Depeche Mode: the podcast - What Song Made You A Fan? - Depeche Mode: The Podcast w/ Jon Justice

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, this is Martin Gold from depeche Mode.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
All right, this is digone from Depeche Mode and you
are listening to.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
My nerd Roan and welcome to depeche Mode the Podcast.
I'm your host, John Justice. Thank you so much for
checking out another episode as we talk about the greatest
band on the face of the planet, subjectively speaking. If

(00:32):
it's your first time checking out the show, thank you
for joining us. As always, you can email me talkshow
Nerd at gmail dot com, or if you're enjoying enjoying
the show up on YouTube, you can leave a comment there.
Before we get started on the show today, I just
want to share a personal note and you may or

(00:55):
may not have noticed if I didn't mention this. However,
for those of you that have been listening to the
show for some time, you know that I'm a talk
radio show host. Professionally, I host a news talk show
here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I have for the past
nine years. So as I sit down to record this

(01:16):
week's episode, wherein we'll get to your listener emails from
last week, we'll talk about the song that made you
fall in love with depeche Mode. I'll share mine at
the end of this episode, as we do another version
of song a commentary this week. It will be the
song that made me fall in love with Depeche Mode,

(01:37):
and I'll tell you what that is here in just
a bit. That being said, I wanted to let you
know that if you did happen to sense any sort
of different tone in my voice today, I just got
off the air from what I usually do was a
three hour show. Today I stayed on for about four
and a half hours because if you've been following any

(01:59):
of the news, and I don't know if this story
has reached overseas for those of us that are not
here in the continental United States, but there was a
mass shooting event that took place at a Catholic school
just south of Minneapolis, not far from where I work.

(02:19):
The news broke as I was wrapping up the show,
and I ended up going live for another two and
a half hours or so going with the live coverage
of this just horrific event that had taken place. Multiple
casualties involved. Some twenty children were caught in this mass

(02:42):
shooting event, with the shooter taking his own life in
the end. Not the first time that I've been on
the air in my twenty nine year career covering events
like this. They're never easy, however, and when I got
home from doing the show late, the gravity of what

(03:05):
a transpire kind of hit me, and I wasn't intending
on recording the show today. However, I really needed something
to sort of take my mind off of it. And
for those of us, well for you listening, you know
how Depeche Mode has impacted our lives and been there

(03:25):
in you know, various stages, both good and good and bad.
And once again, this podcast serves as an opportunity for
me to step away from the news of the day,
because once I'm done, I'm gonna have to sit down
and start prepping for tomorrow's show, which will inevitably be
covering in detail this mass shooting event to take place

(03:46):
at this Catholic church. So I really wanted to sit
down and just talk about depeche Mode for you know,
you know, twenty to forty minutes and get my mind
off of everything. So I hate to start things off
on such a doubt note, but I wanted you to
at least be aware of where my headspace was currently
with all of all of this, so you know, when

(04:09):
I wrap up the show every week and I say,
I hope wherever you are you're happy, you're healthy, and
you're and you're safe. I genuinely, I genuinely mean that.
And so seeing tragedies like this is a reminder of
how fragile life can be. So take a moment reach

(04:29):
out to a friend, hung a loved one, or a
sibling if you have the opportunity today in light of
this horrific tragedy. So with that, thank you for allowing
me the opportunity to sort of explain myself just a
little bit in terms of what I've been going through.
Let's dispense with that, and let's talk about depeche Mode

(04:52):
because that makes me happy. So still no news. We're
creeping up on, you know, a couple of weeks away
from the on sale date for depeche Mode M, which
is debuting in theaters on October twenty eighth. I still
have an expectation, as I mentioned last week on the show,
and I've mentioned since we found out that the movie

(05:14):
would be debuting on twenty five hundred cinemas across the
country and excuse me, across more than sixty countries, that
I still do absolutely have an expectation that surrounding the
on sale date will get something in the form of
those tracks that we haven't heard specifically in the end.
So I could be wrong on that. I don't have

(05:34):
any inside information, but it seems like that would be
a really good way to go and promote the movie
by releasing a song that has not been released as
of yet. That being said, I received an email last
week and somebody had asked, you know something along the
lines of what made you fall in love with Depeche Mode?
And I mean, I think that essentially comes down to
the music, right what song made you fall in love

(05:56):
with Depeche Mode? And I have some emails that I'll
share with you this week. And this is different for
me than you know, what song introduced you to Depeche Mode. Now,
they may be the same songs that being said for
me personally. While I've told the story many times on
the show about how I'd heard Depeche Mode prior to

(06:20):
hearing Shake the Disease on K Rock in Los Angeles,
but it was really Shake the Disease that cemented the
band in my mind. But that was not the song
that made me fall in love with depeche Mode. That
song was here as the House and for the song
commentary this week, that's the song I'm going to do now.
This will be exclusive for the podcast listeners. I cannot

