page:
  "Dr. David, telephone please
  Dr. David, telephone please
  Dr. Blair, Dr. Blair, Dr. J. Hamilton, Dr. J. Hamilton"

News Broadcast:
  "...the Soviets...
  In other news the bizarre murders of political
  and religious leaders that have shocked this city
  over the last month seemed to have ended as suddenly
  as they began.  No terrorist groups ... responsibility
  for the slayings, but police have a suspect in custody
  under observation in a state hospital.  His identity
  is being withheld pending further investigation.
  Sports and weather next..."

Nurse: 
  "It's ten minutes past curfew, why are you still up?
  Hello? Hello?
  Perhaps you need another shot.
  Ah, that should do it.
  Sweet Dreams, you bastard."

Nikki: 
  "I remember now, I remember how it started.
  I can't remember yesterday, I just remember doing
  what they told me..told me..told me..told me."

Our story begins at the end. Nikki is lying comatose in a hospital, unable to do anything but stare blankly at the ceiling while the television runs in the background. His nurse walks in to administer his basic survival needs, and reveals to us what she thinks about him as a person.

  For a price I'd do about anything
  Except pull the trigger
  For that I'd need a pretty good cause
  Then I heard of Dr. X
  The man with the cure
  Just watch the television
  Yeah, you'll see there's something going on
		
  Got no love for politicians
  Or that crazy scene in D.C.
  It's just a power mad town
  But the time is ripe for changes
  There's a growing feeling
  That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due
		
  I used to trust the media
  To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
  But now I've seen the payoffs
  Everywhere I look
  Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?
	
  Revolution calling
  Revolution calling
  Revolution calling you
  [There's a] Revolution calling
  Revolution calling
  Gotta make a change
  Gotta push, gotta push it on through

  I'm tired of all this bullshit
  They keep selling me on T.V.
  About the communist plan
  And all the shady preachers
  Begging for my cash
  Swiss bank accounts while giving their
  Secretaries the slam
		
  They're all in Penthouse now
  Or Playboy magazine, million dollar stories to tell
  I guess Warhol wasn't wrong
  Fame fifteen minutes long
  Everyone's using everybody, making the sale

  I used to think
  That only America's way, way was right
  But now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives
  Gotta make a million doesn't matter who dies

  Revolution calling
  Revolution calling
  Revolution calling you
  [There's a] Revolution calling
  Revolution calling
  Gotta make a change
  Gotta push, gotta push it on through

  I used to trust the media
  To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
  But now I've seen the payoffs
  Everywhere I look
  Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

  Revolution calling
  Revolution calling
  Revolution calling you
  [There's a] Revolution calling
  Revolution calling
  Gotta make a change
  Gotta push, gotta push it on through

Nikki is an angry young man when he meets Doctor X. He has no skills, he's badly addicted to drugs, and he blames his environment. More importantly, the song sets the scene for the world that Nikki lives in. The world exists either in a dark but not too distant future, or an especially cynical present. Throughout the band's history, they have changed some aspect of the music or performance to mesh with the current time. For instance, on the Operation: Livecrime CD, the line in a later song, "While we pay for wars in South America" was changed to "Saudi Arabia." In "An Evening with Queensrÿche" (shortly before election 2004), the screen in back showed several images of George Bush, and some altered bumper stickers of both Bush and Kerry.

Politics are entirely dominated by corruption and ruthlessness; sex is considered a tradable commodity and no longer regarded as an intimate bond between lovers. In short, this world is very similar to the present, but all pretense of righteousness has been completely abandoned.

The music is loud and heavy in nature, and the cries of "Revolution calling" are done with a pronounced decrease in the level of instrumental accompaniment, as if to represent the unaccompanied shouting of a mob. It is worth noting at this point that Nikki is not necessarily an admirable character. Nikki is the protagonist, but not someone we are required to identify with completely. Although the subject of the song is anarchy and contempt for the government, this does not mean we are required to be sympathetic to the cause.

