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Enjoy The Silence

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6. Enjoy The Silence
List of Violator songs
7. Policy Of Truth →
Enjoy The Silence
Single-ETS.jpg
Song
Artist
 Depeche Mode
Album
Songwriter
Produced by
Recorded at
Puk Studios, Denmark
Logic Studios, Milan
Label
Length (mm:ss)
6:12 (album version)
4:15 (single version)
Tempo
 112 BPM
Time signature
4/4
Key
 C Minor
Engineering assistance
Daryl Bamonte
Dick Meaney
David Browne
Mark Flannery
Mixing
Recorded
1989
Originally released
January 16, 1990
Played live
986 times *
Total live plays
1061 times *

'Enjoy The Silence' is a song from the 1990 album Violator by Depeche Mode. It was released as a single on January 16, 1990.

Lyrics


Enjoy The Silence

Words like violence

Break the silence

Come crashing in

Into my little world

Painful to me

Pierce right through me

Can't you understand

Oh my little girl


All I ever wanted

All I ever needed

Is here in my arms

Words are very unnecessary

They can only do harm


Vows are spoken

To be broken

Feelings are intense

Words are trivial

Pleasures remain

So does the pain

Words are meaningless

And forgettable


All I ever wanted

All I ever needed

Is here in my arms

Words are very unnecessary

They can only do harm


Enjoy the silence


Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©1990 Grabbing Hands Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Music video

Original version

Directed by Anton Corbijn. The music video for 'Enjoy The Silence' features Dave Gahan dressed as a king carrying a folding deck chair. Through a series of landscape shots, Gahan is seen roaming solemnly through lush, remote vistas in humble search of a quiet place to sit, interspersed with quick cuts of black and white footage featuring the band and stylized photographs of the iconic Violator rose. The video uses an officially unreleased (in audio form, unreleased as of November 2019) edit of the album version of 'Enjoy The Silence', featuring an alternate introduction comprised of the outro choir melody, harpsichord-like stabs, bass stabs, the primary choir stabs, a hi-hat pattern, and snare.

Filming began in a London studio on or around 28 November 1989[1], featuring black and white footage of the band posing against a black background. Andrew Fletcher recalled: "'Enjoy The Silence' was my personal favourite video to make, because it only took me an hour. We went into the studio, and Anton said, 'This will only take a while', and we said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is going to take all day.' And he said after an hour, 'Well, you can go home now', and we thought, 'Oh, great!' And poor old Dave, he had six days of filming in freezing conditions in the Alps, in everywhere, which was just freezing."[2]

The folding deck chair prop featured in the music video, won by fan ModeMan101 at a Depeche Mode convention.
Image courtesy of Instagram user ModeMan101, retrieved via Facebook group “Depeche Mode Classic Photos And Videos”.

Filming for the landscape beach and field footage began at Loch Muick (pronounced "Mick") on the Queen's Balmoral Estate in Scotland before resuming in the Swiss Alps and Alvor, Portugal at approximately 37°07'04.4"N 8°34'41.7"W (Praia Da Prainha beach) on the Algarve coast in mid-January 1990.[3] Conditions during filming in Scotland were reported to be unbearably cold for both the crew and Gahan, who was required to stand on a windy hillside for more than eight hours dressed lightly in costume.[4]. By the end of filming the Scotland sequence, the crew's vehicle (a Range Rover) became trapped in the tundra.[5]. The Swiss Alps long shots seen in the final moments of the video are noteworthy as the king seen roaming through the tundra is video producer Richard Bell. Fed up with the freezing conditions onsite, Gahan handed the costume to Bell and left upon learning the next scene was to be a long shot:

Towards the end of filming there is this one shot, like, I'd really had it! I just wanted to go back to the hotel. We've taken this helicopter which we had on stand-by on this mountain, and Anton wanted me to do this shot where I was like away, away, away and there is this beautiful scene, it was just all snow. And I am like about this big. I took my crown off and put it on [Richard Bell's]] head, I took the rope off [...] And I got into the helicopter and went down and had a cup of hot chocolate in the hotel.