(06:42):
put this on YouTube because of the copyright restrictions, So
if you're enjoying this on YouTube, I hope that you'll
go to the actual podcast on whatever platform you use
to listen to podcasts, so you can hear this week's
song commentary. But I've told the story before that after
the release of Shake the Disease, that's what really began

(07:03):
my fandom for Depeche Mode. That's what set me to
the record store in Monrovia, California, to go looking for
the album that had Shaked the Disease on it, and
it was my memory could be failing me on this,
but my recollection was that I went to go purchase

(07:27):
say Catching Up with which had Shake the Disease on it,
but I ended up purchasing Black Celebration, and I may
have bought in both at the same time, but for
whatever reason, the first time I physically went to the
record store to get a Depeche Mode release, I ended
up walking home with Black Celebration. That album in and

(07:48):
of itself cemented me as a fan again, having only
been used to really the singles that have been released
up until then, A Black Celebration would have been the
newest release at the time, and that may have been
sort of the default of why I ended up picking
it up. I don't think it had been out very
long at the time when I went to go looking

(08:09):
for Shake the Disease. And while there were some songs
on the album Black Celebration, the singles mostly that I
was kind of familiar with, it was all still very
very new to me. And it wasn't until Here Is
the House that Depeche Mode really started to resonate for me.
And I'll talk a little bit more about this when

(08:31):
I get to the song commentary portion of these this
week's episode. But I didn't want to bury the lead.
I wanted to at least share with you what song
it was for me that made me ultimately fall in
love with Depeche Mode, and that was Here Is the House.
So with that, let's go ahead and get to your
listener feedback from throughout this past week, and just thank

(08:52):
you ahead of time to everybody who wrote in either
leaving a comment up on YouTube or texted me like,
my friend John jo just did j O hm or
drop me an email talkshow nerd at gmail dot com.
So let's go ahead and get to your listener feedback
emails this week. So first off we do hear from

(09:14):
John Justice and he writes this, my first album Cassette
was some great reward. I remember riding my bike listening
to my Sony Walkman to that album front to back.
I think I fell in love with Depeche Mode listening
to stories of old I bought Black Celebration when it

(09:34):
came out in eighty six and then bought their entire
back catalog and never looked back. So that was according
to my friend John Justice there so you know, and
again I wished looking back, I wished I had kept
track of the order in which I purchased Depeche Mode albums.

(09:56):
I mean, I could have never imagined that my fan
would have stretched into my fifties at a time when
I was fourteen and fifteen years old. Hindsight being what
it is, I wish that I kept track of all
those little instances of going out to various record stores
in Southern California Record PX for those that are from

(10:17):
the region, or Hyde Park, a corner out in Irvine
where I went to go searching for the import singles,
going out to Melrose in Los Angeles, and there was
one particular record store and I cannot remember the name
of it, that I would go to all the time
because they always had the imports. I mean, the thrill
of the hunt searching for Depeche Mode is something that

(10:40):
new generations of fans will never ever be able to experience.
Let's go to a friend of the show, Chris Culpepper,
who writes this not on the topic, but has another
question for the show this week. Why does Violator serve
as the centerpiece of the live set? Pull out Blue

(11:00):
Sea of Sin, Happiest Girl if the band feels that
nineteen ninety is their peak and give us hardcore fans
a treat. I respected the fact that DM grew up
and progressed and that they dropped the hits of their
back catalog people. Our people just can't get enough something
to do, et cetera. I'll just attribute Violator as their

(11:22):
best selling record and crowd pleaser. But I don't want
our beloved DM to become a classic rock slash greatest
hits band with songs that they have to play live.
Would any of us be truly devastated to not hear
Personal Jesus or World in My Eyes live again? Thanks JJ,

(11:42):
writes Chris Culpeper. Now listen, I wouldn't personally, having been
to thirty four Depeche Mode shows, you know, dropping Personal
Jesus or World in My Eyes would not be a
heartbreak for me having seen those songs performed so many
years and so many shows live. Certainly, if you're replacing
them with tracks that haven't been played in a long

(12:03):
long time, it really just comes down to the band's preference, right.
I mean, Martin Gore has been very vocal in how
pleased he was with all of the albums, and I
think that he marks Black Celebration as sort of the
turning point. Some great Reward may have been mentioned in there,
but I do believe that he says, you know, he

(12:23):
feels that from Black Celebration on, he feels like they've
they did their best work. I think there's something to
the the love of Violator of why that album and
you know, for less to a lesser extent, the few
tracks off of Songs of Faith and Devotion that continue
to get played live, but it was their biggest album,

