Do you know this quote "Your agony must endure forever" ?

May 26, 2008 4:42 PM

In the Art of Noise song "Instruments of Darkness" (from the In Visible Silence CD, not the various remixes), there is a sample of a voice saying "Your agony must endure forever". This has been attributed to Neil Kinnock, a British politician. Does anyone know what that statement was in reference to and the text of the full speech or comment?
posted by Brandon Blatcher to media & arts (3 comments total)

According to the internets the quote is from P.W. Botha.
posted by edmz at 8:06 PM on May 26, 2008

Two other sources say it's Kinnock. Botha would seem to fit better, but I can't find a link to the full text of his "Crossing the Rubicon" speech, from which other samples of Botha are used. It seems as though such an inflammatory statement by Botha would be remembered, but there's no cite for it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:46 PM on May 26, 2008

Assuming that this source is correct about the quotes that are from P.W. Botha in that song, "Your Agony" appears to be a different voice based on my listening. It sounds more like a British accent than Botha's South African, and it's from a less muffled recording.

There are several recordings of Neil Kinnock's voice on Youtube: here is one, here's another. The voice sounds pretty similar to me, although the Art of Noise song doesn't give us a long enough speech to be sure.
posted by mmoncur at 9:24 PM on May 26, 2008