Voices

Two main versions:

* "Full Band Version" (1980) - Chemical Playschool 1 (4:30), Premonition (4:42), Legendary Pink Box (4:34)

On Premonition the beginning fades in from the previous song ("Amphitheatre"). The other mixes start cleanly, though the Legendary Pink Box mix fades in. All mixes end with a final echoing synth blip, but on Premonition this is mixed with a 15-second backwards snippet from "Red Castles," which then fades into the following track ("Odd").

This version does not have the "murder him" section at the end.

Instruments: Live drums; bass guitar; bass keyboard drone; electric guitar; piano arpeggios; warm synth chords in descending pattern during chorus, at other times provides accents; single vocal track

* "Electronic Version" (1981) - Only Dreaming (3:30), Ancient Daze (3:30), Ancient Daze CD-R (3:32)

Both mixes fade slowly into the song, and both slowly fade out at the end.

This version has an odd section near the end in which a man gives a speech about heresy, the crowd calls for murder, and the heretic is choked. This sounds like the band itself and is of poor audio quality. The names mentioned are inaudible but suggest they may have been reading from a witch trial record of some kind.

Instruments: Single drum machine pattern; bass guitar; piano arpeggios; single vocal track; electric guitar; bass keyboard drone with matching high-pitched tone during chorus; sharp synth chords that also do the descending pattern during chorus; pulsing high-pitched synth near the end; speech about heresy recorded with cheap microphone near end;

Suffix:

On Only Dreaming, the song is followed by a ten-second snippet of backwards music that is unidentifiable.

What it's about:

This seems to be a song about a man who sold his soul with a group of other people, at least one of whom -- Christine -- has died. Now he, a heretic, stands on a corpse-strewn battlefield and hears voices in his head, accusing him of his heresy.

Lyrics (adapted from the Cloud-Zero archive):

In the wind, in the sea,
whispering hate, heresy; quietly accusing me.
Voices. Voices. Those voices, all I hear are voices.

In the marsh, in the sky,
firing curses in my eyes, cutting me with razor lies.
Voices.

The sun steps down to dance on the armour,
now rusted and brittle like September leaves.
Through the odor of decaying man-piles,
I know someone's listening, waiting for me.
Christine, you haunt me - you cling like a limpet.
The ghost of your pulse hammers nails in my head.
We all sold our souls for a handful of ashes.
We gambled together, the blame should be shared...

In the wind, in the sea,
whispering hate, heresy; quietly accusing me.
Voices. Voices. Voices. Those voices.
Voices. Voices.

[?] has been found guilty of heresy. Five witnesses both [?] and [?} tesify that [?] has [?] filled with spirits and has openly mocked the Christus. There is but one penalty. Murder him! Murder him! [?] (choking sound)

Voices. Voices. Voices. Voices. Voices...

Why you should care:

It appears in a lot of different places so the band obviously liked it. The amateur theatrics near the end of the "Electronic Version" are surprisingly candid and fun to listen to.