Lyric differences

This page lists lyrical differences between album, demo, and live versions. Some lyrical oddities on the remaster releases are also described.

Many lyrical errors / mistakes / transposition of verses, etc. during live concerts are represented in the "Something Went Wrong" compilation, and don't qualify for inclusion on this page.

Live, bare, and demo differences

• On the demo for Ice Machine, Dave sings "The ice machine, the ice machine" at the end of the song. He also does this at 1980-10-30 Bridge House, London, England, UK, but not at the next available concert with a recording at 1980-11-14 Technical College, Southend-On-Sea, Essex, England, UK or at any concert in the future.

• During New Life performed at 1980-10-30 Bridge House, London, England, UK, Dave sings "transition to another song" instead of "transition to another place".

• Minor differences on Vince Clarke's original demo for Television Set:
  • "I'm just a mass of communication" (live versions all say "for communication")
  • The final "a" in the chorus line "I'm just a television set" is missing at the end of the demo snippet.

• On all live versions of Dreaming Of Me, "filming the screening" is sung instead of the single version's "filming and screening".

Bong Magazine Issue 24, Page 18, with Vince Clarke's original lyrics for Just Can't Get Enough.

• Vince's original demo lyrics for Just Can't Get Enough says "and when it rains, you're shining out for me" (see Bong Magazine 24 to the right), compared to the studio version "shining down". "Shining out" is what Dave sings live as late as 1981-06-01 Bridge House, London, England, UK. By the time of 1981-06-27 Crocs, Rayleigh, Essex, England, UK, he sings "shining down".

• All live cover versions of I Like It have a couple verses chopped off compared to Gerry & The Pacemakers' original version, and there are a few other minor lyrical differences. Lyrics of Depeche Mode's rendition is available on the song's page.

• The demo for Told You So has a change in the second verse; see Demos & Studio Pre-Mixes / Told You So (Demo) for the exact differences written out and audio of the demo.

• The bare studio session for Stories Of Old omits the first verse entirely.

• In two instances, Martin changes a lyric during Somebody during the 1984-1985 "Some Great Reward" Tour, both reacting to a fan throwing sparklers at him.
  • At 1984-11-22 Siegerlandhalle, Siegen, Germany, he changes a line to "... somebody who will throw sparklers at me".
  • At 1984-12-03 Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, Germany, he changes a line to "somebody who won't throw sparklers at me".

• Also during Somebody, Martin sings "and in a place like this, I'll get away with it" (though sometimes omitting the "and") after the final line of the song, during most of the performances during the 1984-1985 "Some Great Reward" Tour and all performances during the 1987-1988 "Music For The Masses" Tour.
  • During the "Some Great Reward" tour, Martin first did this at either 1984-10-14 King George's Hall, Blackburn, England, UK or 1984-10-16 Barrowlands, Glasgow, Scotland, UK; as there is not a recording for the former, it can't be confirmed at which concert he first sang the line. On 1984-10-16 he sang the line, and did from then on.
  • Martin didn't sing the additional line during the only time the song was performed during the 1986 "Black Celebration" Tour, at the final concert of the tour at 1986-08-16 Valbyparken, Copenhagen, Denmark, nor did he sing the line at the several performances of the song at the final several UK gigs at the end of the 1993 "Devotional" Tour, nor any tour since then.

• The studio pre-mix for Master And Servant has some female backing vocals not present on the album version. Listen at Demos & Studio Pre-Mixes / Master And Servant (Studio Pre-Mix).

• During Master And Servant at 1984-10-13 Odeon, Birmingham, England, UK, Martin sings "treat me like a dog" at the beginning of the song and during the instrumental break in the middle of the song.

• The demo for If You Want has a very minor word transposition; in the final line of the song, the demo says "even though you still may not want to", while the album and live versions say "even though you may still not want to". Oddly, the demo lyric is reflected on the 2006 remaster artwork and also on depechemode.com's archive section. The error on the official site archives is not correctable because the site must match the latest official release's artwork, even if it is inaccurate.

• The demo for Shake The Disease has some changed lyrics for the second verse; see Demos & Studio Pre-Mixes / Shake The Disease (Demo) for the exact differences written out and audio of the demo.

