⚡️ About the Song
“Personal Jesus” is one of the greatest riffs of the electronic age — swampy, seductive, and strangely spiritual.
Written by Martin Gore, it’s a song about devotion and desire — a call to find faith in human connection.
Dave Gahan’s vocal strut meets a bluesy rhythm guitar that could’ve come straight out of a Mississippi juke joint.
When Johnny Cash later covered it, he proved what we all suspected: underneath the synths, it’s pure gospel blues.
And that’s why it kills on ukulele.
Strip away the industrial pulse and you’ve got a handclap rhythm, a preacher’s swagger, and a melody that hits like confession and temptation rolled together.
🎸 Ukulele Playing Tips
We’ll play it in A minor, matching the original’s gritty minor groove.
You’ll need Am, Dm, E7, and F — four chords that sound righteous and dirty in equal measure.
Main riff / verse groove: [Am] – [Dm] – [E7] – [Am]
Chorus (“Reach out and touch faith…”): [F] – [E7] – [Am]
Keep tempo around 120 bpm, but play with attitude.
This isn’t delicate — it’s stomping, hypnotic, percussive.
Strumming pattern: down–down–chuck–up–down–chuck
Add light palm mutes to the lower strings for that pulsing, guitar-string slap feel.
If you want to fake the riff, pluck G string → C string → E string in Am to create a rolling bassline feel, then punch the downbeats.
Singing tip: Channel a mix of preacher and sinner.
Half speak, half growl.
“Reach out and touch faith” isn’t sung — it’s declared.
💡 Trivia You Can Drop Casually
- Inspired by Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s relationship; Martin Gore said it was about “being a Jesus for someone else.”
- Recorded at Logic Studios in Milan, the song’s blues riff was played through a small amp to sound like an AM radio preacher.
- The music video, directed by Anton Corbijn, features the band dressed as dusty gospel cowboys in the desert.
- Covered famously by Johnny Cash, Marilyn Manson, and Sam Smith — proof that its bones are bulletproof.
- The rhythm of the opening handclaps was actually built from sampled studio slaps and palm hits.
🌈 Final Word
“Personal Jesus” is spiritual swagger.
On ukulele, it becomes part campfire sermon, part dark gospel groove — proof that the uke can snarl when it wants to.
Play it percussive, leave space between the beats, and don’t smile.
The holiness here is in the rhythm.
