(6) MOJO: DEPECHE MODE –
PERSONAL JESUS (1989)
B-SIDE: I Feel You (1993)
“Reach out and touch faith”
A song from my life soundtrack.
Depeche Mode might well have been a funk entry, with their bubble-gum synth-pop from the early 1980s, such as “I Just Can’t Get Enough” but then they took a turn to mojo later in the eighties with a harder sound as well as a darker and more sexual tone.
“Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who’s there”
Their new mojo brought them to world fame and their creative peak with albums Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion – but for me their highlight was the 1989 single, “Personal Jesus”, from the former album, with a distinctly lapsed or pagan Catholic feel to it (or a play on that old evangelical refrain of a “personal relationship with Jesus”. She is the goddess and this is her body – o yes!)
“Feeling unknown
And you’re all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I’ll make you a believer ”
It is also one of my ‘soundtrack’ songs for my story ideas. I was delighted that the music video evoked something of the neo-Western road movie in my mind’s eye, although I had imagined it a little differently.
“Take second best
Put me to the test
Things on your chest
You need to confess
I will deliver
You know I’m a forgiver ”
And I was also delighted when the man in black himself, Johnny Cash, covered the song in a stripped-back acoustic version in 2002 – “probably the most evangelical gospel song I ever recorded”.
“I feel you
Your sun it shines
I feel you
Within my mind
You take me there
You take me where
The kingdom comes
You take me to
And lead me through
Babylon”
My B-side is a single in a similar vein from their Songs of Faith and Devotion album – I Feel You.
As for the balance of my Top 10 Depeche Mode songs:
(3) Dream On (2001)
(4) Enjoy the Silence (1990)
(5) I Feel Love (2001)
(6) World in My Eyes (1990)
(7) Barrel of a Gun (1997)
( 8 ) It’s No Good (1997)
(9) Home (1997)
(10) John the Relevator (mainly for the name – the song is okay, I guess)
RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP-TIER)