Clean

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9. Clean List of Violator songs

Clean
Song Artist Depeche Mode Album Violator Songwriter Martin L. Gore Produced by Depeche Mode Flood Recorded at Puk Studios, Denmark Logic Studios, Milan Label Mute Records 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 Mixing François Kevorkian Recorded May 1989 – January 1990 Originally released 19 March 1990 Played live 171 times * Total live plays 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:

From: Michel Jouveaux

Q: 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.

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.

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)