DEPECHE MODE - THE SINGLES 1981 TO 2021 PART 9: LOVE IN ITSELF

 

Construction Time Again is a glorious album and I will fight you in the pub car park of your choosing if you say otherwise. I will say however, that it is an album that lacks in obvious singles, Everything Counts aside. The songs have a harsher feel to them and each one has a rough edge or two that makes it an unlikely chart smash.

The only exception to that is Love In Itself. It's a song that has all the light industrial feel of the rest of the album but is somehow weaker; if the songs on the album were football players, you'd pick Love In Itself to go in goals. It's a lovely song and certainly not without many charms but it's not the most memorable single the band have produced. That said, it has wonderfully named remixes, superb artwork, world class labels and yet another superb limited edition 12".

I'm convinced. I love it. Here is the story of this underrated goalkeeper...sorry...single, BONG4, Love In Itself.

ALL THE WORDS THAT WERE SAID - LOVE IN ITSELF

The Single

Love In Itself was released on 19th September 1983, a few weeks after Construction Time Again. The band remixed it for release, calling the 7" version Love In Itself 2 with admirable numerical logic. The remix is a slight perkier version of the album track really and equally enjoyable.  As an aside, do take the chance to listen to Martin's demo of the track on the ever majestic DM Live Wiki - click in itself

Love In Itself initially crawled into the charts at number 35 on 1st October, climbing its way to number 26 the following week. The next week it only gained two places, but thankfully our intrepid heroes had a plan. Let's get all tanned somehow, make Alan tuck his polo shirt into his chinos whie playing drums, give Martin a ...checks notes...guitar (??)) and let's go on the 20th October Top Of The Pops.

Note that Martin has stolen Alan's Everything Counts xylophone. I'm also convinced that young Martin has had a beer or two here. Anyway, fashion horrors aside (that jacket Dave?) this appearance did the trick and sent the song ROCKETING UP THE CHARTS to...ah....number 21. It went to 22, 35 and then 62 and then vanished. 

The reviews were ok. It got Single Of The Week in Smash Hits for example. British national treasure Lenny Henry was the guest reviewer that week and he seemed to like it:

The bees' knees indeed. As you can see, Lenny said what all Depeche fans of that era said -  a guitar? A REAL PIANO? Don't worry, Depeche Mode weren't going all S****** B*****.  Geoff Barton in Souds was probably being complimentary when he said that "(N)othing short of driving a rusty meathook through Dave Gahan's malformed cranium" would prevent it being a hit.  Number 1 magazine said "Unfortunately, the record as a whole, though 100% less weedy than 'Everything Counts', is just so cluttered. Someone seems to be throwing cutlery around in the chorus break, Sweep makes an appearance on the last verse. And is that a train on the fade-out?" 

Yes it was a train, So what?

Unlike Everything Counts, Love In Itself has not proved to be a live favourite of the band's, It's a single the band seem to have forgotten as it's only been played live 47 times, last being heard live on 10th March 1984 at University in Madrid. Farewell, Love In Itself. We barely knew you.

The B-side was an absolute joy. Presumably Alan Wilder's parts for The Great Outdoors! and Work Hard were the good parts as the band trusted him with a B-Side of his own. Fools is a wonderful track and that is that. It's never been played live and that's probably right, but, as B-sides go, it's superb. Nice work Alan.

The Video

As ever, the stellar detective work of the epic Depeche Mode Classic Photos & Videos Facebook Group springs to life here, telling us this rather odd video was filmed in Dan-Yr-Ogof and Cathedral Caves in South Wales in the Brecon Beacons National Park. Quite why the song screamed CAVE VIDEO, no-one knows but the video is worth watching if only for the band's tans, Fletch's slicked back hair and Martin's "I don't care if it is a cave, I AM wearing bondage gear and THAT's THAT."

There's a pylon, caves too tall for the band (except Martin) to walk under, the Basildon Boyzone element pretending to play trumpets for the trumpet sound line (you're singing it right now), lots of Dave singing, Martin playing an actual guitar (BURN HIM. AND THE GUITAR), fire, more pretend trumpets and so on. Nothing much happens really. It's not bad, it's not good, it's just a video.

The video you'd put in goals if it and the other videos were being picked for a football team. Apart from Hole To Feed. You'd just ignore that.

The Formats

The 7" single came in the cover above. It shows the Construction Time Again man and he's clearly used his big hammer to build two scaffolding towers but, that odd imagery aside (he was already up the mountain surely?), it's superb, The label is great too, copying the album label design beautifully. Every inch of this was thought through and it's brilliant.

The rear side and B-side label are equally lovely.

12BONG4 is something every Depeche fan must own. Firstly, the cover (above) is just magical, taking the 7" cover and adding information about the tracks down the right hand side. How could anyone want any more? The one track on the A-Side is worth the price of admission alone. It's a 12" remix and it's called Love In Itself 3. That remix title is so good, the actual remix itself is barely relevant. Happily. Love In Itself 3 is yet another textbook early Depeche Mode 12" remix. I love it

The B-side features two tracks. Fools (Bigger) isn't actually a larger version of the track but a remixed, longer one and it's great. Love In Itself 4, which was originally named as Cocktail on early masters, is a lounge style version of the song, showing that Depeche Mode could actually play guitar and piano. "Are you not going to click now then?" Yes Martin, yes we are. 

