Speaker 1: Res outa.
Speaker 2: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
Be Serious Podcast. I am here with my standard co host,
mister Jason Colvin. A very special guest with us today,
our Patreon Jeanie Alexander. Hold on, hold on, Okay, I'm sorry.
I was just trying to enjoy the silence.
Speaker 1: Come on, guys, do I have to buy the laugh here?
Come on?
Speaker 2: All right, Genie, thank you so much for joining us
today to talk about depeche Mode.
Speaker 1: Genie, tell us what depeche Mode means to you?
Speaker 3: Well, first, let me say thank you for having me today.
This is kind of old hat for you all. It's
very much bucket list for me. If I enjoyed the show,
enjoy being a Patreon member. When Jason called me, I
was super excited to be here. What depeche Mode means
to me is great music, lots of dancing.
Speaker 2: Jason gave me a little history about you, and I
feel confident that we're going to get some magical mind
blowing tidbits.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I seen your notes over there already.
Speaker 3: I've studied up. I'm ready and prepared.
Speaker 1: So Jeanie is actually one of my wife's very best
friends in college, roommate, yes, yeah, and we went to
high school together.
Speaker 3: We went to high school together. And then it was
after college at Jason and Katherine Kathy for their wedding,
their marriage that Chris and I met my husband in
twenty six years later. Here we are twenty seven years later.
Speaker 1: Right, so you.
Speaker 2: Met your future husband at Jason and Catherine's wedding.
Speaker 3: Yes, we were both in the wedding party. He caught
the boutineer, I caught the bouquet. We went out the
next night, and we've been together ever since.
Speaker 1: Wow, how about that. That's some magic, right?
Speaker 2: How about that that bouquet boot neeer thing. Nobody really
buys that, but turns out it can be true.
Speaker 3: And the funny thing is is, I don't know if
Kathy will remember this, but I can remember phone conversations
when we were kids talking about, Oh, we're going to
marry best friends, We're going to live right next door
to each other. And we did marry best friends. We
live a few miles apart, but here.
Speaker 2: We are fantastic, pretty amazing. I'm excited to be a
part of this happy family. Well, guys, we are here
today to talk about depeche Mode and their album Violator. Now,
this is an album long in their career, just like
the album that we're comparing it to, which is Disintegration
by the Cure. Now, last week we were joined by
our other Patreon member, miss Amanda Janic. She was a
Cure not just fan, but super fan, super freak fan
if you will. And Jeanie when we asked you about
these two albums, and I don't want you to give
away what your final judgment is yet, but you were like,
do I have.
Speaker 1: To pick depeche Mode.
Speaker 2: So it's going to be a surprise at the end
of this whether you're going to fall on the depeche
Mode side of things or on the Cure side of things.
Speaker 1: I'm excited. Guys.
Speaker 2: We're going to do a quick history on the band
because there's a lot of great music to jump into here.
The members of the band are Dave Gahan, Martin Gore,
Andy Flescher, Vince Clark, and Alan Wilder. All Right, so
nineteen seventy seven, Vince Clark and Andy Fletcher start a
band together called No Romance in China.
Speaker 1: I got something for you on that. Yeah, the early
formation of the band No Romance in China. Fletcher and
Clark were members of the Methodist youth group, the local
Methodist Youth group, and I heard him talk about how
they would go to Wednesday club together. Uh huh. And
it was birthed out of the church.
Speaker 2: Well, my first band was a church band too. It's
a great place to start a band, it is.
Speaker 1: That you got lots of rooms to practice in. Turns
out they were fans of the Cure.
Speaker 2: They were also fans of the Human League and of
craftwork bands, which we've talked about in depth before and
other episodes and in our Patreon episodes. By the way,
thank you for being a Patreon Memborghini. Thank you Chris,
who's sitting back in the back there with us.
Speaker 1: Guys.
Speaker 2: If you want to be an executive producer of one
of our episodes, go to patreon dot com Backslash Shirley
Podcast and for as little as five bucks a month,
you can become a Patreon member and you will get
access to all our exclusive episodes where we cover one
hit wonders and other special songs and artists that we
might not otherwise cover. That's right, So back to depeche
Mode nineteen seventy eight, Martin Gore starts playing acoustic guitar
for a duo. The duo is called Norman and the Worms.
The other guy's name was Phil, so I'm not really
sure who Norman is or who the Worms are. Nineteen eighty,
Clark and Fletcher reform the band and they call it
Composition of Sound. Gore soon joins them, and then Vince
Clark sees Dave Gahan singing and says, we need this
guy for our band.
Speaker 1: Jason, do you know what song news I do? And
I'm glad you pointed out me because that is the
type of chemistry we have. Jason's over here raising his hand,
Miss Kata, Yeah, yes, he sings Heroes by David Vowie,
which we covered last fall when we did Strangers Stranger Things.
Speaker 2: We actually covered the Peter Gabriel version, but yes, we
talked about David Bowie quite expensive, we talked about that song.
Speaker 3: I believe Dave Gahan was a huge vote man.
Speaker 2: So as this four piece band still called Composition of Sound.
They do their first live performance June fourteenth, nineteen eighty
at Nicholas School in Basildon.
Speaker 3: I believe they were very into O and d As
well maneuvers in the Dark, and then Susie and the
ban Cheese as well. They were really into them, and
she I don't know if you know this, but I
guess was in Susie in the ban Cheese. And at
one point Robert Smith was touring with Susie and the
ban Cheese and ended up that By.
Speaker 1: The way, we talked about that last week.
Speaker 3: Yes, I know that Genie move on.
Speaker 1: That's okay.
Speaker 2: Robert Smith not only had to come in and cover
for the guitarist who left, but ultimately finished the tour
and then would come back and do shows with them frequently.
His quote was Juan Sha Banshee.
Speaker 1: Always Banshee.
Speaker 2: So at some point they said, you know what, a
composition of sound seems kind of pretentious, and they're a
little embarrassed about that, and so they decided to change
their name. One of the considerations was musical Movements. I
don't really know how that's less pretentious or better in
any way, shape or form, but they decided, no, we're
going to go with this fashion magazine title called Depeche Mode.
Depeche is an old term that means breaking news or dispatch,
and mode is fashion so fesch Mode was a magazine
about the latest fashion news. Now, the pasch sure is
also a verb. He put an e in a verb
when he said this that means to hurry. So, taking
taken out of context, this could be translated as hurried fashion,
which means nothing.
Speaker 1: Now, who gave you this information?
Speaker 2: This is Gautier, my French next door neighbor who's a
good friend and always pitching ideas and fun stuff. Yeah, okay,
So by nineteen eighty they do their first recording, but
it is for an album called Some Bizarre Album, which
is a bunch of unsigned bands that are affiliated with
a record label called Some Bizarre Records. In the meantime,
they make a demo tape, but instead of sending it
out to people, they walk in the record studio's door
and say we want you to listen to this tape
and they're like FIDU, like what and they're like, okay,
leave the tape and we'll listen. They're like no, it's
our only one. We'll wait, and they usually got sent
out the door. They said they're goodbyes, but ultimately they
get signed with a record label. Now, Dave said that
they had had a bunch of offers from major labels
offering them loads of money and clothes, allowances and all
this fantastic stuff. But since they ultimately sign with a
virtually unknown, brand new label called Mute Records, guy named
Dan Miller sees them perform and he has they have
this following that's with them, And what I really noticed
was that the following didn't just stand.
