Depeche Mode “Black Celebration” released on this date 30 years ago, March 17th, 1986. I’ve been waiting anxiously for this one – Black Celebration was such a big deal for me the spring of ‘86 and I’m pretty sure I bought this within weeks of its release. Such a gloriously dark album: “Fly on the Windscreen – Final” is perfection in its death-march pace, rolling romantically in pain with the lyrics “Death is everywhere, there are flies on the windscreen for a start, reminding us we could be torn apart tonight…Come here, kiss me. Now.” The urgent fear of violence and domination in “A Question of Time” kinda scared the crap out of me when I was 15. “Stripped” is one of the best and rawest love songs I’ve ever heard (“Let me see you stripped down to the bone, Let me hear you speaking just for me, Let me hear you crying just for me). “Here is the House” makes me think of a couple of places we’d hang out at during the course of ‘86, places “where it all happens, under this roof” for real. My teenage indignation was riled by “New Dress,” a politically charged track criticizing the cult of celebrity over real world problems, the trend that has obviously worsened in 30 years, and its lyrics still ring incredibly true today:

You can’t change the world
But you can change the facts
When you change the facts
You change points of view
When you change points of view

You may change a vote
And when you change a vote
You may change the world

My friend Carrie and I saw Depeche Mode while they were on tour for Black Celebration on June 22nd of ‘86 outside of Chicago at the Poplar Creek Music Theater. My dad and grandpa drove us there from Wisconsin in my grandpa’s motorhome and they hung out in the parking lot while Carrie and I went to the show (Book of Love opened). We bought a concert program (are those still a thing?) and both DM and Book of Love t-shirts, my Depeche Mode t-shirt taken by some boy or other later that summer, which I’m still kinda pissed about. But I wore The Book of Love shirt  until it disintegrated.