Its A Happy Song By Depeche Mode......Wait...What???

But Not Tonight by Depeche Mode

It was a song recorded in less than a day. The band wasn't very proud of it and they felt so unattached to it that when the record company asked them if they could put it in a movie, the band said, "what ever". In the UK the song Stripped was the single released in February of 1986.....but in the US the record company flipped the single and put the original b-side, But Not Tonight, on the a-side. They had a movie cross promotion going and a soon-to-be-huge band....but the band was having none of it. They filmed a video and its obvious they are putting in one attempt at this and then they're outta here. The movie the song was in, Modern Girls, is being projected on the wall behind the band while they sorta play the song. Lead singer, Dave Gahan, does give a serviceable performance, but if you've ever seen Depeche Mode live, you know he's only performing at 1/4 effort.

I've never seen the film but from the clips they show in the video, I can see that they spent a lot of time filming in the Hollywood area late at night. If there's anything that screams 1980's club life, its Hollywood. I might have to see the film at some point but the band refers to it as the "dodgy film" so I'm not in a hurry to see it.

But I'm serious about it being a happy song. Main songwriter, Martin Gore, was not a "happy song" guy and this one kinda sticks out among the dark dreariness of the Black Celebration recording sessions. It is, by far, one of my favorite songs by them. Its one of the few songs that the band rarely ever performs live but during their 2014 world tour, Martin himself would sing an acoustic version of the song.....he must have reexamined how he felt about the song and that makes me happy.


Please enjoy.