The Tracks of My Tears Miracles members Smokey Robinson (lead vocalist), Pete Moore (bass vocalist), and Marv Tarplin (guitarist). In the five-LP publication "The Motown Story", by Motown Records, Robinson explained the origin of this song in these words: "'Tracks of My Tears' was actually started by Marv Tarplin, who is a young cat who plays guitar for our act. So he had this musical thing [sings melody], you know, and we worked around with it, and worked around, and it became 'Tracks of My Tears'." Tarplin's guitar licks at the song's intro are among the most famous in pop music history. "The Tracks of
The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away Tränen mein Heiland selbst ab" ("Come, O death, brother of sleep, come and lead me forth; my saviour himself shall wipe my tears away"). The father tells his son that the words mean that the emperor will wipe their tears away. The plot is a failure, and the conspirators are all killed (in the narrator's opinion, "very likely" by American agents in disguise). At the moment of his father's death, he recalls that he saw, "high in the sky... a shining gold chrysanthemum against a vast background of purple light... the light from that flower irradiated his Happy Days". By