(12:45):
was arguably their best album. I know that we as
fans it's subjective which album we like the most, but
make no mistake, I mean, when you look at the
Apex Mountain of depeche Mode, it's right there in that
area of black celebration, music for the masses, Violator, songs
of faith and devotion. So you know, I've never personally
had that big of an issue in the way that

(13:06):
the band goes and chooses their set list. I've always
just taken it as you know, this is what the
band wants to play and how they feel they can
best cater to the live audience that's coming to see them.
And I always have to remind myself that, you know,
not everybody listens to depeche Mode the way that you
and I do. Not everybody listens to a depeche Mode
podcast or listens with such consistency as so many of

(13:31):
US fans do. So you know, I think for us,
you know, Chris Culpepper's right, you know, I wish they
would do a tour. And I've mentioned this before, like
Metallica did where they did two nights and one night
was a bunch of rarities they don't typically play. But
that's just not, you know, been anything that the band
has gone and taken on, and now with their ages

(13:52):
being what they are, I can't imagine that it would
be anything that they would be doing in the future
if they were to tour again. All right, let's go
and hear from a Christian Rigamonti, who writes this the
new song commentary feature of the podcast. It's a very
good idea. Thank you. The Enjoy the Silence live version
from Condemnation Limited CD single is also a very good

(14:16):
choice since it was recorded at the Milan ninety three concert,
the first DM concert I ever attended. Cheers Christian Rigamonti.
Thank you Christian for that. Always appreciate it. All right,
Next up, let's see we hear from Well, it's Johnny,
but he typically goes by tul forty six and two

(14:36):
and he writes this great podcast today, bro, thank you.
So I'm home from a long stint away from a
job in Washington, chilling, enjoying catching up on your podcast,
having beers and blasting DM. I queued up the devotional
live version of Enjoy the Silence. I hadn't visited it

(14:57):
in quite a while, and man, what a solid show.
One of my favorite tracks on songs of faith and
Devotion is get Right with Me mine too. I just
listened to it today. I dig the scratch they have
in it, but I've always wished they would have tried
a real turn table scratch, though the recorded one sounds

(15:17):
like a stock scratch right off of a DJ controller.
Should have called a couple of technics twelve hundred's lol. Anyway,
my food for thought on my lazy butt. On My
Lazy Butt Thursday, writes Johnny again, usually goes by two
forty six and two and two, So this is a

(15:37):
really good That's a really good point. As I tap
my screen with my pen, you make a really good
point with your specificity on wanting the scratch to sound
more legit. You can apply that directly to my commentary
relating to how all the fans of Depeche Mode aren't
like you and I and would listen to a Depeche
Mode podcast or want to see deep tracks when going

(16:01):
to see a live concert. I never would have thought
twice about that scratch on get Right with Me or
the other scratches that end up appearing on songs of
Faith and Devotion not being actual turntable scratches, but something
more pulled off of, say like a production library. So
thank you for that, Johnny. I appreciate it, and I

(16:24):
always love that about songs of Faith and Devotion. I
just I love the mixing of the album. It's I
had an interesting little moment this week, and it duvetails
off of something that I said last week on the show,
because I had watched Devotional a couple times, kind of
splitting it up and picking tracks over the course of
the past few weeks. On my weekends, typically after everybody

(16:44):
goes to bed on a Friday or Saturday night, I
stay up late because I have to get up so
early during the week, and I go to bed early
during the week, and a lot of times by the
time I end up heading into my room slash office
and I want to put something on the TV, I've
probably had a little bit of rum, perhaps enjoyed a gummy.
That being said, I usually want to listen to something

(17:04):
music related, so watching Devotional and again I made this
comment last week when I was doing the song commentary
for Enjoyed the Silence. The way that the mixes were
done for Devotional for all the tracks, but specifically for
the Violator songs that were so prevalent in the set list.

(17:27):
The live mixes on the Devotional tour, they sounded like
they could have come from Songs of Faith and Devotion.
That being said, having spent some time listening to both
of those albums quite a bit over the course of
the past few weeks, it was interesting to me, and
specifically this morning, when I was walking in and I
was listening to some tracks off a Violator, How you know,

(17:50):
they really weren't that far removed from Songs of Faith
and Devotion. There was a rawness and more of an
analog vibe vibe on the songs of Songs of Faith
and Devotion. Make no mistake, Violator was a lot cleaner
and was more crisp. That being said, like the elements

(18:11):
of the songs on both of those albums are not
that far removed. That is to say that Devotional did
this live. They took those tracks and sort of songs
of Faith and devotionized them, made them a little bit
meati or made them a little bit more bluesy and analog,
and stripped away a little bit of the cold electronic

