Zero Hour
by Michael Berkeley with Neil Tennant and David Gilmour
Writers - Michael Berkeley, Neil Tennant
First released - 2024
Original album - Collaborations (Michael Berkeley)
Producers -Hugh Padgham, Wix Wickens
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - (none)
Michael Fitzhardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Knighton, became in 2013 a member of the English House of Lords, made a life peer in recognition of his decades of work in music as a composer, chorister, musician, teacher, curator, artistic director, and broadcaster. Although the vast majority of his music has been of the classical/"serious" variety (including operas, concerti, an oratorio, a ballet, choral works, and chamber music), he has performed rock music as well, particularly in his younger days. His 2024 album Collaborations consists of both old and new compositions performed with a number of fellow artists. Most of them hail from the world of classical/serious music, but at least one of them, "Zero Hour," features Neil Tennant as lyricist and singer as well as
"Zero Hour" is described (on Berkeley's own website) as "a song for Ukraine"—an unmistakable statement of sympathy and support for the Ukrainian people during their struggle against the Russian invasion and devastation of their country. The sounds of air-raid sirens permeate this ominous piece, in which piano, horns, and synthesizer(s) are also prominent. Neil sings a high-pitched lead, and Gilmour's distinctive guitar solo appears about halfway through, following the second verse.
Amidst the dense sound of the music, it's somewhat difficult to make out Neil's lyrics. Thankfully, the printed lyrics in the CD booklet reveal them as a dialogue between a man and his wife amidst the turmoil and danger of war, including anxiety over periods of forced separation during the crisis ("I say goodbye and kiss my wife / 'And when will we meet again?' she asks me"). Occasional clues—"A bunker waits / The chiefs are there"—indicate that the narrator is a high government official. As Michael Berkeley confirms in the CD booklet, that narrator is meant to be taken as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself.
According to Berkeley, he first became friends with Neil following the latter's guest appearance on the former's BBC Radio 3 show Private Passions. After composing the music for "Zero Hour" in 2022, he thought that Neil's voice, "with its oboe-like plangency," would be perfect for it. He sent a sound file to Neil, who, within 48 hours, returned a file with lyrics and vocals, which he (Neil) subsequently embellished with air-raid sirens. Berkeley then had the idea of enlisting David Gilmour for a guitar solo and, as it turned out, support vocals. Still later, more sirens were added as well as additional vocals by DZVIN.CO, a Ukrainian refugee women's choir, including soloist Olha Terletska, who sometimes duets with Neil in the song "as the voices of the Zelenskyys."
Annotations
- The phrase "zero hour" has been around at least since the First World War. It was originally intended to refer to the moment of the start of a military operation, but has in the years since come to indicate the beginning of any critical action or period of crisis. In popular culture, it has most famously served as the title of a 1957 film and in the opening stanza of the 1972 Elton John hit "Rocket Man." In Neil's lyrics, it refers both to the military crisis faced by Ukraine and to the moral crisis faced by its people as they take a stand for freedom against the threat of Russian imperialism and totalitarianism ("It's zero hour / When the time bomb of history / Exploits its power").
- It may be a bit of a stretch, but one of my site visitors has suggested that the recurring use of the phrase "we meet again" in two lines of "Zero Hour"—
And when will we meet again she asks me….
I pray when we meet again we'll be free
—may be a conscious nod to the classic 1939 song "We'll Meet Again," performed most famously by British singer Vera Lynn. It struck a powerful chord with servicemen and their families at home (particularly in Britain, but later in the United States as well), what with its chorus ("We'll meet again, don't know how, don't know when…") that could be dually interpreted as referring to troops returning home as well as to afterlife reunions following death on the battlefield. The wartime settings of the two songs make such a comparison apt.
List cross-references
- This song doesn't appear in any of my lists.
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