Blasphemous Rumours
| "Blasphemous Rumours"/"Somebody" | ||||
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| Single by Depeche Mode | ||||
| from the album Some Great Reward | ||||
| Released | 29 October 1984 | |||
| Format | Vinyl record (7" and 12"), CD (1991 box set) | |||
| Recorded | June 1984 Music Works in Highbury, Hansa Mischraum in Berlin |
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| Genre | New wave | |||
| Length | 5:06 (Blasphemous Rumours) 6:20 (Blasphemous Rumours, 12" version) 4:19 (Somebody) 4:27 (Somebody, album version) |
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| Label | Mute - BONG 7 | |||
| Writer(s) | Martin Gore | |||
| Producer(s) | Depeche Mode, Daniel Miller, and Gareth Jones | |||
| Depeche Mode singles chronology | ||||
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"Blasphemous Rumours"/"Somebody" is Depeche Mode's twelfth UK single and first double A-side single, released on 29 October 1984.
Both A-side songs are from the album Some Great Reward. "Somebody" is the first single with Martin Gore as lead vocals, one of only three.
The music videos for both songs were directed by Clive Richardson.
The single charts number 16 in UK single charts.
The verses to "Blasphemous Rumours" describe a 16-year-old girl who attempts suicide but fails. She experiences a religious revival but is killed in a car accident aged 18 and dies. The chorus uses these incidents to conclude, "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." Like other songs on Some Great Reward, the song uses a dense sound with extensive sampled percussion.
When Depeche Mode announced that they were planning to release "Blasphemous Rumours" as a single, pushback from the religious community resulted, and consequently, the band decided as a compromise to release the single as a double-A side with "Somebody."
"Somebody", which was sung by Martin Gore in the studio in the nude, includes one of Gore's "little twists," where the song builds as if it's a song about finding your perfect love, only to have him reveal at the end "though things like this make me sick / in a case like this I'll get away with it."
All songs written by Martin Gore except:
All live tracks recorded at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool, England on 29 September 1984.
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