Speaker 1: There and watch the band.
Speaker 2: They were dancing, and he says, if they can pull
that off, who knows what they can do. So this
leads to their first single called Dreaming of Me. So
that song reached number fifty seven, and it leads to
their second single, which is called New Life. That one
hit number eleven and got them on Top.
Speaker 1: Of the Pops. Now this is in the UK, right, This.
Speaker 2: Is in the UK, right, So real quick, we can
listen to New Life here.
Speaker 1: So, Genie, you know this one.
Speaker 3: I know this one. Well, this is one of the
first ones I remember of them, and I really love it.
There's a lot of announcement the beach and it sounds
very much like craft work and all the electronics and
what was going on after most punk emmit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they got to play Top of the Pops,
but they literally took the train from Basildon all the
way to London, carrying their synthesizers with them.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Vince Clark went out of his way to point out
that his was the heaviest.
Speaker 1: Then came just Can't.
Speaker 2: Get Enough, their first top ten hit, and there's a
video that comes out for this one. It is the
only video that Vince Clark actually appears with the band in.
So all three of those singles come out before their
first album, but it is they're all included on that
first album, which comes out in October nineteen eighty one,
and it is called Speaking Spell.
Speaker 1: Do you have a speaking spell? I had a speaker.
Speaker 3: I had a speaking spell.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about the little thing that you could type
in the words and they would talk back to you
a B and it took you about five minutes to
type in dirty words. Album number two comes out in
nineteen eight two. It is called a Broken Frame. Nineteen
eighty three, we get construction time again. They start changing
their sound a little bit. At this point, Vince has
left the band and they have Alan Wilder come in
and join the band. Now, Allan was a classically trained
pianist and he really kind of became the musical composer
behind the band once he joined them in eighty two,
and Construction Time is really cool because they really do
something special with a sampler. Sampling had just started at
that point, and so they were going out and they
were trying to find anything they could to make weird
sounds with so that they could translate that into music.
Some of the sounds that you hear on that on
those early albums are like banging a bar into a
construction post at a job site. And I think one
of them even ins with it's like a bang hey,
because the foreman is like you kids, get out of here.
And there was another one of there rolling a rock
along a piece of metal just to get these weird
sounds that they would then stick in a sequencer, give
it a rhythm, and create the music that they had now.
I said something about guitars earlier. These guys were not
using guitars, they were not using drums. They were the,
like you said, post punk kind of antithesis of that sound.
We are not going to be a standard rock and
roll band. We are doing something different.
Speaker 1: Before you leave, Vince Clark, I think it's important to
mention where he ends up because that was mind blowing
to me.
Speaker 2: Okay, guys, before we go on, I just want to
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Speaker 3: Right. He didn't just leave the band and go away
off into the distance. He actually originally started with Yazoo.
Know if you know this, do you know what their
big song at the time was with yaz was don't Go.
Speaker 1: It's from a movie.
Speaker 3: It's from a movie. Can you tell me the movie? Okay,
Dames shocked that you cannot tell me the movie. It
is from Tango and Cash scene that I would think
that every teenage boy in America at the time would remember.
Terry Hatches is Sylvester Stallone's sister, I believe, and she
comes out dancing. Yeah, this song it's a little risque.
Yes she's yes, yes, yes she is. And that's where
that song came from.
Speaker 1: More stripper music.
Speaker 3: So welcome glad.
Speaker 2: So Vince Clark is with yes, does that song? And
then he goes on he leaves.
Speaker 3: Yes, he leaves, and he teams up with Andy Bell
and they form Eraser. An Erasure is huge in its
own right. One of the things that Vince Clark talked
about when he left Depeche Mode was they were kind
of going to from new wave to a dark wave.
They were kind of taking a darker turn. He liked
the light hearted stuff, and that is definitely where Erasure was.
Speaker 1: I mean, Respect and Chains of Love is what I know.
Speaker 3: Yeah from Yeah. Oh, they have so many hits, it's awesome.
Speaker 2: Okay, So we're to nineteen eighty four. In July of
nineteen eighty four, just after the release of the single
of the same name, they come out with their what
I would call pivotal album called People Are People.
Speaker 1: So People Are People that actually put them on the
global stage, right, this is their first hit in America.
It goes to number fourteen on the Hot one hundred.
You still hit us on the today, So this is
a I mean, this is their stamp. They're coming out
party in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: So same year, they follow that album up with Some
Great Reward, which comes out in September of eighty four.
Then they take a little bit of time and in
nineteen eighty six they come out with Black Celebration, and
then in nineteen eighty seven they hit us with a
big one called The Music for the Masses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the song that I know for Music from the
Mass is a strange level. Here's what I know about
this time as well. So they've achieved some level of
success in the US. They've got this following they have
a concert at the Rose Bowl and they packed the
place out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the band had gone from being a club band
in nineteen eighty being a stadium band by nineteen eighty seven,
so they've become a stadium band, but they have never
been all of these albums at a top ten on
the Billboard two hundred. They decide it's time to change
things up for this album. They get together with a
guy they call Flood, So they change up who they're
working with, they change up how they do things. They
had kind of gotten a formula on how they created
their album, and they decided, you know, we've gotten to
a rut. And so their main song guy is Martin Gore.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: He comes up with the stuff right, and he'll give
them a demo and they'll they'll go through it and
then they'll spend so long in the studio and they decide,
you know what, we're going to change that.
Speaker 1: Martin.
Speaker 2: You still come up with songs but we want you
to give it to its as basic as you can.
Just a guitar and you singing, and that's it.
Speaker 3: So they definitely wanted to change things up. And from
what I understand, at the end that final concert in Pasadena,
Alan Wilder he said, for him it was like the
band had reached a destination, that they had arrived and
now it was time to change course.
Speaker 1: I've got something on Flood. His real name is Mark Ellis.
Do you know how he got the name Flood? No?
I do, Go ahead, fans, So here's what I heard.
When he was a young engineer. They would, you know,
the low man on the totable, Hey, go get his tea,
go get us something to drink or whatever, and he
would always overfill the cups. So every time you bring
it back to it, it's spilling everywhere. And that's how
they got his name Flood. You know you talked about
how it was Martin Gore's job to write the songs.
Alan Wilder was kind of the arranger and he and
Flood would kind of work together to choose the direction
of the song. And we're going to talk about a
song here in a minute where Martin Gore brings it
in at its basic state, intends to go a certain direction.
They take it somewhere totally different, and you get one
of the greatest songs of the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the other thing they decide to do
is to do an in store autograph session in one
of LA's most prominent record stores called Warehouse Music, just
before the album's about to come out. Well, what ends
up happening is about twenty thousand fans show up and
its scenes from early Elvis days, in early Beatles days.
They're losing their mind. People are getting smashed against the glass,
people are jumping on cars, women are fainting and screaming.
