"Shake the Disease" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released as a single on 29 April 1985. "Shake the Disease" was one of two new songs on the 1985 compilation albums The Singles 81→85 and Catching Up with Depeche Mode, along with the band's subsequent single "It's Called a Heart".
Background[]
Band member Alan Wilder felt this song captured the essence of the band, saying that "there's a certain edge to what we do that can make people think twice about things. If we've got a choice between calling a song 'Understand Me' or 'Shake the Disease', we'll call it 'Shake the Disease'. There's a lot of perversity and innuendo in our lyrics, but nothing direct."
It is the first single where the band members were too busy touring to be involved in the final mixing of the track. There were a lot of things about the final sound that they disliked, especially the lack of a ‘big chorus’.
Dave Gahan, Alan Wilder, and Andrew Fletcher discussed "Shake The Disease" in an October 1985 interview with British magazine No. 1:
Dave Gahan: "Another one of those tracks which I think is a great song where we didn't really give it enough in the studio. We were touring and trying to make a record at the same time. It was the first single where we had nothing to do with the mixing."
Andrew Fletcher: "When we came back from America there were loads of things we didn't like about it."
Gahan: "It was crying for a great big chorus but it didn't happen."
Alan Wilder: "It is a great song. [Should] have been a very big hit. It did very well elsewhere."
Wilder: "It was the sort of song you needed to hear a few times."
When Depeche Mode was interviewed about the songs on the '101' CD for the April 1989 issue of French magazine 'Best', Fletcher said (translated from French): "It's one of the songs we've been playing for a long time. Every time I hear it, it reminds me of the music video. I cannot forget the music video. I had to stand on some kind of machine and allow it to drop me to my side. I had no confidence in this device that was supposed to hold me back in my drop. I thought I'd die that day."
Gore in the 1985-08-17 issue of Hitkrant (translated from Dutch): "With 'Shake The Disease', we should finally succeed in the States. Our past dance tracks have all hopelessly disappeared. So we thought it was a good idea to attack the U.S. market with this slow, delicate track."
Gore says in the commentary track on the DVD of '101' in 2003: "We really struggled with a title for this song. And it's just a small part from one of the lines of the song. I think it was actually Daniel [Miller] was like, "Oh that line sounds good as a title". It stuck after that. But it was obviously from one of the lines of the song, but all the other lines sounded so bad as titles, [like] 'Understand Me'."
Andrew Fletcher in the July 1985 issue of Popcorn magazine (translated from German): "We are all in happy relationships, and this song is our thank you to our women, who must not have always had it easy with us. The text deals with the problem of how difficult is to keep a relationship in our situation, because we are so often separated. But we can't write it without a shot of egoism, in our opinion. It is important that you openly state the things that bother you - and that's what 'Shake The Disease' is mostly about."
Dave Gahan on ITV's show 'No. 73': "It's basically a love song, and it's really about the problems of not being able to get across what you really mean, in love, when you're actually trying to talk to someone that you, let's say, fancy, you know, you fancy someone at school or whatever and you're trying to talk to them. Sometimes it's very difficult, you know, and that's what it's basically about. And he's trying to shake that disease of not being able to talk to people."
Gore explained in the 1989-04-15 issue of Melody Maker: "Sometimes [the links between songs] are very obvious, there are things like references cos I really like references to other songs. In ‘Shake The Disease’ there’s a reference to another song. You know it says, Now I've got things to do // and I've said before that I know you have too. And in another song [Stories Of Old] it said, Now I've got things to do // you have too. I really like those kind of references."
Martin Gore in the 1985-08-17 issue of Hitkrant (translated from Dutch): "The song tells the story of a one-sided relationship between a girl and a boy. They realize that it is as good as over for them. So it's a poignant song, but not real life. Christine [Friedrich, girlfriend] and I are still doing very well. A breakup is definitely out of the question."
Music video[]
The music video is the first Depeche Mode video directed by Peter Care, and features an innovative camera trick to make it appear as though the band members are falling. It was shot in the town of Hounslow, London. Between May and July 1985 the video was performed on 10 television programs across Europe.
Lyrics[]
I'm not going down on my knees, begging you to adore me
Can't you see it's misery and torture for me?
When I'm misunderstood
Try as hard as you can, I've tried as hard as I could
To make you see
How important it is for me
Here is a plea from my heart to you
Nobody knows me as well as you do
You know how hard it is for me to shake the disease
That takes hold of my tongue in situations like these
Understand me, understand me
Some people have to be permanently together
Lovers devoted to each other forever
Now I've got things to do
And I've said before that I know you have too
When I'm not there
In spirit, I'll be there
Here is a plea from my heart to you
Nobody knows me as well as you do
You know how hard it is for me to shake the disease
That takes hold of my tongue in situations like these
Understand me, understand me
Here is a plea from my heart to you
Nobody knows me as well as you do
You know how hard it is for me to shake the disease
That takes hold of my tongue in situations like these
Commercial performance[]
"Shake the Disease" reached number 18 on the UK Singles Chart, while charting within the top 10 in Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and West Germany. In France, it peaked at number 13, spending six months in the top 50. The track also reached number 33 on the Hot Dance/Disco 12 Inch Singles Sales chart in the United States.
It reached number one on the KROQ Top 106.7 Countdown of 1985.