| "Barrel of a Gun" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Depeche Mode | ||||
| from the album Ultra | ||||
| B-side | "Painkiller" | |||
| Released | February 3, 1997 | |||
| Format | Vinyl record 7", 12", CD | |||
| Recorded | 1996 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, Industrial rock | |||
| Length | 5:35 (Album Version) 4:00 (Radio Edit) |
|||
| Label | Mute Records | |||
| Writer(s) | Martin Gore | |||
| Producer | Tim Simenon | |||
| Depeche Mode singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"Barrel of a Gun" is Depeche Mode's thirty-first UK single, released on February 3, 1997 (January 28 in the USA), and the first single from the band's ninth studio album Ultra.
"Barrel of a Gun" came after some difficult times for the band and its members. Musician Alan Wilder left the band in 1995 and lead singer David Gahan nearly died while in the throes of heroin addiction. Martin Gore had a string of seizures, and Andrew Fletcher had some emotional problems of his own. In mid-1996 Martin tried to get Dave and Fletch back together by writing a few songs and see if anybody was interested in continuing after that. It worked, and the band were back together, except now a trio again for the first time since 1982's A Broken Frame.
"Barrel of a Gun" brings back the industrial music sound, and is possibly the darkest DM song yet. Martin wasn't sure if this was going to be a big hit on the radio, so he was reluctant to recommend this song as the first single, but when he eventually did, it turned out the rest of band, Daniel Miller, and producer Tim Simenon agreed. It reached #4 in the UK chart in 1997, which at the time was their joint highest chart position with People Are People released in 1984. Since then, Precious has also reached #4 in the UK, in 2005.
The B-side is a 7+ minute instrumental called "Painkiller", which reflects the new dirty-electronic, vaguely-rock angle of the band. A condensed (2+ minute) version shows up as a hidden track on the Ultra album as "Junior Painkiller".
The music video for "Barrel of a Gun" is directed by Anton Corbijn, DM's long-time visual collaborator. It features Dave singing with his eyes closed, with eyeballs drawn on his eyelids to make it seem like they are open. Dave has rather amusing commentary on the video on The Videos 86-98. The video was shot in Morocco.
| Chart (1997) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart[1] | 33 |
| Austrian Singles Chart[2] | 15 |
| Finnish Singles Chart[3] | 3 |
| French Singles Chart[4] | 22 |
| German Singles Chart[5] | 3 |
| Italian Singles Chart[6] | 4 |
| Swedish Singles Chart[7] | 1 |
| Swiss Singles Chart[8] | 30 |
| UK Singles Chart[9] | 4 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[10] | 47 |
| US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[10] | 11 |