Last weekend I bought this, the first Depeche Mode recording I’ve purchased since the releases [all of them] that accompanied “Violator” almost 20 years ago! After that I stopped with Depeche Mode for no reason that I could name, other than 30-50 CDs on rack!
Sire/Mute/Reprise | US | CD+DVD | 2006 | 43243-2
Depeche Mode: The Best Of Vol. 1 US CD + DVD
I bought this at a Goodwill, cheap, and it had 7-8 tracks I had not heard so I thought, for this price, why not? And the DVD had quite a bit from both earlier and later in their career than the ’85-98 DVD I had. For the first ten years of their career, though, I bought any and every DM release that had something new to offer. They were never my favorite band, but they were consistent to a fault. At the time of their first best of album in 1985, they issued a new single that sort of passed me by.
Mute/Interchord | Ger. | CD5 | 1988 | CD L12 BONG 8,
Depeche Mode: Shake The Disease Ger. CD5
- Shake The Disease [edit the shake]
- Master + Servant [live]
- Flexible [pre-deportation mix]
- Something To Do [metalmix]
I never had the vinyl of this release. I had the 7″ version on a CD copy of “Catching Up With Depeche Mode” I had at the time. By the late 80s the band’s stature in West Germany meant that their full vinyl single back catalogue was being released on CD singles in that market first. I bought a lot of these DM reissues as well as current UK and even US releases. There were some interesting US promos at that time as I recall. But this song always seemed to drift right by me.
No longer! I finally gave The 2006 “Best Of vol. 1” a listen this weekend and the track that won’t leave my mind is “Shake The Disease!” How did I not see the majesty of this track when it came out half a lifetime earlier?! This song literally has not left my mind since last Saturday! And what a fantastic melody to have lodged in one’s skull this track has. I’m even to the point where I can remember the lyrics, and let me say for the record, I’m not a lyric guy. They usually pass right through me. This morning I pulled the German CD single with the Edit The Shake mix out of off-rack storage and the remix was not working for me. It scuttled the qualities that make the track work like a fiend for me. It’s the classic version of the song that has the melancholy, slightly psychedelic qualities of the melody that make it so haunting for me. One thing is for certain, I have a new favorite Depeche Mode song many, many years after it’s initial release.
– 30 –
![Want List: Visage DLX RM […finally!]](https://i0.wp.com/postpunkmonk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/visage-dlxrmuscda.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1)
Post-Punk Monk 
I love this Shake the Disease 12″!!! Definitely one of my fave D-Mode tracks, I almost wore out this 12″ when I got it. I found it in an indoor flea market in Long Island City, Queens at the time it came out. The stall owner had a small “New Wave” section with everything from Cheap Trick to The Clash and this was mixed in their somewhere. The only other thing I bought that day was a Kamikaze label Everlast sweatshirt – VERY 80’s. The version of Flexible is brilliant as well!
LikeLike
Echorich – Flexible is certainly a unique song. How many other songs about the moral compromise of becoming successful can you name?
LikeLike
The blogger ”The Found Sound Orchestra” is doing one new mix/mash/track a week this year….his enthusiasm/stamina for the project is waning a bit but one of the earlier tracks he did this year masterfully sampled this song.
LikeLike