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Of
course, I listen to a lot of music other than the Pet Shop Boys. Excepting them,
here's my list of favorites, in alphabetical order, with brief explanations of
why I like each as well as my favorite album* and songs. I also note any interesting
"PSB connections" that I'm aware of with each artist. *I
generally disqualify "greatest hits" or "best of" albums from
consideration as my favorites because I think they have an "unfair advantage,"
so to speak. But in a few cases I cite artists who, in my opinion, really didn't
create any first-rate albums aside from such collections, so I go ahead cite a
hits collection as my favorite. Incidentally, just because
I don't list an artist here doesn't mean that I don't like them. I sometimes get
emails from site visitors who, after viewing this page, ask me, "How come
you don't like
?" (New Order and the Smiths are frequent objects of
this question.) The fact is that I do "like" many artists not
listed here. It's just that they're not among my "favorites"those
whom I like especially. But I have to limit the number that I list here;
otherwise the designation "favorite" would be meaningless. The
purest pop of the seventies, although they did some of their finest work in the
early eighties. Benny and Björn wrote better songs in their second language
than most songsmiths can compose in their native tongues. And as a group they
reportedly turned down an offer of a billion dollarsthat's a thousand-million
to our British friendsfor a one-off reunion tour back in the 1990s. Now,
how cool is that? Favorite
album: Super Trouper (1980) Favorite
songs: - "Lay All Your
Love on Me" (1980)
- "One
of Us" (1982)
- "Under Attack"
(1982)
Recommended DVD: The
Definitive Collection (2002) PSB
connections: Although he and Chris are professed admirers of Abba's music,
Neil once said of Erasure's Abba-esque EP, "We would never
have done that." Despite
the fact that he very nearly destroyed himself and never completely fulfilled
his promise, who but Brian Wilson has left such a remarkable legacyso much
fantastic musicwithout having fulfilled his promise? His influence
as a songwriter and producer is all over the place in music of the last forty
years. And if there were any educated doubts of his genius, Brian's 2004 re-creation
of his legendary aborted Smile album offers definitive proof. Oh, yeah,
he and his brothers, cousin, and friends could really sing, too. In
fact, when in "Add Some Music to Your Day" they harmonize "Music
is in my soul!" you can damn well believe them. Favorite
album (BB): Sunflower* (1970) Favorite album (BW): Smile
(2004) Favorite songs:
- "God Only Knows" (1966)
- "Heroes
and Villains" (1967)
- "This
Whole World" (1970)
Recommended
DVD (BB): Endless Harmony (2000) Recommended DVD (BW): Smile
(2004) PSB connections:
They're both "Boys" bands, after all, and Neil has cited the BB classic
Pet Sounds as one of his favorite albums. (Hmmm
Pet SoundsPet
Shop Boys.) Both groups also repurposed music they had originally intended for
a James Bond film. In the case of the Beach Boys, it was the title track from
Pet Sounds, an instrumental initially titled "Run, James, Run,"
whereas for the Pet Shop Boys it was an early version of the basic instrumental
track of "This Must Be the Place I Waited
Years to Leave." Now a solo artist, Brian Wilson has recorded for Sanctuary
Records and more recently for Rhino Records, both of which have served as U.S.
labels for the Pet Shop Boys as well. *I fully and
readily acknowledge that Pet Sounds (1966) is a far better albumin
fact, one of the greatest rock/pop albums of all time. And I enjoy it immensely.
But, for some reason, I enjoy Sunflower even more. Maybe it's because I
feel that Pet Sounds is almost like a Brian Wilson solo album with Beach
Boys vocals, whereas Sunflower is indisputably a Beach Boys album,
with nearly equal contributions from every member. And it's also where the Beach
Boys wrote the book on the art of background vocals. If
for no other reason (but there are many), Lennon-McCartney were the greatest songwriting
team in rock music history, and among the three or four greatest of pop music
history overall. What's more, during their "middle period" (1966-67),
they reshaped the musical landscaperedefined the very language of popular
musicin a way that few artists before and none since have matched. Favorite
album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) Favorite
songs: - "Strawberry
Fields Forever" (1967)
- "Penny
Lane" (1967)
- "A Day in
the Life" (1967)
Recommended
DVD: Anthology (1995) PSB
connections: There's no shortage of them: The Beatles (aka "the
White Album") was the first album Neil ever bought; he taught himself to
play guitar studying Beatles songbooks; Neil worked with Paul McCartney on the
Twentieth-Century Blues project;
he has credited John Lennon ("Strawberry Fields Forever," in particular)
as a major influence on his style as a lyricist; the Boys remixed "Walking
on Thin Ice" for Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono (and performed it live on stage
with her in June 2005); the song "I
Made My Excuses and Left" was partly inspired by the story of Cynthia
Lennon discovering that her husband John was in love with Yoko; Neil and Chris
had once seriously considered performing a cover version of the Beatles' "The
Fool on the Hill" but, after rehearsals, decided against it; the Beatles'
"She Loves You" was selected by Neil as one of his
Desert Island Discs when he appeared on that famous BBC radio show
in February 2007; Chris has noted that the Boys' 2002 "University Tour"
was inspired by the fact that the first Paul McCartney and Wings tour was of U.K.
