YEAR IN THE HOUSE - DEPECHE MODE'S 2020

 

2020 has been an unparalleled car crash of a year. From diseases the world can't shake to the rampant buffoonery of the likes of Messrs Trump and Johnson, no-one will look back on 2020 with any fondness. We've all tried to carry on as normal of course and, for this blog and for most of you reading, that has involved a lot of Depeche Mode related activity. It's been a busy year for the band and, even though that doesn't seem to have involved a new album, there has been plenty to take in this year.

At the end of a frankly laughable year, here then is a review of Depeche Mode's 2020. See you all in 2021.

JANUARY

Not much Depeche related in January. Everything seemed normal then really didn't it?

FEBRUARY

February the 28th saw the world finally find out about Live Spirits.  The official site gave us this press release and everyone pencilled May 1st in their diaries as the date we'd see the live film from the tour that had ended months ago. Like everything this year, that didn't quite go to plan

MARCH

In certainly not affiliated in any way to Depeche Mode news, this blog ran a month long project celebrating Violator's 30th anniversary. If you want to see how that went, check out the 31 articles right here

The band also announced the release of the much anticipated and frankly gorgeous Violator: The 12" Singles boxset. This picture caused an almost peak Beatlemania style outpouring of joy from the DM fanbase. Well, the part of it that buys repeated versions of the same thing over and over again. The part that includes me.

Meanwhile, here in Scotland and in most parts of Europe, we went into a brief lockdown. That sounded like a novel concept then - a few days "working from home" would be just what everyone needed to have a break and watch this flu like thing disappear from view as quickly as it entered. We'd all be back at work in a few weeks and we'd look back on this and laugh. Oh.

APRIL

The world went bananas basically. Depeche Mode stayed quiet. We all did really.

MAY

The world continued to go crazy. The only thing that could save it was the long awaited release of Live Spirits. May started as May always does with May 1st and that was the DVD release date as announced by the band (see February above). It didn't happen though. It was put back to June. 

JUNE

June was a busy month. Firstly, June 14th saw the 40th anniversary of Dave's first appearance with the band who were then known as Composition Of Sounds. I wrote about that here.

Next, 23 months after the tour ended, Live Spirits arrived, presenting a fairly flat version of both Waldbuhne gigs. The DVD was hotly anticipated by all Depeche fans but it sadly didn't satisfy. I reviewed it in July here.

Thankfully, we had Liverpool's Premiership win to lift both the Live Spirits and the Covid-19 gloom. I'm sure we can all agree that Jurgen's boys winning the title was a really 2020 highlight right? 

JULY

July brought us the majestic, beautiful and every other word in any known language that means those things Violator: The 12" Singles boxset.

Despite spending a whole month repeatedly writing the word Violator, I went into the boxset in the sort of depth that worries my non Depeche fan friends - reach out and click this

AUGUST

Another month free of new Depeche Mode news. There was other news of course but it was unrelentingly grim.

SEPTEMBER

The official site burst back into life this month with an announcement about the Songs Of Faith And Devotion: The 12" Singles boxset.

Once again, people got very excited.

OCTOBER

A new month and more new release news. The long awaited and much anticipated Anton Corbijn Depeche Mode photobook was announced. ACDM was a large, massively expensive thing that was limited in number and weighed the size of a small car. It's full of wonderful photographs and everyone that bought one (I didn't) was delighted. The people who bought it simply to sell it on Ebay deserve to have all the scorn there is in the world poured on them.

Obviously, I felt the need to tell everyone what I thougth of it - DMAPA

The Songs Of Faith And Devotion: The 12" Singles boxset also arrived this month. As you would expect, I went mad about it and wrote a blog that featured a photo of everyone of of the matt black inner sleeves in each 12".

Normally I'd say that I really should get out more but that wasn't really possible this year.

NOVEMBER

On the 7th of November, the band were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Being from Britain, I have no real idea why this is a big thing but it's great to see Depeche Mode get recognised as being a band worthy of this honour. It was fantastic to see their acceptance video. Dave's speech was great and Martin's chuckling and Fletch's larking around made for a great watch. They all look healthy and in great spirits and that is wonderful to see.  Dave even ended the video by telling Martin to "get back to the studio." Did that mean that something new was being worked on?

Well yes, but not a new Depeche Mode thing. November 17th saw the announcement of Martin's next MG project, the seemingly monkey themed e.p. The Third Chimpanzee. As the kids say, that "drops" in January and I'm very much looking forward to it.

Finally, November also saw the delivery of the DMAC books most of which were actually taller than the people who now owned them.

And Trump lost. Good times.

DECEMBER

There has been no Depeche Mode news yet this month but there are still 11 days to go. 

That was Depeche Mode's 2020. What will we see from them in 2021? There's the MG e.p. obviously and we'll no doubt see the Ultra and possibly Exciter 12" boxsets at some point this year. 2021 will also see the 40th anniversary of the release of Dreaming Of Me and Speak And Spell.  Will the band celebrate those in any way? Will we get new album news? 