— Dave Gahan - The Videos 86>98[6]

Edited versions

Two edits of the 'Enjoy The Silence' music video exist. One version begins with Fletcher looking to his right, with various shots of Gahan mouthing the lyrics directly to the camera intercut with long shots of him roaming the Scottish Highlands, Praia Da Prainha beach, and the Swiss Alps. The video concludes with a shot of Gahan dressed in costume singing the line "Enjoy the silence", before putting a finger to his lips.

The second version features Martin L. Gore looking to his right in the opening moments. In this version, the shots of Gahan singing to the viewer are cut, leaving only two scenes in which he sings the lines "Words are very unnecessary - They can only do harm." The video concludes with a shot of Gahan unfolding and sitting on his deck chair in the snow while the final line "Enjoy the silence" brings the song to a close. Some minor differences in the black and white group footage exist between the two versions of the video.

Handwritten note by Anton Corbijn explaining the concept for the 'Enjoy The Silence' music video.
Included in the 2005 DVD release Anton Corbijn ‎– The Work Of Director Anton Corbijn. Image retrieved via Facebook group “Depeche Mode Classic Photos And Videos”. Scanner unknown.

Production

A handwritten note by Corbijn describing the production and execution of the 'Enjoy The Silence' music video is featured in a booklet accompanying the 2005 documentary Anton Corbijn ‎– The Work Of Director Anton Corbijn. A transcript of the note can be read below.

DEPECHE MODE "Enjoy The Silence"

One of the most beautiful songs I have worked with and I kept coming back to the band with this one idea I had for the video, which was the image of a king walking around the world looking for peace, in silence, and bringing his deck chair with him. It took me a lot of persuasion to get a go-ahead, possibly because no-one had a better idea. We started in December 1989 in Scotland which was hard as it was really cold and then I took off for a beach and started again in mid-January on two locations in Portugal and one in Switzerland. We [traveled] as a team of 5, me + Dave included. It was all filmed with the Super 8 camera so we had minimal equipment to carry around bar the heavy pole + the deck chair. Back in London we shot (on 16mm) the band for a few hours in the studio and that was it. It was played a lot everywhere and is still. Love the idea of it. Peace.

— Anton Corbijn

Gallery

Dates with available recordings of Enjoy The Silence

There are currently 713 recordings of Enjoy The Silence available.

Dates where Enjoy The Silence was played

1990 World Violation Tour

Enjoy The Silence was played 88 times during this tour.

1993 Devotional Tour

Enjoy The Silence was played 95 times during this tour.

1994 Exotic Tour

Enjoy The Silence was played 60 times during this tour.

1997 Ultra Parties

  • Enjoy The Silence was not played during this tour.

1998 The Singles Tour

Enjoy The Silence was played 65 times during this tour.

2001 Exciter Tour

Enjoy The Silence was played 86 times during this tour.

2003 Paper Monsters Tour (Dave Gahan solo)

Enjoy The Silence was played 74 times during this tour.

2003 "A Night With Martin L. Gore" (Martin L. Gore solo)

Enjoy The Silence was played only once during this tour.

2005-2006 Touring The Angel

Enjoy The Silence was played 124 times during this tour.

2009-2010 Tour Of The Universe

Enjoy The Silence was played 104 times during this tour.

2013-2014 Delta Machine Tour

Enjoy The Silence was played 114 times during this tour.

2017-2018 Global Spirit Tour

Enjoy The Silence was played 136 times during this tour.

Quotes

Martin Gore: "It's just about a feeling of not wanting anything else, feeling totally satisfied, and even the words and everything seem an intrusion. You don't need anything else, you're totally happy. It's a nice song, it's nice, that's a way to put it, it's nice."

Dave Gahan: "And that's why, if you notice, in the video, you'll see that I only sing one line in the whole thing every now and then, repeatedly: "Words are very unnecessary". Because you got all these beautiful scenes, beautiful photography everywhere, and you look at this fantastic photography, so words [are unnecessary], and I'm a king, obviously, I'm supposed to have everything."