(18:31):
vibes that you got on Violator. But ultimately those two
albums they compliment each other really well in that they
come off very different from one another, but in truth
they're really not that far removed. I would love to
see the inverse happen. I'd love to see versions of

(18:53):
the tracks off of songs of faith and devotion that
are more aligned with Violator, Like what would walking in
My Shoes have sounded if it were on Violator? I
think that would have been really really interesting. All right,
let's go and hear from John. John writes this, loving

(19:14):
the show, thank you, exciting times, waiting for em and
additional tracks. Agree. In the End is fantastic. Should have
been an album on the album, but they have a
habit of leaving great songs off albums, spending a lot
of time. Because I listened to the version that I've
shared on the previous podcast of In the End. I

(19:36):
listen to it almost every day, and the recording obviously
isn't great, but if you listen really intently, there's a
lot of layers in that track. I am desperate to
get my hands on the you know, the official produced version,
because I think that song is even better than the
obviously what we can hear in this handheld recorded mix,

(20:00):
but if you listen really closely, there is a lot
going on in the production of that song. I just
wanted to mention that your question the song that got
me into Depeche Mode I like to just Can't Get
Enough and New Life. But I didn't buy the album
at the time. But then Vince left and See You

(20:21):
was released, and whilst it could be considered poppy and sweet,
I thought it was dark. The music, the lyrics, the
atmosphere of the song. Bought a broken frame, got hooked,
still am on some of the Rainfall, loved Leaving Silence,
and generally wore out the album. And that was that.
And here we are forty five years later, and my

(20:44):
love for this group never fades. You know, I'm with you.
I always thought that CEU sounded rather dark as well,
so I'm with you on that. Then he goes on
to say, can I ask you a question. Sure, let's
pretend and hope they work on a new album. Who
would you like to see produce it? Ooh for me?
Not Alan Wilder second choice, but William Orbit. This would

(21:09):
be a meeting of the minds Sith innovators. Amazing songwriters, dark, atmospheric.
I could go on joining forces with a musical genius,
a synth genius. He's unreal. Look at what he did
for Madonna Ray of Light. He's been through the excesses,
the drugs, recovery experiences. He's quite introverted, like Martin, a

(21:30):
perfect fit. If there ever was one, I think it
would work and might and we might just get something
that would really blow us away. A producer is so important.
It can elevate songs to new levels. That's my wish. Unlikely,
but you never know. Okay, your turn. Who would excite
you as their next producer? Take care John in Dublin.

(21:53):
So it's hard because I'm unfamiliar with a lot of
modern producers of the day. And it's funny because I
was thinking, well, I really like the production work on
a band that I've mentioned before, and that is The
Last Dinner Party, an all female five member piece. Really

(22:14):
really love that band, and they just released a new single,
they have a new album coming out, And then it
dawned on me. I'm like, well, that's dumb. James Ford
produced that their first album and he's already done some producing,
so I guess the name that first popped into my head.
And again it's because I'm limited in terms of who
the modern producers are. But butch Vig, you know, butch

(22:36):
Vig of Garbage still has still been working with Garbage.
Of course, did the remix for in Your Room that
the band ended up playing so often live over the
album version? Well, I prefer the album version. I do
very much enjoy butch Vig's remix of it. As a
matter of fact, on my Friday and Saturday night late

(22:56):
night TV watching, I was on YouTube and I happened
to come across the in Your Room video and they
use that mix for the video. I'd forgotten about that.
His work with Nirvana was obviously spectacular, and I would
love to see what he would do with Depeche Mode,
you know, in sort of this particular era. That being said,

(23:19):
I would be totally fine with James Ford and with
the team of James Ford and Marta Solongney again, I'd
even be okay with Marta Soalongney taking over and her
doing the producing all by her self. I think that
would be spectacular as well. But I could go for
another album of that producing duo. I love the production
work on Memento Mari. By the way, I was unaware

(23:42):
of this. I just found out about this in the
past week that Anton Corbin when he created the in
Your Room video, it has all of the references to
previous Anton Corbin videos by Depeche Mode. So I read
just this week, and I'd only read it in one
so I don't know how entirely true this is. But

(24:03):
according to what I read, Anton did that in the
in Your Room video because it was the last single
off the album that he would be producing a video for,
and he was under the impression that Dave Gon was
gonna die, so that video for in Your Room was
essentially supposed to be like a sendoff, so he did

(24:23):
like a grade heat. He like added in sort of
greatest Hits elements, using that one model slash actress in
the video to go and act out scenes from previous
videos that he had directed. So I had never heard
that before, and again take it with a grain assault
I only heard it from one source that I saw online.
I would I'm fairly certain it was a direct quote

(24:44):
from Anton Corbyn, but you just never know when you
when you see that stuff. So I just thought that
was really that was really interesting, all right, David Theofolt
writes this, I love the question for us listeners. It's
crazy to me how Depeche Mode is such a time
capsule for us. Iheartfans, and how when thinking about this question,
you challenged us with how it took me down a

(25:06):
rabbit hole of emotions of my life and how it
brought back some phenomenal memories for me. With that being said,
I think I've mentioned this on your podcast when I
first listened to you, that people are people with the
song that got me into music and introduced me to DM.

