The Meaning Of Love

From DM Live - the Depeche Mode live encyclopedia for the masses
Jump to navigationJump to search
6. Satellite
7. The Meaning Of Love
List of A Broken Frame songs
8. A Photograph Of You
The Meaning Of Love
Single-Meaning.jpg
Song The Meaning Of Love
By Depeche Mode
Songwriter Martin L. Gore
Produced by Daniel Miller
Depeche Mode
Recorded at Blackwing Studios (London)
Length (mm:ss) 3:05 (7"/single/album version)
4:59 (12" version)
Tempo 150 BPM
Time signature 4
4
Key C Major
Engineered by John Fryer
Eric Radcliffe
Photography Brian Griffin
Calligraphy Ching Ching Lee
Recorded December 1981–April 1982
Originally released 26 April 1982
Live performances as Depeche Mode 135 times *
Total live performances 135 times *

"The Meaning Of Love" is a song from the 1982 album A Broken Frame by Depeche Mode. It was released as a single on 26 April 1982.

Notes

Daniel Miller said in the May 1982 issue of the Electronics & Music Maker magazine:

"There's a new song called 'The Meaning Of Love' which, when Martin presented it, was very basic so we worked out a bass line on the [Roland] MC4 but while they were playing along with it Martin did this little riff, so we just edited a space in the MC4's memory and inserted it. This means that you can work out the structure of a song and get it exactly right without having to put it down on to tape and then you don't have to mess around with tape editing at a later date."

An excerpt from the November 1982 issue of the One Two Testing magazine:

One of the challenges they recently faced was making a 12" version of 'Meaning Of Love' — a trickier business than it sounds. Some tracks are easy to extend — riffs and runs can be lifted, echoed, patched together into middle sections while the rhythm track keeps going. Straight songs are harder to work with. You can extend the end or the beginning, Dave reckons, but after that you're on your own. They decided to augment 'Meaning Of Love' with a 'Stars On 45' chord change that spins out of nowhere, and plenty of weird percussive noises. "It was a good laugh, but some of our fans wrote in saying what was wrong with our new records. They were going a bit strange."

Lyrics


The Meaning Of Love

I've read more than a hundred books

Seeing love mentioned many thousand times

But despite all the places I've looked

It's still no clearer

It's just not enough

I'm still no nearer

The meaning of love


Noted down all my observations

Spent an evening watching television

Still I couldn't say with precision

Know it's a feeling and it comes from above

But what's the meaning

The meaning of love

Tell me (the meaning of love)


From the notes that I've made so far

Love seems something like wanting a scar

Well I could be wrong

I'm just not sure you see

I've never been in love before


Next I asked several friends of mine

If they could spare a few minutes of their time

Their looks suggested that I've lost my mind

Tell me the answer

My Lord high above

Tell me the meaning

The meaning of love


From the notes that I've made so far

Love seems something like wanting a scar

Well I could be wrong

I'm just not sure you see

I've never been in love before


The meaning of love

(Tell me)

Tell me the meaning of love

(Tell me)


Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©1982 Grabbing Hands Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Music video

Live performances

Main article: Available recordings of "The Meaning Of Love"
Main article: List of dates where "The Meaning Of Love" was played


1981-1985: Dreaming Of MeNew LifeJust Can't Get EnoughSee YouThe Meaning Of Love
Leave In SilenceGet The Balance RightEverything CountsLove In ItselfPeople Are PeopleMaster And ServantBlasphemous Rumours / SomebodyShake The DiseaseIt's Called A Heart
1986-1989: StrippedBut Not TonightA Question Of LustA Question Of TimeStrangelove
Never Let Me Down AgainBehind The WheelLittle 15Personal Jesus
1990-1998: Enjoy The SilencePolicy Of TruthWorld In My EyesI Feel YouWalking In My ShoesCondemnationIn Your RoomBarrel Of A GunIt's No GoodHomeUseless
Only When I Lose Myself
2001-2009: Dream OnI Feel LovedFreeloveGoodnight LoversPreciousA Pain That I'm Used To
Suffer WellJohn The Revelator / LilianMartyrWrongPeaceFragile Tension / Hole To Feed
2013-2017: HeavenSoothe My SoulShould Be HigherWhere's The RevolutionGoing Backwards
Cover Me
2023: Ghosts Again
1992-1998: Faith HealerDriftingStalker / Missing Piece
2000-2008: Strange HoursJezebelPreyAllelujah
2003-2008: Dirty Sticky FloorsI Need YouBottle Living / Hold OnA Little PieceKingdomSaw Something / Deeper And Deeper
2012-2015: Longest DayTake Me Back HomeAll Of This And NothingShine
1989-2003: CompulsionStardustLoverman
2012-2015: SpockSingle BlipAftermathsEuropa Hymn • "Pinking" (Christoffer Berg Remix)
Official releases