Lyrics for Blasphemous Rumours as interpreted by numb

Blasphemous Rumours Lyrics
Girl of sixteen
Whole life ahead of her
Slashed her wrists
Bored with life
Didn't succeed
Thank the Lord
For small mercies

Fighting back the tears
Mother reads the note again
Sixteen candles burn in her mind
She takes the blame
It's always the same
She goes down on her knees
And prays

I don't want to start
Any blasphemous rumours
But I think that God's
Got a sick sense of humor
And when I die
I expect to find Him laughing

Girl of eighteen
Fell in love with everything
Found new life in Jesus Christ
Hit by a car
Ended up
On a life support machine

Summer's day
As she passed away
Birds were singing
In the summer's sky
Then came the rain
And once again
A tear fell
From her mother's eye

I don't want to start
Any blasphemous rumours
But I think that God's
Got a sick sense of humor
And when I die
I expect to find Him laughing

Ssss....

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Helixi
06-12-2002

Rated 0 
The pope condemned DM for this song. How hilarious. The meaning's pretty obvious. Still when Dave sings "Summers day as she passed away" I still get a tinge of depression. Awsome song.

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1 Reply
Mode000
06-30-2002

Rated 0 
I dont know he means when he says "...but I think that God has a sick sense of humor...and when I die I expect him laughing..."

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Curator
07-10-2002

Rated 0 
This is the best DM song ever cr8ed. My favourite by far. Although it's easy to depict the tragedies of life against a Higher Power, this song was done extraordinarily well to convey the point.

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sisterofthemoon
08-13-2002

Rated 0 
This song definetly has it's own irony. Like, the girl who is eighteen "found new life in Jesus Christ" ends up dying. This proves God has a sick sense of humor. But I guess the meaning is pretty obvious :)

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depechevixxen
06-08-2003

Rated 0 
I think we all can relate to the irony. You don't need to delve too deep into this one to get the true meaning...top five DM songs definitely! Although controversial, I think more people can relate to thought of "god laughing."

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tommib
06-03-2004

Rated 0 
I think this song could be about a sixteen-year-old girl bored of life and the irony she feels about.

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greyfox
06-04-2004

Rated -3 
I think God wants to make a point: To slit ones wrists open is no way to get nearer to god. Suicide is perceived as a sin among christians. But in devoting her life to Jesus Christ and what he stands for, god found this girl ready to come to him. That would be my interpretation. What is better to pass away on a nice summer's day?

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MarcelDwayne
12-14-2004

Rated +1 
from an atheists perspective:

firstly u understand the significance of "Blasphemy", What is blasphemy? and why doesnt he should one not want to commit it?

the reality is that christianity does not accept people to look beyond emotions and into the logical realities of our universe. Blasphemy, is against logic, it is about repressing thoughts which lead to an atheist conclusion.

I am not sure if Gore is an atheist or not, but by touching on this subject he is definately on to something.... religion tries to prey on peoples emotions, people are forced to be afraid to be "blashpemous" because their religion makes it a sin. REligion controls ur emotions so that u dont use ur higher intellect. And what is Intellect? its the one thing that humans have that animals don't have, so why should we haunt ourselves by allowing our emotions to block our one true gift.



god doesnt exist people, i can

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picci
01-31-2005

Rated 0 
If he would be so kind to tell me, I would like to know where Helixi took this piece of information:"The pope condemned DM for this song".
I never heard about it.
"Blasphemous Rumours" (from 1984) was the first DM song about religion, which has been a constant theme in ther songs since then.

As with other DM songs, I think the song should be read as a "chronicle" piece, taken from different viewpoints (the mother's, the girl's, the old woman dying of cancer, the singing "pessimistic believer" and ultimately that strange laughing God). We were in 1984. The song caused a stir when DM toured in Poland, and this can be largely understood.

Check all the progress DM did with the religious theme in their work, especially in the album Ultra (with almost "opposite" songs like "Barrel of a Gun" and "Insight"), or, if you are too lazy, just read the text of "Breathe", the latest DM song dealing with the theme of faith, which does not need comments (especially those biased by ignorance), but just a great deal of acknowledgement for Martin Gore's inner growth.

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Alexis507
02-17-2005

Rated 0 
its pretty clear what the song is about.
A girl is bored with life, wants to end it, tries and fails.
When she finally loves life and wants it god takes her life away.
DP is saying god must have a sick sense of humor for his ways.

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neoboman
02-23-2005

Rated 0 
Top ten songs about suicide. This would be on the list.

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asha
03-05-2005

Rated 0 
Dear Marcel Dwayne,

It appears intellect is the one thing you sadly don't have. There are very few people who can rightly claim to be atheist. Those people are the ones who have read and understood Hawking's 'A Brief history of time.' Until then we'll file you under agnostic shall we?