There was another L12 too. L12BONG4 was the third and final instalment of the series that gave us the first recorded glimpse of the live Depeche Mode. Again, it came in a faux leather style, numbered sleeve with more gold piping than was necessary. The A-Side gave us Love In Itself 2.

The B-side added four more songs from the gig at Hammersmith Odeon on 25th October 1982 - Just Can't Get Enough, A Photograph Of You, Shout! and Photographic. I presume that swapping A Photograph Of You for The Sun And The Rainfall was too much to ask for eh? Still, add this to the previous two L12s and you have a stunning record of early Depeche Mode. Three perfect 12" singles. The 1991 CD single reissue put Love In Itself 2, 3 and 4 together with both versions of Fools:

Away from the UK, let's first go to Germany. There was of course a red vinyl 7" with an A-Side (above)...

...and a B-side. The coloured vinyl 12" is a glorious slab of industrial grey vinyl:

That's magnificent. The B-side is too:

The tracklisting is the same as the UK 12". The tracklisting on the blue stripe Intercord CD however adds Love Itself 2 albeit it puzzlingly calls it Love In Itself 2 (Original 7" version).

There is also a bewilderingly rare German cassette single version of the 12". "Don't you have this David you amateur?" you ask. Well, no, no I don't. There is onve available on Discogs as I type which you may want to buy. It "only" costs £980. Seriously, what the hell is going on? Were there only 2 of these made or something? Are they gold plated? Madness.

There was of course a German L12 too. Firstly, there was a standard, boring black vinyl version:

Still a lovely thing of course. It featured the same tracks as the UK L12

Intercord didn't fail us and they produced this stunning coloured vinyl version:

The B-side is equally appealing:

As with the previous two singles, there is also a CD version:

That adds Love In Itself 3 to the L12 tracks albeit it calls it Love In Itself 3 (Original 12" Mix) which is needlessly confusing

As it did with its versions of the two previous L12s, France added an extra track, namley Love In Itself 3 (Original 12" Mix) to the A-Side and left the B-side as it was.

There is also a 4 track CD single and a 6 track numbered version of the L12:

There are a couple of different CD versions of that too and any number of other releases from other countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, New Zealand, Spain and Sweden. 

It may not have been their biggest chart success, nor may it be their most beloved single, but Love In Itself is a fine release. Great remixes, great artwork and another great L12. 

The band didn't stand still and soon headed to Hansa again, this time to record an album rather than just mix it. That would lead to the band releasing their biggest UK single to date, having success in Germany and reaching number 1 in Germany. 

We'll see, erm, why that should be next time.

DEPECHE MODE - GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT - CONSTRUCTION TIME AGAIN & 1983

DEPECHE MODE - GETTING THE RIGHT BALANCE - CONSTRUCTION TIME AGAIN AND 1983

1983 is the start of the classic Depeche Mode era. Over the next ten years they would transform themselves from a poppy act with a fairly limited appeal to the world's first stadium filling electronic group influencing everyone from Derrick May to Trent Reznor on the way. The era I'm about to look at showed that Depeche were much more than simply a Basildon synthpop band who liked acting like clowns on Noel Edmonds' Swap Shop

4 months after A Broken Frame was released a brand new Depeche Mode single landed in the shops. Lyrically dodgy with a terrifyingly bad video (below) Get The Balance Right was released on 31 January 1983 

backed on 7 " (7BONG2 - below left) with the new instrumental The Great Outdoors. The Great Outdoors is notable only for the fact that it is a joint effort of Martin Gore and then new boy Alan Wilder. Alan was now a fully fledged band member with this single being his debut. Quite why the band chose to mark it by releasing one of their most baffling instrumentals is beyond me but it was a nice welcome for him I suppose. Get The Balance Right is a great song however despite some of its words. The bass line alone is worth checking this song out and indeed this tune along with its 12" remix is said to have been highly influential in Detroit techno circles. Baffling but true. The 12" (12BONG2) (right)

had three tracks - Get The Balance Right (Combination Mix), The Great Outdoors and a live version of Tora! Tora! Tora! from the Hammersmith Odeon on the Broken Frame tour. The Combination mix really is fantastic. It was 

the best Depeche remix to date and really took the song to a new place. The live Tora! Tora! Tora! is pretty much what you'd expect. No doubt sensing that there were people like me in the world the band released their first Limited Edition numbered 12" (left) (L12BONG2) in support of the single. It features the 7" version of Get The Balance Right plus 4 live tracks again from the Hammersmith Show - My Secret Garden (with an excellent intro using Oberkorn (It's a Small Town)), See You, Satellite and Tora! Tora! Tora! As it turned out this was the first of 3 such limited edition 12" singles in 1983 all with live tracks. Together they form a good record of Depeche live at the time and are worth a listen. The packaging is rather cool too. The German editions came in a red 7", a red vinyl version of the standard 12" (nice) and a marvelous blue vinyl limited 12". There are also German cd singles of the 12" and the limited 12" which adds the Combination mix to the tracklist albeit confusingly called Original 12" mix. So there you go.