(25:28):
With that being said, I've mentioned this on your podcast,
oh again, But the very first song that I heard
by DA that made me fall in love and knew
at that very point that this was my band was
stripped just the sound the music. Dave's voice was so
ahead of its time then and I just couldn't get
enough pun intended. That song is to this day still

(25:50):
holds up and sounds amazing and one I go back
to often. Side note. September sixth, myself, my daughter and
son will be seeing Oasis at the Bowl, first time
back there since the concert in nineteen eighty eight. Wow,
that's fantastic. I had no idea always this was playing there,
so he wraps up saying thank you for what you do.

(26:10):
Thank you, David for the kind words. You always make
my drive home from work every day on Thursday very enjoyable. Well,
thank you for that. I appreciate it. All right, let's
go next to This comes from Ron. What a great addition,
he writes to the regular pod. I appreciate others analysis

(26:33):
of songs I really like, and you happen to choose
my top favorite live version of Enjoy the Silence. This
version is, in my opinion, the most advanced and intricately
produced Enjoyed the Silence We've ever had, including every tour thereafter.
It's funny, you know, so I went and started wiping

(26:54):
out watching other versions of Enjoy the Silence from other tours,
and he's absolutely right. I will say this though, I
don't know if this makes me a pervert. I don't
think it does. I'm just joking. But my favorite, and
maybe this is a topic for another podcast in the future,
My favorite visual for Enjoy the Silence was on the

(27:18):
Global Spirit tour. I didn't necessarily care for the triangle
video screens, but I thought the contortionists were really interesting,
and I love how at the end of the song
they end up unraveling themselves and moving off of the
of the glass of which they were pressed up against.

(27:39):
It bums me out in the live in Berlin video
footage that the camera doesn't pan back long enough to
see the entirety of the three contortionists uncontorting themselves. If
that's a way to go and say it at the
end of the song. But I really loved that that visual,

(28:02):
So let's get back to Ron's email. Martin's guitar melody
leading out to the song's closure is detailed, much more
interesting than the sound of like strumming of later live versions.
Even the bassline is altered from the original track. I
suspect it was Allan, but whoever produced the backing track
was far was by far diligent, highly creative, and successfully

(28:26):
fought the urge to be lazy and just adopt the
last tours tapes as a phoned in gesture. You're absolutely
spot on. It just doesn't get any better than that.
The song that made me fall in love with depeche Mode.
I can narrow it down to two. The Agro mix
for Never Let Me Down Again and My Secret Garden.

(28:46):
Now for the Agro mix have Never Let Me Down Again.
It was such a new kind of sound for me.
When I first heard it, I replayed it probably four
times before moving on to the rest of the album.
The US version of Music for the Masses, it actually
took me a few of listening to realize it was
a remix. Up until that point, I'd never experienced what
a remix was, and my copy of Music for the

(29:07):
Masses was a cassette rip with no sleeve and no
track listing either. When I finally heard One oh one
in the live versions of the tracks, it clicked what
the agro mix was and made me appreciate Never Let
Me Down so much more. It wasn't for the first
years afterwards that I discovered the split mix and traced

(29:30):
the one oh one live remix origins. You can imagine
how cool it was to hear the live remix during
the World Violation tour and then the Excited tour. The
Agro mix persists. For My Secret Garden, A Broken Frame
was given to me by my friend, again with no
sleeve or other info. Without knowing DM's catalog, I assumed

(29:53):
that excuse me, A Broken Frame released prior to music
for the Masses and Violator, but not by how long.
The sound was so different and melancholic that struck a
brand new tone with me, so to speak. Leavin Silence
was immediately a great track, but Martin Gore spoke to

(30:16):
my rational and pragmatic music sense with its steady one
and eighteen beats per minute maybe one twenty, highly methodical
bassline and progressive repetition in the verses up to the
middle C major key switch with play the full axo
cruel and so on, then abruptly returning to C minor

(30:40):
and repeating the refrain, drawing down to even more abrupt
keyboard mash to close it out. What a fantastic song.
To this day, it is still in my top five
DM tracks and set the tone for what I considered
to be quintessential depeche Mode. Thank you so much for
that detailed analysis, Ron really really do appreciate it. Next up,

