People Are People

← 2. Lie To Me

3. People Are People List of Some Great Reward songs

4. It Doesn't Matter →

People Are People
Song	People Are People
By	Depeche Mode
Songwriter	Martin L. Gore
Produced by	Depeche Mode Daniel Miller Gareth Jones
Recorded at	Hansa Mischraum, West Berlin
Length (mm:ss)	3:52 (album version) 3:43 (7"/single version) 7:11 (12" version)
Tempo	120 BPM
Time signature	4 4
Key	A Minor
Engineering assistance	Ben Ward Stefi Marcus Colin McMahon
Design	Martyn Atkins David A. Jones Marcx
Photography	Brian Griffin
Photography assistance	Stuart Graham
Recorded	January 1984
Originally released	12 March 1984
Live performances as Depeche Mode	226 times *
Total live performances	226 times *

"People Are People" is a song from the 1984 album Some Great Reward by Depeche Mode. It was released as a lead single on 12 March 1984.

Notes

Written by Martin Gore; recorded and mixed at Hansa Tonstudios in seven days. According to Alan Wilder, it was pre-programmed at a rehearsal room in Dollis Hill, North London, elaborating: "We would have finished it sooner except that some of the work had to be redone after the infamous incident when a particular member of the band turned up, only to trip over the main power cable and pull the plug."

Martin Gore in the 1984-03-10 issue of Record Mirror: "Although it's a song about racism, that's just one example of people not getting on. It's about all sorts of differences between people."

Quotes from the documentary on the DVD of the Some Great Reward remaster from 2006:

Gareth Jones: "The acoustics of People Are People and the sound of the beats and the big fills things, is all the sound of the rooms, with the beats getting thrown around Hansa Studio: three floors down for the bass drum, snare drum one floor over, toms in another room over there that, kind of thing. The whole building was shaking."

Alan Wilder: "It gives quite a big sounding record, the biggest sort of in that sense [makes a large box with hand gestures], the biggest we've ever made, and it seemed that it had something going for it."

Daniel Miller: "We just basically pressed 'play' and just ran it, and everybody sang along, and it just seemed like it all sounded great, even before we recorded it properly.

Andy Fletcher: We thought it was a good song. Now, we're not too keen on it. It's probably... It's our biggest hit that we don't play."

Wilder stated in the April 1984 issue of Electronic Soundmaker & Computer Music magazine:

When we do a single like this [People Are People] we mix for radio rather than for hi-fi. Danny [Miller] bought a little gadget which we're evaluating called the Ear Opener — it's supposed to reproduce exactly the compression and re-equalization you have on radio. So we constantly cross-reference what we hear in the Control Room with what comes out of this little modified transistor radio: previously we were finding that our mixes weren't sounding all that great on medium-wave; one thing we've learned is that you have to go way over the top with ambiance and reverb to get the same effect on radio as you would hear on a hi-Fi system — that's why Hansa is so good, 'cos you can pass your most computer-like sounds through amps and even huge PA stacks in their large halls, mike them up, gate them to hell, and come up with the most incredible and powerful sounds. That's how we did "People Are People" - I suppose you could call it "controlled dirt."

Martin Gore told Electronics and Music magazine in 1986:

Usually we spend two or three days before recording just sampling sounds. Then we sample as we go. If somebody has a good idea, we just stop recording and do some sampling. Sometimes we use old favourites — like one sample which we first used on 'People Are People'. It’s a Hank Marvin-type guitar sound, an acoustic guitar plucked with a 50-pfennig piece. We’ve used that three or four times now.

Martin and Alan say in the November 1984 issue of International Musician And Recording World:

Martin Gore: The bass drum at the beginning was just an acoustic bass drum sampled into a Synclavier then we added a piece of metal to that – just a sampled anvil type sound – to give it a slight click and make it sound a bit different. That's the beauty of the Synclavier, you can edit sounds together to make what we call combination sounds. The main synth sound is the actual 'synth' sound on the Synclavier, that's the one that plays the bass riff. But the bass sound is a combination sound too, with part of it being an acoustic guitar plucked with a coin, which sounds very interesting when the two sounds are sequenced together. I took a stereo Walkman when I was going on a plane from England to somewhere. I originally brought it along to take the takeoff, but while the air hostess was doing her safety speech at the start of the flight, I decided I'd take that as well. But as she was telling everyone to "check the instruction cards under your seat," the door flew open and all this air rushed in which made a real noise and everyone laughed. Anyway I looped the end of what she was saying and the laughter so it goes, '[...] tion cards, ha ha ha ha [...] tion cards, ha ha ha ha,' which sounds funny, but I used it in conjunction with a choir sound, and it added a really nice texture to the bridge on "People".

