Clean: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
Line 37: | Line 37: | ||
Q&A from [http://oldsite.recoil.co.uk/forum/qa/dviol2.htm Alan Wilder's Shunt]: | Q&A from [http://oldsite.recoil.co.uk/forum/qa/dviol2.htm Alan Wilder's Shunt]: | ||
<blockquote> | <blockquote>Michel Jouveaux: The opening of 'Clean' sounds exactly like that of Pink Floyd's 'One Of These Days' on 'Meddle'. Was that conscious / unconscious, sampled or programmed? (I've checked in the archives and couldn't see any mention of that, ;-)) | ||
A: I recognise the similarity but [it's] not a Floyd sample. It was programmed using a combination of analogue synth and sampled bass [guitar].</blockquote> | A: I recognise the similarity but [it's] not a Floyd sample. It was programmed using a combination of analogue synth and sampled bass [guitar].</blockquote> | ||
Line 45: | Line 43: | ||
Wilder also says [http://oldsite.recoil.co.uk/forum/qa/dmviol.htm on Shunt]: | Wilder also says [http://oldsite.recoil.co.uk/forum/qa/dmviol.htm on Shunt]: | ||
<blockquote>With 'Clean', we never had the delay bass line until the very end. | <blockquote>With 'Clean', we never had the delay bass line until the very end. | ||
</blockquote> | |||
In 2022, Nils Tuxen revealed his memory to the book Halo<ref>2022-09-22 - Halo: The Story Behind Depeche Mode's Classic Album Violator, ISBN: 9781803812250</ref> of providing the pedal steel guitar sound: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
The session took place in this way: I brought my steel guitar and an amp over to their studio, and it was hooked up to a DAT recorder. I was asked to record anything that came to my mind on the DAT tape, without any other musical signals – no melody, no chords, and no timing. So in a way, it was a very experimental way of making music that I had never tried, before or after. I was free to play anything I wanted. There was, as I recall it, no instruction whatsoever. | |||
As I recall it, only Alan and the engineer Peter Iversen were present as I was recording. Martin and Dave were around but not in the studio, whereas Andy was in London and, as I recall, Flood, too, was absent the day I was working. | |||
When I bought the album and listened to it, I had no idea where my instrument had been used, and I didn't recognize it anywhere on any of the titles on the album until years later, when my daughter found the information that it was on the title 'Clean' that Alan had used samples of the steel guitar. But still I don't know where and what parts were used. I'm still honored that they asked me. | |||
As I try to do in any recording situation, I tried to give my best. | |||
I'm glad and grateful that Alan obviously found something he could use. Otherwise, I would not have been credited on the cover, I guess. But the aspect of using samples is still foreign to the way I make music. Depeche Mode are the biggest name for whom I´ve so far worked as a studio musician. | |||
</blockquote> | |||
However, as the above quote by Nils was being shared on Facebook, Alan Wilder [https://www.facebook.com/groups/23196533715/posts/10160445418058716/?comment_id=10160445472153716 replied to it]: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
I recall Nils as a very affable bloke (suggested to us by engineer Peter when we were discussing sound options) but what he remembers here isn't entirely accurate. You can hear he actually plays the riff in ‘Clean’ which we no doubt asked him to, after which it was re-sampled and placed into the track. I'm sure he played along to the basic backing track in order to achieve the correct tempo and key. We got him in specifically for that song but would have also asked him to provide many improvised slides and other options to use both within the song's framework and for general use. Typically, anything left over from a session like that, which could be utilised, I would have jumped on being the musical magpie that I am. ;) | |||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
Revision as of 22:13, 31 August 2024
|
9. Clean List of Violator songs |
|
Clean
| |
Song | Clean |
---|---|
By | Depeche Mode |
Songwriter | Martin L. Gore |
Produced by | Depeche Mode Flood |
Recorded at | Puk Studios, Denmark Logic Studios, Milan |
Length (mm:ss) | 5:32 (album version) |
Tempo | 92 BPM |
Time signature | 3 4 |
Key | G Major |
Engineering assistance | Daryl Bamonte Dick Meaney David Browne Mark Flannery |
Mixed by | François Kevorkian |
Recorded | May 1989 – January 1990 |
Originally released | 19 March 1990 |
Live performances as Depeche Mode | 171 times * |
Total live performances | 171 times * |
"Clean" is a song from the 1990 album Violator by Depeche Mode.
Quotes
I just write about things that affect me. I find it very unappealing to write songs that are safe, that go nowhere, that do nothing. I know that 'Clean' has a lot of holy imagery, and that intertwines with the sex theme, which are two ideas I find interesting to mix together. But I don't try to analyze things.[1]
— Martin L. Gore - Select, December 1990
Q&A from Alan Wilder's Shunt:
Michel Jouveaux: The opening of 'Clean' sounds exactly like that of Pink Floyd's 'One Of These Days' on 'Meddle'. Was that conscious / unconscious, sampled or programmed? (I've checked in the archives and couldn't see any mention of that, ;-)) A: I recognise the similarity but [it's] not a Floyd sample. It was programmed using a combination of analogue synth and sampled bass [guitar].
Wilder also says on Shunt:
With 'Clean', we never had the delay bass line until the very end.
