I’ve nothing against a celebration and display of national pride, but I’m not Irish and frankly, I think I know more about Robert Mugabe than I do about St. Patrick, and yet I certainly didn’t feel the need to go out and drink copious amounts on the last anniversary of the beginning of Bobby’s illustrious term as President.
So, here I am at my desk instead, ‘reviewing’ a record and enjoying an Irish whisky on my terms. I’ve been rummaging in my local charity shop today and came up trumps with a copy of Depeche Mode’s 1997 album, Ultra. Now, whilst being a junked-up Rock ‘n’ Roll near-casualty and making junked-up electro-Rock ‘n’ Roll pop albums is all very well and good, especially for the album's sales, the CD left me hankering for more innocent times. So, I had a nose through my collection and pulled out this little gem:
‘The Meaning of Love’ was Depeche Mode’s fifth single and second following the departure of electro-pop supremo Vince Clarke, who went to form Yazoo, The Assembley, Erasure blah blah blah… “Gadzooks!” cried the Great British public, along with most of the band and their management, “what in Hades are DM going to do to capitalise on the success of previous Clarke-penned smash hit single ‘I Just Can’t Get Enough’ now that he’s effed off for a bunk-up with Fats Moyet? Surely this is the end of the road for the Mode!?” Well, that was at the end of 1981, and by February of 1982 Depeche Mode had slain the naysayers with refreshing pop ditty ‘See You’ and then went on the release ‘The Meaning of Love’ in May and have since gone on to become one of the world’s best-selling acts, still going strong today. And all because of one man who dared to come out from the shadows, step into the breach and follow his dream. A man so naturally gifted as a songwriter that he reaffirmed the band’s legitimacy with the British music press. A man with such vision that he carried the band to new dizzying heights. A man so devastatingly beautiful that he could get away with wearing women’s make-up, and little else. But a man so misguided that he happily appeared in public for the next 10+ years looking like this:
You’d be forgiven for dismissing Mr. Martin L. Gore as a poor man’s Boy George, but he’s the writer of such classic hits as ‘Personal Jesus,’ ‘Enjoy the Silence,’ and ‘People are People.’ Still, this whole look is just the work of some Smash Hits photographer, right? Trying to make a name for himself off a popular act by glamming him up in the studio for these snaps, yeah? Gore’s obviously got his pop star hat on here, but away from the limelight, out of the studio, he’s probably just like any other normal Essex lad, right? For example, if it were, say, a Sunday and a rabid DM fan happened to catch him in, say, the car park at Ikea, where he’s just been shopping for a new sideboard, and asked him for an autograph, he’d probably just be in his casuals, looking very much like your average man on the street, right...?
Or maybe just traipsing about in lipstick, BDSM gear and a poodle haircut. So, our Martin may be a touch fruity, but he’s come up with an absolutely smashing couple of tracks on this ‘ere disc. The A-side carries on in the vein of ‘See You,’ being an upbeat and chirpy track that was either written in the composer’s youth, along with ‘See You,’ or is otherwise a cynical attempt at replicating the success of that single. I’m sure it can’t be the latter. Dave Gahan croons, “From the notes that I’ve made so far love seems something like wanting a scar/Still, I could be wrong; you see, I’ve never been in love before,” which is so cloyingly sugary in it’s naïveté that it invokes extreme urges to either pinch Gahan’s chubby little cheeks or puke all over him. Personally, I just find it pleasantly twee and catchy and have no desire to go anywhere near Gahan or ANY OTHER MEMBER OF DEPECHE MODE*
*I have been advised by my lawyer to insert this statement into any correspondence on the subject of Depeche Mode, ever since ‘the incident.’
To match the vibe, we get a lovely flowery record sleeve and happy, kissy birds on the label. There is an equally syrupy promo video to accompany the single, but it seems fairly difficult to track down. The early video compilation Some Great Videos (a play on the title of contemporaneous album Some Great Reward) contains approximately zero great videos, a couple of decent videos and a great big dollop of cringe-worthy O-Level art student videos. Apparently, ‘The Meaning of Love’ didn’t even live up to these low standards, as the home video omits the clip to save the boys from any further embarrassment. Since then, I’ve seen it on YouTube, but having searched for it just now, it seems to have mysteriously disappeared and now only exists as a fading memory in the minds of a lucky few; which is just the way Mute Records wants it.
‘The Meaning of Love’ reached #12 in the UK singles chart and was included on Depeche Mode’s second album A Broken Frame, released in September 1982. The B-side, ‘Oberkorn (It’s a Small Town)’ was initially only available on this single, although I’m sure it’s since been released on a plethora of re-issues and compilations, so shouldn’t be too hard to find if you fancy a listen. ‘Oberkorn’ is an atmospheric and fragile-sounding instrumental, all warm analogue synths and sounding like something from the soundtrack of a classic 80s movie. I mean, it could even have been used on something truly brilliant, like Flight of the Navigator, or something! It’s a very nice companion piece to the A-side, displaying a more thoughtful and experimental side to the band’s work at the time. It seems that interesting things were going on around this time with DM’s B-sides, as many of them were instrumentals that explored a more layered, atmospheric and ominous sound that hinted at the industrial-pop that was to follow, developing on Construction Time Again (1983), Some Great Reward (1984) and being fully realised on the bleakly gothic Black Celebration (1986).
Depeche Mode release new album Sounds of the Universe on April 20th, but I guarantee you there’ll be nothing as nice and soppy and twinkly and lovely as ‘The Meaning of Love’ on there. This certainly isn’t a record to drink whisky to.
Even the back cover of the US version is cool. It has an attitude and edge that the band's later promo shots (as great as they are) are missing. Jerry smokes! Outrageous!
Both of these songs were re-recorded for their 1978 debut album; so how do they sound without the magic knob-twiddling of Brian Eno? Well, in the case of 'Satisfaction,' not a whole lot different. In terms of sound quality, it bridges the gap between the album version and the early demo version that was later released on the excellent Hardcore Devo Vol. 1 compilation, but in the most part it’s pretty much the same. Devo had been playing this song for years and so by 1978 they had it down pat. If somehow you’ve never heard any versions of Devo covering this song, then I suggest you get yourself on YouTube right now!
The record later got a 12” release the next year in the UK, on Stiff once again, and both tracks were included on the beautiful and brilliant 1978 EP Be Stiff. Both of these records are long out of print, but Satisfaction resurfaced on the Greatest Misses compilation. 'Sloppy' doesn’t seem to have made it onto any CD compilations or reissues, so if you want to hear it in its pre-Eno form, you’ll have to hunt down a copy of the vinyl. Or find an mp3, of course. But what fun is that?