|
Depeche Mode about the album's songs
"Never Let Me Down Again"
Martin Gore: "I think that 'Never Let Me Down Again' is one of our classic old time tracks." "I wrote this song last March. And it was such a long time ago that I cannot say much about it anymore. But you're wrong [about the song because about my girlfriend], the song has nothing to do with relationships. It's about the concept of fleeing from reality and the evil awakening afterwards. Any kind of fleeing. Drugs, alcohol, or whatever." "There was one instance regarding 'Never Let Me Down Again' when two separate people came up to me after a show one night and said, "I really like that song". One of them thought it was a gay anthem and the other one thought it was a drug anthem. They both loved the song, so that's fine by me." "'Never Let Me Down Again' was a stand-out track. It was especially effective when we played live."
David Gahan: "'Never Let Me Down Again' was a big song for us, and it still is live." "For me, this is one of the most intense moments during the concert, firstly because this track has a very strong emotional charge, and every time I play it the waving goes well with the crowd. In addition, we were heading towards the end of the show and during this song, the stadium was on fire. When I saw the number of people there, I felt like crying. It was very moving."
Andrew Fletcher: "That was not a big hit, yet it became a real legendary Depeche Mode song."
Alan Wilder: "Primarily programmed at Alan's house, the basic demo was restructured to emphasise the chorus in an attempt to improve the overall flow of the track. It displays a blend of distinctive musical components and devices - some old Mode and some making their debut. Most notably, 'Never Let Me Down' illustrated the inaugural use of sections of live performance as opposed to just single notes being sampled and manipulated - best demonstrated by the distinctive opening guitar riff, which was originally played by Martin then heavily processed using a number of effects. There was also significant use of real orchestral sounds such as strings and horns as well as Led Zeppelin drum samples to flesh out the backing. Says Alan: "It also stood out as an obvious single and suggested a 'Stripped' - like feel. It has a very definite anthemic quality which is especially demonstrated when the song is performed live and the whole audience wave their hands in unison at the end - a Depeche high-point I think.""
"The Things You Said"
Martin Gore: "'The Things You Said' is that which 'Somebody' isn't, and that's why I love this song. It has a nice side and a bad side. It's about treason, about a man who is disappointed by someone he loved, but luckily, he has real friends by his side. This is one of the songs I have perform right at the front of the stage. I like having a slot of one or two tracks, but I could not go on for any longer, it's way too stressful."
"Strangelove"
Alan Wilder: "The only thing that comes to mind about 'Strangelove' is the amount of time we spent on recording it and the discussions it caused. I can't even say how many times we had to redo it. We had to change the bass line at least a hundred times. We also had a lot of percussion that we ended up removing. In fact, the problem was that we decided it would become a single before even recording it and that complicated things. We wanted to do it well, and all that for a result which, in my opinion, is not excellent. The live version is much more satisfying." "'Strangelove' was the exact opposite to a song like "Stripped". Difficult to piece together, consisting as it did of many little parts, it was hard to find one thing to pin the track down. The single was released before the final mixing of Music For The Masses and it was during this late stage that Daniel visited the studio to assist with it - an act that demonstrated the still close production relationship he had with the band. He contributed a 12" version (Blind mix) and by the time the band was ready to mix 'Strangelove' for the LP, it was decided that the album version should incorporate elements of this. Thus, the result was an amalgamation of the original and Dan's remix."
Martin Gore: "I really like this track and think it’s one of the poppiest singles on this collection. Somehow I don’t know if it still works for me... occasionally in our career we've stepped on the wrong side of commerciality, not very often, and 'Strangelove' is just on the right side. It’s like "Enjoy The Silence", it’s just on the right side of commerciality. There’s a line and if you step over it too far it becomes bland pop music."
"Sacred"
Andrew Fletcher: "Sacred is about love, about love as a creed."
Alan Wilder: "It was not one of the tracks that worked best on stage. We could have improved it by working on it in the studio, but we preferred to mixing the live version quickly due to wanting to mix one song a day. Our goal was that the live version matches exactly what was performed at the concert. Hearing the audience throughout the songs was done deliberately. We did not want a live album like that of the Simple Minds, for example, which has been almost entirely redone in the studio. The only sounds of atmosphere that they kept were a few applauses, and some shouts left at the beginnings and ends of the songs. That's not live, it's studio-live."
"Little 15"
David Gahan: "'Little 15' is actually about a guy. It's about a boy. See, a lot of people have taken that song already in the wrong way, they think it's about a small girl, but it's not. It's actually about a boy, and his mother is talking to him. She's saying, "Look, you're gonna grow up and everything, and this is what it's gonna be like. It's not a bed of roses, and you're gonna be going out into the big, bad world soon." It's about a boy and his mother, his older mother. To be honest, when Martin wrote the song and he brought it to us and I read the lyrics and stuff - it's actually one of my favourite songs on the album - but when he brought it to me I thought immediately it was about a little girl, one of his, you know, "things"... But we won't talk about those!"