(31:02):
we got Brian writing in from Denmark who says thanks
for the fantastic podcast, Thank you very much. I fall
in love. I fell in love with depeche Mode back
in eighty two because of any second Now, me and
my friends had pop quiz where I heard it for
the first time. I didn't know what this, I didn't
know the song, but the next Monday I bought Speak
and Spell in Street Dance Records in Copenhagen. Now, some

(31:26):
forty years later, I have a nice collection of somewhere
between seventeen hundred and nineteen hundred vinyl records, signed guitar
and other collected items. I have dedicated a room in
our new house to my collection. Excellent. Once again, thanks
for your fantastic podcast. To take care and be safe.
All the best, Brian from Denmark. Thank you again, Brian,

(31:48):
I appreciate that all right. Friend of the show, Steve
Link writes this, thanks again for another great podcast. Really
enjoyed your voice over part in the last episode. Enjoy
the Silence is definitely my favorite DM track and always
makes me a smile. Also, like you, when I was
listening to that live version, it gave me goosebumps. I
was trying to think of a catchy title for the

(32:10):
excuse Me song voiceover part of your podcast. How about
songs of faith and narration? Not bad? As for the
DM song that made me love DM. Get the Balance right?
It just sounded so different to the other music that
was around at the time. I loved the combination mix
of that song too. Keep up the great Ork. You're
friend of the show, Steve Link. Thank you, Steve, and again,

(32:33):
you guys are all friends of the show. I appreciate
that all you write in all right. And lastly, Andrew
Fallon writes this. Firstly, he says, many thanks for including
my comments about the BBC documentary Baslin and etc. Greatly appreciated.
You're very welcome. I appreciate you contributing. I just wanted
to add to the conversation about my favorite Depeche Mode album,

(32:54):
Slash Era. My favorite album has to be Black Celebration.
There is something so darkly hypnotic about combining oblikness and
beauty that is hard to resist. At times, it's almost
like some kind of weird dystopian soundscape complimented by Dave's
brooding voice. Yet there are also times when it is
hauntingly beautiful, especially on the songs where Martin sings. This

(33:17):
is the album that first got me into Depeche Mode
in the early nineteen nineties, and not long after this
I was lucky enough to see them on the Devotional tour.
This absolutely blew me away, and part of the appeal
was anton stage set in amazing visuals. I've seen quite
a few bands in my time, including Oasis at Nebworth
in ninety six, but nothing comes close to Depeche Mode
on the devotional tour. After the singles tour and excited,

(33:42):
I kind of lost interest, But on the recent Momento
Mary tour, I think DM came close to recapturing the magic.
Seriously looking forward to seeing Depeche Mode m I think
there's an IMAX's Cinema in Baselton, but it remains to
be seen whether they will do the right thing on
the screen and screen the film there. Keep up the

(34:02):
good work. Best wishes Andrew fallon Essex, England. So thank you, Andrew,
I I appreciate that. Let me wrap on this before
I get to the the song narration for this for
this week, and that is I ended up spending some
time again over the course of the past week listening

(34:22):
to the entirety of Memento MORI and I had a
bit of a theory I'm probably off based on this, however,
you know, I was thinking back to the many conversations
that we've had on the show, especially pointing out you know,
week tracks and strong tracks on albums, and Depeche Mode
has always had this level of consistency regardless of record

(34:45):
of you know, two or three songs that are always
just amazing standouts. I think what differentiates what we often
refer to as Devot's as good albums and bad albums
as the quality of the songs outside of those those
tracks that we all sort of universally enjoy usually swirling

(35:06):
around the singles of every album, right, And while there
certainly is a quality difference, I don't doubt that or
deny that in the least bit. I do think we
listened to albums differently, especially when we were younger. You know,
when we were younger, at least for me, there was
more of an apologetic attitude that we had, especially towards
Depeche Mode. When anything new came out, you were clamoring

(35:28):
to listen to every single bit of it. And I
know we still do that now, but as adults were,
you know, we exercise a little bit more discretion. All
that is to say that I was thinking back across
all of the albums and then going back to you
know what I consider the you know, the the Apex
Mountain albums again that songs of Faith in Devotion, Violator,
Music for the Masses, Black Celebration, and while across those tracks,

(35:51):
I would certainly say that there are stronger subsequent songs
on those albums. You know, not all of them are
that strong. I think our attitudes to words listening to
the albums changed. I know that I spent so much
time wiping out on those records in that era that
you know, just you memorize every single moment, you hear,

(36:12):
every little bit, and you just you fall in love
with them. And That's what I'm getting at, You fall
in love with those albums where you end up accepting
their flaws. As time progresses and we continue to get
Depeche Mode albums, and granted, the quality changed because of Alan.
Leaving that being said, I do think that we also
changed as we grew up, and we were again less