It appears that you didn't research Christianity very broadly at all. There are certainly some churches who prey off emotion but the many I've involved myself with over the years are all about logical realities and what not. Stop painting pictures of Christians as ignorant people who act soley on, and are slaves to, their emotions.

I look at this song as a way of attempting to understand the age old question 'Why do bad things happen to good person.' [and reverse - why do good things happen to bad people.]

The girl attempting suicide can be seen as 'bad' from the standpoint that she was bored with life, an entirely selfish reason to want to kill yourself. Yet somehow she's saved. Rock on to a few years later and she's turned her life around, accepted God and is viewed as a 'good' person, yet her life is cut short then. Why? There's no clear and easy answer for it and I think everyone has their ideas, the lyrics in this song being one of those.

And Marcel Dwayne, you can no more prove God doesn't exist than I can prove he does. It's a catch-22 I'll admit but just because you don't believe in God doesn't mean others can't, and your opinion on this matter makes you no better or worse than anyone else. Whatever their opinion may be.

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cheren28
03-16-2005

Rated 0 
If Martin Gore was an atheist why does he make so many songs mentioning God and dealing with faith, if such a thing never existed to him in the first place? I don't believe he would. This song is simply saying that God works in strange ways. Same as above .. good for bad .. bad for good.

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truancy08
04-10-2005

Rated 0 
"Girl of sixteen
Whole life ahead of her
Slashed her wrists
Bored with life
Didn't succeed
Thank the Lord
For small mercies"

The beginning, there's a young girl who's tired of life, so she decides to kill herself and fails. Religion is quickly introduced here.

"Fighting back the tears
Mother reads the note again
Sixteen candles burn in her mind
She takes the blame
It's always the same
She goes down on her knees
And prays"

The mother, obviously saddened, reads the note once more. She feels responsible for what her daughter has done, and turns to her only means of hope... which is God, of course.

Skipping ahead.

"Girl of eighteen
Fell in love with everything
Found new life in Jesus Christ
Hit by a car
Ended up
On a life support machine"

A bit older, the girl has changed her life around by "finding God". Then, after she puts faith into her newly found God, the worst happens.

"Summer's day
As she passed away
Birds were singing
In the summer's sky
Then came the rain
And once again
A tear fell
From her mother's eye"

She dies on a summer's day. I think of the birds and the rain here in a metaphorical sense... birds singing in a summer sky when all was well, then as the girl dies the rain comes, and again her mother delves into a state of depression.

Then there's the chorus:

"I don't want to start
Any blasphemous rumours
But I think that God's
Got a sick sense of humor
And when I die
I expect to find Him laughing"

The chorus brings everything together here. It spells out the point of the story: God, if He exists, isn't fair, and is even cruel at times. The girl wanted to take her own life... but after she decided she likes being alive, and put her faith into God, He lost all sense of mercy (even more so for the mother, who was devastated) and took her life anyway. That gives off a pretty strong message to me. He took the girl away when she had finally found happiness in living. There was nothing to be gained from believing in Him, both for the mother and for the daughter.

That's what I hear when I listen to this song.

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///
04-17-2005

Rated 0 
This might sound weird but i think this: Out of a lot of story's of suicide it's proven that the person commiting suicide has a date planned in his/her head and from the moment it's there the pressure fades and they become happy and the last memory of the family of that person is that he/she was so nice and really totally happy.. what i think happend in this song is the following: She's 16 try's to commit suicide but fails (now imagine there is a God) you know somthing happens to get to other things.. so i think the day she tried suicide she said goodbye and the last two years of her life where (unkowing) time to say goodbye i think she was ment to die at 18, she had 2 years time to say goodbye and to leave her mom a happy memory and a recovery from the suicide attempt. I do think God has a sick sense of humor - but where it all comes down to is her agony never dissapeard it just became silent and when she died (summer's day) the pressure was gone she found her rest. Eventhough the way she died isn't the way it should be

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diamondblue1974
07-15-2005

Rated 0 
I think God has got a sick sense of humour, whoever he or she is...if we are all supposed to be gods children WTF does he or she allow so much suffering...how does any creator or parent justify this point? The song is beautifully written with irony and completely pertinent...will always be my best DM track.

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radical347
07-27-2005

Rated 0 
all I can do is shake my head at this song & some of you people's comments... Sorry, Depeche Mode has made some great music but they're so wrong here. Do you really think that just because you believe in God (or whatever other name you want to call your higher power), you'll automatically be safe from all harm?

Sorry, it's sad but true that there are morons in this world that go around messing other people's lives up. These are the ones that don't believe in God and everyone else suffers for it. Blame them, not God.