Alan Wilder: There's very little playing going on in People [Are People], virtually everything is sampled into the Synclavier. With the guitar sounds, we altered them slightly once they were in the Synclavier, because you sample in one note and then you can alter the length and dynamic of every note in the sequence for the guitar part so it will give expression, but it will still be completely in time. You can justify all the rhythms, you see, so that you can have articulation but it’s all in time. There's a Synclavier harp sound in the verses, and an ARP sequencer playing very fast in the chorus and there's some Emulator sounds that we used for adding a few frills here and there. We got a lot of people singing the high, 'It's a lot,' and then a low, 'Like life.' The choir sound on People, again, we used a combination sound of different choir sounds on different synths and then put them slightly out of time with each other. Like we took one sound from the Synclavier, one from the PPG and one was on the Emulator. [The three throaty clunks at the end of each chorus] was a combination sound. First of all we sampled Martin going, 'Unk Unk Unk,' with his throat then we added a bell sound and a timpani to give it depth. We only took those down a tone and it was unrecognisable as someone going, 'Unk', with their throat.

Martin: "I felt a bit of a berk doing that."

Gareth Jones told Sound on Sound magazine in 2007:

Martin made a demo for 'People Are People' — it was also the first time the band had done a pre-production session — and this had one ambient sound that he'd recorded with a Walkman on an airplane; a bit of laughter and noise. He looped this up on the demo, and we decided to somehow recreate that sound, but it was impossible to recreate because it was a 'found sound', full of texture and rhythm, so we ended up using what was on the demo. Nobody thinks anything of that now — found sounds are used all the time — but back then it was a bit of a breakthrough for us. The demos were all very lo-fi, recorded on four-track or whatever, yet somehow a tiny snippet of this sound still existed in the Emulator and it became a big part of the chorus. I remember that very clearly, because there was a moment's confusion when we thought, 'How are we going to recreate that?' and then suddenly we realised we didn't need to recreate it, we'd just use it.

In the same interview, which focuses on "People Are People", Jones also says:

Radio play was really important to us, and we had a little box called an Ear Opener which was like a tiny domestic radio. It was bandwidth limited and attempted to emulate some of the [BBC] Radio One-type compression, and since the record company was so concerned about getting the song on the radio we spent a lot of time listening and mixing on a two- or three-inch speaker. However, listening to 'People Are People' now, I'd say we probably spent too much time doing this, because while it sounded absolutely amazing on a small system, on bigger systems I can hear all the faults. You know, 'Oh God, I could have got more bass on it,' or 'It would have been great if the high-end could have been a bit smoother.' Obvious things. If I'd been a more experienced engineer, I would have paid all the due attention to the little Ear Opener monitoring system and also paid a bit more attention to the big monitors, because the boundaries of the sound are, well, crude. Still, having said that, the track did of course have incredible energy and vibe coming out of a radio or little television set. It was like the radio was going to explode, and that's why it was a massive hit all over Europe, so overall I'm incredibly pleased and proud of that work. [...] That song was kind of a stepping stone between Construction Time Again and Some Great Reward. It signalled the band's transition towards more industrial sounds.

During the first seven concerts of the 1987-1988 "Music For The Masses" Tour, they performed a slightly extended version of People Are People based on the 12" version. They also performed this version at the second of three consecutive consecutive nights in Paris at 1987-11-17 Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, France. Martin sang "shouting at me / decency / sure it exists / head to your fists" during the instrumental break towards the end of the song, matching the 12" version. However, at the 1987-11-17 Paris show, he missed the cue and didn't sing at all. This was likely because the band hadn't performed this version for over a month and a half by that point.

When Depeche Mode was interviewed about the songs on the 101 CD for the April 1989 issue of French magazine Best, Andy Fletcher said (translated from French): "This is one of our biggest hits, but we had a long discussion before deciding if we were going to play it on tour. Martin and I were against it. Martin cannot stand this song now. He finds it too commercial, not subtle enough. I think that, next time, it will not be on the setlist."

