Voices Carry

Album

Single

Label

Epic records

Genre

Rock

Composer(s)

Michael Hausman, Robert Holmes, Aimee Mann, Joey Pesce

Entered Chart

Apr 13, 1985

Peak Date

Jul 13, 1985

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Epic 34-04795

B-Side

Are You Serious?

The haunting, captivating "Voices Carry" hit like a sledgehammer in 1985, when songs that expressed such pathos were rarely heard on the radio unless they came from male vocalists ("Careless Whisper" by Wham!, "Shout" by Tears For Fears). 'Til Tuesday's lead singer was Aimee Mann, who later emerged as a formidable solo artist. She wrote the lyric, declaring each line like an entry in a diary. There are very dark undertones in the song, hinting at an abusive relationship: I try so hard not to get upset Because I know all the trouble I'll get The guy wants her to keep her voice down so he can keep what they have going a secret. And while at first he's simply telling her to hush, by the end the song this is elevated to "shut up!" Silenced, Mann ends the song with the line, "I wish he would let me talk." Speaking on the podcast Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend, Mann explained what inspired the lyric: "I wrote it about a friend of mine - a male friend - who was talking about a relationship where the girl didn't want to be affectionate with him in public, like, 'Keep your voice down, don't tell people we're going out.' The reason I related to that story was because of my history." "Voices Carry" was huge on MTV, which had been around for four years and was all the rage with teenagers lucky enough to get cable. Directed by D.J. Webster, it shows Aimee Mann in her distinctive haircut looking like a starched Pomeranian with a rat-tail. Like Pat Benatar's "Love Is A Battlefield" video, it uses dialogue to tell the story, opening with her oaf of a boyfriend (played by Cully Holland) saying very sarcastically, "I'm so happy the band's doing well. And by the way, what's with the hair?" We see Mann rehearsing with the group, pouring her emotions into the songs. The creepy boyfriend keeps berating her for having a music career instead of being his hausfrau, and to compound his villainy, he even gets rough with her. When they go to Carnegie Hall to watch the symphony, Mann can't take it anymore and has an outburst in the middle of the theater, finally expressing her pent-up frustration. This scene was inspired by the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much, where Doris Day screams during a symphony to thwart a murder. The video put a very different spin on the song, with Mann finding the strength to stand up to her tormentor. "I didn't write it as a feminist anthem, but when it came time to make the video, that idea was in the air," she told Conan O'Brien. "It was very heavy handed." She added that the guy in the video is really not her type. "Come on, give me some credit. I'm not going to go out with this muscle-bound doofus." Mann's man is Michael Penn, a fellow singer-songwriter of great empathy and intuition whom she married in 1997. The music video earned 'Til Tuesday an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. The part where Mann causes a scene in the theater (the interior shots were filmed at the Strand Theater in Dorchester, Massachusetts) is iconic of the early MTV era. Mann later dipped a toe into acting. Look closely in the scene in The Big Lebowski where the nihilists are ordering pancakes and the gal on the end has a foot cast as the camera pans down - yep, that's Aimee Mann! "Voices Carry" was the debut single, from the debut album of the same name, and greatest claim to fame for 'Til Tuesday. The group came out of Boston, Massachusetts, after winning a radio contest, Boston's WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble, in 1983, with the song "Love In A Vacuum," which was re-recorded for the Voices Carry album. They established themselves as one of the new wave bands of the mid-'80s, staggering into American culture to mix with the Minneapolis sound, the tail end of punk, and the blooming of the first yuppies. They were often compared to The Cars. Their next single, "Looking Over My Shoulder," reached #61. In 1986, they did better with "What About Love" (not to be confused with the Heart song released a year earlier), which went to #26. After one more album in 1988, they broke up. Kind of like The Velvet Underground, they are now seen as a band ahead of their time, adored by critics but not selling well enough to stay together. Aimee Mann embarked on a successful solo career, and the band's drummer, Michael Hausmann, started his own artist management company whose clients at various times included Marc Cohn, Suzanne Vega and... Aimee Mann. The writing credits go to all four members of 'Til Tuesday: Aimee Mann (their bass player as well as their lead singer), Michael Hausman (drums), Robert Holmes (guitar), and Joey Pesce (keyboards). Aimee Mann did a send-up of the video for this song in the clip for her 2012 song "Labrador," where is coerced into doing a scene-by-scene remake against her wishes. On June 30, 2017, Mann played "Voices Carry" at the historic North Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. While introducing the song, she said she didn't play the song for a while because she "thought parts of it were kind of dumb," then added, "recently I feel like it's weirdly appropriate and I'm not sure why." This was just a few months before the #MeToo movement took hold, sparked by accusations against Harvey Weinstein in October.

I'm in the dark, I'd like to read his mind
But I'm frightened of the things I might find
Oh, there must be something he's thinking of
To tear him away-a-ay
When I tell him that I'm falling in love
Why does he say-a-ay

Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Uh-ah

I try so hard not to get upset
Because I know all the trouble I'll get
Oh, he tells me tears are something to hide
And something to fear-eh-eh
And I try so hard to keep it inside
So no one can hear

Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Uh-ah

Oh!
He wants me, but only part of the time
He wants me, if he can keep me in line

Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, shut up now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, darling, she might overhear
Hush, hush - voices carry

He said shut up - he said shut up
Oh God can't you keep it down
Voices carry
Hush hush, voices carry