— Martin Gore, Dave Gahan - MTV 120 Minutes[7]

"This was the only time ever in the studio when we thought we had a hit single. When I finished the demo of this song it was more of a ballad and sounded a bit like the harmonium version that came out on one of the formats. Alan had this idea to speed it up and make it a bit more disco which I was really averse to at first, because I thought ‘the song is called 'Enjoy The Silence' and it’s supposed to be about serenity, and serenity doesn’t go with the disco beat’. So I was sulking for about two days but after he sped it up, I got used to it and added the guitar part, which adds to the whole atmosphere. We could really hear that it had a crossover potential. I have to say that I was sulking for two days for no reason."

— Martin Gore - BONG, issue #37 - 1998

"'Enjoy the Silence' was originally a slow track, a ballad almost, as a demo but I think Alan and Flood really believed that there was something else to get out of that track as an uptempo number. Martin was definitely against the idea because it was his song and that’s how he’d heard it, but he said, “Okay, you do it and we’ll see.” I remember coming to visit them in the studio and Fletch and Martin being very excited, saying, “Dan, we’ve got to play you this track!” We went to one of the little rooms to the side of the studio, they played me “Enjoy the Silence”, which was half-finished and I just went, “This is going to be huge.” It was just a perfect pop song, absolutely great. This was the version, by the way, that Martin had written and Alan and Flood had worked on to make it what it was."[8] — Daniel Miller - Electronic Beats, 2013

From: Josh

Q: When Martin gave you the 'Enjoy The Silence' demo, what made you figure it would be good if it was sped up? Did you slow or speed up any other songs?

A: Strangely, the thing that immediately came to mind was that I could hear Neil Tennant singing it in my head. Something about the line "All I ever wanted" sounded very hamster.....er.... Pet Shop to me. Most DM songs changed tempo to some degree from the original demo although none I can think of have been that extreme.

"Martin's demos always had a complete set of lyrics but musically they varied from sometimes being quite detailed to sometimes very simplistic. I felt that to have taken the simple ballad approach for this song would have been to criminally pass on it's massive commercial potential. It was a great tune crying out for the kind of treatment it eventually got. Flood and I worked on the backing track before calling Martin in to play the guitar riff. As the track came together, I think it dawned on everyone (even Martin, who had been the most reluctant about taking the up-tempo route) that we had a hit on our hands."[9] — Alan Wilder - recoil.co.uk

From: Electric cafe

Q: F. Kevorkian mixed all the 'Violator' album but for 'Enjoy The Silence' you preferred to release the Miller/ Flood and Miller / Legg mixes. What's the reason? Is it true that you don't like the sound of the guitar in the Kevorkian one?

A: Well, to be accurate, we mixed the LP together with Francois. Personally, I don't think there's much wrong with our mix of 'Enjoy The Silence'. The guitar sounds fine and the overall sound has a bit more sparkle. Daniel had a bee in his bonnet about the mix and felt very strongly that he could do better. We let him have a go and after 2 or 3 attempts (as you can see from the credits) decided that his mix was acceptable for the 7" version. Had he not pushed for it, I think we would have happily gone with the original mix. Funnily enough, our most successful single ever was one of the flattest, dullest sounding mixes with a snare drum that sounds like a sticky toffee pudding.[10]

— Alan Wilder - recoil.co.uk

"The only thing about [François Kevorkian's mixing] was that, while the record was great, I wasn’t happy with 'Enjoy the Silence' as it was. I had real demo-itis about it. I’d heard this rough version which they’d done, and in my head, that’s how it had to sound. So I said, 'Look, I love the album, but I’m not feeling the way 'Enjoy the Silence' is at the moment. Can I go off and mix it with somebody else just to try it?' So, I went off with a guy called Phil Legg, who was an engineer I’d worked with, and did it the way I’d always heard it. I think they were so burned out by the end—it took a long time making that record—that they said, 'Okay, whatever you say,' and they used that version."[8]

