The 1984 Depeche Mode hit song Martin Gore still “regrets”
Considering Depeche Mode‘s immense success and output, it’s hard to picture them regretting any of their music. Fair enough, they might regret sleeping in coffins, but with over 100million records sold, the music is almost inviolable.
While Dave Gahan has openly discussed his past struggles with drugs, lamenting specific songs seems less plausible. Still, Gahan and Martin Gore would probably ditch one particular track from Some Great Reward, released back in 1984, if they had the chance.
After their breakout hit, ‘I Just Can’t Get Enough’, Depeche Mode embarked on a restless journey of sound evolution in the 1980s. Initially grouped with other synth-pop acts like The Human League, Talk Talk, Ultravox, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark due to their 1981 debut album, Speak and Spell, they impressively carved out their own unique dark and brooding niche over the decade.
Their fourth album, Some Great Reward, saw the band delve into more personal topics, including sexual politics, extramarital affairs, and questions of divine justice. It was deeply existential, but also effortlessly catchy. ‘Blasphemous Rumours’, ‘Somebody’, ‘Master and Servant’, and ‘People Are People’ in particular became popular hits among fans, with many praising the latter for its profound message preaching acceptance and tolerance.
Penned by Gore, this track urges people to set aside their disagreements and strive for harmony. It’s quite a departure for Depeche Mode, especially as the lyrics are straightforward, leaving little to the imagination. Despite this blunt outlook, one of its more experimental elements became trademark Depeche Mode: using culinary tools.
“We used to go into studios, and the first thing we’d do, we’d ask where the kitchen was – literally for pots and pans and things that we could throw down the stairs, and record the rhythms they would make crashing around, and then make it into loops,” explained Gahan in Entertainment Weekly. It’s the sort of liberated creation that exemplifies their blend of wild antics and genuine avant-gardism.
With ‘People Are People’, the group figured that they missed the boat on both of those fronts. While it was also the band’s breakthrough hit in America, it also became one of the band’s most divisive compositions, even among the band members.
In fact, Gahan and Gore have both admitted their dislike for the track. “I regret all that sickly boy-next-door stuff of the early days,” Gore told NME in 1990. “Musically, ‘A Broken Frame’ was a mish-mash and ‘People Are People’ was too nice, too commercial.” It was a little bit too on the nose, too. Yet, given that it finally broke the band in the US, maybe that commercialism was justified, given that it afforded them the chance to be more experimental down the line with a big hit under their belt?
Gahan didn’t quite see it that way for long periods. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly about the track, he explained, “It’s not one of Martin’s particular favourites, this one, and I don’t think we’ve done it live since the mid-80s. It’s quite literal, very poppy, all major chords – something Martin doesn’t like so much these days.”
However, he also acknowledged the doors that it opened, adding, “The song really propelled us into a new cosmos at that particular time. We supported Elton John at a number of big stadium shows. And Rod Stewart, which was bizarre, but the song became a number one hit in a lot of countries in Europe, and it allowed us to then go off and create the music that we wanted to create.”
So, while the group might have relegated the track to the ash heap of history shortly after its release, it remains a vital part of the band’s story. And you can’t deny that it is very catchy, too. All in all, not a bad “regret” to have.