In 2022, Nils Tuxen revealed his memory to the book Halo[2] of providing the pedal steel guitar sound:
The session took place in this way: I brought my steel guitar and an amp over to their studio, and it was hooked up to a DAT recorder. I was asked to record anything that came to my mind on the DAT tape, without any other musical signals – no melody, no chords, and no timing. So in a way, it was a very experimental way of making music that I had never tried, before or after. I was free to play anything I wanted. There was, as I recall it, no instruction whatsoever. As I recall it, only Alan and the engineer Peter Iversen were present as I was recording. Martin and Dave were around but not in the studio, whereas Andy was in London and, as I recall, Flood, too, was absent the day I was working. When I bought the album and listened to it, I had no idea where my instrument had been used, and I didn't recognize it anywhere on any of the titles on the album until years later, when my daughter found the information that it was on the title 'Clean' that Alan had used samples of the steel guitar. But still I don't know where and what parts were used. I'm still honored that they asked me. As I try to do in any recording situation, I tried to give my best. I'm glad and grateful that Alan obviously found something he could use. Otherwise, I would not have been credited on the cover, I guess. But the aspect of using samples is still foreign to the way I make music. Depeche Mode are the biggest name for whom I´ve so far worked as a studio musician.
However, as the above quote by Nils was being shared on Facebook, Alan Wilder replied to it:
I recall Nils as a very affable bloke (suggested to us by engineer Peter when we were discussing sound options) but what he remembers here isn't entirely accurate. You can hear he actually plays the riff in ‘Clean’ which we no doubt asked him to, after which it was re-sampled and placed into the track. I'm sure he played along to the basic backing track in order to achieve the correct tempo and key. We got him in specifically for that song but would have also asked him to provide many improvised slides and other options to use both within the song's framework and for general use. Typically, anything left over from a session like that, which could be utilised, I would have jumped on being the musical magpie that I am. ;)
Lyrics
Clean
Clean
The cleanest I've been
An end to the tears
And the in-between years
And the troubles I've seen
Now that I'm clean
You know what I mean
I've broken my fall
Put an end to it all
I've changed my routine
Now I'm clean
I don't understand
What destiny's planned
I'm starting to grasp
What is in my own hands
I don't claim to know
Where my holiness goes
I just know that I like
What is starting to show
Sometimes
As years go by
All the feelings inside
Twist and they turn
As they ride with the tide
I don't advise
And I don't criticise
I just know what I like
With my own eyes
Sometimes
Clean
The cleanest I've been
An end to the tears
And the in-between years
And the troubles I've seen
Now that I'm clean
Sometimes
You know what I mean
I've broken my fall
Put an end to it all
I've changed my routine
Now I'm clean
Sometimes
Now I'm clean
The cleanest I've been
Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©1990 Grabbing Hands Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
Composition
Sample sources
"Clean" Depeche Mode 1990 |
Self-made samples | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sample | Notes | Audio | |||
Vocal elements | "Clean" employs an exhaled "ah" vocal part originally recorded for use throughout 1987's "I Want You Now". The part is performed in time with the snare starting from the second verse. Wilder recalled the performers responsible for this vocal part in a Q&A on Shunt, the official Recoil website: "...I think it was a couple of girls who were hanging around the studio - thought we'd make use of them ;-)"[3] |
| |||
Sample sources | |||||
Sample | Source | Status | Notes | Audio | |
Orchestral strings, orchestral elements | Gustav Mahler, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti - Symphony No.5 in C sharp minor - 4. Adagietto (Sehr langsam) - March 1970 |
|
A series of manipulated sections of audio featuring orchestral strings derived from a March 1970 performance of the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 Adagietto (Sehr langsam) by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Georg Solti are utilised throughout the outro of "Clean". | Click to display/hide audio example | |
Drum elements, tambourine | Akai - S1000 MIDI Stereo Digital Sampler - SL630 BRUSHES - TAMBO - ? |
|
A manipulated tambourine drum sound derived from Akai S1000 diskette SL630 "Brushes" is utilised sporadically throughout "Clean". | ||
Bass guitar elements | Pink Floyd - "One Of These Days" - 1971 |
|
Wilder confirmed in a Q&A on Shunt, the official Recoil project site that "Clean" does not employ a sample from Pink Floyd: "I recognise the similarity but It's not a Floyd sample. It was programmed using a combination of analogue synth and sampled bass [guitar]."[4] |
|
Music video
Live performances
- Main article: Available recordings of "Clean"
- Main article: List of dates where "Clean" was played
Trivia
- 'Clean' has been covered by Fading Colors (1996), Converge (2001), Yelen (2003), Carpe Diem IV (2005), and Armageddon Dildos (2011).
- 'Clean' has been sampled in the following songs by other artists:
- 'Incubus' - Recoil (1997)
- 'Missing Piece' - Recoil (1997)
- 'Wipe the Blood Off Your Hands Heather...' - PLΔYS✞Δ✞ION|DREΔMS (2015)
References
- ↑ Source: Faith, Hope and Depravity, Select, December 1990.
- ↑ 2022-09-22 - Halo: The Story Behind Depeche Mode's Classic Album Violator, ISBN: 9781803812250
- ↑ Source: Shunt Q&A: ARCHIVES : DEPECHE MODE : MUSIC FOR THE MASSES
- ↑ Wilder, Alan. "Shunt Q&A: ARCHIVES : DEPECHE MODE : VIOLATOR". recoil.co.uk. https://web.archive.org/web/20181128152225/http://oldsite.recoil.co.uk/forum/qa/dmviol.htm. Archived 28 November 2018, p. 1.