Because of the size of the crowd and what some
were describing as riotous conditions. They were on every single
news channel in the country that night, and the album
came out the next That's huge, right. I think that
means it's time to play on the tape player and
let us hear song number one as we go track
by track through Violator.
Speaker 1: Okay, the first song on Violator is called World in
My Eyes. Okay, this is a fantastic kickoff to the album.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the music, I thought, well, this is they're starting
kind of slow with this, Dave comes in with those vocals.
It's fan freakingtastic. I realized. I realized that. I said
they don't love songs, but they don't do stripper songs either.
Speaker 1: But my goodness, this is love and sex all over
the place.
Speaker 3: I think they do a lot of Actually I.
Speaker 2: Meant like silly little love songs, deep love songs.
Speaker 3: Right to me, I think it's I know it was
maybe the fourth single, reason okay, but I think it's perfect.
It's the first song on the album because it's still
kind of reminiscent of who they were in Music for
the Masses at the beginning. But you're right when Dave
starts singing, you're like, oh, but it's a little different.
I really enjoyed this one.
Speaker 1: Well, it's almost like an invitation, let me take you
on a trip, right, this is the introduction. Come on board,
let me take you on a trip. We're gonna work
our way through this album and it's gonna be great.
That's sort of a womanly sigh on the on the
beat sounds a lot like All she Wants Is by
Duran Durant.
Speaker 2: I see it, Jason, thank you, Andy Fletcher said, that
when they heard the demo on this one, he didn't
really I think it stood out at all. But then,
like you said, once they got it in the studio
and started working with it, it said, it all came
together brilliantly, and at this point it is my favorite
track that we have.
Speaker 1: So Andy Fletcher's favorite pesh Mode song all time. Okay,
So the interesting story I heard on this was Dave
was supposed to record his vocals, but when he left,
he left for a few days, took a couple of
days off. When he had come back, they had slowed
it down and he's like, guys, you ruined this song.
But then it sort of worked on him and he
came around to him.
Speaker 3: Are you aware of a cover of this song?
Speaker 1: Yes, because you texted it to us the other day. Well,
tell us about it.
Speaker 3: The Cure actually covered this song in nineteen ninety eight
on the tribute album for Music for the Masses We Take,
And I think it's a great cover.
Speaker 1: It's fantastic, Martin Gore says about this song. Love, sex,
pleasure are positive things.
Speaker 3: If I'm not mistaken, I believe Anton Corbin did the
majority of the videos he did for Violator and This
particular video has Dave and a convertible driving up to
an old drive in. From what I saw, he is
trying to convince a young woman that's in the car
with him to be more physical and let's go ahead
and do this. And for me, the first thing I
thought of is the scene in Greece, Yes, when Danny
Zuko is trying to convince Sandy that hey, it's all good,
it's gonna feel so great, let's go for it, and
she is having nothing to do with it, and she
slams that door and gets out of that sin wagon.
Speaker 1: You're baking a phony and I never want to see.
Speaker 3: Yeh stranded at the drive in. He's branded a full.
Speaker 1: Hey, you know, when you talk about the videos for
this album, listen, the songs are great. Let's put them
in separate category for just second. The videos in this
album they're dumb. They don't represent the grandeur of these songs.
Speaker 3: I would completely agree. I think Anton Corbyn is Dutch
and has a very unique take on things, and they
stick with him. They really like his style. But I
don't believe you were the only person to point that out.
In fact, I think some of their management or engineers
someone somewhere said that same thing to them. It was like,
they are not doing you any justice these videos.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about one here in a minute where
Dave walks around in a preschool looking king outfit and
he looks ridiculous. And we're talking first video pour some
sugary type of stuff. I'm gonna go ahead and disagree
with both of you guys.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I okay, Yeah, I think that we
are talking about a group that has a different sound
than every other artist that's coming out in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2: I mean, they just don't sound the same and I
don't think their videos should look the same. Yeah, they
don't have some great grand production value, but they have
a very unique style to them. And just speaking about
Anton Corbyn, he did the Nirvana video for Heart Shaped
Box and he's done a couple of movies. One of
them is called The American George Clooney. Have you guys
seen that one?
Speaker 1: And that movie suck.
Speaker 2: But he also did this movie a couple of years
before that in two thousand and seven called Control, and
that is a movie about Ian Curtis, the lead singer
for Joy Division Wow and the guy that they got
to play Ian Curtis looks exactly like Ian Curtis.
Speaker 1: Interesting. Hey, before we move on to song number two,
I just want to drop some stuff I learned on
Dave Gahan. Okay, so he's born in May of nineteen
sixty two. Found this interesting. At age nine, his father,
Jack Gahan dies, and then at age ten, he comes
home from school and there's a stranger in his living
room with his mom, and his mom says, David, I'd
like to introduce you to your father, and he says,
what are you talking about? My father died. This impossible.
He's like, well, this is your biological father. WHOA And
he's like, world shook. Where have you been for nine years?
What's going on here? This is ridiculous. This is not
my dad, and it really rocks his world. And so
that guy, his name is Lynn Colcott. He hangs around
for a little while and then vanishes again for the
rest of his life. And of course Dave gets into
some trouble. He starts stealing cars and robbing, stealing stuff.
He gets sent to like this juvenile detention area for
six weeks. He joins depeche Mode at age eighteen. He'd
already tried Heroin. So kind of a rough childhood for Dave,
and as we'll see as we progress, it gets worse.
Speaker 3: Did you know that Martin Gore did not know his
real father either?
Speaker 1: Oh? My gosh.
Speaker 3: But so these two individuals, who I think are the
stronger personalities of the band, the two frontmen, basically have
both this similar shared background with the men that they
believed where their biological fathers were in fact not, and
I think that probably influences the writing and the singing
and writing.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the next song on the out song number two,
This song is called Sweetest Perfection, the Sweetest Perfection. It's
a calm mile, the slightest correction.
Speaker 5: I couldn't find me.
Speaker 1: Oh what do you think?
Speaker 3: Jing, It's not my favorite. I don't dislike it though.
I think it's very ominous. It speaks to addiction and obsession.
Martin Gore is singing it, not Dave. I typically really
like Martin Gore's vocals. This one I could do without.
Speaker 2: Sweetest Perfection, Sweetest Infection, sweetest Injection.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a drug song, is right? Is that what
it is? Yes? This is a drug? So are you sure? Yes? Okay?
I talked to Amanda janek Uh huh. She says she
hates this song. This is like the one that she
was like, I can't stand it. I like total skipper.
Speaker 3: It's very like, yeah, it is a skipper. It's very
dirty and dark.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I was legitimately surprised when this was number
two on the outlays. It doesn't seem like it doesn't
seem like in the first three songs, right, totally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you want the listener to go back and start.
Speaker 2: Over, right, right, So maybe this was filler that they said, Hey,
this isn't our best song, so maybe we stick it
between the World in My eyes and our best song.
Speaker 1: Surely they'll hang around for a song number three, right, Yeah,
So let's go ahead and move on a song, don't
we just go ahead? Because that's what everybody's here for anyway, Okay,
And literally one of the best songs of the nineteen nineties.
