![]() ![]() We did get response from Christian associations saying that they understood what we were trying to say."Īndrew Fletcher: "There was also a feature in a Christian magazine, which I used to read, putting across our side." Live versions They both had a good meaning."ĭave Gahan: "I think the problem arose because it had the word 'Blasphemous' in the title, so the record itself must be, whereas it’s just the thoughts of one man looking for some kind of a reason in the goings on in the world. Martin Gore: "Neither this nor 'Master And Servant' had any shock value, they weren't intended to shock people. We got a lot of letters slagging it."Īlan Wilder: "In Europe, the problem was they couldn't say it." 1:Īndrew Fletcher: "When we went to America we thought we’d get a lot of the same stick for this record that we’d get over in Europe but we didn't. They wanted to have 'Blasphemous Rumours' banned on the radio."Īll four members of Depeche Mode discussed the reception to Blasphemous Rumours in an October 1985 interview with English magazine No. But when it was released, I received a lot of letters from people who were shocked by the lyrics. Although it's a track that is starting to age, I continue to receive letters from fans who tell me about it. I'm not just talking about live on stage. "Of all of our songs, this is one that gets the most response. When Depeche Mode was interviewed about the songs on the '101' CD for the April 1989 issue of French magazine 'Best', Martin Gore said (translated from French): You know, stations out here in Long Island, WDRE, played us, started to play it, on the sort of underground, alternative stations." And we did struggle with radio play, and there were certain people who objected to playing it, and they made their feelings very strongly known."ĭave Gahan: "Alternatively, over in the States, it got played. Neil Ferris: "The problem came with Blasphemous Rumours: that was a very, very difficult record, and there were a lot of people who felt that that song, lyrically, and just the title of it, that the record shouldn't be on the radio. Quotes from the documentary on the DVD of the Some Great Reward remaster from 2006: The melody that can be heard in the middle of the song is of the children’s Christian song “Jesus Love Is Very Wonderful”. I would think it was then sampled and reproduced from either the Emulator or Synclavier." When Alan Wilder was asked about this on Shunt, he replied: "I can't really remember exactly - you are asking me about a sound made about 14 years ago! It sounds like it was a piece of speech put through a modular synth (possibly some other effects) and distorted. Throughout this track, an "arr, arr" sound can be heard that can be heard at the beginning of 'Something To Do' as well. So we just took the Stellavox out into the middle of this big, ambient space and miked up the ground and hit it with a big metal hammer. The engineer / producer we use, Gareth Jones, has got this brilliant little recorder called a Stellavox which we use with two stereo mikes and it's as good as any standard 30ips reel-to-reel but this is very small and therefore very portable. All that entailed was us hitting a big lump of concrete with a sampling hammer. We sampled some concrete being hit for what turned out to be the snare sound. It certainly verges on the offensive.Īlan says in the November 1984 issue of International Musician And Recording World: When Martin first played me 'Blasphemous Rumours' I was quite offended. There was a prayer list of people who were sick in some way and you'd pray for the person on top of that list until they died. The song 'Blasphemous Rumours' stems from our experiences then. I know a lot of people out there are not gonna agree with me.Īndy Fletcher told the 18th May 1985 issue of No.1 Magazine: And it's just, when you're not part of it, it just seems very ridiculous, very funny. But they took that as, like, being very, very positive, that was "God's will" and "They've gone to somewhere better". One thing I often quoted is this thing called the "prayer list": every week they would sit and pray for people who were seriously ill, and you could guarantee that most of them, the majority of the people who they prayed for, would die. And when you're not involved in it, I think you really notice the hypocrisy and just the funny side to things. I was never a practicing Christian, although they were. ![]() Was mainly inspired from the early days of the band or even before the band got started, when Andy and Vince were regular churchgoers, and I just used to go along because they were my friends. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |