Lyric differences

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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

  • 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 not sung 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.
  • 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 bare studio session for Stories Of Old omits the first verse entirely.
  • 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.[2] 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.
  • 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.
  • Some lines are dropped during Rush as performed on the 1993 "Devotional" Tour and the 1994 "Exotic" Tour; see the changes below. On the album version, those lines have some overlap with the previous line, so it was probably infeasible for Dave to sing those line lives as a result.[4]
1993-05-19 Lille through 1993-07-31 London:
Second verse Fourth verse
Open your sensitive mouth
Hold out your delicate hands
With such a sensitive mouth
I'm easy to see through
Seen the tears in my eyes
Heard my truth turn to lies
Seen the tears in my eyes
I'm not proud of what I do
1993-09-07 Quebec (unconfirmed, no recording available), but definitely 1993-09-15 Toronto and on:
Second verse Fourth verse
Open your sensitive mouth
Hold out your delicate hands
With such a sensitive mouth
I'm easy to see through
Seen the tears in my eyes
Heard my truth turn to lies
Seen the tears in my eyes
I'm not proud of what I do
  • 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.[8]

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".[11] 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.

References