universities; and several PSB tracks include overt
references to Beatles songs. Talk
about great songwriters! How deep was their well of inspiration? And while I'm
no huge fan of Barry's singing (he's a little too "breathy" for my taste,
and I think he overuses his falsetto), Robin is perhaps the most underrated vocalist
in rock/pop music history. I'm also impressed by the way that they were repeatedly
able to re-emerge, phoenix-like, from setbacks and changes in fashion that would
have hurled lesser talents into permanent "Whatever became of
?"
status. Understandably, however, it appears that Maurice's untimely death in 2003
has forced the "Bee Gees" moniker forever into retirement. Favorite
album: Main Course (1975) Favorite
songs: - "Nights on Broadway"
(1975)
- "Fanny (Be Tender with
My Love)" (1975)
- "For
Whom the Bell Tolls" (1993)
Recommended
DVD: One Night Only (1997) PSB
connections: Chris has said that the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
album, dominated by the Bee Gees, was a major influence on him, inspiring his
love of dance music. Blue Weaver, a keyboardist who spent much of the seventies
working with the Bee Gees, also worked with the Boys on their first album, Please.
And the PSB song "Nightlife" is
generally recognized as something of an homage to the Brothers Gibb. But influences
can go both ways: the Bees Gees publicly acknowledged that their 1993 track "Fallen
Angel" was heavily influenced by PSB. Neil also affirmed that his own longstanding
fondness for the Bee Gees ("I've always loved the Bee Gees' music
.
they've always been songwriters that we really admired") had inspired him
in his graphic-arts contribution to the 1997 WarChild charity exhibition at London's
Saatchi Gallery: he designed a "Flashing Light-Box Model of Dance Floor from Saturday
Night Fever." Personally,
I'm not very fond of his early "glam phase," though I'll admit that
it was revolutionary and produced some true classics. But it's "middle-period"
Bowie that I enjoy the mosthis recordings from Young Americans through
Scary Monsters, especially the brilliant Station to Station. Favorite
album: Station to Station (1976) Favorite
songs: - "TVC15"
(1976)
- "'Heroes'" (1977)
- "Ashes
to Ashes" (1980)
Recommended
DVD: Best of Bowie (2002) PSB
connections: Longtime avowed Bowie fans (in February 2007 Neil chose Bowie's
"Changes" as one of his Desert
Island Discs), the Boys remixed and performed on the single version (and
appear in the video) of his song "Hallo
Spaceboy." Turnabout is fair play, so the Boys asked Bowie to remix "I
Get Along," but he declined on account of his hectic schedule at the
time. The Thin White Duke also served as the inspiration for the PSB song "Friendly
Fire." A lengthy interview with Neil specifically on the subject of Bowie's
music and careerincluding his influence on the Pet Shop Boysappears
in the January 2007 issue of Record Collector. Neil notes, "David
Bowie transformed the way I felt about music," and reveals that whenever
he and Chris perform their song "Sexy Northerner"
live he as to restrain himself from impersonating Bowie vocally. David was involved
in the same Threepenny Opera anniversary project that led to Neil and Chris
recording "What Keeps Mankind Alive?"
And Neil invited Bowie to take part in his Twentieth-Century Blues Noël
Coward tribute project, but David declined. If
I had to declare anyone to be the most original talent on this list, it
would have to be Kate Bush. Hounds of Love is quite possibly the best art-rock
album ever made. And though it's from a somewhat weaker album, "The Sensual
World" never fails to send shivers up and down my spine. Besides, any woman
who has the audacity to write a song about her desire to know what a male orgasm
feels like ("Running Up That Hill") and to sing a duet with a birdbased
on the bird's song, not hers ("Aerial Tal")is pretty darn
impressive in my book. Favorite
album: Hounds of Love (1985) Favorite
songs: - "Running Up
That Hill" (1985)
- "Cloudbusting"
(1985)
- "The Sensual World"
(1989)
Recommended DVD: NoneI'm
still waiting for a DVD video collection! (OK, I know there are bootlegs, but
I'm not counting them here.) PSB
connections: Neil met Kate at the Grosvenor House hotel at the 1987 BPI Awards.
