“John the Revelator” has been one of my favorite Depeche Mode songs ever since I first heard it on Playing the Angel (which also happens to be my favorite Depeche Mode album [yes, I’m not quite a Gen-X’er]).

For the fun of it, I was reading about the song today and came across this amazing unofficial video:

I love that the video really highlights the transgressive nature of the Depeche Mode re-interpretation of the “traditional” version of “John the Revelator,” which has a much more religious tone. (Not that the Depeche Mode version isn’t religious — but it’s anti-religious, if anything.) Showing George W. Bush as an evil version of John the Revelator is just awesome.

In addition to that awesome video, the CD single for “John the Revelator” is pretty great, too. The UNKLE remix is my favorite, but Tiefschwarz does nice straightforward and dub versions of the song, too.

Finally, the official version of the video is nice too… it captures the spirit of their “Touring the Angel” tour (which I didn’t see in person but have a DVD of…):