With due respect to Medsker, the main riff WAS written before. And although it's all the way on the other side of the spectrum from southern/blues-rock, the grand wizards of 70s prog rock Yes (specifically Jon Anderson and Steve Howe) penned that riff as the main theme for their 20-minute epic “The Revealing Science Of God.” Seriously. Go listen to it if you don't believe me. Actually the theme hits at the 1:35 mark, which is great, because then you don't have to slog through the rest.

paz

With due respect to Medsker, the main riff WAS written before. And although it's all the way on the other side of the spectrum from southern/blues-rock, the grand wizards of 70s prog rock Yes (specifically Jon Anderson and Steve Howe) penned that riff as the main theme for their 20-minute epic “The Revealing Science Of God.” Seriously. Go listen to it if you don't believe me. Actually the theme hits at the 1:35 mark, which is great, because then you don't have to slog through the rest.

paz

woah yow um

That said, “Great Commandment” is certainly a Mode knockoff, as was most of their first album, and the awkwardly translated English lyrics (”The world and its embarrassing pavement”?) don't help. But they did the Depeche Clone thing better than a lot of contemporaries (contrast: The Hunger, 7 Red 7, Cause and Effect) and they quickly developed a distinctive sound. I'll take their 90s output over Depeche's in a minute.

I'd also say that outside of Depeche, synthpop wasn't getting a lot of love even on college radio by 88/9. I was happy for any synthpop/industrial band to get alternative radio/120 Minutes play, even if they were derivative. Camouflage are OK by me.

Yes. Yes, that is exactly why I recognize this song! Although I don't think my radio was AM-only. Sure, it could pick up 560 AM (WHBQ – home of the Disco Duck himself), but I think it also picked up that crazy new “frequency” modulation stuff. Man, I miss that radio.