Condemnation
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3. Condemnation List of Songs of Faith and Devotion songs |
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Condemnation
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| Song | Condemnation |
|---|---|
| By | Depeche Mode |
| Songwriter | Martin L. Gore |
| Produced by | Depeche Mode Flood |
| Recorded at | Home studio (Alcobendas, Madrid) Chateau du Pape (Hamburg, Germany) |
| Length (mm:ss) | 3:22 (album version) 3:21 (Paris Mix) |
| Tempo | 58 BPM |
| Time signature | 4 4 |
| Key | B Major |
| Design | Anton Corbijn Area |
| Recorded | 1992 |
| Originally released | 13 September 1993 |
| Live performances as Depeche Mode | 268 times * |
| Total live performances | 277 times * |
"Condemnation" is a song from the 1993 album Songs Of Faith And Devotion by Depeche Mode. It was released as a single on 13 September 1993.
Notes
Martin Gore stated in Bong issue no. 37, 1998:
"Being the songwriter, I am not supposed to keep saying that I think it's a great song, somebody else is supposed to say it. I really like that song, but I am not sure that we got the best out of it. Our album version is sort of pastiche gospel but the single version, that we recorded using gospel singers, is probably better. Although I am still not sure that that's the optimum we could have got out of the song."
Alan Wilder said in the May 1993 issue of Keyboard magazine:
[O]n "Condemnation", we put the piano through some kind of wobbly pitch-shifter. The idea of that track was to enhance the gospel feel that the song originally had without going into pastiche, and to try to create the effect of it being played in a room, in a space. So we began by getting all four members of the group to do one thing each in the same space. Fletcher was bashing a flight case with a pole, Flood and Dave were clapping, I was playing a drum, and Martin was playing an organ. We listened back to it. it was embryonic, but it gave us an idea for a direction.
Dave Gahan in the 1993-04-03 issue of Melody Maker magazine:
It was under the studio in Madrid, a low-ceilinged place, very concrete and metal and echoey and cold, and it had a great sound and a great ambience. When I came out, everybody in the control room went all quiet and turned around, and suddenly Flood said, "That was f***ing great!" And Alan and everybody said, "That's probably the best vocal you ever did" – and I thought, "Yeah, it was." It was completely breaking me up inside, and, at the same time, it was really optimistic and uplifting.
Depeche Mode were quoted in the Electronic Press Kit as saying:
Martin: That is one of the tracks that we used other people on, backing singers, gospel singers; but it is actually sung in a very gospel quartet style, old gospel quartet style. And we basically worked out the parts and sang them, we didn’t sample vocals off, we just sang the parts like a quartet. So it was very interesting to do that, and I think Dave’s given his best vocal performance ever on that track.
Alan: We managed to find a good environment, we did that particular vocal in Madrid, and the house where we set the studio up had a very echoey tiled room down in the garage, and he sang down there, and he enjoyed singing in that space – just the way the room set off the sound of his voice, was pleasing to him and therefore he sang well.
Dave: To me that song is definitely the best vocal that I’ve ever… the best lyrics, I think, and melody that I’ve ever been given to sing, That’s the song that I wish I could have written. It was one of the first songs that we done out in Madrid, I just felt everything that I was saying was making sense, and it was kind of breaking down and crushing or opening up new things for me, breaking down old things, and it was kind of like getting to the end of it, and when I heard it back I just thought, you know, it sounds great! And Flood, and everybody in the studio was like… I could tell, there was a feeling when I walked back into the control room everybody was like, “That was really good.” And that’s the first song I would have liked everybody to hear first, because I just think we captured something really really special.
Dave Gahan told Exclaim! in 2021 that he still gets goosebumps when he recalls recording the song:
I immediately knew the song. It wasn't necessarily completely accurate to the way Martin wrote the melody line or the phrasing or the timing. I just sang it, and [after] I sang it, the tape stopped rolling and it went on quiet. I've got my headphones on and I hear [producer] Flood's voice go, "Yeah, I mean, you could do another one. But I think we got it."
Gahan told Rolling Stone magazine in issue #670:
When I first heard "Condemnation", it was a total relief; I couldn't believe it.
Engineer Steve Lyon told Vaughn George in 2023:
Downstairs of this villa was this underground car park where we'd stored the flight cases and the wooden crates that we later crashed and jumped on to make the rhythm sound of the track. Flood was like, "Is this going to be all right?" I said, "Yeah it'll be great." I's going to sound different because it's in this massive room. Dave felt comfortable, which is the most important thing, with the candles out, the right atmosphere, the vibe was good, and he absolutely killed it. Initially that song was a Martin song, but Dave felt really passionately that he could nail it, and he did.
Gahan has frequently mentioned "Condemnation" as one of his favourite songs. However, soon after playing in South Africa in 1994, it was no longer Gahan who sang "Condemnation", presumably due to his health and the strenuous vocal task the song requires, but it was Gore, accompanied by Wilder on piano (the earliest verifiable date on which this change occurred was on 1994-03-16 in Hong Kong). Gore also sang the song on the 2013-2014 Delta Machine Tour. Gahan did perform the song on his short 2015 "Angels and Ghosts" Tour, but in 2016 he told Stirile Pro: "There's certain songs from Songs Of Faith And Devotion that, I feel they capture a moment: 'Condemnation' being one of those. And it's hard for me to perform that song now, it brings up so many emotions." He also told Exclaim! in 2021 that he had considered putting "Condemnation" on his Soulsavers cover album Imposter, saying: "It's got everything in there. It's got that soulfulness, the redemption, the longing to belong in something."
Lyrics
Condemnation
Condemnation
Tried
Here on the stand
With the book in my hand
And truth on my side
Accusations
Lies
Hand me my sentence
I'll show no repentance
I'll suffer with pride
If for honesty
You want apologies
I don't sympathize
If for kindness
You substitute blindness
Please open your eyes
Condemnation
Why
Because my duty
Was always to beauty
And that was my crime
Feel elation
High
To know I can trust this
Fix of injustice
Time after time
If you see purity
As immaturity
Well it's no surprise
If for kindness
You substitute blindness
Please open your eyes
Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©1992 Grabbing Hands Music Overseas/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
Music video
Live performances
- Main article: Available recordings of "Condemnation"
- Main article: List of dates where "Condemnation" was played
Live versions
This section provides an example of a live version of Condemnation from each tour that it was played.
- 1993 Devotional Tour: 1993-07-31 Crystal Palace Sports Ground, London, England, UK
- 1994 Exotic Tour (Dave Vocals): 1994-02-14 Standard Bank, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 1994 Exotic Tour (Martin Vocals): 1994-05-14 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountainview, San Francisco, CA, USA
- 1998 The Singles Tour: 1998-12-18 Forum, Inglewood, CA, USA
- 2001 Exciter Tour (Martin Vocals): 2001-08-19 Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, CA, USA
- 2001 Exciter Tour (Dave Vocals): 2001-11-05 Maimarkthalle, Mannheim, Germany
- 2003 A Night With Martin L. Gore: 2003-04-26 Docks, Hamburg, Germany
- 2015 Angels and Ghosts Tour: 2015-10-19 The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- 2023-2024 Memento Mori Tour: 2023-04-14 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA
Trivia
- "Condemnation" is featured in season two episode thirty-three of Israeli television show Ha-Shminiya.
