"Master and Servant" is Depeche Mode's eleventh UK single (released on 20 August 1984) and the second single from the Some Great Reward album. Despite controversy surrounding the song, it still managed to reach number 9 in the UK Singles Chart.
The "Slavery Whip Mix" was the longest 12" DM song at the time, with the outro being turned into a swing version of the refrain. The "Voxless" version is an instrumental mix of the song. The B-side is "(Set Me Free) Remotivate Me", featuring a 12-inch "Release Mix". The 7" version edits out much of the beginning.
Some versions include a song called "Are People People?" which uses samples from "People Are People" along with chanting. Both "Are People People?" and "Master and Servant (An ON-USound Science Fiction Dance Hall Classic)" appear on Remixes 81 - 04 in 2004. They are remixed by Adrian Sherwood.
The production and mixing process of "Master and Servant" are remembered by Alan Wilder, Daniel Miller, and Gareth Jones, as among the longest that Depeche Mode ever endured. One famous story about the song includes a mixing duration of seven days, and after all the reworking and final mastering of the mix, they realized they left the channel with the snare drum muted during the last chorus.
The "Master and Servant" music video was directed by Clive Richardson.
Some of the sounds on "Master And Servant" – such as the whip effect – are based on Daniel Miller standing in the studio hissing and spitting. According to the band, they tried to sample a real whip but "it was hopeless".
The overtly sexual, BDSM-themed lyrics of "Master and Servant" - complete with synthesized whip-and-chain sound effects - reportedly got the song banned by many radio stations in the United States (although the song reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart anyway, albeit only at number 87 and for only a three-week chart stay). Reportedly the song narrowly avoided a radio ban by the BBC as well, and might have been banned if the one BBC staffer who wanted to ban the record had not been away on holiday at the time the other staffers voted on whether to add "Master and Servant" to their playlist.
The band used an instrumental part of the song as an intro during their 1984/1985 Some Great Reward Tour.
Famous quotes containing the words master and, master and/or servant:
“Master and Doctor are my titles;
For ten years now, without repose,
I’ve held my erudite recitals
And led my pupils by the nose.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“Love and joy come to you,
And to your wassail too,”
—Unknown. God Bless the Master of This House (l. 5–6)
“If photography is allowed to stand in for art in some of its functions it will soon supplant or corrupt it completely thanks to the natural support it will find in the stupidity of the multitude. It must return to its real task, which is to be the servant of the sciences and the arts, but the very humble servant, like printing and shorthand which have neither created nor supplanted literature.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)