Everything Counts
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4. Everything Counts List of Construction Time Again songs |
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Everything Counts
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| Song | Everything Counts |
|---|---|
| By | Depeche Mode |
| Songwriter | Martin L. Gore |
| Produced by | Daniel Miller Depeche Mode |
| Recorded at | The Garden (London) |
| Length (mm:ss) | 4:19 (album version) 3:58 (7"/single version) 7:18 (12" version) |
| Tempo | 113 BPM |
| Time signature | 4 4 |
| Key | C Major |
| Engineered by | Ferg Peterkin Gareth Jones |
| Tonmeister | Gareth Jones |
| Mixed at | Hansa Mischraum |
| Mastered by | Christian Stegmaier |
| Design | Martyn Atkins Town & Country Planning |
| Photography | Brian Griffin |
| Illustrations | Ian Wright |
| Recorded | May 1983 |
| Originally released | 11 July 1983 |
| Live performances as Depeche Mode | 863 times * |
| Total live performances | 863 times * |
"Everything Counts" is a song from the 1983 album Construction Time Again by Depeche Mode. It was released as a lead single on 11 July 1983.
Notes
Martin Gore was quoted in the 1983-09-17 issue of NME:
"I think ['Everything Counts'] was partly [inspired by] going to Thailand as well [as the song 'Shame'] — that's where the oriental flavour comes in, like Korea 'n' all that. But you go over there and all the hotels are full of, like, businessmen and basically they tend to treat people as though they're nothing. All they're interested in is their business — that's what I really hate about big business, people just don't seem to matter. Just money. You see all the women over there 'n' they're all prostitutes — that's the only way they can make any money. 'Course, the businessmen love it. Work [will "remove the stains"]. It's no good just sitting back and hoping things'll change, you've got to actually work together. The material's there; it's like, there's enough food in the world to feed everybody and then half the world's eating three quarters of it and the rest of the world's starving. But the food is there. There is a solution. The thing is, the people in power don't care about someone with a low wage, they only care about their own power. But I think people should care about other people, y'know, cos from the moment we're born we're put into competition with everybody else. I really don't understand why people go into politics — what makes someone at 16 or 17 decide to go into parliament? It's got to be people themselves. People's attitudes have got to be changed. For instance, when I wrote "All we need's universal revolution", I didn't mean, like, everyone to take up arms, but more a total change of attitude. That's what's needed. People's attitudes have got to be changed. You've got to look at the world to change things. Attitudes in the world, poverty in the world. The thing is when we talk about socialism, we don't mean "English Socialism" we mean "International Socialism"."
When Depeche Mode was interviewed about the songs on the 101 CD for the April 1989 issue of French magazine Best, Dave Gahan said (translated from French):
"It's one of my favourite songs. It's taken from the Construction Time Again album, which was an important step in our career. That's when we started becoming successful in Europe. At the time, in England, 'Everything Counts' went into the Top 10, but elsewhere, it did not work. That's why we wanted it to be on the live album. The lyrics are timeless. They talk of money, power and corruption."
They said the same in the 1985-10-26 issue of Melody Maker:
Dave: "This was a real turning point, probably one of our favourites, and very powerful lyrically."
Martin: "Its about things getting out of hand, business getting to the point where individuals don't count and you'll thread on anybody."
When Will Arnett asked the band in the Smartless podcast in 2023 what the strange sound at the beginning of the song is, Martin replied: "That was a Chinese violin that we badly sampled, I think", and Dave continued in jest, "Yeah, that we couldn't play. It was an instrument that we couldn't play."
Lyrics
Everything Counts
The handshake seals the contract
From the contract there's no turning back
The turning point of a career
In Korea being insincere
The holiday was fun-packed
The contract, still intact
The grabbing hands grab all they can
All for themselves - after all
The grabbing hands grab all they can
All for themselves - after all
It's a competitive world
Everything counts in large amounts
The graph on the wall
Tells the story of it all
Picture it now, see just how
The lies and deceit gained a little more power
Confidence - taken in
By a sun-tan and a grin
The grabbing hands grab all they can
All for themselves - after all
The grabbing hands grab all they can
All for themselves - after all
It's a competitive world
Everything counts in large amounts
The grabbing hands grab all they can
Everything counts in large amounts
Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©1983 Grabbing Hands Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
Music video
Live performances
- Main article: Available recordings of "Everything Counts"
- Main article: List of dates where "Everything Counts" was played
Live versions
This section provides an example of a live version of Everything Counts from each tour that it was played.
- Play 1983-1984 Construction Time Again Tour (Without additional synth line): 1983-12-06 Paradiso, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Play 1983-1984 Construction Time Again Tour (With additional synth line): 1984-02-03 Odeon, Birmingham, England, UK
- Play 1984-1985 Some Great Reward Tour: 1984-12-09 Alsterdorf Sporthalle, Hamburg, Germany
- Play 1986 Black Celebration Tour: 1986-04-10 N.E.C., Birmingham, England, UK
- Play 1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour: 1988-01-11 Wembley Arena, London, England, UK
- Play 1990 World Violation Tour: 1990-08-04 Dodgers Stadium, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Play 1993 Devotional Tour: 1993-07-31 Crystal Palace Sports Ground, London, England, UK
- Play 1994 Exotic Tour: 1994-03-26 Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, HI, USA
- Play 2005-2006 Touring The Angel: 2005-11-18 HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA, USA
- Play 2010-2011 Selected Events Tour: 2010-03-19 Meistersaal, Hansa Tonstudios, Berlin, Germany
- 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