"She wasn't particularly friendly, I'm afraid," says Neil, "but
she wasn't unfriendly. Shy, I think." Both Boys ran into her again at an
EMI conference in 1993. Kate is one of several artists in this list who share
with the Pet Shop Boys their active support for the UK charity War Child,
which is devoted to helping the victims of war. Also, both Kate and the Pet Shop
Boys have employed the services of the Balanescu String Quartet: the Boys on "My
October Symphony" and Kate the preceding year on "Reaching Out"
from her album The Sensual World. And in May 2007 DJ Magnet did an ingenious
mashup of PSB's "Love Comes Quickly"
with Placebo's cover of "Running Up That Hill" (in the process incorporating
a snippet of Kate's original) titled "Love Comes Running Up That Hill Quickly." Between
Karen's exquisite voice and Richard's equally exquisite arrangements (and, in
some cases, his excellent songwriting), they were able to transform some of the
most doleful songs ever written into timeless pop classics. With their masterpiece,
"Goodbye to Love," they virtually invented the power ballad. Please
don't hold that against them. Unfairly and sometimes cruelly maligned by the rock
mainstream in their own time, it wasn't until after Karen's premature death that
it was generally acknowledged what an absolute gem we had in her. Favorite
album: A Song for You (1972) Favorite
songs: - "Goodbye to
Love" (1972)
- "Only Yesterday"
(1975)
- "I Need to Be in Love"
(1976)
Recommended DVD: Close
to You Remembering the Carpenters (1997) PSB
connections: In the same year, 1987, the Pet Shop Boys and Richard Carpenter
both released collaborations with Dusty Springfieldthe Boys, of course,
on "What Have I Done to Deserve This?,"
and Richard on the song "Something in Your Eyes" from his solo album
Time. No
one has made utter despair sound so appealing. And even when they're not despairing,
as in the magnificent "Enjoy the Silence," they sound as though
they are, which is tougher than you might think. I don't much like watching them
performsomething about Dave Gahan's stage presence rubs me the wrong waybut
I do love listening to them. Favorite
album: Violator (1990) Favorite
songs: - "Never Let Me
Down Again" (1987)
- "Enjoy
the Silence" (1990)
- "World
in My Eyes" (1990)
Recommended
DVD: Videos 86>98+ (2002) PSB
connections: In the November 8, 1984 issue of Smash Hits, journalist
Neil Tennant reviewed the DM single "Blasphemous Rumours," describing
it as "a routine slab of gloom in which God is given a severe ticking off."
Years later, after having himself become a famous musician, Neil noted that "Enjoy
the Silence" was an influence on PSB during the recording of Behaviour,
particularly on the song "The End of the
World." But, as with the Bee Gees, influences go both waysand in
this case in the same song. Reportedly it was the Pet Shop Boys' influence that
inspired DM to give "Enjoy the Silence" a strong dance beat. (It seems
they originally considered it more of a ballad.) It's also worth noting that Neil
and Chris, performing with Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr as Electronic, served
as the Mode's opening act for a pair of concert dates in Los Angeles in August
1990. Neil
Hannonwho is The Divine Comedyhas established a place for himself
in the post-1990 pop music world as perhaps its single foremost practicioner of
the art song. His work is breathtakingly imaginative, and while this
native of Northern Ireland sometimes flirts daringly
with the rococo and the twee, the fact that he nearly always manages to avoid
such pitfalls renders his heavily orchestrated achievements all the more impressive.
As he walks his musical tightrope between the comic and the tragic, he has become
an Irish/U.K. national treasure. Thank goodness the rest of the world can enjoy
the treasure as well. Favorite
album: Victory for the Comic Muse (2006) Favorite
songs: - "The Frog Princess"
(1996)
- "Our Mutual Friend"
(2004)
- "A Lady of a Certain
Age" (2006)
Recommended
DVD: So far the only full-length DVD is Live at the London Palladium
(2004), available from the U.K. in PAL format. I haven't seen it yet, but hope
to soon. PSB connections: The
two NeilsHannon and Tennantsang backup together on Robbie Williams's
"No Regrets." Hannon also contributed
"I've Been to a Marvelous Party" to Tennant's Twentieth-Century Blues
Noël Coward tribute project. And The Divine Comedy (Hannon plus support musicians)
performed "West End Girls" during their
2002 tour. As
a former nerdat least I hope it's "former"I have
to admire anyone who made über-geekiness look and sound so cool. Yes, even
more than Devo. No, not as much as Elvis Costello, but, then again, I personally
don't much care for most of Costello's music. Besides, anyone who can pull off
the techno-Cajun hybrid of "I Love You, Goodbye" has my undying respect. Favorite
album: Astronauts and Heretics (1992) Favorite
songs: - "She Blinded
Me with Science" (1983)
- "Hyperactive"
(1984)
- "I Love You, Goodbye"
(1992)
Recommended DVD: His
first (as far as I know) has recently been released, The Sole Inhabitant
(2007), but I have yet to see it myself. PSB
connections: An "eighties star" who continued to make terrific music
into the nineties but was by that time essentially ignored by U.S. radio, where
he now can't buy airplay time except for the occasional "oldie"almost
invariably his first and biggest hit ("She Blinded Me with Science").