This song is called personal in Jesus, I better stop
it or we'll just stay here and jam out to
the whole song.
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, I had Depeesche was not a
huge band for me growing up, right. I like their songs,
but it wasn't I didn't go buy their albums. As
an adult, we have songs downloaded. I have one depeche
Mode song on my phone.
Speaker 1: Is this song is. It's a frickin' banger. It is amazing.
I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2: So when Elvis Presley is in Germany in the military,
he meets a fourteen year old girl who he thinks
is beautiful. But she's fourteen, right, So he decides to
wait a couple of years to ask her to come
over and visit a nice In that time, he becomes
one of the biggest, most famous people in the world.
Already had was pretty famous, but I'm mind blowingly big
at that point. So sixteen year old Riscilla comes over
to his house and every other woman who's there has
just given her the evil eye. And as soon as
Elvis Caesar two years later, by the way, as soon
as he Caesar, he comes runs up, pulls her up
in his arms, says he's been waiting so long to
see her, kiss her, and within a very short amount
of time they are married.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And why is that story important?
Speaker 2: Well, because in nineteen eighty five, Priscilla writes a book.
It's called Elvis and Me, and she talks about which
you would expect for a girl of sixteen getting married.
How he was her everything. He was like her own
little god. He was her personal Jesus. So Martin Gore
reads these words and he's like, this does not seem
like a healthy relationship, but it sounds like a great
basis for a song.
Speaker 3: So my grandmother was a huge fan of Elvis and
had this book, and somehow, at fourteen or fifteen years old,
it ended up in my possession and I read the book. Yeah,
and I totally agree with Martin Gore, that is one
dysfunctional relationship. And I am, as a mom myself now
shocked that her parents ever thought, sure, go to the US,
we'll stay back here in the UK and go ahead
and live with him, and he became her father figure,
her husband, and like you said, the personal Jesus.
Speaker 1: Okay, I can't figure out, for the life of me
why this is not a number one smash.
Speaker 2: What position did this reach in the charts?
Speaker 1: Number twenty eight on the hot one hundred. We don't
have time for twenty seven. No, no, okay, let me
just drop okay. So Escapade by Janet Jackson hits number
one March third of nineteen ninety good song back than this,
not better than this, not even close. Okay, this song
only reaches number twenty eight. Okay, stop me when I
hit one that you know or like? Okay, these are
songs ranked higher than Personal Jesus on the Countdown. Here
we Are by Gloria Estefan, we Can't Go Wrong by
the Cover Girls, No More Lies by Michelle No, Too
Late to Say Goodbye by Richard Mars, I've Heard of It,
No Myth by Michael Penn. I'll Be Your Everything by
Tommy Page. What the heck? These songs all ranked higher
on the Hot one. Are you freaking kidding me? Bizarro world?
It is? It's insane, got the chart upside down.
Speaker 3: It is considering that this was released as a single
six months prior to the album release, and really the
main reason why there was a riot in LA because
that's the music they had heard, and that's why people
were excited. So it's mind boggling to me that that's
as high as it went.
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone ranked this number three sixty eight of their
five hundred Greatest Songs of All Time.
Speaker 3: I disagree, too low higher, too low? Yes, too low,
too low.
Speaker 1: So this was reached August twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine.
I still can't quite figure out why it's six months
ahead of the album.
Speaker 3: So I had read that Warner Brothers that after Music
for the Masses, those sales were really high for Depeche
Mode and they started to go stagnant, they were starting
to drop off, and so they wanted like this infusion
of music and this was it personal Jesus, So they
brought that out six months in advance. They did, like
what you were talking about earlier, with the personal ads,
just to drum up excitement for the album, and it
obviously worked. I am shocked, shocked, shocked that it didn't
go higher on the charts because this for me as
a teenager, Jason, you and I grew up in the
same town, Oklahoma. We did not a lot to do.
It was basically either you were trying to find a
little dance club to go to or you were driving
around with half the high school on a caravan trying
to find an open field to do something. Nothing nefarious,
of course, yes, yes, just to chat. But I have
a very distinct memory before Violator came out, listening to
this song and we are driving around in Who's Wee Sweet?
Your wife, your wonderful, lovely, beautiful wife, and our friend
Mary Beth.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: And we're in mary best car and we're in a caravan.
We're driving through a park with like thirty other cars
with kids from my high school, and your wife and
I are hanging up the sun roof dancing to Personal Jesus.
I'm seventeen years old. I'm thinking life is good and
I'm thinking I.
Speaker 1: Am super cool. Yes, it's all downhill. That is fantastic.
I Kathy would love that story. Okay, let's talk about
the personal ads real quick. We talked about it briefly,
but in the personal ads in the newspaper for this
song prior to this album being released, there's an ad
I sent it to you, sent this to you, guys.
It says your own personal Jesus, and it just a
phone number and when you would call that number, it
would play the song. How cool is that? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Very cool. But I believe people got upset by that
so they had to stop doing it. Insane.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to rescue myself. I have life problems, and
you're playing rock.
Speaker 3: Music to me to go back to your show about
the cure. Do you know where this ranks with Robert
Smith of The Cure. It is one of his favorite
top thirty songs of the eighties. So Robert Smith has
a healthy appreciation for Depeche Mode.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing I found interesting. I said this
to you guys this week. People realized, Okay, this is
a great song. It was covered by Marilyn Manson.
Speaker 5: Jesus, some Pass someone.
Speaker 1: Jazz, Johnny Cash.
Speaker 6: Your own personal Jesus.
Speaker 1: Sammy Hagar, Jesus, someone def Leopard to Jesus. By the way,
if you listen to the Kate Bush song The Dreaming,
I said this to you guys. Did you listen to it?
Speaker 3: Yes? I did, and I think you're spot on.
Speaker 1: The breathing at that point, totally stolen from that song
and dropped into personal Jesus. Let's talk video.
Speaker 3: So this video again by Anton Corbin, is kind of strange.
When the video they end up at a Spanish brothel. Yes,
they do, totally wholesome and it's a little weird, true
anti Corbyn and we've got the mechanical horse and some
different things going on. And this is one of those
videos that MTV actually edited because some of the parts
of the video were a little too suggestive.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a little weird. So I saw
the original video the breathing part and then the horses,
but it was like, yeah, they kind of yeah, yeah,
horses butt horses, but was too suggestive for MTV. Yeah what, Yeah,
it's it's just weird. It just looks it's very odd.
So if you're keeping track at home, Genie has talked
about strippers and brothels and horses, bucks and horses.
Speaker 3: And after hours clubs.
Speaker 1: That's right. I do think it's interesting. So the big
banging part of this chorus when you're in concert, this
is what everybody screams. Is the reach out touch faith
part that was stolen from the old telephone ads or
reach out and touch someone.
Speaker 3: Oh I did not know that.
Speaker 2: There you go early lines in the song feeling Unknown,
and you're all alone, flesh and bone by the telephone,
lift up the receiver.
Speaker 1: I'll make you a belief. It's genius.