As we continue to suffer with all things Covid related, in the small corner of the world that is Depeche Mode related, it's always cheering to get news of some sort. If there is any this year, the blog will bring you that along with the usual nonsense including the "I've bitten off more than I can chew this time" Singles project that is already behind schedule.  There will be news about Halo this year too.

As ever, I still can't believe that people read and like this blog and I continue to be touched by everything everyone says about it. Thank you very much for reading and I look forward to more Mode related nonsense next year.

Meanwhile, please stay safe and take care of yourselves.

DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 5: THE MEANING OF LOVE

After See You had shown everyone that Depeche Mode were still very much able to carry on with a new songwriter, the band followed Martin's synthpop masterpiece with another poppy love song. Let's be honest, it's not their best single, but it did pretty well considering its fairly synthpop-by-numbers approach, curious lyrics about "wanting a scar" and a video that is quite terrible. Despite all that though, it's still better than everything about Hole To Feed and it has a glorious B-side. Here is the story of The Meaning Of Love.

FAIRLY ODD - THE MEANING OF LOVE

The Single

The Meaning Of Love was released on 26th April 1982. 11 years later, Walking In My Shoes would be released on the same day - one single a towering, dark masterpiece with a sound that is the essence of Depeche Mode and the other the second single from Songs Of Faith And Devotion. Ho ho.

The single entered the charts on 8th May at number 34 and this appearance on Top Of The Pops on 6th May helped it rocket up the charts to number 12 the following week. Martin had only just finished his shift on a fishing trawler as you can see from his clothing. 

Number 12 on 15th May was as high as the single would get however and it then tumbled from there to 17, back up to 15 curiously, back down to 17 and then 21, 46 and 72 before leaving the Top 75 forever.

It was reasonably well received in the music press. Smash Hits said it was "as damn near perfect as a record could be," which is perhaps a bit much, before adding that the song was "truly scrumptious."  Smash Hits also printed the lyrics and a picture of the still officially three piece band in its 28th April edition

Sounds was less complimentary, claiming "the lead melody line is musically identical to their last hit" which isn't really true.

As we'd learn when A Broken Frame was released, The Meaning Of Love was clearly not the direction in which Martin's song writing was headed. In hindsight, it's very much an exception to the general theme of the album and it stands out along with A Photograph Of You as being almost too poppy for the record. Pre A Broken Frame however, pop songs were what Depeche Mode did, or were at least what was expected of Depeche Mode, so it's perhaps no surprise that The Meaning Of Love was picked to follow See You. It was a safe choice and certainly a wiser choice than A Broken Frame's other full on pop track A Photograph Of You. That would have been a bad move.

As a song, The Meaning Of Love is fine but nothing special. Martin clearly came up with the lyrical concept before the lyrics however.

"Dave?"

"Yes Martin"

"How would you describe something other people tell you that you want or need when you don't want that thing itself?"

"I dunno. I'd just say no thanks to whatever it was being offered."

"Hmmmm...and if you'd made notes about it?"

"Are you ok Martin?"

"You know....if you'd researched something, made notes but still couldn't see why people thought you should have it...if you said it seemed that wanting it was like wanting something really odd?"

"........"

"Look, Dave. Help me here. From the notes I've made so far, love seems something like wanting...."

"I have no idea Martin. A car? A bar? A guitar. Actually, a guitar would work because we use nothing but synths. A guitar Martin. There."

"A scar Dave?"

"Love seems something like wanting to be badly cut enough that your skin ends up disfigured Martin? Almost certainly not. No. Don't use scar."

That conversation probably happened.

The Meaning Of Love quickly joined the band's live set, debuting at the 20th January 1982 show at Crocs and featuring another 133 times before last being heard live on 10th March 1984 at University in Madrid. Little did the gig goers that night realise that they were witnessing musical history.

The B-side of the single is far more interesting than the A-side. Oberkorn (It's A Small Town) is named after the, would you believe it, small town of, that's right. Oberkorn in Luxembourg. Martin told Jonathan Miller all about it:

"Instead we found ourselves pulling into a tiny village called Oberkorn. It was a curious kind of village with a population that would hardly fill the first few rows of any ordinary theatre, so it was quite a fascination for us to find out just what would happen. Instead of our gig being to a handful of people, the place was packed as the audience came from all around and even from across the borders. But there was an interesting twist to this concert. When we got back to our hotel our record company told us that whilst the A-side of our single was all set, they needed a title rapidly for the B-side. We're never all that good with names and the first thing that sprang to mind was the name of this village, Oberkorn. So that's the title we used!"

Footage of the gig on 30th March 1982 recently appeared on RTL Today and you can watch it here - Oberklick (It's A Small Piece Of Footage)

It doesn't feature Oberkorn (It's A Small Town) sadly. The song itself is an instrumental but a gloriously haunting one. It's one of those synth instrumentals that only the early 80's era was capable of producing really, all gloomy swooshes and uplifting melodies. Brilliant. The song would eventually appear on the band's setlist, appearing 47 times on the A Broken Frame tour. You can hear part of it before My Secret Garden on the ...And Live Tracks 12" of Get The Balance Right. ("Good evening everybody.")