Sound familiar? Because
Andy Bell is so "out" (not to mention a great singer) and because
Vince Clarke is the most inventive synth player ever. He's certainly
not the instrument's greatest virtuoso—you'd have to look along the lines of Rick
Wakeman, Keith Emerson, or even Wendy Carlos for that—but no other synthesist
is as imaginative and emotionally evocative. Favorite
album: I Say I Say I Say (1994) Favorite
songs: - "A Little Respect"
(1988)
- "Blue Savannah"
(1989)
- "In My Arms" (1997)
Recommended
DVD: Hits! The Videos (2003) PSB
connections: They're contemporaneous synthpop-songwriting duos with openly
gay lead singers. There's also a widespread perception of an intense rivalry between
the two groups, but this seems largely a product of fandom's collective imaginationor,
at most, a holdover, no longer applicable, from their earliest days. Clarke has
described himself as a PSB fan and has referred to Chris and Neil as "great
composers," while Andy has said, "I've always been a fan of PSB's music
and would love to sing on one of their disco tracks." On a more concrete
level, Stephen Hague, who has often worked with the Boys and produced Very,
also produced Erasure's album The Innocents. In fact, Erasure and PSB have
shared numerous other producers, engineers, and remixers, among them David Jacob,
Phil Harding, Mark Stent, Shep Pettibone, and Bob Kraushaar.
With
this much songwriting, vocal, and production talent, plus more inner turmoil than
Mount Etna, this band might be described as a Beach Boys for the seventiesonly
the Beach Boys were still around then, if past their prime. Lindsay worshiped
at the altar of Brian, and small wonder Christine hooked up with Dennis for a
while: they were naturals. Meanwhile, Stevie's witch fixation, once somewhat annoying,
has grown quainter with time. I mean, you gotta love such charming oddballism. Favorite
album: Tusk (1979) Favorite
songs: - "Go Your Own
Way" (1977)
- "Silver Springs"
(1977)
- "Sara" (1979)
Recommended
DVD: The Dance (1997) PSB
connections: Chris has said that when they recorded "Home
and Dry," they initially thought that "it sounded a bit too much
like Fleetwood Mac or something," but they decided to stick with it because
it was like nothing they had ever done before. And in a November 2006 interview
with the San Francisco Chronicle, Neil said that he would like to work
with Stevie Nicks: "I recently heard her song 'Has Anyone Ever Written Anything
for You?' and her husky vocals really impressed me. So if you're reading this,
Stevie, give us a call." I
debated with myself for a long time about adding the former lead singer of Genesis
to my list. I must confess that I actually like only about half of his solo work.
But I also have to confess that the songs I like, I really like! When he
hits it, he hits it dead on, creating some of the greatest art-rock tracks ever
recorded. He's endlessly fascinating, extremely influential, a remarkable showman,
and the possessor of a delightfully disturbing sense of humorOK, he makes
the cut. Favorite album:
So (1986) Favorite songs:
- "Solsbury Hill" (1977)
- "Shock
the Monkey" (1982)
- "Red
Rain" (1986)
Recommended
DVD: Secret World Live (1994) PSB
connections: Both Peter and the Boys were recipients of 1987 BRITS Awards:
Gabriel as Best Male Solo Artist and PSB as performers of the Single of the Year,
"West End Girls." Speak
of the devil. Great music, great lyrics, great instrumental prowessin short,
they're great. Unlike many, I like both the "Gabriel era" and the "Collins
era" primarily because the chief common denominator, at least as far as I'm
concerned, is Tony Banks, the finest songwriter and the most tasteful keyboardist
of prog rock. Favorite album:
A Trick of the Tail (1976) Favorite
songs: - "Firth of Fifth"
(1973)
- "Squonk" (1976)
- "Heathaze"
(1980)
Recommended DVD: The
Way We Walk - Live in Concert (1992) PSB
connections: The two bands have connectionsalbeit very different oneswith
British songwriter/producer Jonathan King, who discovered, named, and gave Genesis
their professional start back in the late 1960s; two decades later the Pet Shop
Boys would successfully sue King for his allegations that they had cribbed "It's
a Sin" from Cat Stevens's "Wild World." Neil also conducted
an interview with the members of Genesis during his stint with Smash Hits.