Speaker 2: I mean it's like you're calling out to somebody who's
reading the personal ads.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I do think that his vocals get a little
buried in the verses. I wish they were a little
more prominent because the lyrics are so cool.
Speaker 2: There's a little breakdown on the song where it does
this cool wishing sound or listen to it here.
Speaker 3: That absolutely makes the song for me.
Speaker 1: That is exactly how I felt. You're listening, you're like,
this is pretty groovy, and then it hits that part
and you're like, oh, yeah, they took it up a level.
This is so good. By the way, Johnny Cash's comment
on this song, this is quote, probably the most evangelical
gospel song I have ever recorded. Wow. I don't know
if the writer meant that, but it is what it is. Wow. Okay,
are we done? With Personal Jesus? Truly one of the
great songs of the nineteen nineties. The next song on
the album is called Halo Okay, this one works for
me too well.
Speaker 2: Speaking of songs that are confusing about the meaning and
whether he was Sunday Club in it or not. With
Personal Jesus, Martin Gore says, I'm almost obsessed with the
idea of good and evil. I suppose my songs do
seem to advocate immorality, but if you listen, there's always
a sense of guilt. On Halo, I'm saying, let's give
into this, but there's also a feeling of wrongfulness.
Speaker 3: I feel discom I don't understand why this song wasn't
a single. I really like this song. I think it's
one of the stronger ones.
Speaker 1: It's really good.
Speaker 3: It is. And the line you wear guilt like shackles
on your feet like a verse halo, I mean to
me that is poetic in the way that he understands
what guilt is. And I agree. There's the back and
forth between this is bad, this is gonna cause so
many problems for us that I'm going to push through
the guilt because it's completely worth it.
Speaker 1: So here's the interesting thing. We've come across this sometimes
where they don't release it as a single, but they
did make a video for this one.
Speaker 3: I watched the video. I'm it's all you.
Speaker 1: It stinks.
Speaker 3: It's odd. Did you pick up on the cameo in
the video? No? Who oh my gosh?
Speaker 1: Really yes? Is it the pretty girl in clown makeup?
Speaker 3: No? Okay, it's one of the dancers, one of the
female dancers. It is a young Jenna Elfman Woa. She
trained as a classical dancer before she went into film.
She is in the video.
Speaker 1: Okay, now that is really cool. There's even that is awesome.
Speaker 3: There's an interview out there where she talks about it.
It was her first thing that she had done on film,
was that video.
Speaker 1: Well, outside of the appearance of Jenna Elfman. You well,
I mean, it's like it's weird.
Speaker 3: There's a donkey, there's strong men.
Speaker 1: It's like a circus. It looks like a traveling says
say with Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. Okay, Martin, no,
but Martin gar is juggling in clown makeup with a
with another girl, a pretty girl wearing clown makeup, and
they're juggling.
Speaker 3: It's what Well, they're juggling because she's actually the strong
man's girlfriend, Dave Gahan, and so she ends up telling
him no, I'm gonna go with the clown and and
then they end up sleeping underneath it like the circus
car or something. I don't know. It's it's very very strange.
I do have another bit of information that's cool about
this song.
Speaker 1: Okay, well you got and it goes back.
Speaker 3: To the musical side of things they do. You know,
depeche Mode is known for sampling. They sampled a led
Zeppelin song. It's actually they sampled a rap song that
sampled a Led Zeppelin song when the levee breaks.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna do it, you might as well go
with the best, right, I dig it.
Speaker 3: I like it, just not the video.
Speaker 1: The video sucks. Bad effort, that's right, sucks, I said. Okay,
next song on the album. This song is called Waiting
for the Night. I'm waiting for the Night.
Speaker 6: I know that it will say.
Speaker 5: With everything stuck.
Speaker 3: Stuck.
Speaker 2: Like you said, they usually it's either one singing or
the one, or maybe they're singing back and forth, but
they harmonize on this one, and it's really it's really
well done.
Speaker 1: I like this song too.
Speaker 2: This is much more similar to the soundscapes that we
get off of Disintegration.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's romantic, it's lovely, it's soft, it's beautiful.
I'm gonna go this well again. It's like if you're
watching Miami Vice and Crockett is being seduced. I had
the same thought. Jason's going to say this for this song,
Crockett is being seduced by the daughter of a Columbian
drug lord and he's scared to give in. But it's
very seductive and emotional and romantic.
Speaker 3: She's about to be killed.
Speaker 1: Of course she is.
Speaker 3: This reminds me of like something that you would have
on a sleep app. I mean it is, so that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's cool man.
Speaker 3: The video is the same way. It's just very like
black and white.
Speaker 1: It's six minutes of sleep app.
Speaker 3: It is. I agree, it works and this if this one.
They go back to mainly electronics as far as instruments go.
Speaker 2: Okay, Jason, before we keep going, there is a podcast
that you and I just discovered which is fan freakantastic
that I wanted to tell everybody about.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's called Famous and Gravy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: A couple of guys very much like ourselves, same generation.
They have that kind of same talking back and forth chemistry.
Michael Osborne and am At Kapor. They have this really
awesome format and it just keeps you engaged in the
podcast the whole freaking time.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So they talk about a person who is dead
and whether or not you would want to have their life.
It's kind of a cool thing. They're inspirational, they're very positive,
thought provoking. I enjoy this.
Speaker 2: They break it up into like ten or eleven different categories.
First one is the obituary of this person, right, and
then the last one is the James Vanderbeet category of.
Speaker 1: I Don't Want Your Life and it's fantastic.
Speaker 2: And they've got a Malkovich category in there, which is
my absolute favorite. But you guys should totally go check
these guys out. They cover athletes, they cover rock stars,
just I mean anybody and everybody.
Speaker 1: I mean, they've covered Eddie Money, Luke Perry, I even
forgot he died, Brad Willard, Gene Wilder, Bill Paxton, Hank
Aaron Alan Rickman.
Speaker 2: You told me you found a Bill Paxton nugget in
one of their podcasts from.
Speaker 1: Them, according to their podcast, I learned this stuff, Yeah,
Bill Paxton. Do you know the song fish Heads fish
Head fish headish Yeah. Bill Paxton was the director of
that music video. Shut up, yes, dude. I love these guys.
They are fantastic guys.
Speaker 2: If you have not checked out the Famous and Gravy podcast,
definitely go check that out.
Speaker 1: Definitely. All right, hit stop on your tape player, kick
it out, flip it over for side two, and we
are going to kick it off with another one of
the pillars of the nineteen nineties. This song is called
Enjoy the Silence Okay, once again, I've got to stop it,
or we'll just sit here and listen to the whole thing.
Absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 2: Started off as a ballad, started off as a slow,
sweet ballad, and came back again. Martin gore just a
guitar and his voice on the demo and they put
it all together very and basically went out to the
club one night and a couple of them said, you
know this is you just feel like this isn't going
where we wanted to go. And Flood was the guy
who had been telling them. He'd been telling them the
whole time. You have these rules, break the rules. If
you have the rules that you don't do guitars, break
that rule. Let's put some guitars in here.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And with this one, when they said we can't get
to that spot that we want to be with this song,
he said, okay, we're gonna delete everything that we've put
in it so far and we're gonna start over again.
