The Workshop is Taboo

This was one of the hardest songs for Hirasawa to write. He drove around Urayasu late at night in the P-Model gear van trying to finish it, which he still wasn't able to by daybreak.

The lyrics incorporate both the weaving workroom from the Tsuru no Ongaeshi (鶴の恩返し) Japanese folktale; and the Great Mother of Jungian psychology, playing into the wider theme of Monster. The official translation of the song's title, "No Workshop", obfuscates the allusion. Hirasawa sees anyone who interprets it as a MotherCon song to have severely missed his point.

The chorus vocals are yodeled. As a joke, Hirasawa incorporated elements of Nat King Cole's version of "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás": The string parts of both songs share similarities; and ki sasu (着さす), pronounced the same as "quizás" (キサス), is repeated multiple times on the verses.

Versions
The song had a significantly different, less layered arrangement performed at Shoot the Monster (20 June 1987): The intro only has one drum machine pattern and is longer; the verse melodies are completely different, shorter than those of the solo arrangement, structured differently and having different lyrics; Hirasawa's vocals on the transition to the pre-chorus and the end of the chorus were crescendoing chants; most of the lyrics were different, lacking the "quizás"/"ki sasu" verses among others.
 * Monster, 1987-88

By their 30 October 1988 show, the band was performing the song near identically to how the final arrangement turned out. Hirasawa sang the yodelling parts alone, but other members backed him on other sections.

No recordings of P-Model performing the song has been officially released, although audience recordings exist.

Supposedly, the voice of a woman can be faintly heard in this recording on some copies of the original release of the album.
 * Water in Time and Space, 1989
 * Susumu Hirasawa - vocals, all instruments
 * Jun Togawa (courtesy of Teichiku Records) - backing vocals


 * Error CD, 1990
 * Susumu Hirasawa - vocals, electric guitar
 * Hikaru Kotobuki, Kazuhide Akimoto - keyboards, backing vocals
 * Katsuhiko Akiyama - bass, backing vocals
 * Kazutoki Umezu - wind synthesizer
 * Shingo Tomoda - drums, electronic percussion
 * Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Nurse - strings, horns


 * Making of Tokyo Paranesian, 1994
 * TAKA - keyboards, backing vocals
 * Toshihiko "BOB" Takahashi - fretless bass, backing vocals
 * Wataru Kamiryo - drums
 * Hirasawa Error Engine - Hirasawa Three Acts in Three Hours: Lower, 1994
 * TAKA - keyboards
 * Toshihiko "BOB" Takahashi - fretless bass
 * Jun Togawa - backing vocals
 * Wataru Kamiryo - drums

Togawa's vocals from the Water in Time and Space version are sampled for this one, activated by a MIDI-triggering laser harp. Features a new intro and guitar backing by PEVO 1go (using a modded "Alumini Clear" Talbo, while Hirasawa uses Ice-9).
 * Phonon 2555 Vision, 2012
 * Susumu Hirasawa - lead and backing vocals, keyboard, laser harp
 * Pevo 1go - Misa Kitara, Zeusaphone
 * Yasuhiro Araki - timpani

Connections

 * This was Hirasawa's second yodeling song, after "anothersmell".
 * The song incorporates percussive elements used on Shun・4.
 * Hirasawa's interest in Tsuru no Ongaeshi extended beyond songwriting: No Room (見るなの部屋), a series of essays published between 1988 and 1990 on the magazines Techii and RockLand (バンドやろうぜ), was named after it.