Nikki: 	"Hello?"
Dr. X:	"Mindcrime"

It just takes a minute
And you'll feel no pain
Gotta make something of your life boy
Give me one more vein
You've come to see the doctor
Cause I'll show you the cure
I'm gonna take away the questions
Yeah I'm gonna make you sure

A hit man for the order
When you couldn't go to school
Had a skin job for a hair-do
Yeah you looked pretty cool
Had a habit doing mainline
Watch the dragon burn
No regrets, you've got no goals
Nothing more to learn

Now I know you won't refuse
Because we've got so much to do
And you've got nothing more to lose
So take this number and welcome to

Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in
The system boy, with nothing to sign

Hey Nikki you know everything
That there is to do
Here's a gun take it home
Wait by the phone
We'll send someone over
To bring you what you need
You're a one man death machine
Make this city bleed

Now I know you won't refuse
Because we've got so much to do
And you've got nothing more to lose
So take this number and welcome to

Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in
The system boy, with nothing to sign

Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
If you come to see the doctor
Yeah he'll give you the cure
		
Operation : Mindcrime
Make something of your life boy
Let me into your mind
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in the system boy
With nothing to sign

Doctor X is a religious and political leader who has a very straightforward modus operandi: he kills people who oppose his cause. Doctor X has an elaborate network of spies and personal hitmen who do all his dirty work for him. Doctor X is about to invite Nikki to join his empire.

Nikki has a weakness. He loves the needle. Doctor X knows that Nikki can be easily controlled by his addiction, and also that his mind is weak. Doctor X hypnotizes Nikki to guarantee total submission. From this point forward, whenever Nikki hears the word "Mindcrime" spoken on the phone, he will be compelled to carry out whatever death sentence Doctor X has decreed for the day.

"Hey, hey, listen to me!"

They've given me a mission
I don't really know the game yet
I'm bent on submission
Religion is to blame
I'm the new messiah
Death Angel with a gun
Dangerous in my silence
Deadly to my cause
		
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us
		
I've given my life to become what I am
To preach the new beginning
To make you understand
To reach some point of order
Utopia in mind, you've got to learn
To sacrifice, to leave what's now behind

Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us
		
Seven years of power
The corporation claw
The rich control the government, the media the law
To make some kind of difference
Then everyone must know
Eradicate the fascists, revolution will grow
		
The system we learn says we're equal under law
But the streets are reality, the weak and poor will fall
Let's tip the power balance and tear down their crown
Educate the masses, We'll burn the White House down

Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word [Revolution]
The word is all of us
Speak the word [Revolution]
The word is all of us
Speak the word
  [The word is all of us
   Speak the Word
   The word is all of us

    SPEAK]

She always brings me what I need
Without I beg and sweat and bleed
When we're alone at night
Waiting for the call
She feeds my skin
		
Sixteen and on the run from home
Found a job in Times Square
Working Live S&M shows
Twenty-five bucks a fuck
And John's a happy man
She wipes the filth away
And it's back on the streets again

Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see

Father William saved her from the streets
She drank the lifeblood from the saviour's feet
She's Sister Mary now, eyes as cold as ice
He takes her once a week
On the altar like a sacrifice

Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see

Mary was a street kid. After years of sexual abuse from her father, Mary ran away from home. She became a prostitute because that was all she knew how to do. The pattern of Mary's life is one of love and trust followed by betrayal. All the men in her life -- be they family, friends, or employers -- only want to use her for her body.

At the age of eighteen, Mary was discovered and "rescued" by a priest named Father William. William turned Mary away from her life of debauchery and ordained her as a nun. But then he revealed his true colors and became more like the men she had always known. As payment for turning her life around, Father William demanded Mary's services. Now "He takes her once a week on the altar like a sacrifice."

It turns out that Father William was a close friend and supporter of Doctor X. Doctor X offers his own "payment" for Nikki's loyalty: he offers Sister Mary's services to Nikki as a fringe benefit.

    Religion and sex are powerplays
    Manipulate the people for the money they pay
    Selling skin, selling God
    The numbers look the same on their credit cards
    Politicians say no to drugs
    While we pay for wars in South America
    Fighting fire with empty words
    While the banks get fat
    And the poor stay poor
    And the rich get rich
    And the cops get paid
    To look away
    As the one percent rules America


Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see
The way society
  (You and me)
Keeps spreading the disease

These lines are spoken in a rhythmic chant, while Scott Rockenfield plays bongo drums heavily in the background. The effect is quite impressive; it embodies the sense of anger and frustration that Mary feels, trapped as she is in her life of sin. To Mary, religion is a joke, a facade of honor covering the same old sex and corruption that she has always known. Opening the chant with "religion and sex" together, as if the two were equivalent, is a perfect expression of the new primary theme.

