John The Revelator

is a song from the 2005 album Playing The Angel by Depeche Mode. It was released as a double A-side single alongside on 5 June 2006.
== Notes ==
Martin Gore told La Libre newspaper (translated from French):
This song is inspired by a traditional tune. It talks about faith in God, no matter what. It also denounces the belief in a God who punishes and damns. In the 'Book of Revelation,' John describes his visions of these seven angels descending, blowing into their seven trumpets and causing plagues, epidemics, and floods that gradually exterminate a large part of humanity. Only the true believers remain. I do not believe in all that.
Martin Gore told WAMS magazine (translated from German):
"'John the Relevator' is a cover of a song by Blues singer Son House. I own an old Shellac single from the 1930s with the original song on it."
Martin Gore told the November 2005 of Keyboard magazine:
"I've been listening a great deal to a six-CD set of traditional gospel music called Goodbye Babylon, which is just phenomenal. 'John the Revelator' is a heavily re-interpreted old gospel tune about the author of the Book of Revelation, but our lyrical take on it is, “Armageddon? Gee, thanks.”"
Ben Hillier told the same magazine:
"[The high, random-ish arpeggios at the beginning and end of 'John The Revelator' were] a VCS-3 simulated by [Native Instruments] Reaktor, combined with this cool ring mod Martin cooked up on his Nord Lead 2. Other software that saw a lot of use included their Pro-53 and [Way Out Ware] TimewARP 2600."
Dave Gahan told Rolling Stone Magazine:
"Martin [Gore] brought it in, and at first we were like, "Is it the same as [bluesman] Son House's version?" Son House is kind of quoting Revelation, and we're doing the opposite: We're saying we don't buy into that idea." 
Martin said at a press conference in Milan in 2005:
"It's only inspired by the blues classic. There's only one line from the song. All of the rest of the words and music have got nothing to with the original version."
Martin Gore told Swedish newspaper "DN" in 2005 (translated from Swedish):
MG: "I told Andy [Fletcher] that Christians will demonstrate outside of our concerts. He didn't agree. He thinks it's a positive and uplifting song. It's not critical towards God, just towards John. If God does exist I don't think he's punishing and judgmental. I don't think he sends plagues that wipe out a third of humanity. I don't think he's got seven angels blowing in seven trumpets and causing disasters."
DN: "But isn't God acting exactly like he does in the Book of Revelation when he sends a tsunami on people?"
MG: "I didn't hear any trumpets."
From an interview with programmer Dave McCracken for Home:
"Martin says he can't just sit down and write songs, it's all got to come his head, and then he can write a song in 20 minutes. I didn't really understand this until I saw how he did it. 'John The Revelator' took 6 hours to record and finish it, it's really quick, it just all came. So I now understand where he's coming from."
== Music video ==
== Live performances ==
Category:Singles
Category:Depeche Mode songs
Category:Depeche Mode singles
Category:Playing The Angel songs
Category:Playing The Angel singles
Category:Songs in F♯ Minor
Category:Songs between 130-134 BPM
Category:Songs written by Martin L. Gore
Category:Songs with official music videos
<metadesc>"John The Revelator" is a song from the 2005 album Playing The Angel by Depeche Mode. It was released as a double A-side single alongside "Lilian" on 5 June 2006.</metadesc>