Martin Gore: "To me, it’s about a bored, middle-aged house wife trying to find a new lease on life through a young boy. It doesn’t have to be sexual. Although this particular song is about one of our classmates who DID have an affair with a middle-aged woman when he was 15." "This was the only ever single in France. We were convinced by our French record company that it was a great single for France and that it had all the right ingredients to be a massive hit in France. We just looked at them and said "You're mad, Little 15 is not a single", but as it was Mute France at that time and we knew the people very well, we basically gave in to them and let them have their way. And was it a massive hit? No! Was it a hit? No!"
Alan Wilder: "I remember that 'Little 15' was being quite a difficult track. We had left it to the last day because we really didn't know how to go about it. We had this song, it seemed... it was just difficult to know what to do with it. And I can remember I had just been to see A Zed & Two Noughts by Peter Greenway, and all his music, that is from Michael Nyman. And so, somewhere amongst our discussions, we said: "Why don't we try and do it in this sort of Nyman and A Zed & Two Noughts kind of way?". But from there, it was just easy, it just flowed. It all started with this funny, little, hypnotic cycle sequence, and then - bang, bang, bang - all the parts came together."
"Behind The Wheel"
Alan Wilder: "The entire concept for the single release of 'Behind The Wheel' is centred around the theme of motor travel, from the opening sample of a spinning saucepan lid designed to sound like a hub-cap"
Martin Gore: "I still really like that track. I remember when we finished it we went to the Montreux Pop Festival in Switzerland in May 1987 before it was released and we performed it there. I remember being really pleased with it and it was so different to anything else at the festival."
"To Have And To Hold"
Alan Wilder: "It wasn't really a question of persuading or convincing - the album version was the primary one, Martin just wanted to include his demo on the album." "It's really very simple. Martin submitted his demo in the usual way and although I liked the song, his original idea was too 'lightweight' for my taste and I felt, the mood of the album so I pushed it in a darker, more atmospheric direction. This was the primary version of the song which was always intended to be on the album. Martin however was very attached to his more 'poppy' demo and said that he wanted to record it too - hence the 'Spanish Taster'. It wasn't a question of fighting with one another over this, it's just that Martin saw the song in a different way to me. When I originally answered this question, I said that it was a good example of the musical differences between us."
"Nothing"
David Gahan: "When I hear the songs now, like this one especially, I really hear in Mart's words what a big influence Iggy Pop has on him. This song, 'Nothing', was like 'Dirt' from The Stooges or something."
"Pimpf"
Martin Gore: "Yes, it was an instrumental that we originally started recording for - I think - the B-side of 'Never Let Me Down Again', and we liked it so much that we ended up putting it on the 'Music For The Masses' album."
Alan Wilder: "All of our concerts on the tour started with 'Pimpf', so now whenever I hear this melody, it evokes a very precise memory: it was a signal that we were about to enter the stage, a moment when I started to have cold sweats. 'Pimpf' was originally only a B-side, but it ended up being put on 'Music For The Masses'. I think that's what the young members of the Hitler Youth were called. This music reflects the political climate that was occurring at the time of the rise of Nazism. It's because of its orchestral, quite distressing aspect."
"Pleasure, Little Treasure"
Andrew Fletcher: "It's the B-side of 'Never Let Me Down Again', a good old rock'n'roll song, fun to play on stage."
In Glitter Mix of 'Pleasure, Little Treasure' you can hear a sample which has been reversed and slowed down. In this sample you can hear Andy saying "It could probably work" and what sounds like Martin saying "Back to Back".
"Route 66"
Martin Gore: "'Route 66' was a complete DIY. We did this song in less than a day in the studio and it was mixed immediately the next day. For us, there was nothing very serious about it, it was just a good B-side for 'Behind The Wheel', a song for the road. But everyone was crazy about it and we used it a lot for the movie '101'. The Americans even wanted to put it on the A-side of the single. In fact, I think this song was publicised too much, it was not made for that." "I thought it would be a good idea to record a driving song on the B-side of 'Behind The Wheel', and it was a nice idea to try and incorporate the elements that made up the song 'Behind The Wheel' into that version."
Andrew Fletcher: "This is a version of 'Route 66' that was remixed by The Beatmasters. So we did our original version, and then we gave it to these very talented people called The Beatmasters, and they came up with this. It was mixed with a track of ours, called 'Behind The Wheel'. We wanted a driving track to go with it, so we chose 'Route 66'. It was very apt, obviously, for this film, regarding the travelling throughout America. And also ending up in LA as well, so it was perfect."
|
