Ghosts

Ghosts was released in an edited form in March 1982 as the third single from Tin Drum and reached number five in the British chart in April. Sylvian is credited as the sole writer. Barbieri and Sylvian arranged it in a minimalist way, with sounds influenced by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Barbieri made the opening synthesiser sound on a Roland System 700, Sylvian played a Prophet-5, Barbieri an Oberheim OB-X, and Steve Jansen played the marimba. The single mix runs 3:55 and the B-side was a live version of The Art of Parties.

Sylvian told Mojo it was the only time he let something of a personal nature come through, and that it set him on the path to going solo. Japan played it on Top of the Pops on 18 March 1982, when the single stood at number 42, and a week later it had jumped to 16. On The Old Grey Whistle Test, on 4 March 1982, they played an arrangement allegedly by Ryuichi Sakamoto, with Sakamoto and David Rhodes in the line-up. Tim de Lisle in Smash Hits called it arguably the best thing they had ever done, and Record Mirror made it Single of the Week.

Later life

Sylvian re-recorded it in 2000 over the original Japan backing track for Everything and Nothing, and the version reappeared on A Victim of Stars 1982-2012. He sang it on The First Day tour in 1992 and the Slow Fire tour in 1995, and setlist.fm counts 62 performances. Deftones recorded it for the 2011 compilation Covers, and dance versions by Chris & James (1997) and Tenth Planet (2001) were minor British hits. The critic Mark Fisher took the title of his 2014 book Ghosts of My Life from its lyric.