Clean

From DM Live - the Depeche Mode live encyclopedia for the masses
Jump to navigationJump to search
8. Blue Dress
9. Clean
List of Violator songs

 

Clean
Album-Violator.jpg
Song Clean
By Depeche Mode
Songwriter Martin L. Gore
Produced by Depeche Mode
Flood
Recorded at Puk Studios, Denmark
Logic Studios, Milan
Length (mm:ss) 5:32 (album version)
Tempo 92 BPM
Time signature 3
4
Key G Major
Engineering assistance Daryl Bamonte
Dick Meaney
David Browne
Mark Flannery
Mixed by François Kevorkian
Recorded May 1989 – January 1990
Originally released 19 March 1990
Live performances as Depeche Mode 171 times *
Total live performances 171 times *

"Clean" is a song from the 1990 album Violator by Depeche Mode.

Quotes

I just write about things that affect me. I find it very unappealing to write songs that are safe, that go nowhere, that do nothing. I know that 'Clean' has a lot of holy imagery, and that intertwines with the sex theme, which are two ideas I find interesting to mix together. But I don't try to analyze things.[1]

Martin L. Gore - Select, December 1990

Q&A from Alan Wilder's Shunt:

From: Michel Jouveaux

Q: The opening of 'Clean' sounds exactly like that of Pink Floyd's 'One Of These Days' on 'Meddle'. Was that conscious / unconscious, sampled or programmed? (I've checked in the archives and couldn't see any mention of that, ;-))

A: I recognise the similarity but [it's] not a Floyd sample. It was programmed using a combination of analogue synth and sampled bass [guitar].

Wilder also says on Shunt:

With 'Clean', we never had the delay bass line until the very end.

Lyrics


Clean

Clean

The cleanest I've been

An end to the tears

And the in-between years

And the troubles I've seen


Now that I'm clean

You know what I mean

I've broken my fall

Put an end to it all

I've changed my routine

Now I'm clean


I don't understand

What destiny's planned

I'm starting to grasp

What is in my own hands

I don't claim to know

Where my holiness goes

I just know that I like

What is starting to show


Sometimes


As years go by

All the feelings inside

Twist and they turn

As they ride with the tide

I don't advise

And I don't criticise

I just know what I like

With my own eyes


Sometimes


Clean

The cleanest I've been

An end to the tears

And the in-between years

And the troubles I've seen


Now that I'm clean


Sometimes


You know what I mean

I've broken my fall

Put an end to it all

I've changed my routine

Now I'm clean


Sometimes


Now I'm clean


The cleanest I've been


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

Composition

Sample sources

"Clean"
Depeche Mode
1990
Self-made samples
Sample Notes Audio
Vocal elements "Clean" employs an exhaled "ah" vocal part originally recorded for use throughout 1987's "I Want You Now". The part is performed in time with the snare starting from the second verse. Wilder recalled the performers responsible for this vocal part in a Q&A on Shunt, the official Recoil website: "...I think it was a couple of girls who were hanging around the studio - thought we'd make use of them ;-)"[2]

Sample sources
Sample Source Status Notes Audio
Orchestral strings, orchestral elements Gustav Mahler - Symphony No.5 in C sharp minor - 4. Adagietto (Sehr langsam) - Chicago Symphony Orchestra - March 1970
Confirmed
"Clean" employs two looped orchestral phrases sampled from the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 Adagietto (Sehr langsam), conducted by Georg Solti and performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Medinah Temple in March 1970.

Click to display/hide audio example

Bass guitar elements Pink Floyd - "One Of These Days" - 1971
Disproven
Wilder confirmed in a Q&A on Shunt, the official Recoil project site that "Clean" does not employ a sample from Pink Floyd: "I recognise the similarity but It's not a Floyd sample. It was programmed using a combination of analogue synth and sampled bass [guitar]."[3]

Music video

Live performances

Main article: Available recordings of "Clean"
Main article: List of dates where "Clean" was played

Trivia

  • 'Clean' has been covered by Fading Colors (1996), Converge (2001), Yelen (2003), Carpe Diem IV (2005), and Armageddon Dildos (2011).
  • 'Clean' has been sampled in the following songs by other artists:
    • 'Incubus' - Recoil (1997)
    • 'Missing Piece' - Recoil (1997)
    • 'Wipe the Blood Off Your Hands Heather...' - PLΔYS✞Δ✞ION|DREΔMS (2015)

References

  1. Source: Faith, Hope and Depravity, Select, December 1990.
  2. Source: Shunt Q&A: ARCHIVES : DEPECHE MODE : MUSIC FOR THE MASSES
  3. Wilder, Alan. "Shunt Q&A: ARCHIVES : DEPECHE MODE : VIOLATOR". recoil.co.uk. https://web.archive.org/web/20181128152225/http://oldsite.recoil.co.uk/forum/qa/dmviol.htm. Archived 28 November 2018, p. 1.