Somebody
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6. Somebody List of Some Great Reward songs |
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Somebody
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| Song | Somebody |
|---|---|
| By | Depeche Mode |
| Songwriter | Martin L. Gore |
| Produced by | Depeche Mode Daniel Miller Gareth Jones |
| Recorded at | Music Works (Highbury, London) Hansa Mischraum (Berlin) |
| Length (mm:ss) | 4:27 (album version) 4:19 (edit) |
| Tempo | 78 BPM |
| Time signature | 3 4 |
| Key | G Major |
| Engineering assistance | Ben Ward Stefi Marcus Colin McMahon |
| Design | Martyn Atkins David A. Jones Marcx |
| Photography | Brian Griffin |
| Photography assistance | Stuart Graham |
| Recorded | June 1984 |
| Originally released | 29 October 1984 |
| Live performances as Depeche Mode | 373 times * |
| Total live performances | 373 times * |
"Somebody" is a song from the 1984 album Some Great Reward by Depeche Mode. It was released as a double A-side single alongside "Blasphemous Rumours" on 29 October 1984.
Notes
While Depeche Mode were working on Some Great Reward at Hansa Studios, Martin Gore told the November 1984 issue of International Musician And Recording World:
"We're going to go for a completely human feel on that one. Just a piano played by Alan and Dave singing and Andy playing tapes on the Fostex X15. It'll be very different."
In the documentary on the 2006 remaster CD/DVD of 'Some Great Reward', you can see footage of Dave studying this song at Hansa Studios.
Quotes from the documentary on the DVD of the Some Great Reward remaster from 2006:
Daniel Miller: "There are a lot of stories about how Somebody was recorded. It might as well have been that Dave tried it and it didn't work out. There's bound to be a couple of songs that Martin writes for the album where it works better with his voice."
Andy Fletcher: "It was really down to two things: If we thought it suited Martin's voice more, or if they were of a more personal nature, like Somebody."
Alan Wilder: "It was probably the first of what you'd call an acoustic performed track on an album. In fact, Martin sang it naked. It was his call. [laughs] I turned the piano away as I was playing, but yeah, we recorded it live, just him and me, in the big studio 2 hall, and he stripped off for that one."
From the 1984-09-22 issue of Melody Maker:
Suggesting that 'Some Great Reward' is dominated by "anti-love" songs brings a considered but emphatic "No" from Martin.
Martin: 'Somebody' is pretty much a straightforward 'I love you' song if you like, certainly not an anti-love song. [...] The song is based on a sort of Jonathan Richman back-to-basics theory. It's performed all together – it just needed three takes, mainly to get the sound okay – and really uses the bare essentials. In fact I sang it completely naked in the cellar of the studio which we use for ambiance, and the others sent the female tape op downstairs while I was doing it to 'check the connections'."
Dave told BBC Radio in 1984:
"We sent Steffi down there, who's the girl taper in Germany, to check out some wires, and Martin, not knowing she was coming down and us knowing that Martin has stripped off, and then we heard a little shriek when she got down there, and Martin going "Eh, eh, sorry, eh...""
When Depeche Mode was interviewed about the songs on the '101' CD for the April 1989 issue of French magazine 'Best', Martin Gore said (translated from French):
"I do not like this song anymore. Looking back on it, I think it's too soft and tender. Most of my songs are not as naive. I usually arrange songs in such a way that they take an unexpected turn at some point. I prefer it to contain doubt, when it does not rule out the possibility that a loving relationship may go wrong."
Lyrics
Somebody
I want somebody to share
Share the rest of my life
Share my innermost thoughts
Know my intimate details
Someone who'll stand by my side
And give me support
And in return
She'll get my support
She will listen to me
When I want to speak
About the world we live in
And life in general
Though my views may be wrong
They may even be perverted
She will hear me out
And won't easily be converted
To my way of thinking
In fact she'll often disagree
But at the end of it all
She will understand me
I want somebody who cares
For me passionately
With every thought and with every breath
Someone who'll help me see things
In a different light
All the things I detest
I will almost like
I don't want to be tied
To anyone's strings
I'm carefully trying to steer clear
Of those things
But when I'm asleep
I want somebody
Who will put their arms around me
And kiss me tenderly
Though things like this
Make me sick
In a case like this
I'll get away with it
In a place like this[1]
I'll get away with it
Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©1984 Grabbing Hands Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
Music video
Live performances
- Main article: Available recordings of "Somebody"
- Main article: List of dates where "Somebody" was played
Live versions
This section provides an example of a live version of Somebody from each tour that it was played.
- Play 1984-1985 Some Great Reward Tour: 1984-11-02 Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, UK
- Play 1986 Black Celebration Tour: 1986-08-16 Valbyparken, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Play 1987-1988 Music For The Masses Tour: 1988-05-20 Poplar Creek Music Fest, Chicago, IL, USA
- Play 1993 Devotional Tour: 1993-12-20 Wembley Arena, London, England, UK
- Play 1994 Exotic Tour: 1994-05-14 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountainview, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Play 1998 The Singles Tour: 1998-12-18 Forum, Inglewood, CA, USA
- Play 2001 Exciter Tour: 2001-11-05 Maimarkthalle, Mannheim, Germany
- Play 2005-2006 Touring The Angel: 2005-11-18 HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA, USA
- Play 2009-2010 Tour Of The Universe (Regular): 2009-10-17 Personal Fest, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Play 2009-2010 Tour Of The Universe (With Alan Wilder on piano): 2010-02-17 Royal Albert Hall, London, England, UK
- Play 2017-2018 Global Spirit Tour: 2018-06-26 Volt Festival, Sopron, Hungary
- Play 2023-2024 Memento Mori Tour: 2024-01-29 AO Arena, Manchester, England, UK
References
- ↑ Martin Gore occasionally sings these additional lyrics during live performances.