• The demo for Here Is The House has some changed lyrics; see Demos & Studio Pre-Mixes / Here Is The House (Demo) for the exact differences written out and audio of the demo.

• During A Question Of Time live, Dave sings "I know my kind / What goes on in their minds" compared to "What goes on in our minds" of the album version. "Their" is also grammatically incorrect.

• The studio pre-mix for Strangelove has Martin's backing vocal "it's important" before "pain, will you return it / I won't say it again", which is not on the album version or any live versions, and is not heard officially until the Strangelove '88 remixes. Listen at Demos & Studio Pre-Mixes / Strangelove (Studio Pre-Mix).

• The studio pre-mix for I Want You Now uses a completely different vocal take. Listen at Demos & Studio Pre-Mixes / I Want You Now (Studio Pre-Mix).

• Reportedly, in the World In My Eyes demo, instead of "Nothing more than you can feel now" is something like "I don't mean to get you down". As the demo does not currently circulate and no fan I know has heard the track, I cannot confirm the exact lyrical differences of the demo at this time.

• The studio pre-mix for Halo uses a completely different vocal take. Listen at Demos & Studio Pre-Mixes / Halo (Studio Pre-Mix).

• In the demo / rough mix / vocal guide for Barrel Of A Gun, Martin sings "everything I've done" instead of "when everything that I've done".

• The demo for Only When I Lose Myself says "I feel hypnotized, I feel mesmerized", whereas the single version says "paralyzed".

• During John The Revelator performed during 2005-2006 "Touring The Angel", Dave seems to sing "all he ever gives is his blame" instead of "all he ever gives us is pain". The several times the song is performed on the 2013-2014 "Delta Machine" Tour, Dave sings the correct line.

• The demo, bare, and live versions of Nothing's Impossible have the lyrics "how did we get to be this far apart / let's take a chance, go back to the start", whereas the album version has "how did we get to be this far apart" repeated.

• During Photographic performed during 2005-2006 "Touring The Angel", Dave usually sings "a second past like an empty glass" instead of "a second past like an empty room" (as sung on 1986 and earlier live versions, on the Summer 1980 Demo Tape, the album version, and the "Some Bizzare Version"). Martin faithfully sings the backing vocal "a second past like an empty room".
  • During the two performances of the song during 2009-2010 "Touring The Universe" (2010-02-17 Royal Albert Hall, London, England, UK and 2010-02-27 Espirit Arena, Dusseldorf, Germany), Dave sings "cup" instead of "glass". Martin sings "room" at RAH; Martin either was not singing backing vocals at Dusseldorf or his vocals are way too low in the mix to hear.

• In nearly every performance of Strangelove during 2009-2010 "Touring The Universe", Dave sings "I'm always willing to learn if you've got something to teach". The album version is "I'm always willing to learn when you've got something to teach". Dave does correctly sing "when" at 2009-06-13 Olympiastadion, Munich, Germany, 2009-06-23 Puskas Ferenc Stadium, Budapest, Hungary, and 2009-06-28 Zenith Amphitheatre, Nancy, France, and possibly others (I need to double check all of them again).
  • He also does not sing the "yes" before "and I'll make it all worthwhile" during this tour, unlike the album and previous live versions. However, "yes" is not written in the official lyrics, but is sung on the album version as well as live during the 1987-1988 "Music For The Masses" Tour and the 1990 "World Violation" Tour, so perhaps Dave is simply being completely faithful to the written lyrics during 2009-2010 "Touring The Universe".

Remaster oddities

• In the SACD and DTS 5.1 versions of Two Minute Warning, "and you and I go hand in hand" is sung instead of the original version, stereo remaster, and live line of "while you and I go hand in hand". A different vocal take must have been used in this particular instance by accident.
  • Also in the multichannel version, it sounds like the vocoded backing vocal of "so welcome to your last" is erroneously not present both times the line is sung.
• In the SACD and DTS 5.1 versions of Here Is The House, Dave sings the first "and as it happens, it happens here in this house" along with Martin, and the vocals seem to be slightly out of sync. The second "and as it happens..." is Martin only. On the original version and the stereo remaster, only Martin sings in both instances. During the full-band performance of the track from 1986-03-31 New Conference Centre, Brighton, England, UK, both Dave and Martin sing the line both times.