. And so he waited. Minutes passed. There was no destruction, no impact. The warning had been false, and Petrov had saved millions of lives by his actions. Unfortunately, he had disobeyed orders, and was assigned to a less sensitive position in the military-he lated resigned.
But the chilling thing about this anecdote is this; Stanislav Petrov had not been scheduled for duty that night. If the normal officer had been on duty, things could have been very different. This is the kind of fear Maiden encaspulate in the final verse. Similar, to '2 Minutes to Midnight', it looks at the fear of destruction that carried throughout the Cold War. The final, sorrowfull line of 'Holy Father we have sinned' simply sums up the fear, grief and pain that resulted with a single detonation on a still July morning, over 60 years ago.
Oh, and the solos rock. Both Adrian's and Jannick's are emotional, and use a good balance of precision and fluency. They're highly memorable, and make this song just as good, if not better, than Paschendale.
The Trinity site today:
