Clean

← 8. Blue Dress

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.

— 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 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 ;-)"			✖
	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	Confirmed	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 - ?	Confirmed	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	Disproven	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]."	✖

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)