Photographic

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6. What's Your Name?
7. Photographic
List of Speak & Spell songs
8. Tora! Tora! Tora!
Photographic
Album-SAS.jpg
Song Photographic
By Depeche Mode
Songwriter Vince Clarke
Produced by Depeche Mode
Daniel Miller
Recorded at Blackwing Studios (London)
Length (mm:ss) 4:44
Tempo 148 BPM
Time signature 4
4
Key A Major
Engineered by Eric Radcliffe
John Fryer
Originally released 6 November 1981
Live performances as Depeche Mode 365 times *
Total live performances 365 times *

"Photographic" is a song from the 1981 album Speak & Spell by Depeche Mode.

Notes

There are four versions of this song:

  1. A demo version recorded by Vince Clarke around May or June 1980; a snippet of this version is available to listen to below.
  2. A demo version recorded by Depeche Mode around June, July or August 1980; this entire demo version is available to listen to below.
  3. A version of Photographic for the Some Bizarre compilation album around December 1980. The version of Photographic for the Some Bizarre album was recorded at Stage One recording studios, owned by John Bassett, located at 14 Sebert Road, Forest Gate, London E7 0NP.
  4. A version of Photographic for DM's first album Speak & Spell in early 1981. The album version was recorded at Blackwing Studios.

Demos

Vince's demo

A one-minute 30-second snippet from Vince's original demo for this track can be heard below:

Three other tracks from this demo tape are available to listen to here.

Depeche Mode demo

The second demo version of this track, with Dave Gahan on vocals, appears on the Summer 1980 Demo Tape. You can listen to the entire track below:

Lyrics


Photographic

A white house, a white room

The program of today

Lights on, switch on

Your eyes are far away

The map represents you

And the tape is your voice

Follow all along you

Till you recognize the choice


I take pictures

Photographic pictures


Bright light

Dark room

Bright light

Dark room


I said I'd write a letter

But I never got the time

And I'm looking to the day

I mesmerise the light


The years I spend just thinking

Of a moment we both knew

A second boss looking into

It seems it can't be true


Songwriter: Vince Clarke
Publishing Information: ©1981 Musical Moments Ltd./Sony Music Publishing Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Dates with available recordings of Photographic

There are currently 208 recordings of Photographic available.

Dates where Photographic was played

1980 Tour

To the best of our knowledge, Photographic is confirmed to have been played 5 times during this tour, at the below concerts.

1981 Tour

Photographic was played 26 times during this tour.

1982 See You Tour

Photographic was played 38 times during this tour.

1982-1983 A Broken Frame Tour

Photographic was played 47 times during this tour.

1983-1984 Construction Time Again Tour

Photographic was played 48 times during this tour.

1984-1985 Some Great Reward Tour

Photographic was played 81 times during this tour.

1986 Black Celebration Tour

Photographic was played 75 times during this tour.

1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

1990 World Violation Tour

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

1993 Devotional Tour

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

1994 Exotic Tour

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

1997 Ultra Parties

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

1998 The Singles Tour

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

2001 Exciter Tour

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

2003 Paper Monsters Tour (Dave Gahan solo)

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

2003 "A Night With Martin L. Gore" (Martin L. Gore solo)

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

2005-2006 Touring The Angel

Photographic was played 44 times during this tour.

2009-2010 Tour Of The Universe

Photographic was played 2 times during this tour.

2013-2014 Delta Machine Tour

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.

2017-2018 Global Spirit Tour

  • Photographic was not played during this tour.