Speaker 1: They started over.
Speaker 2: They put this kind of techno dancy rhythm to it,
and all of a sudden, the song took off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're right. When he brought it, it was
Organs and Martin singing and it was supposed to be
a slow ballad, Alan Wilder and Flood said no, let's
put a beat to it. Martin Gore said that he
was initially very skeptical. He actually sulked for two days,
he said, but he could see the crossover potential and
how it was really coming together. This song is unbelievable.
I don't know, I'm gonna keep gushing.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna I have a vivid memory from this
time period, Okay, riding in my buddy's truck. Grew up
in uh Town in Arkansas, and We're listening to the
radio and this song comes up and I'm like, oh yeah,
And I turned the song up, and my buddy, who's
driving the truck truck, he's like, you like this gay song?
And I'm like what, And he's like, dude, all I
ever needed was him in my arms. I'm like, it's
here in my arms, you ignorant hick.
Speaker 1: Once they had completed the album, it was mixed by
our man, Francois Covorkian Daniel Miller. You know, he's their manager.
He's like, you know, guys, the song, the only song
on the album that doesn't work for me is enjoy
the silence. He's like, that song really needs to be
more than it is. He's like, how would you feel
if I took it and mixed it with my buddy
Phil Legg? Okay, Phil Legg was a guy who would
work with Daniel Miller, and he said they were so
burned out. They were like, whatever, dude, just whatever, just
take it. So Daniel Miller takes it. This is the
only song on the album that is mixed by Daniel
Miller and Phil Legg, not Francois Kavorkian. When they brought
it back, they were like, that's it, the one right there.
Speaker 3: So are you going to tell us where it ended
up on the charts?
Speaker 1: Of course? So this song hit number eight July fourteenth
of nineteen ninety. Okay, so how the crap did this
not hit number one in the US? There are seven
quote unquote better songs than this, No, no.
Speaker 3: Chance, right, I do not agree at all?
Speaker 1: Okay, So here you go, number seven on the Hot
one hundred. This is from July fourteenth, nineteen ninety. Rub
You the Right Way by Johnny Gilly. You have number six.
It must have been loved by Rockshead.
Speaker 3: Pretty woman. That's all that is.
Speaker 1: That's a big song in that summer.
Speaker 3: But that's what that is.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Then you've got Cradle of Love by Billy Idol.
That's that's a great So that's a great that's a
great song. Number four is I'll Be Your Shelter by
Taylor Dane. Taylor Dane was still making music in the nineties. Yeah,
no chance, enjoy this as I don't think that's right, okay.
Number three is hold On by in Vogue.
Speaker 3: Which your wife, Jason. I'm sure you know. This is
a huge fan of in Vogue, and I remember listening
to this one quite a bit too.
Speaker 1: She carried the kasingle around in her person. Yes, I know,
I know it was she carried the KA single. Remember
the single, Yeah, the k single Buckle up. This is
where it gets rough right here. Number two She Ain't
Worth It by Glenn Madernos and Bobby Brown.
Speaker 3: I don't even know what the song is. I actually
remember who he is because he had some weird video
where he was walking around on a beach. I obviously
know who Bobby Brown is, but I could not tell
you what that song is.
Speaker 2: She Ain't worth It, she ain't worth I can legitimately
say I have no idea what that song is. And
it was number two.
Speaker 1: Number two, Oh my gosh. By the way, Glenn Madernos
is now a principle in Hawaii. Oh seriously, Oh my gosh,
it's that guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you remember him, yes, because he had he did.
Speaker 1: Nothing's gonna change my love for you? Yeah. Wow. Okay.
And then number one, step by Step by the New
Kids on the Block.
Speaker 3: I actually have in my notes.
Speaker 1: Gag. There's no way those those songs. I mean, there's
some good songs in that list, but for the most part,
none of them are better than this one. No, okay.
Speaker 3: And that right there is why we ended up with
songs like alternative rock and grunge because of songs by Step.
Speaker 1: Good point, good point. Okay. So we're ready to talk
about the video in the song. There it is. Let's
talk about it.
Speaker 2: I I number one, Yes, the King costume does look
a bit ridiculous, but it is supposed to look a
bit ridiculous. I think that's the point. But number two
I just gotta laugh because I think it was. Fletcher says,
this is actually a pretty good video for the band.
We had to spend like an hour in the studio
and it was really no problem.
Speaker 3: Is he in it? Are they in it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Like I don't.
Speaker 2: I think they just did the music, that's all they
had to do. And then Dave is walking around for
five days in random, isolated, freezing stupid.
Speaker 3: It's dumb with his chair looking for a place of
peace and quiet. It is based on the little prints
and that chair. He's king of the world, but he's
king of nothing.
Speaker 2: He comes to him and he's like, okay, I'm thinking
crown and a deck chair, and they're like okay, and
he's like, that's it. Crown, deck chair, King deep and
a deck chair.
Speaker 1: So wrong. This is a grand song that needs to
be like live concert type of stuff. We need to
pour some sugar on me treatment on this one, Like,
I hate it. It's so dumb. Tell me who covered
this song, Geene.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. So I had to dig deep for
this one, but it does. It's a good song. I
was a little surprised at first that I would like it.
It is covered by Carla Brune, the model and wife
of former French president. It's cozy and.
Speaker 6: Wont hold.
Speaker 1: It in my own.
Speaker 6: Who's a very unnecessary They can only do harm yes,
and it's it's actually like it.
Speaker 1: It's minimalized, right, it's minimalized.
Speaker 3: It's breathy.
Speaker 1: She kind of I know Carla Burdy like I've got Oh.
Speaker 3: She was huge.
Speaker 1: I dig it.
Speaker 3: I think it's really good and I do. She sounds
a pot like that's very popular today.
Speaker 1: Wow, it's really good. Okay, onto the next song. This
song is called Policy of Truth.
Speaker 2: Okay, So if you had if you said, pick one
song that defines the sound of depeche Mode, and you
took Personal Jesus off of the list, this would.
Speaker 1: Be the song that I picked. Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love the beginning sounds of this. This goes
back to their synth sampling days, and I totally dig it.
Speaker 1: They've done great things. Yeah. This is the third single.
This reach number fifteen on the Hot one hundred. This
should have been a number one hit as well. This
is the third of three titans on this album. I
absolutely love it. I think it's a killer song, fantastic.
There's a really cool guitar riff hook in this song.
I heard somebody describe it as a six note switchblade.
Speaker 3: I read that it is a single note from a
guitar that has been sampled and then looped on a keyboard.
Speaker 2: We've talked about how you know, Wednesday clubs personal Jesus.
Speaker 1: Imagine the lyrics of this song.
Speaker 2: Imagine them in the context of Ponscious Pilot talking to
Jesus just before he's crucified. He's talking to him about
paying the price for not listening to advice and deciding
in your.
Speaker 1: Youth on the policy of truth.
Speaker 2: Whenever Jesus spoke to Ponscious Pilot from the truth the
way he's about to be punished.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean you talk about Martin Gore. I
mean he has intertwined religion and sex and politics and
all these things, so I wouldn't sit it passed him
on this type of thing. I sent you a clip
from the movie Diamonds Are Forever, Yes, And I think
that little stinger in for the Bad Guys and Diamonds
Are Forever sounds similar to this song.