(36:33):
inclined to allow ourselves to fall in love in the
album with an album. I say all that because I've
spent more time with Memento Maury than I have with
all the other albums after Ultra, and I really have
fallen in love with Memento Moriy even though I can
arguably say that there are tracks on that album that

(36:55):
are weaker than say some of the tracks that aren't
the singles from Delta Machine or Spirit, just to name
those two albums. And I can't help but wonder that
if I had approached personally Delta Machine or Spirit in
the same way that I approached those albums back when
I was a teenager that I fell in love with. Again,

(37:17):
the quality's better, But if I had, if I would
have fallen in love and appreciated Delta Machine and Spirit
more so. Spirit's a tough one. There are songs on
that I just can't get by. But I'm gonna do
an experiment, and I'm gonna spend some time listening to
Delta Machine and just over the course of maybe I'll
do it between now in next week's episode and just

(37:39):
sort of exclusively listen to that album front to back
and see if I have a different attitude towards it.
I did this once a couple of years back, when
I traveled to Denver after my buddy Matt was so
gracious to take me to that show on the Memento
Maori tour. When I got off the plane, I don't

(38:00):
remember why I did it, but I put on Spirit
and it really became the soundtrack for that weekend of
one of my least favorite Depeche Mode albums. But I
remember leaving the airport having my headphones and listening to
that album and just loving it in a way that
I hadn't before. I was on my bike earlier this week,
the weather was just spectacular here in Minnesota over the

(38:23):
course of the past week, really felt like fall temperatures
after experiencing some pretty grotesque, muggy, muggy heat, and I
was listening to Memento Moriy and I just had this.
I had this nostalgic vibe listening to it that I
hadn't had really in a long time, and I was
taken back to riding my BMX bike listening on my

(38:45):
walkman to music for the masses. Except here I am
on a mountain bike as a fifty three year old
dude listening to the most recent Depeche Mode album from
this band that I love, whose members are now in
their sixties. So it was a really, really interest moment.
And I'd love to hear your thoughts. I don't know
if I'm just doing one of my wild devoteee agents

(39:05):
and if it makes any sense or not. But I
just wanted to share that with you, all right, For
you podcast listeners, don't go anywhere. For you YouTube watchers,
thank you so much for checking out the show before
I let you go. If you enjoy reading science fiction
or listening to science fiction, I already know you love
depeche Mode. I hope you'll treat yourself a friend or
a family member to science fiction. I've written a seven

(39:28):
book science fiction space opera adventure series. It's called Embark
After Earth Faces Its End. You'll follow pilot's Taff Keitha
and their crew on a journey of survival across the
galaxy as they fight for humanity's future. It is a fun,
fast paced, and action packed science fiction adventure without an agenda.
It's got references direct and indirect to depeche Mode throughout

(39:53):
all of the books, but certainly in book one. These
are epic science fiction novels, easy read, so filled with romance,
a lot of unique action sequences, cool technology you got.
You know, this is not hard. This is not hard
sci fi by any stretch. I take liberties with the
science in my books. But if you do love depeche Mode,

(40:13):
and you enjoy reading or listening to science fiction, check
out Embark. I wrote it for adults, but it is
completely age appropriate for those eleven and older. Head on
over to Amazon dot com and pick up your preferred version,
whether it's ebook, free on Kindle, unlimited, hardcover paperback, or
audiobook again at Amazon dot com. So for the YouTube listeners,

(40:35):
thank you so much for hanging out. I'll talk to
you again next week. If you want to hear the
rest of the show, be sure to go find the
podcast on whatever podcast platform that you happen to listen to.
All right, for you podcast listeners, this brings us to
the song narration portion of the show, and this week
I'm going to highlight a song that made me fall

(40:55):
in love with depeche Mode, and that was Here is
the House. I appreciate Here is the House on a
number of different levels. I like the directness of this
song and at the time, you know, being a very
young teenager and beginning to understand what it meant to
have strong emotional attractions to females, right, Here's the House

(41:18):
just resonated with me. It was this soundscape of an
event that I was desperate to go and have happen,
and it starts with the beginning of the song. To
be honest, now, in the track that I have here,
I'm just playing the song itself, so it doesn't have
the run up of the ticking clock from the previous

(41:40):
track on Black Celebration. But I want to start there
because that clock tick at the beginning of here here
is the House. While it's a remnant from the song
before on the album, I like the way that it
sets the stage. And I doubt that Martin Gore intended this,
but for me it really symbolized in the song, just

(42:03):
the ticking of time and the lyrical content of here
is the House and the story that it's telling. Time
would be of the essence if you're there sharing an
experience with a loved one, a person that you're attracted to.
You know they say time is relative. You know time
moves quickly. You want time to last, and in those

(42:26):
moments when you're sharing these experiences, these experiences of love
and attraction, you know, time becomes important because your time
is limited, especially at a young age, whether you snuck
off to your bedroom and your parents are unaware, or
you're stealing a moment at somebody's house. At this age,