— Daniel Miller - Electronic Beats - 2013

Gahan recalled the group's excitement during the song's production:

"I remember [Martin Gore] sitting there and playing it, and he came up with this riff, and then I sang the song and everyone was surprised that I sang it so well – including myself. And then we spent like a week trying to make it into something: 'Oh wow! I think this could be a single!' and 'What about if we do this and do that,' and 'Maybe we’ll have to redo the drum pattern,' and 'Mart, you could play the guitar a bit better.' And in the end, of course, we come right round, like full circle, and it’s just like, 'Well, it sounded really good the first day we recorded it.'"[11]

— Dave Gahan - EPKMUTEL5

As with prior singles, Daniel Miller mixed the 7" version, which went on to win the Brit Award for 'Single Of The Year' as voted for by Radio 1 listeners — a stark contrast with the group's normally lukewarm reception with audiences in their home country. To illustrate their reciprocally lukewarm enthusiasm for the music media, Depeche Mode collectively boycotted the award presentation. Alan Wilder recalls in a Violator editorial on Shunt, the official Recoil site: "We were all pretty like-minded about avoiding industry-based award ceremonies. Best left to Sting and Elton."


1981-1985: Dreaming Of Me • New Life • Just Can't Get Enough • See You • The Meaning Of Love •
Leave In Silence • Get The Balance Right • Everything Counts • Love In Itself • People Are People • Master And Servant • Blasphemous Rumours / Somebody • Shake The Disease • It's Called A Heart
1986-1989: Stripped • But Not Tonight • A Question Of Lust • A Question Of Time • Strangelove •
Never Let Me Down Again • Behind The Wheel • Little 15 • Personal Jesus
1990-1998: Enjoy The Silence • Policy Of Truth • World In My Eyes • I Feel You • Walking In My Shoes • Condemnation • In Your Room • Barrel Of A Gun • It's No Good • Home • Useless •
Only When I Lose Myself
2001-2009: Dream On • I Feel Loved • Freelove • Goodnight Lovers • Precious • A Pain That I'm Used To •
Suffer Well • John The Revelator / Lilian • Martyr • Wrong • Peace • Fragile Tension / Hole To Feed
2013-2017: Heaven • Soothe My Soul • Should Be Higher • Where's The Revolution • Going Backwards •
Cover Me
2023: Ghosts Again
1992-1998: Faith Healer • Drifting • Stalker / Missing Piece
2000-2008: Strange Hours • Jezebel • Prey • Allelujah
2003-2008: Dirty Sticky Floors • I Need You • Bottle Living / Hold On • A Little Piece • Kingdom • Saw Something / Deeper And Deeper
2012-2015: Longest Day • Take Me Back Home • All Of This And Nothing • Shine
1989-2003: Compulsion • Stardust • Loverman
2012-2015: Spock • Single Blip • Aftermaths • Europa Hymn • "Pinking" (Christoffer Berg Remix)
Official releases


References

  1. ↑ Source: Date seen on production clapperboard in the B-roll footage of the Making Of The 'Enjoy The Silence' video. Information retrieved via Facebook group “Depeche Mode Classic Photos And Videos”
  2. ↑ Source: Andrew Fletcher, The Videos 86>98
  3. ↑ Source: Location information researched and retrieved via Facebook group “Depeche Mode Classic Photos And Videos”.
  4. ↑ Source: BONG magazine issue #8, January 1990
  5. ↑ Source: BONG magazine issue #8, January 1990
  6. ↑ Source: Dave Gahan about making the video for 'Enjoy The Silence'; The Videos 86>98.
  7. ↑ Source: MTV 120 Minutes
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Source: Electronic Beats - “It’s almost too personal”: Daniel Miller contemplates the Depeche Mode catalogue - 2013
  9. ↑ Source: recoil.co.uk '86 - 98' editorial
  10. ↑ Source: recoil.co.uk Q&A: Violator
  11. ↑ Source: EPKMUTEL5, included with The Singles 86>98 promotional box set, copied via SacredDM (now defunct)
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