Depeche Mode

Released: October 5, 1981

Songwriter: Vince Clarke

Producer: Daniel Miller Depeche Mode

[Verse 1]
Get that feeling, head is reeling
You think you're in control, but you don't know me, babe
I can move you, I can soothe you
I can take you places in a different way

[Chorus]
I don't think you understand
What I'm trying to say
I'll be your operator baby
I'm in control

[Verse 2]
Watch your action, close reaction
And everything you're thinking, babe, inside your head
Conversation, my creation
Nothing that you do you do unless I said

[Chorus]
And you don't know the consequences
Of the things you say
I'll be your operator baby
I'm in control

[Bridge]
And all the things you tried to do, babe
And all the words we said before
Are only part of what I started, baby
And you can't stop me anymore

[Interlude]

[Verse 3]
Get that feeling, head is reeling
You think you’re in control, but you don’t know me, babe
I can move you, I can soothe you
I can take you places in a different way

[Chorus]
And I don’t you think you understand
What I’m trying to say
I’ll be your operator baby
I’m in control

Depeche Mode are recognized as one of the most artistically influential bands of the late 20th century. Commercially, they have released 14 studio albums to date, and sold more than 100 million records. Their most recent album, Spirit, hit the streets in March 2017.

The band got their start in Basildon, Essex in 1980, and named themselves after a French fashion magazine. They rose to fame with hits that have become “Just Can’t Get Enough” (1981), “Everything Counts” (1983), and “People Are People” (1984), to name a few. One of their most famous concerts was at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in 1988.

Martin Gore has been the band’s primary songwriter since Vince Clarke left in the early 1980s (and went on to form Yazoo and Erasure). Alan Wilder replaced Clarke on keyboards in 1982, but left in 1995 (reinvesting his creative energy in his band, Recoil, which he had started in 1986). Since then, the band has comprised frontman Dave Gahan, multi-instrumentalist Martin Gore, and keyboardist Andy Fletcher—all of whom are original members.

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