THE VIDEO

This video is on drugs. It starts with children playing with building blocks before Depeche Mode and a mystery fourth man (he was apparently called Alan Wilder and he had some role in the band. As your grandparents) appear in front of  very glitzy backdrop that is an obvious fire hazard. Oddly, Dave is holding a book but that's because he's read "more than a hundred" of them and he throws it away, no doubt in a visual joke that will please all fans of that sort of thing. Hang on...more than a hundred? DOES THAT MEAN THAT BOOK WAS BOOK 101 AND THIS WAS THEREFORE ALL PART OF SOME MAGNIFICENT PLAN? DOES IT?

No, no it doesn't. Stop that. We move on from Dave throwing about Book 101 (...hang on....) and we find him peeking through a keyhole at a ballet dancer. It turns out he's not just being a peeping tom as,  all of a sudden, he literally becomes pie eyed, which is a way people in Britain had back then of saying that someone was in love with someone else. The phrase makes no sense of course but that doesn't stop the visual gag slamming home as mightily as the book one earlier. Anyway, Dave then dusts the pastry from his eyes and gets back to the day job of being a scientist. He looks into a microscope and sees Fletch as what I can only describe as one massive sperm singing to him, closely followed by Martin. We mercifully return to the live set part where the band all take it in turns pointing at Dave and singing "I've never been in love before," before we obviously move to a shot of 60's children's puppets Pinky & Perky dancing around. By this point, you have no idea what's going on anymore.

Dave then starts eyeing up the dancer from a park bench in a park where she is somewhat inexplicably dancing. His whole head then turns into a pie which is just baffling. There is no such phrase as "Pie Headed." Dave loses the pie and hands the dancer flowers and they fall in love. Pinky & Perky return, this time operated by Dave in front of the other band members who have another sing and jiggle around, before we head home to Dave And The Dancer, now married and very much out of love. They have a row and she throws things at Dave, presumably having just been played the Hole To Feed demo. Quite brilliantly, and I genuinely mean that, a piece of debris flies towards the TV on which we see the band in action and they all duck. Very good that. The one positive thing to emerge from Dave And The Dancer's marriage which was no doubt the talk of the tabloids by that point ("All Gahan Wrong" etc) was their child which is probably a boy (that haircut makes it hard to tell). He has worked out that love has its ups and downs and, noting his parents' behaviour, Child Of Dave And The Dancer, calmly uses his building blocks to spell out the song title. 

Just goes to show you eh? Or does it? I have no idea. There's a lot packed into that video and I've just watched it three times in a row. I wrote more than I intended to about it and now need a lie down.

The Formats

Once again, there were only two formats released in Britain.

Firstly, there's the 7" which remarkably enough features the A-Side and B-Side described above. The sleeve (above) is different to the 12" which is a nice touch I always think and, like See You before it, takes a very literal approach to depicting the song title. 

The labels are a nice touch too. Here's the A-Side

Here is the B-Side

There are 7 different variations of the 7" if you're the sort of troubled soul who needs them all. See depmod.com for details.

The 12" (front cover at the top of the page) features two remixes. On the A-Side, the literal interpretation theme of the video and sleeve is followed with the Fairly Odd Mix of The Meaning Of Love. It's just under 5 minutes long and lives up to its name. Much in the way remixes do now, it adds a few extra beats and ambles along before going all bleepy and odd about 1 minute 30 in. It's the sort of thing that people would proclaim revolutionary if the Aphex Twin released it on its own. The song returns and we get back on track with the middle 8 of the song before the Aphex Twin re-emerges. 

Once again, and this is all getting a bit annoying now, we go back to the middle 8 of the song. All of a sudden, someone (maybe Martin? I imagine a lot of you know the answer) says "What do you want to do then? What can we do" which is something of a surprise. The last of the Aphex Twin returns with Dave trying to sing over him before the song we all know and partially love appears in a seemingly different key to the remix and the whole experience ends. Not fairly odd, very odd. Very odd indeed.

The B-Side is Oberkorn (It's A Small Town) (Development Mix). Not only is it a much better remix name, but it is also a much better track. It's 7 minutes 39 seconds of quite glorious instrumental goodness and is yet another B-Side from that era that you really must familiarise yourself with.

The UK CD Single reissue campaign in 1991 assembled the 4 tracks from the release in the one place:

As ever, there are a couple of nice foreign formats to have a look at. The German red vinyl 7" is a lovely thing, both on the A-side

and the B-Side

The 12" was released on yellow vinyl too.

If you want one, the cheapest currently on Discogs is £64. Pricey.

Once again, the Intercord blue stripe CD from Germany is a must have. No-one ever knows why that is the case by the way. I certainly don't yet I collect them. 

There were also various releases in Belgium, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Australia.

And with that we leave The Meaning Of Love. Its place in Depeche history is secure, not because of the video (THAT MUST HAVE BEEN BOOK 101 - THIS IS EXTRAORDINARY etc) but because of the single that followed it. Leave In Silence clearly signposted the way Depeche Mode were heading but only after The Meaning Of Love showed us the way out of the first phase of the band's career.

We'll have a look at Martin's first go at making "violence" rhyme with "silence" next time.