Powder Crowd

One Main Version:

* (1982) - Apparition (3:04), Traumstadt I (3:04), Traumstadt I CD (0:01 - 3:07)

All mixes start cleanly. All mixes fade out end with the sudden explosion which begins "Strychnine Chaser." On the Traumstadt I CD, the package lists this song at the end of side one, but it actually begins side two.

Instruments: Drum kit, bass guitar, synth organ, second quiet synth organ, single vocal track with delay effect, plinky keyboard with delay, indecipherable vocoder voice during the first song break, quiet electric guitar.

Sounds a Lot Like:

The vocoder voice during the first song break sounds like the one that appears in the 1983 version of "Love Puppets," without the drum machine.

What It's About:

The scathing narrator describes the behaviour of the people in a "Powder Crowd," a party where everybody is flippant, superficial, self-obsessed, and on drugs.

Lyrics:

Did I ever tell you 'bout your eyes?
Big black saucers, dark and angry,
angel's eyes!
Or maybe it's the speed.

Read you like a paper,
wafer-thin but beautiful
as you stretch to catch your image
on the mirror wall!

Powder crowd.
Powder crowd.
And do you--?

Who are all these people?

You don't fool me with your false concern
turn a fraction sideways,
they all fall over!
Fawning in the snow.

Tell a joke and you don't care
'cause somewhere in the distance,
glasses raised, fists are shaking,
someone taking things too far

in the Powder Crowd.
Powder crowd.

Do you think...?

Who are all these people in the Powder Crowd?

? guards in our direction
quickly lose their interest,
wrapped up in themselves...
how typical!

You say you're an actress,
sure you really dress the part
and the party swings around you
and you know it!
Yes you know it!

In the powder crowd.