John The Revelator / Lilian - Origins

Origins

While the Depeche Mode track known as "John the Revelator" should be considered a novel composition written by Martin Gore (rather than a "cover" song - like "Route 66", "Dirt" or "So Cruel" - three songs that are covered by Depeche Mode) the song has its origins in an early 20th century gospel/folk song John the Revelator famously performed by Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, and later by such acts as The Holy Modal Rounders, The Blues Brothers and John Mellencamp, with each new version adding or ignoring the original lyrics if not the original context. Similarly, the Depeche Mode track employs several elements of the namesake including the call-and-response chorus ("who's that shouting? John the Revelator" etc. )

Read more about this topic:  John The Revelator / Lilian

Famous quotes containing the word origins:

    Lucretius
    Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
    smiling carves dreams, bright cells
    Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.
    Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)

    Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.
    W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)

    The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.
    Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)