Blasphemous Rumours/Somebody

Single infobox
Name = Blasphemous Rumours"/"Somebody


Artist = Depeche Mode
from Album = Some Great Reward
Released = October 29 1984
Format = Vinyl record (7" and 12"), CD (1991 box set)
Recorded = 1984
Genre = Synthpop
Length = 5:06 Blasphemous Rumours
4:19 Somebody
Label = Mute - BONG 7
Writer = Martin Gore
Producer = Depeche Mode, Daniel Miller, and Gareth Jones
Last single = "Master and Servant"
(1984)
This single = "Blasphemous Rumours / Somebody"
(1984)
Next single = "Shake the Disease"
(1985)

"Blasphemous Rumours"/"Somebody" is Depeche Mode's twelfth UK single and first double A-side single, released on October 29 1984.

Both A-side songs are from the album "Some Great Reward". "Somebody" is the first single with Martin Gore as lead vocals, and only one of three.

The music videos for both songs were directed by Clive Richardson.

Versions

The "Remix" of "Somebody" includes a heartbeat added most noticeably to the beginning of the song, whereas the original album version only has the beat toward the end. The single version of "Blasphemous Rumours" is exactly the same as the album version, though it fades out during the final choral repetition, eliminating the "life support machine" outro of the album version.

ong information

The incident mentioned in the lyrics to "Blasphemous Rumours" is reportedly based on a true story. Singer Dave Gahan tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl's failed attempt to kill herself by slitting her wrists. This story is continued when the girl is 18. She renews her faith in God only to be struck by a car, end up on life support, and die shortly afterwards. The conclusion: "I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours but I think that God's got a sick sense of humour, and when I die, I expect to find Him laughing." It has been suggested that the stories are separate, but this is an incorrect assumption, as the mother of the girl is said, in the first verse, to be 'fighting back the tears'. This is then mirrored when the girl is killed in a car accident. The lyrics are as follows; 'Once again a tear fell from the mothers eye.' This horrific irony is the reason that God is said to have a sick sense of humour in the chorus. The song also contains numerous samples of screeching tyres and skittering hubcaps. No, they are pots and pans. (You can see them falling down the stairs in the video.)

By contrast, "Somebody," which was sung by Martin L. Gore himself, is a softer, more gentle love song in which Gore sings of his desire to find someone to be his lover and his confidant and who respects his opinions about "the world we live in and life in general," though she may not necessarily agree with them.

Track listings

All songs written by Martin L. Gore except:
* "Ice Machine" by Vince Clarke
* "Two Minute Warning" by Alan Wilder

7": Mute / Bong7 (UK)

# "Blasphemous Rumours" – 5:06
# "Somebody (Remix)" – 4:19

12": Mute / 12Bong7 (UK)

# "Blasphemous Rumours" – 6:20
# "Somebody (Live)" – 4:26
# "Two Minute Warning (Live)" – 4:36
# "Ice Machine (Live)" – 3:45
# "Everything Counts (Live)" – 5:53

CD: Mute / CDBong7 (UK)

# "Blasphemous Rumours" – 6:20
# "Told You So (Live)" – 4:56
# "Somebody (Remix)" – 4:19
# "Everything Counts (Live)" – 5:53
* The CD single was released in 1991 as part of the singles box set compilations

All live tracks recorded at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool, England on September 29, 1984.

Trivia

* The song "Blasphemous Rumours" was considered offensive and was banned on some American radio stations. In the UK, although the song was not banned by the BBC (and the band even performed it on Top of the Pops in December 1984), it also aroused a firestorm of controversy, leading even the Church itself to speak out against the song. Lead singer David Gahan is quoted in Dave Johnson's 1993 DM biography "Some Great Reward" as insisting the song was not anti-religion, calling it "a statement of how everybody must feel at one time or another" (p. 151), but also opining that he just couldn't accept all of organised Christianity's teachings as true because of all the misery in the world.
* The rumour circulated at the time that "Blasphemous Rumours" was originally released was that Gore wrote the song about a close relative of his own who committed suicide, but this rumour is untrue. In different interviews, both David Gahan and Martin Gore mentioned that the church services they attended as children always included the reading of a prayer list for seriously ill members of the congregation. Invariably, the person named at the top of the list would die, "but still," Gore is quoted as saying in "Some Great Reward" (p. 151), "everyone went right ahead thanking God for carrying out His will. It just seemed so strange."
* The song "Somebody" was recorded by Martin Gore in the nude ("Some Great Reward" liner notes by Daniel Miller and confirmed by Alan Wilder in the documentary).
* Influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station KROQ-FM placed "Blasphemous Rumours" at number one in its 1998 "Flashback 500" countdown. [http://www.rocklists.com/alltime8.html]

Covers

* Duncan Sheik has done a cover of "Blasphemous Rumours"
* Veruca Salt did a rendition of "Somebody" for the Depeche Mode tribute album "For the Masses".
* Gregorian covered "Blasphemous Rumours" on their album "Masters of Chant Chapter III".
* Kiki and Herb cover the song on their 2000 Christmas album " Do You Hear What We Hear?"

External links

* [http://archives.depechemode.com/discography/singles/12_blasphemousrumours.html Single information from the official Depeche Mode web site]