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Clean › Released

1990
Quotes
I just write about things that affect me. I find it very unappealing to write songs that are safe, that go nowhere, that do nothing. I know that 'Clean' has a lot of holy imagery, and that intertwines with the sex theme, which are two ideas I find interesting to mix together. But I don't try to analyze things.[1]

— Martin Gore – Select, December 1990

Q&A from Alan Wilder's Shunt:

Michel Jouveaux: The opening of 'Clean' sounds exactly like that of Pink Floyd's 'One Of These Days' on 'Meddle'. Was that conscious / unconscious, sampled or programmed? (I've checked in the archives and couldn't see any mention of that, ;-)) A: I recognise the similarity but [it's] not a Floyd sample. It was programmed using a combination of analogue synth and sampled bass [guitar].

Wilder also says on Shunt:

With 'Clean', we never had the delay bass line until the very end.

In 2022, Nils Tuxen revealed his memory to the book Halo[2] of providing the pedal steel guitar sound:

The session took place in this way: I brought my steel guitar and an amp over to their studio, and it was hooked up to a DAT recorder. I was asked to record anything that came to my mind on the DAT tape, without any other musical signals – no melody, no chords, and no timing. So in a way, it was a very experimental way of making music that I had never tried, before or after. I was free to play anything I wanted. There was, as I recall it, no instruction whatsoever. As I recall it, only Alan and the engineer Peter Iversen were present as I was recording. Martin and Dave were around but not in the studio, whereas Andy was in London and, as I recall, Flood, too, was absent the day I was working. When I bought the album and listened to it, I had no idea where my instrument had been used, and I didn't recognize it anywhere on any of the titles on the album until years later, when my daughter found the information that it was on the title 'Clean' that Alan had used samples of the steel guitar. But still I don't know where and what parts were used. I'm still honored that they asked me. As I try to do in any recording situation, I tried to give my best. I'm glad and grateful that Alan obviously found something he could use. Otherwise, I would not have been credited on the cover, I guess. But the aspect of using samples is still foreign to the way I make music. Depeche Mode are the biggest name for whom I've so far worked as a studio musician.

However, as the above quote by Nils was being shared on Facebook, Alan Wilder replied to it:

I recall Nils as a very affable bloke (suggested to us by engineer Peter when we were discussing sound options) but what he remembers here isn't entirely accurate. You can hear he actually plays the riff in 'Clean' which we no doubt asked him to, after which it was re-sampled and placed into the track. I'm sure he played along to the basic backing track in order to achieve the correct tempo and key. We got him in specifically for that song but would have also asked him to provide many improvised slides and other options to use both within the song's framework and for general use. Typically, anything left over from a session like that, which could be utilised, I would have jumped on being the musical magpie that I am. ;)

Lyrics

Clean

Clean

The cleanest I've been

An end to the tears

And the in-between years

And the troubles I've seen


Now that I'm clean

You know what I mean

I've broken my fall

Put an end to it all

I've changed my routine

Now I'm clean


I don't understand

What destiny's planned

I'm starting to grasp

What is in my own hands

I don't claim to know

Where my holiness goes

I just know that I like

What is starting to show


Sometimes


As years go by

All the feelings inside

Twist and they turn

As they ride with the tide

I don't advise

And I don't criticise

I just know what I like

With my own eyes


Sometimes


Clean

The cleanest I've been

An end to the tears

And the in-between years

And the troubles I've seen


Now that I'm clean


Sometimes


You know what I mean

I've broken my fall

Put an end to it all

I've changed my routine

Now I'm clean


Sometimes


Now I'm clean


The cleanest I've been

Composition
Sample sources
"Clean"
Depeche Mode
1990 Self-made samples
Sample Notes Audio
Vocal elements "Clean" employs an exhaled "ah" vocal part originally recorded for use throughout 1987's "I Want You Now". The part is performed in time with the snare starting from the second verse. Wilder recalled the performers responsible for this vocal part in a Q&A on Shunt, the official Recoil website: "...I think it was a couple of girls who were hanging around the studio - thought we'd make use of them ;-)"[3]