Speaker 3: Mister Kidd and mister is this the one with the
scorpion in the sand?
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, Easter Wint and mister Kiddy, Yes, Okay, it's similar.
Speaker 3: Its that was the first James Bond movie I ever saw.
I think you're a blues guy. Does the name Eric
Tesmer sound familiar to you. Apparently he's a blues guitarist
out of like the Austin area. He got together and
did a collaboration with Nancy Wilson of Art and it
is all guitar. The cover.
Speaker 1: Oh we got to hear that. It's just I'm joy.
Speaker 7: They're not.
Speaker 1: Deciding you. I like it. It's a great song. Okay.
Moving on to the song called Blue Dress. Okay, skipper,
it's not my favorite.
Speaker 2: It's not a skipper for me. This is one I
I actually enjoy it, but it's not it doesn't fit.
Speaker 1: In with the rest of the songs on the album.
Speaker 2: This is kind of the jazz club romantic slow song,
but they leave their they leave their kind of squelchy
techno beat behind it, which I don't think does it justice.
I think if they had lift that out and made
it a little more like kissing a fool, yeah.
Speaker 1: Then a little shrill at the front of the.
Speaker 2: Song, yeah, I think they could have done it differently
and it would have been a better song.
Speaker 1: But I still don't put it as a skipper.
Speaker 3: Martin Gore described this song in Pervy Pervyravy, and I
would agree. I mean, if you look at the lyrics
when you learn, you'll know what makes the world turn.
He's basically saying, when I teach you what I want
you to do. Yeah, it's very pervy. It's basically based
on watching a young girl undress and then Helen or
what to do, put on a.
Speaker 1: Blue dress, take it off, take off. The lyrics I'm
looking at keep saying put it on, put it on?
Is that not the lyrics?
Speaker 3: Probably is, But what I read was that it's about
watching a girl undress.
Speaker 1: And once again Genmy talking about stripper stuff.
Speaker 3: He's kind of tied it into the comment theme here.
Speaker 1: You're fitting right in here, Shirley, can't be serious guests.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, Genie, you were telling us earlier about Bono
and Adam from you two sneaking into a Violator concert.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I think they were at Madison Square Garden
and it was towards the end of the Violator tour
and Flood is sitting backstage in a room just kind
of chilling out, and Anton Corbin, the videographer, comes in
with two of these scruffy looking guys and hoodies, and
Flood's like, great, who are these people? Well, it turns
out to be a no Bono, and I think Adam
Clayton and Flood had previously worked with them some on
You said the Joshua Tree, and they have heard Violator.
They are impressed You two. Is always a colossal fan
of you two. They are always changing their sound and
moving forward. I'm a big fan of moving forward, not back.
They basically are like, we love what you've done here,
we want you to come produce our next album. And
that next album was Octune Baby Fantastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's awesome. Wow, Okay. Last song on the album,
This song is called clean Okay.
Speaker 2: So listening to the beginning of this song, I'm wondering
if they were working with the same guys who are
working with Enigma the Gregorian chant thing that they did
back in nineteen ninety as well. Yeah it was popular. Yeah,
it's got that feel for it for sure. This is
probably the skipper on the album for me. It's cool
if you're chilling, I guess a little bit, but.
Speaker 1: It doesn't really do it for me.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say it's one of my favorites, but I
do think it's a good ending. I think it's we've
gone through all this, We've purged all these thoughts about
pleasure and guilt and here we are in nowur clean times,
confession times. That's my favorite thing that he says in
this song is when he goes really low.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it just doesn't finish as strong as I want
it to. I don't think it. And if they had
have finished with Policy of Truth, that'd have been perfect.
Speaker 3: Cap Yeah, it was inspired by Pink Floyd's One of
These Days, I believe in nineteen seventy one. It was
completely electronic the song, which was unheard of common at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, cool, Okay, anything else on this one?
Speaker 3: I think it's very foreshadowing.
Speaker 1: Okay, how so.
Speaker 3: Well, I think this was right about the time I
think Dave himself was going through a divorce, like the
beginnings the breakdown of the marriage. I think within the
next year or so he was divorced, which kind of
spiraled him into self destruction and heroin addiction. So I
really do think it's like, this is what's coming next.
Speaker 1: You like it at the end of the album, I do, because.
Speaker 3: I think we've wrapped all this up and now we're
entering into the next phase and it's not going to
necessarily be pretty Okay.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned that let's just talk about this real quick.
So Dave has a rough go after this album. They
have the world on a string at this point, after Violator,
the success Violator, he said every velvet rope was open
anything they wanted tons of money. So in October of
nineteen ninety three, he collapses on stage from a drug
induced heart attack in New Orleans. The band had to
improvise a encore while he's being stretchered off. In August
of nineteen ninety five, he attempts to kill himself by
slitting his wrists. This is all after this success of
this album. In May of nineteen ninety six, he overdoses
on a speedball. His heart stops for two minutes. He
has an out of body experience. He's revived, and the
paramedics nickname him the Cat due to his nine lives.
So he divorces the wife that was his heroin buddy.
Speaker 3: Second wife.
Speaker 1: Yeah. He meets another lady at this treatment facility in
Arizona and they have been married ever since. And he's
been sober. Now. I think he got his tenure coin
not too long ago. So awesome. It's doing much better
and the band is better than ever i've seen some
live performances out there that just were amazing. Well, one
of the band members is not.
Speaker 3: Doing better than ever, that's true. Yes, Angie Fletch Fletcher
passed away in twenty twenty two of an aortic dissection.
Speaker 2: We usually talk about album artwork and we haven't yet
on this one. Do you guys know who the artist
is who did this? No, it's mister Anton Corporate. Really yeah.
It is a striking cover. It is a red rose
on a black other otherwise black album cover, and it
was just well, let's see how this goes, and they
loved it.
Speaker 3: That sort of ties into how they got the name
for the album. Have you seen anything on that? No,
they were actually poking fun at heavy metal, and so
they went for the most heavy metals sounding name they
could find, vio Later.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: That's kind of what we were coming down from, was
all that metal hair band.
Speaker 2: So the comparison of these two albums, it was the
idea of Amanda Janet.
Speaker 1: She's the one who put this together for Yes.
Speaker 2: And then when we said do you want to do Violator,
she was like, can I just do Disintegration please? Sure,
no problem, and then we said, Genie, you like depeche Mode,
how about you do it with this, and she graciously
appeared for us. And so Amanda, since this was your idea,
we're going to throw back and say, Amanda, which of
these two albums?
Speaker 1: As if we didn't know, are you going to pick?
Speaker 8: I don't think this was going to surprise anybody, but
one thing I didn't want to tell, you guys. Anytime
I listen to either Disintegration or Violator on Spotify, they
go directly to space Age bluff song by Black of Seagulls.
Speaker 7: So apparently I have a taste.
Speaker 8: But the winner to me, you guys, is just Ineperation
all day, every day. This was not a surprise to anybody.
