Never Let Me Down Again Personal Jesus Depeche Mode

Never Let Me Down Again Album: Music For The Masses (1987)
Personal Jesus Album: Violator (1989)
by Depeche Mode

Written by Martin Gore with lead vocals by Dave Gahan, "Never Let Me Down Again" is one of the most ambiguous Depeche Mode songs. It is often believed to be about drugs, which offer both comfort and excitement to the singer. When Gahan sings, "We're flying high, we're watching the world pass us by," that indicates getting high on drugs, but the song could also have a much more literal meaning about taking an airplane ride with a friend.

It gets even more confusing near the end of the song, with the lines:

Promises me I'm safe as houses
As long as I remember who's wearing the trousers

Someone or something is making sure he knows his place.

Another possibility is that the song is about gay sex. Leaving it open for interpretation was likely Gore's intention.

The band brought in Anton Corbijn to do the visuals for the Music For The Masses album, including the photos and the videos. For this song, he put together an 8-minute black-and-white clip for the 12-inch single version, which was cut down to 4:23 for the single version. The video, which was included on the Depeche Mode compilation Strange, didn't shed any light on the meaning of the song, as we see a series of rather disjointed images, including a pair of shoes that walk themselves.

The song enjoyed a streaming boost in the US after it was included in the HBO series The Last Of Us. It plays on the radio in the final scene of the show's pilot episode on January 15, 2023.

Craig Mazin, the co-creator of the series, selected the song because of its combination of cheerful sounds and gloomy lyrics. He believed the title of the song relates to the relationship between the two main protagonists, Joel and Ellie.

Dave Gahan watched the Last Of Us pilot episode in bed with his wife. "I was falling asleep and the show came on and I was watching it a bit," he recalled to BBC Radio 2's Gary Davies. "And then I fell asleep. And then suddenly in my dream, I could hear the beginning of Never Let Me Down and I sat up and like a boxer, hearing the bell, like going to go in and fight or something. And I heard it. And so I watched that scene and I liked it as well because the song represents that particular time in music. It represents trouble, it means trouble was coming. That was the code and I thought, 'This is perfect for that.'"

Personal Jesus was inspired by Priscilla Presley's book Elvis And Me, where she described their relationship. Martin Gore of Depeche Mode said: "It's a song about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone to give you hope and care. It's about how Elvis was her man and her mentor and how often that happens in love relationships - how everybody's heart is like a god in some way, and that's not a very balanced view of someone, is it?"

Johnny Cash did a stripped-down version of Personal Jesus on his 2002 album American IV, The Man Comes Around. Martin Gore revealed to The London Times that the band were unaware that Cash had covered this song. When they heard about the country legend's recording, the threesome were naturally thrilled. Said Gore: "I think when you're somebody of Johnny Cash's caliber, you don't ask for permission."

Cash explained why he chose to cover Personal Jesus (as quoted in Mojo October 2013): "I heard that as a gospel song. And if you think of it as a gospel song, it works really well. We didn't have any major disagreement over that song, I just heard that a couple of people had recorded it, the writer wanted me to try it, and I did, and I loved it. And I went for it."
This was the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Bros. history to that point.

The video for Personal Jesus was the first by Depeche Mode to get significant airplay on MTV. Directed by Anton Corbijn, it has an Old West theme, with Dave Gahan and Martin Gore as cowboys.

During the heavy breathing section of the song (around 2:20), there are some tight silhouette shots of Gore huffing, and then a shot of a horse's hindquarters. "I don't know if Anton was consciously trying to be perverted, I think it was more coincidental that it happened at that point," Gore told Uncut. "These video people see things very strangely."

It was a little too much for MTV, so Corbijn made an edit eliminating some of the silhouette breathing, and that was the version the network aired.

Marilyn Manson covered Personal Jesus on their 2004 album Lest We Forget. This version was used in the trailer for the 2011 movie Priest.

The 2008 Hillary Duff song "Reach Out" is based on Personal Jesus. Duff's tune changes the lyrics from "Reach out and touch faith" to "Reach out and touch me."

Def Leppard covered Personal Jesus for their 2018 The Story So Far: The Best of Def Leppard compilation album. They chose that particular track as the band's producer and sound tech Ronan McHugh plays "Personal Jesus" every day to test the PA.