Listen carefully to the last strains of the song fading out, and you will hear a faint whisper spoken with the beat: "Sex... sex... sex..."

News Broadcast:
    "...informing Washington, a technical violation
    of the 1972 ABM Treaty..."
Preacher:
    "...I'm asking for hands to be uplifted in just a moment.
    God the Holy Ghost is calling out to embrace you.
    I want you to reach deep into your hearts and your
    pocketbooks and take his hand.
Nikki:
    "Bless me father for I have sinned."
Preacher:
    "Some of you are in a state of rebellion right now,
    you're saying..."


In the wooden chair
Beside my window
I wear a face born in the falling rain
I talk to shadows from a lonely candle
Recite the phrases from the wall
I can't explain this Holy pain

Six days ago my life had taken a tumble
The orders came from high above they say
A need to use me once again they've got my number
Further the cause boy yes you know the game

I'll wait here for days longer
Till the sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady that can ease my sorrow
She brings the only friend
That helps me find my way

I search the past back to a time
When I was younger
A target for the new society
Picked to displace the leaders
Countering objectives
Of this new underground reality

Waiting for days longer
Till sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady who can ease my sorrow
My love for her
Will help me find my way

They'll say my mission saved the world
And I stood proud
My mission changed the world
It turned my life around

I look around my room is filled with candles
Each one a story but they end the same
I'll hide away in here the law will never find me
The walls will tell the story of my pain

Waiting for days longer
Till sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady who can ease my sorrow
She sets the pace for my delivery of pain

They'll say my mission saved the world
And I stood proud
My mission changed the world
The underground will rise and
Save this world we'll all stand proud
Our mission changed the world, we'll change the world
We'll all stand proud

Many more months pass, and finally the blackness of his deeds has caught up with Nikki's conscience. Nikki's life's work has been murder and death for almost a year now. Losing the feeling of power and virility that it once gave him, Nikki now feels dehumanized and he slips into a deep depression. He shuts himself up in his room and lights candles for each of his victims, performing a bizarre ritual of atonement.

Nikki's last connection to his own humanity is the "rituals" that he performs with Sister Mary. Sex with Mary makes Nikki feel alive, makes him feel that he is still capable of human emotions. Nikki doesn't realize it yet, but he is gradually falling deeply in love with Mary. Mary still feels that sex is a painful duty which she must perform to stay alive; however, she cares for Nikki too, in her own way.

Before the song begins, Nikki sits in his room, surrounded by candles, flipping through channels on television. When he sees Father William preaching on TV, he becomes disgusted with his life and shoots the screen. He then sinks into another bout of depression.

The musical quality of this song is much lighter and more musical than anything that has come before. The tone is conducive to introspection and despair. I am particularly fond of the rising string chords which occur at the end of this song.

Dr. X:   "Kill her.  That's all you have to do."
Nikki:   Kill Mary?"
Dr. X:   "She's a risk. And get the priest as well."

10 P.M., I feel the rain coming down
My face feels the wet, my mind the storm
Flashing lights as people race to find shelter from the pour
Moving silent, through the streets, they're mine, they're mine

Midnight, she sings praises in the Hall
To saintly faces hallowed be their names she can't recall
Sister Mary, virgin Mary, silent with her sin

  Mary: "What are you doing out in the rain?"

She feels me, I can taste her breath when she speaks

  Mary: "I've been waiting for you.  Come in."

Mary, Mary just a whore for the underground
They made you pay in guilt for your salvation
Thought you had them fooled? Now they've sent me for you
You know too much for your own good
Don't offer me faith, I've got all I need here
My faith is growing, growing tight against the seam
What we need is trust, to keep us both alive
Help us make it through the night

  Mary:
  I've no more want of any faith
  Bind my arm and feed my mind
  The only peace I've ever known
  I'll close my eyes and you shoot

No Mary, listen, you've got to pull your strength from my lips
I pray I feed you well
Your precious cross is gone, it made me wait so long
For what you gave to everyone
The priest is cold and dead on his knees he fed
From my barrel of death, he turned the Holy water red
As he died he said thank you
I just watched him bleed

  Mary:
  I feel the flow, the blessed stain
  Sweating hands like fire, and flames
  Burn my thighs, spread in sacrificial rite
  The hallowed altar burns my flesh once more tonight

Mary, sweet lady of pain
Always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time

