The hits keep coming, this time with news that Andy Fletcher -- the ginger co-founder of Depeche Mode, one of the biggest and most influential bands of my childhood -- has died at 60. He leaves behind a wife, Grainne, to whom he was married for almost 30 years, and two children, Megan and Joe.
With no cause of death given and a history of depression and a nervous breakdown on his C.V., I'm thinking the worst although the outcome is the same no matter what the cause: It hurts that we've lost another childhood idol, and there's plenty more where that came from. RIP, Fletch.
To mark Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, today's pick is a live performance of the boys' signature song, sent to me by my Arizona bestie who was marveling at Dave Gahan's live vocals here. Greg and I appear to be in the minority of fans who prefer Depeche Mode's early gay years -- a list of the band's 10 biggest Billboard hits rings mostly hollow with no "Dreaming of Me," "New Life," "See You," "A Photograph of You," "Everything Counts in Large Amounts" or "Get the Balance Right" -- but I think we can all agree British synth kings' music has stood the test of time.
This came into my head the other day. Then when I put it on, Damian -- who knows the last Depeche Mode album I bought (1984's "Some Great Reward") was 13 years before the bought his first (1997's "Ultra") -- said to me: "You know their other stuff sounds a lot like this, don't you?" "Yeah," I replied."That's kind of why I lost interest." As I've said before, I always loved the warmth of "Speak & Spell" and even some of the warmer post-Vince Clarke singles. But the colder and more dark they got, the more I enjoyed them in smaller doses.
Damian and I had a hoot at the Depeche Mode concert on Monday night at Madison Square Garden. The boys were in fine form -- Dave Gahan ran and spun around the stage like a 20-year-old -- and only performed four songs off their new LP, all of which were quite good. They even tinkered with the set list so that people who had gone Saturday would get a few surprises.
Boys say go!
Broken-record alert: Ironically, the band performed the lion's share of material from "Music From the Masses" and "Violator" -- both of which are decades old -- yet I still came up short in "Kenny" songs, as they only performed one from their first four LPs. (They only played one from Damian's favorite as well, 2005's "Playing the Angel," but it happened to be "A Pain That I'm Used To," one of his faves!) It didn't cramp my style much -- you don't have to be an early '80s purist to know and appreciate "Policy of Truth" (its tour debut), "World in My Eyes," "Enjoy the Silence," "Never Let Me Down Again," an acoustic "Strangelove" (sung by Martin Gore, who normally does "A Question of Lust") and "Personal Jesus."
I took copious notes all night only to find this online when I got home!
But am I allowed to say "told you so" by pointing out the one song they did from my "era" -- "Everything Counts" -- was the song that brought the house down and led to a 10-minute singalong? I completely understand that artists like to mix things up. And I also understand the desire to look forward. But if "Everything Counts" got the reaction it did, it's not hard to imagine what throwing in "Just Can't Get Enough," "New Life," "Dreaming of Me," "See You" or "Get the Balance Right" would have done to the crowd's spirits. Sometimes I wonder if my favorite artists are afraid of killing us with joy ...
As I mentioned yesterday, we got tickets to see Depeche Mode this coming Monday at Madison Square Garden. Although my fandom dates back to their humble beginnings, this is my first time seeing the synthpop legends in concert. (Damian saw them once on the "Exciter" tour, an album he calls a "dud.") Longtime readers will recall that I felt the band's music has been all downhill since Vince Clarke left. While I mostly still feel this way, I realized while cramming for the concert that I'd stayed a deeply loyal fan for quite some time after Clarke left to start Yazoo. In fact, when my brother Bill brought the 12-inch single of "See You" home from college, I thought it was as good or better than anything on "Speak & Spell" -- which is saying a lot. (And b-side "Now, This Is Fun" was great in an entirely different way.) From there, though, it seemed each album got progressively less good. "A Broken Frame" was great but incredibly understated.
The stopgap single "Get the Balance Right" seemed to do just that. But then "Construction Time Again" -- albeit with some wonderful songs like "Two Minute Warning" -- got colder and more industrial, with "Everything Counts" being the album's warmest and most compelling track. Bill, my friend Greg and I then were lukewarm on the 12-inch import of "People Are People" -- which stunned us when it later became a big U.S. hit -- and were completely turned off by "Master and Servant." And while the finished album ("Some Great Reward') included "Somebody" and "Blasphemous Rumours," it mainly took the cold, industrial feeling of its predecessor to another level ("Something to Do"!), at which point groups like Everything but the Girl, Prefab Sprout, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Aztec Camera, the Bangles, the Style Council, 'Til Tuesday and so on began to appeal to me more. "Black Celebration" came along next, and it just seemed to be on the same cold track -- and I haven't bought one of their albums since. Of course, Depeche Mode wound up becoming a stadium-filling juggernaut shortly after I stopped paying attention. And while the hits that continued in the late '80s and throughout the 1990s were inescapable, it's been fun catching up with Depeche Mode in earnest this past week -- all 10 albums I've mi$$ed!
Perfect song for the ending of the return of "The Comeback." If you haven't watched yet, you won't understand yet. But suffice to say Mark cannot believe that even after everything she's been through Valerie just can't get enough ...
