Time slips away
And the light begins to fade
And everything is quiet now
Feeling is gone
And the picture disappears
And everything is cold now
The dream had to end
The wish never came true
And the girl starts to sing
Seventeen seconds
A measure of life
Seventeen seconds
Seventeen Seconds was written by Matthieu Hartley & Robert Smith & Simon Gallup & Lol Tolhurst.
Seventeen Seconds was produced by Robert Smith & Mike Hedges.
The Cure released Seventeen Seconds on Tue Apr 22 1980.
As part of a Q&A in the Cure News #6 fanzine from 1989, frontman Robert Smith had this to say on the song’s inspiration:
an arbitrary measure of time – one that seemed to be suddenly everywhere once the song was written