My Get The Balance Right collection

Get The Balance Right was good but what followed on 11 July was not only their best single to date but also a landmark tune for all Depeche Mode fans - Everything Counts. Yes it has the slightly odd line about Korea and yes the video shows them tooling about miming on xylophones BUT you cannot ignore the genius of this song. The record buying public clearly agreed with me as the sing reached number 6 in the charts. As with the forthcoming album, the track 

was mainly recorded in London but mixed in Berlin's legendary Hansa studios, where the band made full use of the 64 track recording facility. The band's experimentation in this period is what makes it so fascinating. Martin was being influenced by bands such as Einsturzende Neubauten and was intent on mixing their industrial sounds with Depeche's pop ones. This really was quite a statement by the band given their pop status. Again, I'm biased but they were years ahead of their time here. Everything Counts has a much harder sound than anything that went before it (yes, even A Photograph of You) but it still retains its pop hooks. The 7" (7BONG3) was backed with Work Hard (right) which whilst by no means a classic is a decent enough song with a fair bit of metal bashing. The 12" (below) (12BONG3) came with two tracks - the East End mix of Work Hard

and the frankly top notch mix of the A side Everything Counts (In Larger Amounts).

 This remix really is great and its name is fantastic. As with Get The Balance Right a limited edition numbered 12" (right) (L12BONG3) was released featuring the 7" version of Everything Counts and live versions of New Life, Boys Say Go, Nothing To Fear and The Meaning of Love. Again, the packaging is great here - I love the logos the band used in the period such as the hand on the Everything Counts singles. Overall, the artwork was improving significantly on the band's earlier releases. I've not really mentioned the artwork in previous articles as the pictures really do speak for themselves the brillant A Broken Frame cover excepted. Whilst the 1983 era is no Violator era Corbijn genius (which I will drool on endlessly about in the future) the artwork for the singles and album have a consistency and a theme which was both a first and very important for the band. Finally German editions come in a red vinyl 7", and clear vinyl versions of both the standard and limited edition 12" singles. Finally there were two cd singles - one of the 12" and one of the limited edition again adding the 12" remix. The video is the first one the band say they were truly happy with. See below for the evidence.

My Everything Counts collection

Everything Counts was the first single released from the band's new album Construction Time Again (below) which came out on 22 August 1983 and, like Everything Counts, reached number 6 in the UK charts

 The album orginally came out on cassette (CSTUMM13) and LP (STUMM13) and came with 9 tracks - Love In Itself, More Than A Party, Pipeline, Everything Counts, Two Minute Warning, Shame, The Landscape Is Changing, Told You So and And Then... . It also has a brief reprise of Everything Counts right at the end. The difference between this album and A Broken Frame is remarkable. The songs are much more mature and complex, the sounds are generally harder and louder and the whole tone has a political edge to it which was something never previously associated with Depeche. Sampling is everwhere on the album from guitars on Love In Itself to the odd flute thing (can't recall the name) on Everything Counts, the train on More Than A Party and to the standout track - all the metal an East London scrapyard could provide on Pipeline. I love Pipeline - the lyrics, the metal noises, just the whole feel of it. That the band did this only months after The Meaning of bloody Love is genuinely astounding. Some people dont like Pipeline and that's fine but to not like it is to simply not get Construction Time Again era Depeche Mode. They were pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable for a straightforward pop band so far away from the accepted norms that they deserve all the praise in the world in my opinion. The album is also notable for the inclusion of two Alan Wilder songs - the nuclear bomb fearing Two Minute Warning and the first ever Green song (possibly!) The Landscape is Changing. Construction Time Again is the band's first proper album for me - if you don't have it get it. Simple as that.

The second and final single from the album was Love In Itself which came out on 19 September 1983 reaching a disappointing 21 in the UK.

The 7" (right) (7BONG4) contained the slightl

y remixed Love In Itself (2) and was backed with another Alan Wilder track, the excellent Fools. The 12" (12BONG4 - left) had three songs all with reasonably literal remix titles - Love In Itself (3), Fools (Bigger) and Love In Itself (4). Remix 3 is a fine example of the extended 12" craze of that period, as is the Bigger version of Fools. Remix 4 is interesting as it's a sort of acoustic band version of the song featuring Martin on guitar, Alan on piano, Dave on vocals and Fletch presumably on raising his arms and clapping. Finally the limited edition 12" formed the last in the series of three li

ve track 12" singles (L12BONG4 - right) and came with the 7" version and live versions of Just Can't Get Enough, A Photograph of You, Shout and Photographic again all from the Hammersmith Odeon gig. It maybe wanst the most obvious choice of second single from the album and it certainly hasn't aged as well as Everything Counts but Love In Itself is an ok tune. German editions come in a red vinyl 7", a grey vinyl standard 12",  a yellow vinyl version of the limited 12" and the two cd single approach as per the last two singles.

My Love In Itself collection

The band didn't hang about after Love In Itself as they headed back to Hansa this time to record a whole new album. That will be the topic of the next blog next time...