Black Celebration

This article is about the the Depeche Mode song 'Black Celebration' written by Martin L. Gore. For the Depeche Mode album of the same name, see Black Celebration (album).

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1. Black Celebration List of Black Celebration songs

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Black Celebration
Song	Black Celebration
By	Depeche Mode
Songwriter	Martin L. Gore
Produced by	Depeche Mode Gareth Jones Daniel Miller
Recorded at	Westside Genetic (London) Hansa Mischraum
Length (mm:ss)	4:55
Tempo	154 BPM
Time signature	4 4
Key	D Minor
Programmed by	Martin L. Gore
Engineering assistance	Richard Sullivan Peter Schmidt
Additional engineering	Kevin Paul Kevin Vanbergen Roger Johnson
Additional mixing	Kevin Paul
Mastered by	Tim Young
Mastering engineer	Tim Young
Remastering engineer	Simon Heyworth
Recording	Dave Allen
Recording assistance	Phil Tennant
Photography	Brian Griffin
Photography assistance	Stuart Graham
Recorded	November 1985 - January 1986
Originally released	17 March 1986
Live performances as Depeche Mode	502 times *
Total live performances	502 times *

"Black Celebration" is a song from the 1986 album of the same name by Depeche Mode.

Notes

Martin Gore said in the 1990-02-17 issue of NME:

I don't mind you bringing up existentialism because I am influenced by that. I'm probably as influenced by Camus, Kafka and Brecht as I am by pop songs. Like on 'Black Celebration' where the positive element is the idea of celebrating the end of another grey day."

In 2006, all of Depeche Mode's studio albums were being remastered. Engineer Kevin Paul told Sound On Sound magazine:

"'Black Celebration' — the title track off the album — was really hard because the sounds were so unique. Gareth [Jones] and myself were scratching our heads and even Gareth was saying 'I can't remember!'"

Gareth Jones said in this interview:

"When we sampled, we made sure we didn't use anyone else's music, and that was adhered to even in this track where we had the idea of sampling Sir Winston Churchill. We wanted to use his "A brief period of rejoicing" quote on the title track as we loved that idea of a brief moment of rejoicing. We didn't use his voice though - instead Daniel said the words, we processed his performance and we used that instead. That's how determined we were not to use anyone else's work!"

Martin Gore said in the commentary track on the DVD of '101' in 2003:

"[Performing 'Black Celebration'] was not a real band favourite, not for me and Alan anyway. It was always difficult, the backing vocals at the end of this one, trying to keep them in tune with all the other stuff that was going on. They just seemed to be so removed from the music. Everything always just sounds in a totally different key to me. I like the song, it's just the actually trying to perform it. Putting all the computer stuff together took quite a while as well. Well, Alan used to do most of that."

When Depeche Mode was interviewed about the songs on the '101' CD for the April 1989 issue of French magazine 'Best', Martin Gore said (translated from French):

"I was not particularly keen on performing 'Black Celebration'. It's not that I'm tired of this song, but I would have preferred to perform 'Lie To Me', for example. Unfortunately, it is not really a 'dance song' and it did not fit with the rest of the show."

Lyrics

Black Celebration

Let's have a black celebration

Black celebration

Tonight

To celebrate the fact

That we've seen the back

Of another black day

I look to you

How you carry on

When all hope is gone

Can't you see

Your optimistic eyes

Seem like paradise

To someone like

Me

I want to take you

In my arms

Forgetting all I couldn't do today

Black celebration

Black celebration

Tonight

To celebrate the fact

That we've seen the back

Of another black day

I look to you

And your strong belief

Me, I want relief

Tonight

Consolation

I want so much

Want to feel your touch

Tonight

Take me in your arms

Forgetting all you couldn't do today

Black celebration

I'll drink to that

Black celebration

Tonight

Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©1986 Grabbing Hands Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Live performances

Main article: Available recordings of "Black Celebration"

Main article: List of dates where "Black Celebration" was played

Live versions

This section provides an example of a live version of Black Celebration from each tour that it was played.

• Play 1986 Black Celebration Tour: 1986-04-10 N.E.C., Birmingham, England, UK
• Play 1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour: 1988-04-29 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountainview, CA, USA
• Play 1990 World Violation Tour: 1990-07-21 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountainview, San Francisco, CA, USA
• Play 2001 Exciter Tour: 2001-10-11 Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany
• Play 2013-2014 Delta Machine Tour: 2013-07-11 BBK Festival, Bilbao, Spain
• Play 2017-2018 Global Spirit Tour: 2017-09-11 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA
• Play 2023-2024 Memento Mori Tour: 2023-10-28 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA