101-Depeche Mode

101

Earlier today, I sat on the couch and watched my Depeche Mode 101 DVD. That’s the concert documentary that DM put out in ’89. It features the amazing tunes they played during the Music for the Masses tour.

As, I heard Dave Gahan’s voice sing “Master & Servant”, I was blasted back to the day when life was simpler and in some ways more fun. In some ways it was not. We still have our masters and servants.

Watching Martin L Gore’s solo of “Somebody” brings the same depression I had when he sung that tune, while I was wishing for somebody back in high school.

Depeche Mode is one of the bands that will always remain honest and current. Their songs will always touch one’s heart and soul. Whether, you’re traveling down “Route 66”, worrying about “Blasphemous Rumors”, worried that “Everything Counts “ (I sure do) or “Just Can’t Get Enough”.

I remember listening to their cassettes nonstop and making Depeche Mode mixes for my car. In one of my autos the tape deck was on its dying days. The only tape it played flawlessly was a Depeche Mode mix. The same thing happened years later in another vehicle’s CD player.

I remember wearing all black. Well that hasn’t completely changed. I’ve seen them dozens of times. I once waited hours on a line at the now defunct Tower Records to meet them. That was in 2004. They signed one of their new releases.

I got about 90 seconds to talk to Andrew Fletcher, Martin and David. I remember begging Martin to play songs from Speak and Spell (even though) that was really a Vince Clarke, a DM founder who left after their first release. He founded Yaz, ran and has thankfully found a home in Erasure. I discovered this band in the health lodge at T.M.R. I wasn’t the sick one. I was with one of my campers who needed to be in that awful place. We had some strange nurses.

Anyway, back to my conversations with DM. I continued to beg them to go back to around 1984. They just smiled and said we’ll think about it. I saw them a few days later at the Garden. They didn’t take my requests. But they dazzled us anyway.
While, I was sitting outside of Tower Records, I chatted with a cute girl, who was at least 10 years younger than me. She was a 90s DM fan. I am a 80s DM fan. Well, I’m a fan of their music. But I gravitate to their 1980s tunes. This woman did the same for their 1990’s music. She was in love with Martin. She had a tattoo stating that. Her dream was for him to kiss her on it. Never happened. But she got meet him and couldn’t have been happier.

Another thing that flashed into my mind was the great way we dressed back then. I already mentioned all black. But we cropped our hair as close to our heads as we could. I used to bring in pictures of them and O.M.D. to my haircutter. I called him Professor Joe. He tried his best to make me look like them.

Eventually, I made it up to New Paltz. Us New Wavers used to go Berties in Poughkeepsie. We all had to wear bracelets saying we were under 21. But we wore our black outfits and danced all night to Depeche Mode, the Cure, the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, New Order and the other greats from the 80s. I wasn’t a good dancer. That hasn’t changed.

Man I miss those days. If only we could all be “Stripped” down to the bone. In other words, speak just for me and make decisions without your television on.

So, “Now this is Fun”. “It is More than a Party”. As for me, I’m looking for a “Policy of Truth,” while doing my best to remember, “People are People”.