The Ghost In You

There are those who have built an entire career on "political songs," and those you'd never expect to write even one. In the second category is undoubtedly Siouxsie Sioux, the queen of darkwave, whose gothic imagery, suspended in time and steeped in ancestral, esoteric references, has always seemed at odds with the urgency of pressing social and political issues.

There was, however, a notable exception, tucked away on the grooves of a rather underrated album by the "queen of the night," "Superstition" (1991), on which the London singer's balladeer streak comes especially to the fore — a side of her too often dismissed by critics, though already responsible for evocative tracks in the Banshees catalogue such as "The Last Beat Of My Heart," "Melt!," "Turn To Stone" and "Face To Face," not to mention the gorgeous — and improbably romantic — duet with Morrissey on the single "Interlude."

And it's precisely within this vein of quintessentially Siouxsie-esque songs that the "political" foray of 1991 fits in. There's not much that's explicit about it, in truth, apart from one line that definitively clarifies the song's meaning and context:

You return to Tiananmen

An eyewitness in a shroud

To see them fall, feel them yield

Relieving the terror of the crowd

Beneath the enveloping pace and the Eastern-tinged textures sketched out by the keyboards, the poignant ballad "The Ghost In You" thus conceals a tribute to the young people of Tiananmen Square, protagonists of the most sensational Chinese uprising of recent history, immortalized once and for all by the image of the man holding two plastic bags standing in front of a tank, taken on June 5, 1989 by photographer Jeff Widener. Beijing's iconic square was the epicenter of a vast wave of popular demonstrations that unfolded in the Chinese capital between April 15 and June 4, 1989. Students, workers and ordinary citizens gathered to demand political reform, greater freedom of expression and action against corruption. The final phase coincided with what is commonly referred to as the Tiananmen Square massacre, when the army moved in to clear the area by force. According to later accounts, the protesters left the square after negotiations with the military, while the most violent clashes took place in the surrounding areas and along the city's main thoroughfares. The death toll ranges from roughly 200 to 1000 civilians killed, with thousands more wounded.

"You return to Tiananmen… to see them fall, feel them yield, unveiling the terror of the crowd," sings Siouxsie. And further on: "Your captive heart, the belief you share/ With a kiss eternal, the spirits of the square." There's no giving in to rhetoric here: the song works thanks to the restraint of the performance, the Eastern-flavored arrangements and the lovely melodic turn of the chorus. A track that would pass almost unnoticed commercially, yet one that, besides ranking among the Banshees' finest ballads, remains a curious and moving piece of political testimony from an artist who, almost never before that moment — nor since — found herself grappling with matters of international current affairs. Don't let it blow.

“The Ghost In You”

You awoke in a burning paperhouse

From the infinite fields

Of dreamless sleep

You return to Tiananmen

An eyewitness in a shroud

To see them fall, feel them yield

Relieving the terror of the crowd

Hold the whirlwind, don’t let it blow

Just for a moment, I seemed to know

Hold the whirlwind, don’t let it blow

I seemed to know the ghost in you

The whisper of your scream

Sighed through the air

And faith – the flag is torn and frayed

Inferno heat, glory in flame

Love was beaten and betrayed

In every step I hear your sobbing

Dare I break the shade with one caress?

Dare I trespass to lift the veil

To touch the lips so soft and frail?

Hold the whirlwind, don’t let it blow

I seemed to know the ghost in you

Your captive heart, the belief you share

With a kiss eternal, the spirits of the square

Hold the whirlwind, don’t let it blow

Hope remains with the ghost in you

Hold the whirlwind, don’t let it blow

I seemed to know the ghost in you

Don’t let it blow

The ghost in you

The ghost in you

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29/04/2026