Playing on Revelation: A Tale of Two Revelators
By The Rev. Larry Kamphausen
There’s a song, “John the Revelator”, it begins simply followed with layers of synthesized sound and driving drum beat as song builds in frustration and exultation of uncovering a truth. The song almost immediately opens a space inside my chest, that is the same space opened in deep meditation, creating a rarefied air at the crown of my skull.
There’s another “John the Revelator”, twang of a guitar with a gravelly voice growling a tune about John the Revelator. In the refrain the gravel voice growls and calls “Who’s that writing” and a woman’s voice calls back “John the Revelator”. This other “Revelator” opens the same space in my chest but its clarifying sound has weight and is fully embodied. This is an earthy enlightenment, an ecstasy residing in a muddied moment. This enlightenment unnerves and disturbs. This other Revelator is a Blues song originally recorded by Blind Willie Johnson (a version was also recorded by Son House). Depeche Mode’s Revelator isn’t a cover of the Blues song, yet the two songs are lyrically and musically connected. The connections are subtle and reveal a deep conflict.
Blind Willie Johnson haunts this act of liberation and protest.
Depeche Mode’s “Revelator” is a protest. The song at center is simple overlaid with a driving angry beat. Depeche Mode’s quintessential synthesized sounds and Dave Gahan’s distinctive vocals furiously dance around the melody. The enlightenment offered its not found in “John the Revelator”; the ecstasy and enlightenment comes from unmasking “John the Revelator”- anger is directed at this Revelator who doesn’t enlighten but only lies. Depeche Mode’s “John the Revelator” uses the themes of the Blues song to interrogate the original. The exultation and enlightenment of the song comes from this laying bare of tradition.
Depeche Mode’s revelator seeks liberation from Blind Willie Johnson’s “John the Revelator” and its various covers, yet it never quite escapes and becomes yet another “John the Revelator” in the tradition. Blind Willie Johnson haunts this act of liberation and protest.
There’s a long and winding path between Depeche Mode and Blind Willie Johnson and Son House: countless covers and tweaked versions of the song by Rock and Blues musicians. This history and tradition of covers is both perpetuated and deconstructed in Depeche Mode’s “Revelator”. The song is confounded by the Blues “Revelator” and its power over musicians. Yet, the protest finds itself to be another song entranced and exulting in Blind Willie Johnson’s simple tune. Depeche Mode add themselves to the long line of musicians who have paid homage to the power of “John the Revelator”.
We have two similar yet distinct opposing experiences of revelation and enlightenment.
Blind Willie Johnson’s “Revelator” is hopeful and the gravely eeriness grounds it’s revelation. Depeche Modes’ “John the Revelator” is troubled. Around its simple reference to Blind Willie Johnson “Revelator” is anger, frustration, and a desire to ascend and escape. There is an ascent and enlightenment through the exposing of a lie, not in an unveiling of a truth. There is a deeper conflict at work, and counter vision. In Depeche Mode’s “revelator” there’s an attempted exorcism of the despised “John the Revelator”.
Depeche mode can’t escape the faith of Blind Willie Johnson. Blind Willie Johnson and Son House don’t fit within a musical tradition where God only haunts and doesn’t inspire. Depeche Mode reveals how the tradition of covers can ring false when those in the tradition don’t share the faith and theology of the Blues song. John the Revelator inhabits a theology without an impermeable barrier between sacred and profane. This lack of clear and unmixed distinction is not comprehended by Depeche Modes spiritual atheism. This fluidity between divinity and humanity is exposed as a dangerous lie.
Depeche Mode’s “Revelator” uncovers a sonic incomprehension, suspended between a theology of revelation amid the everyday and a theology that exults in exposing the everyday as empty of divinity.