(42:46):
when your parents aren't home or you're in a location somewhere,
you don't have all the time in the world to
share these experiences. And this song about having a moment
with somebody with that ticking clock in the beginning really
again did sort of establish the emotional aspect of the
song that really resonated with me. Here is a.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Were it all happens, those tendermongs.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Under this body comes Agather. As we come closer to Agather,
as it happens, it happens. And one of the aspects
I love about this song is how it just it

(43:39):
kind of creeps up on you. It almost comes off
as this ballad before it morphs into a dance track
as the lyrics progress of the story unfolds.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Its like, let's stay God, I'm gonna stop down here
for just a moment because the song's not gonna offer

(44:10):
me the opportunity within just the.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
Musical portions, the instrumental portions of the of the song,
but the lyrical content here in You know, I think
that Martin when he was writing the song, was you know,
looking for a transition in terms of what he's going
to write. You know, there's somebody calling on the telephone
making sure he has something that rhymes with the previous stanza.

(44:38):
That being said there, it still works from the standpoint
of you're going to dismiss that phone call. You're here
in a moment with this other person that you don't
want to escape from that you don't want to ruin.
You're not gonna go and answer the phone because you
don't want to break away from the experience that you're
having right now while you chair is every single moment,

(45:02):
and as the song progresses and the music progresses, it
just it has this flow and rhythm to it where
you think you're walking into one song and then you
end up in the middle of this soundscape of a
song that really sort of sucked you in was very
seductive and what you were about to experience. I just

(45:26):
always love that line. You get the extra beats that
kick in the song really starts to get into overdrive

(45:48):
as the layers that build a on themselves, I mean
as a hallmark of depeche Mode, right, and this song
does it just as good, if not better, than so
many other tracks that came before or after it.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
My own side, What's going on inside.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
God, John, I've always loved the idea of being in
love right, especially at a young age, wanting to find
love and being so incredibly inexperienced at the time in relationships. Right,
this song was almost like a glimpse into the future.

(46:46):
This is what I wanted love to feel like, This
is what I expected love would feel like, for better
or for worse. Depeche Mode was like my relationship training
and what I longed or in a female companion, where

(47:12):
it almost ends up becoming a musical analogy to an
intimate moment in time, as in those moments things ramp
up just as the song does. It's an absolutely incredible
track and probably in my view, one of their most
underrated tracks. Almost as if when the song starts, you

(47:38):
just never imagined you be in this place that you
are right now listening to the songs, sending off that
vibe that you just don't want it to end, and

(47:58):
yet at the end it offers up the perfect crescendo, right,
the perfect the perfect come down to this emotional moment.
You know it sounds cliche, no, that's the right word,

(48:23):
but honestly, like Depeche Mode taught me how I taught
me how to love or taught me how I wanted
to love. And then at the end, of course, you
get the ticking clock once again indicative of just how
important time is to all of these intimate moments. And
I love the fact that, you know, for all the

(48:44):
ambiguity within Depeche Mode songs, I greatly appreciate those moments
when Martin Gore would write directly. You know, there's no
mincing words about what this song is is about, and
they're in lis part of the beauty of it because
while it is so direct in his lyrical content, and
there's no question what Martin was pulling upon in terms

(49:06):
of his motivation for writing the song, you can easily
go and take the song and apply it to so
many personal situations. You know that maybe you know and
are completely far removed from why Martin did, but just
that feeling of being in love and what it's like
to be in love and to share those experiences with somebody,
you know, in a house. It sounds, you know, trite

(49:29):
to say that, but that's the name of the song.
So that's the song that made me fall in love
with Depeche Mode at a time when I was learning
how to love, and that song was really of great assistance.
Thank you so much for checking out the show today.
I really do appreciate it. I love the fact you
guys listen every single week and write in. I really do.

(49:50):
I started this as just I love Depeche Mode. I'm
gonna do a weekly podcast, and I when I started,
I don't even know how many years ago I started
the podcast. Now, I never would have imagined that I
would be sitting here again, continuing to do the show
all these years later, and yet here here we are,
so all right with that. As always, email me talkshow
Nerd at gmail dot com, leave a comment up on

(50:11):
YouTube as well, and we'll wrap like we always do
here on Depeche Mode the Podcast. I hope wherever you are,
you're happy, you're healthy, you're safe, Hug your loved one,
close call a friend or a family member you haven't
talked to in a while, and I'll talk to you

(50:32):
guys again next week. Bye, I Love. This is months
go one alright, said Fresh Love, and you are just
and depeche Mode the Podcast. Be well, Be safe,

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Depeche Mode: the podcast - What Song Made You A Fan?

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