Where's The Revolution

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Where's The Revolution
Song	Where's The Revolution
By	Depeche Mode
Songwriter	Martin L. Gore
Produced by	James Ford
Recorded at	Sound Design (Santa Barbara) Jungle City (New York)
Length (mm:ss)	4:59
Tempo	105 BPM
Time signature	3 4
Key	F Minor
Programmed by	Matrixxman Kurt Uenala
Engineered by	Jimmy Robertson
Mixed by	James Ford
Mixing assistance	Brendan Morawski
Mastered by	Brian Lucey
Studio assistance	Connor Long Óscar Muñoz David Schaeman Brendan Morawski
Drums	James Ford
Art direction	Anton Corbijn
Design	SMEL
Recorded	April–August 2016
Originally released	3 February 2017
Live performances as Depeche Mode	124 times *
Total live performances	124 times *

"Where's The Revolution" is a song from the 2017 album Spirit by Depeche Mode. It was released as the lead single from the album on 3 February 2017.

Notes

Martin Gore told TrackRecord (archived):

"'Where's The Revolution' was written at some point in 2015. I think, there was a sense of things going wrong and the world wasn't in a great place then. That was pre-Brexit, but you know there were awful problems going on. The Syrian crisis had been dragging on for years... I live in America, and around that time there were blacks getting shot on a kind of weekly basis by the police and rioting, you know — the whole Middle East, is just a big mess. I can't believe the West has sat back and watched Syria get worse and worse and worse. It's a very difficult problem to solve, especially when the Russians and the rest of the world are on different pages, but you know on a humanitarian level it's just — I can't believe people can sit back and let it happen."

Gore and Dave Gahan told Amazon:

Gahan: "It always felt like, right from when I heard the demo of 'Where's The Revolution', it seemed like the obvious single. It's kind of got this hook. But what was interesting to me about it was the lyrical content. I liked the way the songs kind of points the finger at everybody else and asking the question 'Where is it?' And it also slides into the title of the album, "Spirit". To me, that revolution comes from within. I don't know if Martin wrote the song with that in mind, but I heard the song this way, like, 'Where is the revolution?' It comes from each of us, it comes from within, it takes guts, it's like a call to arms or something. And it's also scattered with this sort of imagery of all these sort of failed idealistic Marxism, the big business, the band, all these ideas of these things that we follow and latch ourselves onto, but we know what's right within. One of the essences in life is choice: we do have a choice in what we do in the end, and they can be bad choices."

Gore: "It's always good if you have a track that kind of sums up the album, and it's even better if that song is hymnistic, and it's kind of powerful. So fortunately this time around we had 'Where's The Revolution'. We felt that was a great statement to make and should definitely be the first track to be released to bring us back with a statement. I think that if the album had been released months ago, we probably would have gone with that as the first single, because it is representative and powerful like I said."

Gore also told Radio Eins in 2017:

"It was one of the first songs that I wrote for the album [Spirit] that kind of started this social commentary."

Gahan told Rolling Stone (archived):

"Martin wrote [this song] in a very sarcastic, English way."

Depeche Mode have said in interviews (like during the 2016-10-11 press conference) that producer James Ford taught himself to play Martin's pedal steel guitar within one day while in the studio, and thus this guitar was used in some songs including 'Where's The Revolution'.

Lyrics

Where's The Revolution

You've been kept down

You've been pushed 'round

You've been lied to

You've been fed truths

Who's making your decisions

You or your religion

Your government, your countries

You patriotic junkies

Where's the revolution

Come on people

You're letting me down

Where's the revolution

Come on people

You're letting me down

You've been pissed on

For too long

Your rights abused

Your views refused

They manipulate and threaten

With terror as a weapon

Scare you til you're stupefied

Wear you down until you're on their side

Where's the revolution

Come on people

You're letting me down

Where's the revolution

Come on people

You're letting me down

The train is coming, the train is coming

The train is coming, the train is coming

So get on board, get on board

Get on board, get on board

The engine's humming, the engine's humming

The engine's humming, the engine's humming

So get on board, get on board

Get on board, get on board

Where's the revolution

Come on people

You're letting me down

Where's the revolution

Come on people

You're letting me down

Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©2015 Sony ATV Music Corp. and Grabbing Hands Music Ltd. All rights on behalf of itself and Grabbing Hands Music Ltd. admin. by Sony ATV Music Corp. (BMI). (USA). Published by Sony ATV Music Publishing Ltd Licensed by Grabbing Hands Music Ltd. (Rest Of The World)

Live performances

Main article: Available recordings of "Where's The Revolution"

Main article: List of dates where "Where's The Revolution" was played

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