Editing First and Last and Always (section)

===Strawberry sessions===
At the end of June 1984, the Sisters of Mercy went with producer Dave Allen into the Strawberry Recording Studios in [[Stockport]], near [[Manchester]], for five weeks to record their first studio album. Studio costs were £500 a day and £3,250 a week.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.strawberrynorth.co.uk/picture1980s.htm |title=Strawberry North – ... |work=strawberrynorth.co.uk |access-date=9 March 2013}}</ref> Eldritch spent the whole five weeks inside the studio and, according to Dave Allen, used large amounts of [[amphetamine]] on a daily basis.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}} In Stockport, backing tracks and vocals were to be recorded. Additional vocals, overdubs and the final mix were planned for August at Genetic Studios. The finished album was to be released in the third week of October 1984.<ref name="Serpent's Kiss!">{{cite magazine |date=January 1989 |title=Serpent's Kiss! |magazine=Spiral Scratch}}</ref> The band immediately started to record, with Hussey and Marx often providing guide vocals with their own lyrics which later showed up on bootlegs. Both Hussey and Marx later used some of these lyrics for their own bands, [[The Mission (band)|The Mission]] and [[Ghost Dance (band)|Ghost Dance]]. An early recording of "First and Last and Always", which, according to Gary Marx, was "previously called 'The Scottish One'", was "completed pretty early on".<ref name="myheartland2004">{{cite web |url=https://myheartland.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=6178 |title=View Topic – Nine While Nine Demo!?! :: Heartland :: The Sisters of Mercy Forum |date=20 October 2004 |work=myheartland.co.uk |access-date=9 March 2013}}</ref> Marx sang an early draft of the later Ghost Dance lyric of "When I Call", which mentioned the name of a friend of the band's from Hamburg; Marianne.<ref name="Burchardt">{{cite magazine |last=Burchardt |first=Alf |date=November 1984 |title=Im Takte des Doktors |magazine=[[Spex (magazine)|SPEX]] |page=23}}</ref>

On "Nine While Nine", which, according to Marx, was "recorded at the same time" and "had the working title 'Child of Light",<ref name="myheartland2004"/> Gary Marx sang a guide vocal which he reused later for the Ghost Dance song "A Deeper Blue". The title of this song is derived from [[Yorkshire dialect]] where "while" is used to mean "until". "Black Planet" exists in the form of an early version with a Wayne Hussey lyric which he later used for the [[The Mission (band)|Mission]] songs "Dance on Glass" and "Naked and Savage". Additional songs which were left unused were the later Mission song "Garden of Delight" and later Ghost Dance song "Yesterday Again". Eldritch later sang his own version of "Garden of Delight" which remained unused as well: "There are a few bootlegs in existence of me trying to sing Wayne's words, and you can hear that I'm not convinced by them. I can't breathe any meaning into them."<ref>Andrew Eldritch TV interview (ZTV, Sweden 1993)</ref> "The guy didn't have a clue – he'd just string buzz words together."<ref name="ultimatesistersguide1987">{{cite magazine |last=Sutherland |first=Steve |date=5 September 1987 |title=His Master's Voice |magazine=[[Melody Maker]] |url=http://www.ultimatesistersguide.org/images/mag/His_Masters_Voice.jpg |type=JPEG |access-date=9 March 2013}}</ref>

Recordings were delayed, to the frustration of the band as Eldritch was still working on lyrics. Gary Marx: "He'd got far too caught up in the business and had lost his edge as a writer. We wasted weeks at a time in the studio, waiting for him to come up with a handful of lyrics. It was very painful and very expensive."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.premonition.org/premor.php3?lien=actu/actu.php3X1Xactuid=216003&ta=10 |title=Premonition |last=Labussière |first=Christophe |work=premonition.org |access-date=9 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312225843/http://www.premonition.org/premor.php3?lien=actu%2Factu.php3X1Xactuid%3D216003&ta=10 |archive-date=12 March 2012}}</ref> A notable exception was "Marian". Eldritch, inspired by Gary Marx's original lyrics to "First and Last and Always", wrote new words to a Wayne Hussey composition which contained a few passages sung in German. "'Marian' is a very special song; it's not like any of the other songs. I wrote it in ten minutes, usually the lyrics take me up to half a year."<ref name="Hartmann">{{cite magazine |last=Hartmann |first=Markus |date=November 1990 |title=...And the Wind Blows Wild Again... |magazine=Zillo |page=12}}</ref> The vocal takes proved to be time-consumingly elaborate. Marx said, "After each session Andy would say, 'But is it epic?', and we'd go, 'Yeah Andy, it's great!' And he'd go back and do it again. Andy's a complete perfectionist."<ref name="ultimatesistersguide1984">{{cite magazine |year=1984 |title=<nowiki>[</nowiki>''Rise and Reverberate'' article<nowiki>]</nowiki> |magazine=Rise and Reverberate |url=http://www.ultimatesistersguide.org/images/mag/Marx_int_1.jpg |type=JPEG |access-date=9 March 2013}}</ref> He added, "We could write and record a double album in the time it took him to get the headphone mix to his liking."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Sampson |first=Chris |url=http://gps.tsom.org/06%20draft%200.5_rights.pdf |title=Interview [2]: Gary Marx |magazine=Glasperlenspiel |issue=6 |date=June 2003 |page=11 |access-date=6 January 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728131705/http://gps.tsom.org/06%20draft%200.5_rights.pdf |archive-date=28 July 2011}}</ref>

At the end of July 1984, recordings were finished and the band had completed raw mixes of 18 songs on ten analogue [[master reel]]s:
* '''Reel 1''': "Tones"/"No Time to Cry"
* '''Reel 2''': "[[Emma (Hot Chocolate song)|Emma]]"/"Walk Away"
* '''Reel 3''': "Poison Door"/"A Rock and a Hard Place"
* '''Reel 4''': "First and Last and Always" (album version)/"First and Last and Always" (Japan version){{efn|Listed under their working titles "Scottish One A" and "Scottish One B"}}
* '''Reel 5''': "Possession"/"Spit on Your Grave"/"Evil Come Evil Go"
* '''Reel 6''': "Marian"{{efn|Listed under its working title "Marianne"}}/"Wide Receiver"
* '''Reel 7''': "Nine While Nine"
* '''Reel 8''': "Some Kind of Stranger"{{efn|Listed under its working title "Little Wing"}}
* '''Reel 9''': "Some Kind of Stranger" (early){{efn|Listed under its working title "Andy's Little Wing"}}
* '''Reel 10''': "Down to E....."/"On the Wire"

According to Dave Allen "Tones", "Spit on Your Grave", "Evil Come Evil Go" and "Down to E....." are working titles for known songs. "Amphetamine Logic", according to Gary Marx, had the working title "Horned One Stabs", which indicates that this song was not recorded at Strawberry but at later sessions.{{citation needed|date=February 2013}} In early August 1984, the band flew to the US to play two concerts in New York.