No time to rest yet
We've got to stop his game
Before madness has the final laugh
Too much bloodshed
We're being used and fed
Like rats in experiments
No final outcome here
Only pain and fear
It's followed us both all our lives
There's one thing left to see
Will it be him or me?
There's one more candle left to light

  Mary:
  Don't turn your back on my disgrace
  The blood of Christ can't heal my wounds...so deep
  The sins of man are all I taste
      Can't spit the memory from my mind
  I can't cry anymore

Mary, my lady of pain, always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time, you're mine

Well, here's where something really hits the fan. Doctor X has decided, for his own personal reasons, that Sister Mary and the priest are a weak link in his plans, and they must be eliminated. As the Doctor's most trusted hitman, it naturally falls to Nikki to perform the execution.

Nikki is torn in two directions at once. He wants to obey Doctor X, who has been his father figure for nearly a year. But, as I noted prior to the previous song, Nikki is really in love with Mary. Whether he realizes that or not, he does know that his sessions with Sister Mary are the only remaining positive and pure things in his life.

Nikki tries to follow his orders. As he wanders through the rainy streets of the city, he even makes a feeble attempt to convince himself that he is still in control, that he holds all the power. "Moving silent through the streets, they're mine..." is a whispered refrain, as if Nikki does not really believe his own words. When Nikki sees Mary face to face, his resolve begins to falter. After a long inner struggle, he finally realizes that he cannot do the deed. He confesses to Mary the true purpose of his visit, and discovers to his surprise that Mary wants to die. Still, Nikki cannot kill her. He now knows for certain that he loves her, and they make love on the altar with a kind of passion that he has never experienced before.

(Note: it's possible that I am mistaken and Nikki and Mary have never consummated their relationship until now. For more discussion, see the reader comments at the end of this page.)

The paradox of this song is the way that neo-classical music (i.e., the latin chant) meshes with hard rock, just as the facade of virtue and sanctity are tainted with the reality of obscenity and abuse throughout the whole piece. Mary's life lies in the metaphor of the latin chanting that gives way to screaming and heavy guitar work in the second half of the song.

Nikki:   "I've had enough and I WANT OUT!"
Dr. X:   "You can't walk away now." 

I looked back once
And all I saw was his face
Smiling, the needle crying
Walking out of his room
With mirrors, afraid I heard him scream
You'll never get away

Cold and shaking
I crawled down alleys to try
And scrape away the tracks that marked me
Slammed my face into walls of concrete
I stared, amazed at the words written on the wall

Don't ever trust
Don't ever trust the needle, it lies
Don't ever trust
Don't ever trust the needle when it cries, cries your name
	
Wet and raving
The needle keeps calling me back
To bloody my hands forever
Carved my cure with the blade
That left me in scars
Now every time I'm weak
Words scream from my arm

Don't ever trust
Don't ever trust the needle, it lies
Don't ever trust
Don't ever trust the needle when it cries, cries your name
Don't ever trust
Don't ever trust the needle, it lies
Don't ever trust
Don't ever trust the needle when it cries, cries your name

I consider "Suite Sister Mary" to be the end of act 1. On the cassette version of this album, side one ends with the sound of the rain pouring down outside the church, while the muted sounds of lovemaking fade into silence. Unfortunately, here's where things get really complicated.

In the preceding song, Nikki said "There's one more candle left to light." He is referring to his final victim, Doctor X himself. Nikki resolves to kill his master and free his mind. Nikki knows that he loves Sister Mary, and hopes he can begin a new life with her. Still reeling from the ecstasies of their passion, Nikki grabs his gun and firmly goes to meet his fate.

For Sister Mary, it was a different experience. She thought she loved Nikki too. She thought he would rescue her from her shame. But when he laid her down on the altar, Mary had a vision of Nikki's face being replaced by that of Father William. (The video actually shows a brief flash of this vision, and the Livecrime booklet says so explicitly.) In that instant, she felt that Nikki had become the same as all the other men in her life: he used her only to satisfy his own needs. Nikki does not see her disgust and pensiveness when he exits the church.

Nikki goes to confront Doctor X. The Doctor, knowing Nikki's intention, plays his trump card. He reminds Nikki that he is the only source of drugs that Nikki has. Without Doctor X, Nikki would succumb to his addiction and die. Beaten and frustrated, Nikki speaks of the horrors of his addiction.

