My Gen X Playlist: Blasphemous Rumors – Depeche Mode

Our family church was Presbyterian. Although it was a church my great grandparents and grandparents attended, we didn’t go every weekend. My parents were busy shuttling four kids to and from sporting events.

When I was neck deep in career, I sometimes felt a void and would randomly attend a service. Usually it was a progressive church that a friend introduced me to. Not wanting to be swarmed afterwards, I typically slipped in and sat in the back and slipped out after the service. I sometimes needed something and that occasional service was helpful. The message was usually good and the music and singing were always uplifting.

These days I find church a little confusing. I’m unable to reconcile what is taught and the religious right’s support of Trump. No matter how you slice it, it doesn’t smell right and feels disingenuous. And I’m not an idiot. I know their support was for Supreme Court nominations to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Anybody can see that. But what that showed me was that the church agrees that the ends justifies the means and quite frankly, that just doesn’t cut it. So even though I believe in God and a higher power, please excuse me for not wanting to attend church. And I realize I’m casting a wide net and many are unjustly getting tangled in the lines. But can you blame me? To me, this is a sure fire repellent and it just doesn’t feel right. Maybe one day this will change. I hope someday it does. Until then, no thank you.

I’d forgotten how much I liked Depeche Mode and this blog has brought back a lot of their songs. Blasphemous Rumors was released in 1984. I was still in high school and remember this song playing at school dances. Yes, I knew it dealt with religion, but that wasn’t my main concern. It was just a good song.

In the UK, this was considered too anti-religious to air every day by the BBC. Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan explained in 1984 to the Belgian Pop magazine JOEPIE: “Conservative attitude, uh?, that radio of ours. I’m by the way not anti- religious at all! I only oppose a certain kind of religion that was forced upon me when I was young. My mother was in the Salvation Army. So she sent me to the church every Sunday till my 18th birthday. Together with my sister, we usually went for a ride with the bike and told mom afterwards how lovely the homily was. The song only wants to say that no one should let someone force anything upon him. Whether it’s politics or something else, that doesn’t matter. You have to choose yourself what you wanna do with your life. And dare to take risks. That’s what Depeche Mode did too and everything turned out quite good for us, didn’t it?”

– Songfacts

What alot of people now don’t understand about this music is there wasnt Spotify, Sirius Radio, YouTube. Hell there wasn’t even internet. The best you could hope for was either going to Alternative nightclubs, college radio staions then eventually MTV to get any kind of exposure to this kind of music. The fact they made it as largely as they did without all of those platforms or advantages speaks to how talented they really are.

– YouTube comment by natthebratster

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Girl of sixteen, whole life ahead of her
Slashed her wrists, bored with life
Didn't succeed, thank the Lord
For small mercies

Fighting back the tears, mother reads the note again
Sixteen candles burn in her mind
She takes the blame, it's always the same
She goes down on her knees and prays

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

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

Girl of eighteen, fell in love with everything
Found new life in Jesus Christ
Hit by a car, ended up
On a life support machine

Summer's day as she passed away
Birds were singing in the summer sky
Then came the rain and once again
A tear fell from her mother's eye

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
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
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
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
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