Dave Gahan told Entertainment Weekly in 2017:

This was the first song of ours that made a dent, really, into popular radio. We were using all these tape loops to create rhythms and the technology was quite advanced, but it wasn't anything like it is today, the things that you can do. [...] It's not one of Martin's particular favorites, 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 [laughs]. But the song really propelled us into a new cosmos at that particular time. [T]he song became a no. 1 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.

Martin Gore echoes this in the April 2009 issue of Rolling Stone Germany (translated from German):

God, that was such a long time ago - 1984 or something like that. I really don't remember what was going through my head at the time. The whole process is mysterious to me. But nevertheless it was good that we recorded this song, because it brought us to a newer, bigger level. It was our first big hit in America and also here in Germany. Or our first number one, I think. I really don't appreciate the song anymore nowadays, but without it, we might not have been around as a band right now.

Lyrics

People Are People

People are people

So why should it be

You and I should get along so awfully

So we're different colours

And we're different creeds

And different people have different needs

It's obvious you hate me

Though I've done nothing wrong

I've never even met you so what could I have done

I can't understand

What makes a man

Hate another man

Help me understand

Help me understand

Now you're punching

And you're kicking

And you're shouting at me

I'm relying on your common decency

So far it hasn't surfaced

But I'm sure it exists

It just takes a while to travel

From your head to your fists

I can't understand

What makes a man

Hate another man

Help me understand

People are people

So why should it be

You and I should get along so awfully

I can't understand

What makes a man

Hate another man

Help me understand

Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©1984 Grabbing Hands Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Live performances

Main article: Available recordings of "People Are People"

Main article: List of dates where "People Are People" was played

Live versions

This section provides examples of live versions of People Are People from each tour that it was played. The recordings from 1984-11-02 London, 1984-12-09 Hamburg and 1986-04-10 Birmingham are generally regarded as the best sounding versions out of these examples

1983-1984 Construction Time Again Tour

• Play 1984-03-30 The Tube, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, UK (Soundboard)
• Play 1984-06-02 Suedwest Stadium, Ludwigshafen, Germany (FM broadcast)

1984-1985 Some Great Reward Tour

• Play 1984-11-02 Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, UK (pre-FM broadcast)
• Play 1984-12-09 Alsterdorf Sporthalle, Hamburg, Germany (pre-FM broadcast)

1986 Black Celebration Tour

• Play 1986-04-10 N.E.C., Birmingham, England, UK (FM broadcast)
• Play 1986-06-24 St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, MN, USA (Audience)

1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour

• Play 1987-10-25 Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany (Audience)
• Play 1987-11-17 Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, France (Audience)
• Play 1988-01-11 Wembley Arena, London, England, UK (Audience)

Depeche Mode songs released as singles 1981-1985: Dreaming Of Me • New Life • Just Can't Get Enough • See You • The Meaning Of Love • Leave In Silence • Get The Balance Right • Everything Counts • Love In Itself • People Are People • Master And Servant • Blasphemous Rumours / Somebody • Shake The Disease • It's Called A Heart 1986-1989: Stripped • But Not Tonight • A Question Of Lust • A Question Of Time • Strangelove • Never Let Me Down Again • Behind The Wheel • Little 15 • Personal Jesus 1990-1998: Enjoy The Silence • Policy Of Truth • World In My Eyes • I Feel You • Walking In My Shoes • Condemnation • In Your Room • Barrel Of A Gun • It's No Good • Home • Useless • Only When I Lose Myself 2001-2009: Dream On • I Feel Loved • Freelove • Goodnight Lovers • Precious • A Pain That I'm Used To • Suffer Well • John The Revelator / Lilian • Martyr • Wrong • Peace • Fragile Tension / Hole To Feed 2013-2017: Heaven • Soothe My Soul • Should Be Higher • Where's The Revolution • Going Backwards • Cover Me 2023: Ghosts Again Recoil songs released as singles 1992-1998: Faith Healer • Drifting • Stalker / Missing Piece 2000-2008: Strange Hours • Jezebel • Prey • Allelujah Dave Gahan songs released as singles 2003-2008: Dirty Sticky Floors • I Need You • Bottle Living / Hold On • A Little Piece • Kingdom • Saw Something / Deeper And Deeper 2012-2015: Longest Day • Take Me Back Home • All Of This And Nothing • Shine Martin Gore solo songs released as singles 1989-2003: Compulsion • Stardust • Loverman 2012-2015: Spock • Single Blip • Aftermaths • Europa Hymn • "Pinking" (Christoffer Berg Remix) Official releases Studio albums • Live albums • Compilation albums • Video albums • Singles