"30 Seconds Over Tokyo" is the debut single by American post-punk band Pere Ubu. Written by band members David Thomas, Peter Laughner, and Gene O'Connor during their stint with Pere Ubu's predecessor Rocket from the Tombs, it was released on Thomas' independent Hearthan Records in 1975. The song received very little airplay at the time but has earned high praise in the years since as a pioneering example of post-punk.
Background and composition
The song's lyrics are based on the 1942 Doolittle Raid, as told from the perspective of a pilot on a suicide mission. Its title was borrowed from the 1943 book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Doolittle Raid pilot Captain Ted W. Lawson, adapted into a film of the same name in 1944. According to Rocket from the Tombs bassist Craig Bell, the genesis of the song was a riff written by guitarists Gene "Cheetah" O'Connor and Peter Laughner, with frontman David Thomas penning the lyrics. Thomas, who refers to it as a pop song, said that "30 Seconds" was "probably the last time I ever wrote in a straight narrative form".[1] Writing in the book Rip It Up and Start Again, critic Simon Reynolds called it "almost prog in its structural strangeness", with its intro "like some loping, rhythmically sprained hybrid of Black Sabbath and reggae".[3]
Rocket from the Tombs broke up after supporting Television at a concert at the Piccadilly Inn in Cleveland, that band's first outside of their native New York City.[1] Recordings from this set were released as The Day the Earth Met Rocket from the Tombs in 2002, alongside a demo of "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" recorded at their home studio in February 1975.[4] Bell attributed the breakup to youthful frustration and the lack of a peacemaker in the band. Thomas was proud of the band's material and wanted to preserve them in a permanent medium, and proposed founding Pere Ubu to Laughner in 1975 with the intention of being a studio-only band for the purpose of recording one single before disbanding.[5] Laughner liked the idea and added synthesizer player Allen Ravenstine, guitarist Tom Herman, and drummer Scott Krauss to the band—musicians he had lived with at the Plaza, an apartment building owned by Ravenstine where they performed experimental music on synthesizers and tape recorders.[6]
Recording
While rehearsal of the song took three days, "30 Seconds Over Tokyo", which clocks in at over six minutes, was recorded and mixed in one night at Audio Recording in Cleveland. Another Rocket from the Tombs song, "Final Solution", was supposed to be the single's B-side; however, the song "Heart of Darkness" emerged from a jam session during the rehearsal for "30 Seconds", and the band members preferred the new composition. "Final Solution" would become their second single the following year.[6][7]
Ravenstine played his part on an EML ElectroComp 200 synthesizer. Herman found Ravenstine's synthesizer playing underappreciated, calling his style different from other bands of the era that used synths in that it "pushed the energy level higher" rather than adding ambience to the mix.[6] Ravenstine, who became an airline pilot after leaving Pere Ubu in the 1980s, used the synthesizer to emulate the sound of radial engines used in planes during World War II, as well as the static-laden radio transmission at the end.[1]
"30 Seconds" employed three guitarists.[8] Herman played rhythm guitar filtered through a Morleywah-wah pedal throughout, while Wright and Laughner alternated between second electric guitar and bass guitar. All members perform during the free improvisation sections, which Herman described as "every man for himself". A guitar amplifier borrowed from the studio was malfunctioning during the sessions, which resulted in an unusual "neat squishy break-up".[1] The song ends abruptly with a flurry of Ravenstine's emulated radio static.[8] According to Krauss, engineer Bill Cavanaugh clashed with the band, especially Ravenstine, over their creative decisions, and tried putting Krauss's cymbals through a harmonizer, which he vetoed.[1] The pressing plant to which the final mix was delivered worriedly called up the band by telephone, informing them that the pressed singles were compromised with excess noise; Cavanaugh compared one of these pressings to the master tape and found that it sounded identical.[6]
Release and reception
"30 Seconds Over Tokyo" was released in December 1975 on Hearthan Records, an independent record label owned by Thomas which later changed its name to Hearpen Records, after the holding company which Thomas operated.[9] Though the single was pressed in great quantity, Thomas thought it would sell poorly and receive almost no radio play. He held a romantic notion of excess stock of the single trickling into thrift stores, where it would be rediscovered by a curious teenager impressed by the music and the would-be ephemerality of the band. However, the single sold better than anticipated, especially in Minneapolis and abroad in London and Paris. Thomas discussed the future of Pere Ubu with his bandmates at the Plaza, and they decided to keep the band active for the foreseeable future.[1] Laughner was fired in 1976 for showing up drunk to subsequent recording sessions; he subsequently joined the writing staff of Creem alongside Lester Bangs but succumbed to acute pancreatitis brought on by alcoholism in 1977.[10]
"30 Seconds Over Tokyo" has since been recognized as a landmark proto-punk release,[11] with Uncut writer Tom Pinnock defining it as "post-punk before its time".[12] Reviewing the single in 1978, Tim Lott of Record Mirror called its gloomy vibe "more realistic" than the "death-and-destruction heavy metal crap pumped out by the likes of Judas Priest", the "A-bomb overtones" "thoughtfully conceived", and the final section "fatal", characterizing it as experimental rock and gothic rock.[2] Steve Huey of AllMusic wrote that the song's "lurching guitar riffs and cacophonous noise are a perfect match for singer David Thomas' apocalyptic visions".[13]Mojo called both "30 Seconds" and its follow-up "Final Solution" "stunning".[14] Music writer Steve Taylor called the 1975 Rocket from the Tombs recording of "30 Seconds" "addictive", comparing it to Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive".[15] When Rocket from the Tombs reformed in 2003, they re-recorded the song in a heavier style.[1]
The single was re-released in the United Kingdom on Record Store Day 2016 by Fire Records, in a limited edition of 1,000 copies.[16]