Whenever I meet fellow '80s music geeks, one of the first things I hear is "Why aren't you more into Duran Duran or Depeche Mode?" It's a fair question -- they were two of the biggest bands of my high school years, and even spawned a movement of teenage girls known as "Durannies," which was definitely a pejorative in the crowd of punks and mods I knew. (I fell into none of these categories; I was known more as "that guy who looks like Howard Jones.") The obvious answer is my penchant for (fun) girl singers, something evidenced by the fact that Blondie and the Pretenders are my two favorite bands, and that I prefer the Cindy and Kate songs to Fred by 100 to 1. But I did have my share of men I adored, like Paul Weller, Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs) and Chris Isaak, to name a few. And I was an early fan of Duran Duran and Depeche Mode, too. My brother brought home the first two Duran Duran albums after seeing them open for Blondie in 1982, a concert I still have nightmares about missing (even if the concert looked like it was a nightmare!). I was always an album person, but right from the get-go I found myself only interested in the singles. (Couldn't hum a note of "To the Shore," "Careless Memories," "Night Boat," "Sound of Thunder," "Friends of Mine" or "Tel Aviv" if my life depended on it, although I'm fairly certain the latter is an instrumental.) "Rio" took off shortly thereafter, so I heard a lot more of that one. But after "Hungry Like the World" and the titular track, the secondary singles didn't do much for me. (Everyone I know loved "New Religion," but I didn't get it.) By the time "Is There Something I Should Know" came out on the re-released debut album, even their singles stopped exciting me. "The Reflex" and "Union of the Snake" were both pretty awful, although they redeemed themselves a bit with "New Moon on Monday," but then I wasn't too wild about "Wild Boys,"
Depeche Mode were an entirely different case. I loved "Speak and Spell" from beginning to end, and even bought the two-disc reissue a few years ago. But once Vince Clarke left (forming Yaz and later Erasure), I slowly lost interest. Many hardcore fans think the band really came into its own under the leadership of Martin, but with the exception of a few early post-Clarke singles -- like the stellar "See You," which I suspect was Martin trying to mimic him, as well as "Everything Counts" and "Blasphemous Rumors" -- but I hated the increasingly dark sound the band adopted. But unlike Depeche Mode, Duran Duran has still occasionally dazzled me with a new single every so often -- "Skin Trade," "All She Wants Is," "Electric Barbarella" -- none more than the hypnotically moody "Come Undone," from their triumphant "Wedding Album" comeback, which was somehow even better than the brilliant Beatles-esque "Ordinary World." To cut a long story short (quoting another male singer I adore!), I would see Duran Duran in concert today, but would pass on Depeche Mode ... unless Vince has a one-night stand with the boys.
UPDATE: Earlier today, I had accidentally posted "Ordinary World" in the headline and the video while writing about "Come Undone." My apologies for the confusion.
Vince Clarke (far right): the Farrah Fawcett-Majors of Depeche Mode
A few summers ago we had this whippersnapper intern at work. Nice enough kid, but like most people that age, thought he knew everything. One evening he overheard me discussing Depeche Mode with my music-loving coworker Jesse and tried to set me straight when I declared that "Speak & Spell" was the band's only truly great album. ("Actually, that was their WORST ALBUM!" he informed me.) Sure, there were other singles ("See You," in particular, and "Everything Counts" was nice, too). But when Vince Clarke left, so too did the youthful exuberance and pop genius that made songs like "New Life," "Dreaming of Me" and "Just Can't Get Enough" so utterly irresistible. I remember years later -- after being increasingly repelled by stuff like "Master and Servant" and the whole "Black Celebration"/"Music for the Masses" era -- hearing that the band was playing something like 10 sold-out nights at Dodgers Stadium and had become a bunch of drug addicts so overwhelmed with their superstardom. All I could think was, "Are they still together?" It's funny how something that meant so much to you at one time can simply fade away.
In 2006, Rhino lovingly reissued "Speak & Spell" as a deluxe, two-disc CD/DVD, complete with rare b-sides, and while recalling how much joy that LP brought me back in high school, I gladly shelled out nearly 30 bucks for a fresh copy of the band's BEST ALBUM.
If you're still someone who cares -- did you know they're on tour right now and have a new album out? (I didn't) -- Chloe Sevigny interviews singer Dave Gahan in the new INTERVIEW magazine. But if you're more like me, here's a quick look at the band I fell in love with back in its heyday:
Titles for Quentin Halys, Luca Van Assche, Lilli Tagger and Tamara Korpatsch. Full report plus all the ATP beef that's fit to post BEL...
Fake Jan Alert
My blog is featured in Susan Olsen's tell-all about the ill-fated "Brady Bunch Variety Hour"!
Little Kenny
Growing up in Madison Heights, Mich.
Back to the Old House
The Web leads to an unexpected return to a house I grew up in.
Oceans 11
Carlsbad, Calif. (2008)
1983
Go Behind the Music of my high-school band, A La Plage
A Death in the Family
Little Larry left us too soon.
Once I Had a Love
With Debbie Harry
'Jungle' Fever
With Robert Buckley
Roger & Me
With Roger Federer
Step Brother McMullen
With Ed Burns
Headline News
With Thomas Roberts
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