Precious
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5. Precious List of Playing The Angel songs |
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Precious
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| Song | Precious |
|---|---|
| By | Depeche Mode |
| Songwriter | Martin L. Gore |
| Produced by | Ben Hillier |
| Recorded at | Sound Design (Santa Barbara) |
| Length (mm:ss) | 4:10 |
| Tempo | 104 BPM |
| Time signature | 4 4 |
| Key | D♭ Major |
| Programmed by | Dave McCracken Richard Morris |
| Engineered by | Ben Hillier Richard Morris |
| Mixing assistance | Devin Workman Kt Rangnick |
| Mastered by | Emily Lazar |
| Mastering assistance | Sarah Register |
| Recording assistance | Nick Sevilla Arjun Agerwala Rudyard Lee Cullers Devin Workman Kt Rangnick |
| Art direction | Anton Corbijn |
| Design | Anton Corbijn Four5one.com |
| Photography | Anton Corbijn |
| Recorded | January - July 2005 |
| Originally released | 3 October 2005 |
| Live performances as Depeche Mode | 518 times * |
| Total live performances | 518 times * |
"Precious" is a song from the 2005 album Playing The Angel by Depeche Mode. It was released as a lead single on 3 October 2005.
Notes
Martin Gore explained the meaning behind this song to netzeitung.de (translated from German):
"Well, my private life is pretty crappy. I'm about to divorce my wife, the situation has been going on for sixteen months. My life is certainly not a walk in the park. I also have three children. And 'Precious', the single, is a song that describes exactly this situation. But there are other divorce songs on 'Playing The Angel'. 'Precious' is about how my children cope with the divorce - which isn't very well. But the song ends with the verse "I know you learned to trust / keep faith in both of us". All of our songs, even the most depressive ones, contain hope."
Ben Hillier described the recording of song to HOME before it was released:
"The two [songs on 'Playing The Angel'] that are closest to the demos are 'Precious' and 'Macro'. Those two are pretty close to the demos. Apart from that, everything else kinda changed quite a lot really. I mean, both of those demos were absolutely excellent, especially 'Precious', I thought that was really good but it just needed to have a bit more dynamic and sort of drive to it."
Martin Gore told the November 2005 of Keyboard magazine:
"The main [piano] motif that goes throughout 'Precious' was on the demo, and remained intact for the version on the record."
Live versions
This section provides an example of a live version of Precious from each tour that it was played.
- Play 2005-2006 Touring The Angel (Regular): 2005-12-09 Patriot Centre, Washington, DC, USA
- Play 2005-2006 Touring The Angel (Acoustic): 2005-12-11 KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, Gibson Amphitheatre, Universal City, CA, USA
- Play 2009-2010 Tour Of The Universe: 2009-05-06 Rockhal, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
- Play 2013-2014 Delta Machine Tour: 2013-10-11 Austin City Limits Festival, Austin, TX, USA
- Play 2017-2018 Global Spirit Tour: 2018-06-26 Volt Festival, Sopron, Hungary
- Play 2023-2024 Memento Mori Tour: 2023-03-30 T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV, USA
Lyrics
Precious
Precious and fragile things
Need special handling
My God what have we done to you
We always tried to share
The tenderest of care
Now look what we have put you through
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
Angels with silver wings
Shouldn't know suffering
I wish I could take the pain for you
If God has a master plan
That only He understands
I hope it's your eyes He's seeing through
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
I pray you learn to trust
Have faith in both of us
And keep room in your hearts for two
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give
Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©2005 EMI Music Publishing Ltd., Assigned by Grabbing Hands Music Overseas Ltd. All rights reserved.
Music video
Live performances
- Main article: Available recordings of "Precious"
- Main article: List of dates where "Precious" was played
