depeche mode "everything counts" - what does this song think it's about?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t-gK-9EIq4&ob=av2e

a beautiful song, no doubt. but what does it think it's about?

by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:05 (thirteen years ago)

cf. What is the stupidest Depeche Mode song?

by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:06 (thirteen years ago)

Being insincere in Korea, obv.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:06 (thirteen years ago)

is this the one about the barberman not liking the dreadlocks man?

i'm sorry for whatever (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:07 (thirteen years ago)

isn't this about greedy record labels?

brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:08 (thirteen years ago)

also: often music videos (particular in the '80s and '90s, the height of "music video as art form" preening) seem to amplify the pretentiousness of songs -- the "losing my religion" effect, let's call it.

by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:09 (thirteen years ago)

still better than the stadium smackhead years

i'm sorry for whatever (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:09 (thirteen years ago)

the lyrics hold true and stand to mean more now then they may ever have. wake up America.

ericb45696 3 days ago

by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:09 (thirteen years ago)

anyway i think this song is about the snake charmery oboe sounding synth hook tbh

i'm sorry for whatever (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:10 (thirteen years ago)

re. video, what's up with the afghan (?) dancers toward the end? does the song/video veer off into cold war commentary?

also correct me if i'm wrong but the band seems to be playing some parts via "real" instruments in the video that are actually performed by synths in the track. the melodica is a super-nice touch though.

by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:12 (thirteen years ago)

melodica, that's the word i was looking for

i'm sorry for whatever (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:13 (thirteen years ago)

i can only see the still on here but Gahan looks amusingly like Stuart Maconie

i'm sorry for whatever (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:13 (thirteen years ago)

anyway i think this song is about the snake charmery oboe sounding synth hook tbh

A synth on the recording, but in the video/onstage, a shawm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Counts

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:14 (thirteen years ago)

Though yes a melodica too, obv.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:15 (thirteen years ago)

melodica = inspired by this guy?

http://thereggaehour.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/augustus-pablo_micd.jpg

by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:15 (thirteen years ago)

NME, 1983

I think it’s been the blatancy of “Everything Counts” that has turned heads. It isn’t subtle.

Dave: “Some people have thought it was about different things, like eating too much, or it was just about the music business but really though it’s about multinational corporations, y’know, that they’ve got too much power.

“But it was a conscious move to come across fuller and more definite and not just floating through. People used to think before: “Depeche Mode? Oh yeah, they’re that band that just sorta float by.” “Everything Counts” was a definite move to make something stronger, more lasting.

“I think a lot of bands try and do it too obviously though. I suppose The Clash… but they’re really into what they’re doing. I used to listen to The Clash years ago, I really liked them. I wasn’t really into what they were singing about cos I didn’t really understand that first album at the time, but I used to go and see them because I liked the attitude and the energy. They was brilliant. Coming away from all those gigs with your ears RINGING and telling all your mates in school the next day…”

“Everything Counts” seems, oddly, a literal successor to “Remote Control”, more than anything because it’s quite clear, quite brutal.

Dave: “Yeah, but the thing is people wouldn’t expect that from us, whereas they would from The Clash. A lot of people had no idea that we was capable of writing something like “Construction Time”.

“We’d been portrayed for ages in one way. Like, we did every interview going and just sorta said exactly the same thing. “Yeah, we started in so and so…” y’know. But then we suddenly realised – what are we doing? If we want to carry on, we’ve got to do something a little more lasting.

“I think Martin and Alan have both got a lot more substance in their writing…”

17.09.83 NME
http://sacreddm.net/1980s/nme170983/nme170983main.htm

it's a meme i made and i like (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:25 (thirteen years ago)

shawm was even more the word i was trying to remember ned thx

i'm sorry for whatever (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:27 (thirteen years ago)

listened to this 12 times in a row. moving on now.

by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 20:34 (thirteen years ago)


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