Poison Heart

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Poison Heart
Song	Poison Heart
By	Depeche Mode
Songwriter	Dave Gahan Peter Gordeno Christian Eigner
Produced by	James Ford
Recorded at	Sound Design (Santa Barbara) Jungle City (New York)
Length (mm:ss)	3:17
Tempo	90 BPM
Time signature	4 4
Key	A♭ 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
Electric bass	Kurt Uenala
Drums	James Ford
Art direction	Anton Corbijn
Design	SMEL
Recorded	April–August 2016
Originally released	17 March 2017
Live performances as Depeche Mode	61 times *
Total live performances	61 times *

"Poison Heart" is a song from the 2017 album Spirit by Depeche Mode.

Notes

Dave Gahan told Rolling Stone (archived):

[Christian Eigner and Peter Gordeno] sent me this guitar line, and it had a bit of a Muscle Shoals vibe. It was a very different feel and I got this melody in my head. [Martin Gore is] not a man of many words when it comes to others' songs [but he called] 'Poison Heart' the best song [I] had ever written. It's not intended to be a breakup song. I was watching the news on TV and I was writing through my own inability to really relate to another human being. There must be something wrong with me, poison in my heart or whatever. So it was fun to play with that imagery, and it became more worldly — greed and lust and wanting what you want when you want it and nothing else matters. So I was breaking up with myself — trying to evolve, trying to break up with old ideas that I think are working for me but are not in actuality. Fortunately, that's not my relationship with my wife. 'Poison Heart' complements another song on the album called 'The Worst Crime'. The lyrics to 'Poison Heart' are more of an internal dialogue, but 'Worst Crime' is looking outward.

He also told Amazon:

Sometimes it's hard to talk about things you've written in songs, the lyrics and stuff. You don't know where they come from, sometimes. It's sort of a throwback, it sounds like something that has come out of the '60s. When I first heard the guitar line that was given to me, I immediately — I don't know why — heard this phrase in my head, "You have poison in your heart", and that was immediately followed by "I'm sure of it". It's not something I'm sure of. I was sort of looking at myself at first. And then I had this whole other outside perspective as well with what was going on in the world, or in my little world, when I wrote it. Politically, there was stuff going on in England, all the talks about us doing Brexit, Brexit then happening, campaigning was going on over here at home. And I was like, "What's happening?" Some of the rest of the songs came together during that time. That song was written a good year ago or something. I think it's impossible to not be affected by stuff that goes on. But to me, the song was really about a relationship, this relationship that you can have with yourself or another person, or the world, however you wanna look at it. It doesn't quite work. And you have to take the blame and say how much responsibility you're gonna take yourself. It's kind of spiky, and it's actually one of my favourite songs that I've written. There's something really free about it, and it came quite fast, the lyric, and the melody came quite fast, and it all came together, which doesn't often happen. And I like the feel of it, the feel of is just like this '60s thing.

Andrew Fletcher told 91.9 WFPK that 'Poison Heart' as it ended up on the album was "just the same as the demo" version.

Lyrics

Poison Heart

You have poison in your heart

Yeah, I'm sure of it

I knew right from the start

From the moment we met

You know we have to break up

You'll always be alone

You know you've never ever been a friend

Now we're closer to the edge

Oh oh oh no

Oh oh oh no

There's poison in your mind

Yeah, I'm sure of it

You've never been that kind

With all due respect

You know it's time to break up

You'll always be alone

You know you've never ever been a friend

Now we're closer to the end

Oh oh oh no

Oh oh oh no

We've been walking far too long this icy road

My broken heart is colder than a stone

I know you've never ever been a friend

Now you've pushed me to the end

Oh oh oh no

Oh oh oh no

Songwriter: Dave Gahan, Peter Gordeno and Christian Eigner
Publishing Information: ©2015 Sony ATV Music Corp., JJSR Productions Inc. and Reservoir/Reverb Music Ltd. All rights on behalf of itself and JJSR Productions Inc. admin. by Sony ATV Music Corp. (BMI). (USA) Published by Sony ATV Music Publishing Ltd, Licensed by JJSR Productions Inc., and Reservoir/Reverb Music Ltd. (Rest Of The World)

Live performances

Main article: Available recordings of "Poison Heart"

Main article: List of dates where "Poison Heart" was played