Is this it?

IS THIS IT?

Complete Lyrics and Spoken Narration

[Opening — Spoken]

Is this it?

There was always a sign.
Yellow and black.
Fallout shelter.

Down in the basement, cans stacked against concrete walls.
We were children.

But somebody knew something.
We didn’t.

They told us to be ready.

Ready for what?
Nobody really said.

Just that somewhere, somebody had a button.
And we hoped
They wouldn’t press it.

[Verse 1 — Sung]

Yellow and black on a basement door
A sign that promised something more
Shelves of water, cans of beans
Children dreaming, children’s dreams

We learned to duck
We learned to hide
While grown men kept their fears inside

Somewhere beyond our little town
A finger could bring the whole world down

[Pre-Chorus]

They said be ready
They said be wise
But nobody told us what we’d recognize

[Chorus]

Is this it?
Is this the day?
The one that takes the world away?

No thunder rolls
No warning cries
Just something missing from the skies

Is this it?
Or just a wire?
A fallen line, a distant fire?

The clock moves on
The traffic flows
And nobody knows
What nobody knows

[Spoken — The Radio]

Two seventeen in the morning.
Art Bell on the radio.

People calling from places I’d never been.

A hole in the ground.
Strange lights in the sky.
A storm on the sun that could turn out the lights.

And the power lines themselves could drown out the voices
Trying to tell us what happened.

Would we know?

Would we know?

If the whole world went quiet.

Would we know?

[Verse 2 — Sung]

Blue cloudless sky
The world was turning
And we learned why

A date could become
A line in the sand
A before and an after
Nobody had planned

Three silver shadows crossing high
Moving together through a Georgia sky

No sound of thunder
No reason to fear
But something whispered
What are they doing here?

Then an octopus bloomed in the night
A rocket spreading its ghostly light

Once you knew
It was easy to see

But what if you didn’t?
What would it be?

[Spoken — The Drive]

Ten o’clock.
Exactly.

Driving to an appointment.

The Tesla radio stopped.
No internet.

My phone.
Richard’s phone.
Nothing.

Is this it?

We kept driving.

Cars going past.
Traffic lights changing.
People heading somewhere.

Nobody looked concerned.

Richard didn’t think much of it.

But I wondered.

If something had happened,
Who would tell us?

How would they tell us?

And when?

Is this it?

[Spoken — The Doctor’s Office]

At the doctor’s office
I asked at the door,

Is your computer working like it did before?

Yes, came the answer.

One ordinary word.

The sweetest little answer
I’d ever heard.

[Final Verse — Sung]

Maybe it’s nothing
Maybe it’s rain
Maybe the wires will wake up again

Maybe somewhere
A switch went down
And somebody’s fixing it out of town

But if the morning ever comes
When every voice and signal’s done

When all the questions disappear

Who will tell us
What happened here?

[Outro]

The clock keeps ticking
The highway bends

The world keeps turning
Around the bend

One little question

I can’t forget

Is this
It?