Musically, this song is unquestionably one the heaviest on the whole album, almost grating in its use of drums, bass, and guitar crunch. Nikki is trapped and he knows it.

Nikki:   "Anybody home?  Mary?" 

Even in death
You still look sad
Don't leave me
Don't leave me...here
I want what you feel, believe me
Turn the current on

They told me to run
But just how far
Can I go wearing the black mask of fear?
The hate in my eyes always gives me away
The tension building slowly
Now I lost everything I had in you
Nothing we shared means a thing
Without you close to me
I can't live without you
Breaking the silence of the night
Can't you hear me screaming?
I look for your face in the neon light
You never answer me
There's no direction to my stare
No more flame burning in my heart anymore
Quiet, I keep it to myself
Until the sun sets slowly
I hear your voice in the evening rain calling
Nothing will keep us apart
No more lies and fear
There's no end to our story
Breaking the silence of the night
Can't you hear me screaming?
I look for your face in the neon light
You never answer
I could make all the wrong seem right
If you were by my side
I'd gather all the tears you cried
And hide them deep underground
Can't look back, it's just a waste of time
Can't erase this hate from my eyes


Breaking the silence of the night
Through the streets I'm screaming
Looking for you in the neon light
Why don't you answer me?
Breaking the silence with my cries
Can't you hear me screaming?
We could make all this wrong seem right
But you never answer me

Unable to cope with the loss of Mary, Nikki runs through the streets in a frenzy, looking for some sign that she can still help him regain a purpose in life. Everything he sees triggers memories of her. This song is not very plot-oriented; it's more of a glimpse into the workings of Nikki's psyche.

There's some great harmony on the chorus line "Breaking the silence of the night." I think this was originally done by Chris DeGarmo, but during the 2004 tour it was done by Eddie.

Voices:   "We know you did it, Why'd you do it?"
Nikki:    "no, No, NO!"

I awoke on impact
Under surveillance from the camera eye
Searching high and low
The criminal mind found at the scene of the crime
Handcuffed and blind, I didn't do it
She said she loved me
I guess I never knew
But do we ever, ever really know?
She said she'd meet me on the other side
But I knew right then, I'd never find her

I don't believe in love
I never have, I never will
I don't believe in love
It's never worth the pain that you feel

No more nightmares, I've seen them all
From the day I was born, they've haunted my every move
Every open hand's there to push and shove
No time for love it doesn't matter
She made a difference
I guess she had a way
Of making every night seem bright as day
Now I walk in shadows, never see the light
She must have lied 'cause she never said goodbye

I don't believe in love
I never have, I never will
I don't believe in love
I'll just pretend she never was real
I don't believe in love
I need to forget her face, I see it still
I don't believe in love
It's never worth the pain that you feel

No chance for contact
There's no raison d'etre
My only hope is one day I'll forget
The pain of knowing what can never be
With or without love it's all the same to me

I don't believe in love
I never have, I never will
I don't believe in love
I'll just pretend she never was real
I don't believe in love
I need to forget her face, I see it still
I don't believe in love
It's never worth the pain that you feel

Having burnt out his energy, Nikki trudges in blind despair back to the church to have a last look at the body. The near-catatonic state that was foreshadowed in the beginning is already starting to take hold of his mind. But when he arrives, he finds the place crawling with police. They immediately finger him for the murder of Mary, and then somehow connect him with the rash of political murders that have plagued the city. But here's the irony: although he is rightly arrested for all of his "death angel" killings, he is booked on charges of Mary's murder -- one crime which he (presumably) DIDN'T commit. As the police interrogate him, Nikki's mind is millions of miles away, brooding on the nature of love and trust.

The guitar work in this song is awesome. Listen to the solo bridge in the middle for DeGarmo's electric guitar and Wilton's acoustic guitar playing at the same time with a third note split between them. Massively cool.

Empty room today
And here I sit
Chalk outline upon the wall
I remember tracing it
A thousand times, the night she died. Why? [Why?]
There's no sleep today, I can't pretend
When all my dreams are crimes
I can't stand facing them
Now who will come
To wash away my sins
Clean my room, fix my meals
Be my friend?

Nikki sits in his room, now spending his days lost between self-discovery and madness, trying to make some sense out of the tragedy that was his life. He projects his mind repeatedly back to his last moments of comprehension, sitting in the church looking at Mary's corpse, wondering what would become of him.