I think it's a perfect album from start to finish.
Just that roller coaster for the heart and mind just
gets me every single time. Trent Reznor stated it perfectly
in the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. It wasn't just
the sounds or the words or the presentation. All of
it was anchored by the most exquisite instruments.
Speaker 7: Robert Smith's voice.
Speaker 8: That voice is capable of such a range of emotion, form,
and expression. For Rage sorrow and despair to beauty, frailty,
and joy. That in a nutshell is disintegration, a range
of emotion from an expression of rage, sorrow, and despair
to beauty, frailty, and joy. I can't think of a
better way to describe that album. Violator is a good album.
It's not great, guys. I find it boring. You know,
there's some great songs on their World in My Eyes
is great, personal Jesus everything else. That song, you know,
I used to teach cycling and it was one of
the songs that we cycled to because it's a banger,
you know, Policy of Truth.
Speaker 7: They're all killer songs.
Speaker 8: Sweetest Perfection makes me want to choke myself, Okay, And
that's how I feel about a lot of other sums
on that album.
Speaker 7: I played it for my husband last.
Speaker 8: Night, just eating, and you only got a couple of
songs into it because it's just it doesn't do it
for us.
Speaker 7: So zero surprise, Smike the football.
Speaker 8: In the words of Jason, disintegration all day, every day.
Speaker 2: Well, if you listen to our last episode, I don't
think you're surprised, and the least by that final judgment
by Amanda. But Amanda, thank you very much for coming
back and doing that for us.
Speaker 1: Genie, why don't you tell us where you are on
your final judgment between the Cures Disintegration album and Depeche
Mode Violator.
Speaker 3: Okay, little back history. When you called me and said, hey,
do you want to do this, and you said it's
between Violator and The Cure Disintegration, I'm like, oh, Jason,
I really like the Cure. I think I'm a little biased.
I think this is going to be a problem. You're like, well,
we'll see. And I got to tell you, I love Disintegration,
I love the Cure. I think Lullaby is a fantastic song,
love song, pictures of you. All those songs to me
are the Cure. But I also think that the Cure
has a real big habit of putting a lot of
skippers or what I like to call stinkers on every
one of their albums. And for me, those long drawn
out music riffs. I don't want to go down the
LSD trip with Robert Smith. I just don't, and so
for me, I find myself skipping some songs. Violator, on
the other hand, I really didn't know I knew all
the songs until I started listening, and then I'm like,
I know that one. I know that one. I like
that one, and I think there are a couple of
skippers on it as well. Here's the big difference between
the two. Disintegration. Robert Smith was tired of the pop, happy,
go lucky songs and he wanted to go back to
the darker stuff, so he's moving backwards. And then at
the same time, Depeche Mode is wanting to change and
move forward. They've had great success, they're happy with it,
but they want to like improve on it and move forward.
So for me, it's Violator.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 1: So you changed your mind changed my mind?
Speaker 3: Wow? I love the Cure and I love Robert's bit.
I gotta tell you, I think Violator is by far
a better album.
Speaker 1: Okay, so before we started this, if you had offered
me a million dollars to name more than five songs
off of either of these albums, I probably would have
come up with a few. But I didn't. I'm not
what wasn't familiar with either of these albums. So thank
you to Amanda for pushing us this direction. She's exposed
me to the Cure. Now I love Disintegration. I think
it's a great album. When I look at Violator, it's
a little uneven. And when I say that, I think
the three worst songs from either of these two albums
is on Violator. But there are three absolute pillars from
the nineteen nineties that are on Violator. And because of
the strength of enjoy, the silence, personal Jesus, and policy
of truth. If I'm walking out the door, I'm grabbing Violator.
Speaker 2: See Okay, So Violator has nostalgia points that you just mentioned,
those pillars are a part of my teenage years.
Speaker 1: I would have said.
Speaker 2: When we very first started things that I was there's
no question in my mind, I'm picking Violator. It's got
to be Violator because I really liked a lot of
this stuff on Violator. And as I said, even in
the Cure episode, I didn't like the Cure. I can't
believe I'm saying this right now. This is nuts. So
so okay, So like Violator has all that nostalgia for me,
but I mean the fact that listening to Disintegration within
the first three minutes took me from I don't like
the Cure too.
Speaker 1: Wow, this is really good. It's not just so this
is okay. This was.
Speaker 2: I was like, holy crap, this is really good. And
the whole album is really solid. I mean, there's a
song or two in there that are not my favorites,
but as a whole, it's really really strong. And as
you said, on Violator, there are some there are some
low spots. Valleys are deeper on Violator, and so I'm teetering.
I'm teetering on the on the seesaw here. But I
got to say, Amandaganic's love for the cure is so
infectious that she has pushed me over the ass. All right,
I am picking, Yes, I'm saying it. I am picking
Disintegration as my pick.
Speaker 1: Of the Wow. Are you spiking the football.
Speaker 2: Just because she was so gracious and kind and sent
us these awesome cups?
Speaker 1: Yes, I will spike the football. That is awesome. D
that is awesome. So thank you, Amanda. We appreciate you
for holding up that sign in June and bringing us,
dragging us out of the finish line. Geenie, thank you
for coming here today. You actually drove here in person,
all those miles. You got a couple of hours. Friend,
So anyway, thank you for being here and thank you
for doing this for us. And thank you for bringing Chris.
Speaker 3: Yes, this was bucket list for me. Like I said,
I know you guys do this all the time, but
that's one of the things I'm like talking a podcast
and now I've done it.
Speaker 1: I've achieved that goal and big time too.
Speaker 4: Huh, thank you.
Speaker 3: I'm a little wordy.
Speaker 2: It was on to hear you say this, so you
send us a text. You know, we start texting when
the partnership is you know, decided, and the album is decided,
we start texting each other like.
Speaker 1: Oh did you hear this? And oh did you see
this video?
Speaker 2: And all this right, And then at some point Jeanie says,
on a side note, I absolutely love your show, but wow,
it is crazy to me that you two do this
time and time again. There are so many rabbit holes
to go down. And my response was, I hate it.
Speaker 1: But I love it.
Speaker 2: Guys, if you have matchups that you want to hear
us do that, we may not consider hit us up.
It works, def Dave did it, and he's in our
routine text threat at this point.
Speaker 1: So that's right. And you know, we talk about the
biggest compliment that we receive is when somebody admits to
us that we've moved the needle for them. So if
you didn't like The Cure or you didn't like depeche
Mode and we moved the needle for you, let us
hear from you. We want to know that happy. Yeah,
it does. Okay, So next week d we are diving in.
We're gonna do kind of a special couple of top fives.
We're gonna do our top five Halloween movies from the
nineteen seventies October. It's the perfect time. It's the perfect time.
And then the week after that, we're gonna do the
top five Halloween movies from the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then we're going to follow that up with
nineteen eighty three's Stephen King Trilogy, Kujo, Dead Zone, and Christine.
Speaker 1: See you guys next week.
Speaker 3: In his lyrics, there's a lot of I can't say
the word, ambiguity, ambiguity, thank you. There's a lot of
amboo bit