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asha
10-21-2005

Rated 0 
Radical347: "Sorry, Depeche Mode has made some great music but they're so wrong here. Do you really think that just because you believe in God (or whatever other name you want to call your higher power), you'll automatically be safe from all harm?"


Way to miss the point of the song. They are most definately NOT saying that because you believe in God you'll automatically be safe. They are pointing out the opposite and trying to understand why, seeing as the bible often speaks of God as 'protector' etc etc, do such awful things happenn to believers and non-believers a like. They're calling God out when actions don't match words.

p.s. there are certainly a lot of morons who believe in God who go round messing up other people's lives. It's not an agnostic specific trait.

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Killee
01-14-2006

Rated 0 
You should all discuss your questions about faith with appropriate people (preachers, rabies or what ever). You will be (maybe, at least I was) surprised when you find them to be very intelligent people. Who will, I'm sure of it, do anything to help you out with your doubts and fears and maybe even discus about this great dm song!
All I can say as a god worshiping but irreligious person (so don’t put my opinion next to any religion label) is very simple and you probably heard it more than once. Maybe the God took the girl so we could have this song, so that Depeche Mode would have even greater international glory, give a lecture to all of 16 year old girls, feed the beavers or what ever seriously… We can only guess. I’m tempted now to say that this world is the best world possible but I will sustain my self from further comments.

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TwizzieGirl
03-17-2006

Rated 0 
It's about Martin's sister's suicide attempt. She was 16.

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mridlen
03-24-2006

Rated 0 
This is one of the great arguments against God's existence. One would think of Christianity as having a protective quality to it. If you have faith in God it seems that He should protect you. However, it seems that God has other plans sometimes. There is a book in the Bible that deals with this subject: Job.

Here's the reader's digest version of Job:
It's all about how Job was the most righteous man on earth, and Satan has a kind of wager with God that Job will turn away from his faith if bad stuff starts happening to him. So God allows satan to do all kinds of unimaginably bad stuff to him: ruin his fortune, kill his family, and give him painful and irritating boils that he has to scrape with potsherds (broken pots I think). Things get worse and worse for Job until his friends come over to comfort him. They go off on him because they assume he's commiting some major sin to deserve such punishment. Job contests correctly that he's innocent of such charges. Eventually he gets an answer from God. "Who are you to question God?" is the basic idea of it. He gets better, and gets a new family.. etc. But it doesn't take away the pain and suffering that was already caused.

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radical347
03-24-2006

Rated 0 
Asha: Way to miss the point of the song. They are most definately NOT saying that because you believe in God you'll automatically be safe. They are pointing out the opposite and trying to understand why, seeing as the bible often speaks of God as 'protector' etc etc, do such awful things happenn to believers and non-believers a like. They're calling God out when actions don't match words.
-------

No... I got the point of the song, and I'm saying they're wrong. I'm aware that they're saying that "God has a sick sense of humor" because actions don't match words. And I'm saying, it's not God who's the one that should be called out when people do bad things, it's the people who do bad things _themselves_ that need to be called out. Blame THEM, not God, he's not the one who has control over their free will.

p.s. if people truly do believe in God and what he stands for, then they would not be going around messing up people's lives. I am aware there are plenty of people that call themselves "Christians" in name, but don't act the part, which is very sad. I don't mean to sound like I'm dissing agnostics either, because the majority of them I know (as well as the majority of God-fearing individuals) are very good people. I just wish people wouldn't use the argument "bad things happen so there can be no God."

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Elliott_Smith_XO
04-04-2006

Rated 0 
i used to believe in all the religious BS, and all you "Christians" calling out people just go to show that your the naive ones. Calling out people when you're not supposed to judge others, no? exactly. If you want to believe in god, good for you, just dont try to BS the rest of us with your sin/guilt parade. Seriously, take a look around you people, you think a kind god would let this stuff go on? children with AIDs, people dying in the above song, sounds to me like he/she is laughing his ass off like the song implies. people caring more about oil than starvation.... give me a break

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VictoriaS^
04-04-2006

Rated 0 
I think what he's saying is...it doesn't matter who you are or what you believe were all going to die one way or another and that life has many ironies and isn't fair. He doesn't want to say there isn't a God, because to him that would be Blasphemous, but if there is a God, and all things are controlled by a higher power than he's got a pretty sick sense of humor for all the unfairness in the world and when he dies, if there is a God, he expects to find him laughing about all the unfairness. I think in this song he is really questioning it and trying to make sense of it.

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secret-x-stars
06-25-2006

Rated 0 
as far as lyrics go, the concept is good but the lyrics are so painstakingly *bad*. oh well. it's a nice song anyway. :)

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