Finally, both bands boast a "domino" song: of course, the Boys' "Domino
Dancing," and Genesis's "Domino"a deeply moving epic
that describes a nuclear holocaust in terms of one of the millions (if not billions)
of small, personal tragedies it would entail. A
grossly underrated guya terrific songwriter. Some of his least-known songs
(such as "The Other Me") are among his best, and while nearly all of
his albums are excellent, his ambitious song cycle Blaze of Glory particularly
stands out. It's a crime that this remarkable album is out of print, at least
in the United States. Favorite
album: Blaze of Glory (1989) Favorite
songs: - "Breaking Us
in Two" (1982)
- "Real Men"
(1982)
- "The Other Me" (1991)
Recommended
DVD: Live in Tokyo (1989) PSB
connections: The Seven Deadly Sins (Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Anger, Envy,
and Pride) have been a mutual concern. The Boys featured them (via fleeting personifications)
in their video for "It's a Sin," while
Jackson made them the focus of his 1997 album Heaven and Hell, with a separate
song devoted to each of the seven. Jackson also makes passing reference to PSB
in his autobiography A Cure for Gravity: "Up close, there might appear
to be a million worlds of difference between, say, Aerosmith and the Pet Shop
Boys. Zoom out, and they're both pop groups. Zoom out further, and it's all just
music." (Not exactly a profound observation, Joe, but I still love ya.) Are
you now beginning to grasp how important songwriting skills are to me? Despite
the occasional lapse in taste, Long Island's finest is a great songwriter
(with a penchant for unexpected harmonic progressions that rivals Brian Wilson)
as well as a damn good singer. He's also something of a musical chameleon, readily
able to mimic the songwriting and vocal mannerisms of other artists. Take, for
instance, "Uptown Girl," an uncanny channeling of the sound and spirit
some other favorites of mine, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (see below). Favorite
album: The Nylon Curtain (1982) Favorite
songs: - "Say Goodbye
to Hollywood" (1976)
- "Scenes
from an Italian Restaurant" (1977)
- "All
About Soul" (1993)
Recommended
DVD: The Essential Video Collection (2001) PSB
connections: Like the Pet Shop Boys, Billy wrote and recorded a song titled
"Shameless." (Of course,
the hyperlink takes you to info about the PSB song, not Billy's. Billy's
"Shameless" subsequently became a major country hit for Garth Brooks.)
Also, Billy was born in the Bronxsome sources report his birthplace as the
nearby NYC suburb of Hicksville, but he says it was the Bronx, and I'll
go with what he saysso that makes him an authentic "New
York City Boy." OK,
so his work since around 1990 has largely been schmaltz. But it's been really
good schmaltz. And back in the seventies, when he was in his prime, Elton
was a nonstop hit machinenot to mention a composer of terrific songswho
made rock fun again. Though the unlikeliest of pop stars, he fully deserves
to be precisely what he is: the third most successful artist in rock history (at
least based on hit singles in the U.S.), behind only Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Favorite
album: Honky Château (1972) Favorite
songs: - "Where to Now,
St. Peter?" (1971)
- "Philadelphia
Freedom" (1975)
- "I Feel
Like a Bullet in the Gun of Robert Ford" (1975)
Recommended
DVD: Elton 60 - Live at Madison Square Garden (2007) PSB
connections: Elton and the Boys are personal friends with numerous
linkages, including: - They performed
"Believe/Song for Guy" together on
the 1997 U.K. TV special An Audience with Elton John.
- Elton
participated in Neil's Twentieth-Century
Blues project.
- Elton introduced
PSB as his "favorite English band" on the episode of TFI Friday
where they performed "It Doesn't Often Snow
at Christmas."
- That same
song was included on Elton's 2005 holiday compilation Elton John's Christmas
Party. In the CD's liner notes, Elton writes of Neil and Chris, "Not
only are they two of my best friends, but they constantly write some of the best
albums to come out of the United Kingdom and I love them dearly."
- Neil
attended Elton's 50th-birthday costume party in 1997, resplendently uniformed
as a dragoon.
- The Boys performed
at the big "pre-nuptial" bash for Elton and his partner David Furnish
in late 2005.
- Elton, when presenting
PSB with the 2000 Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music,
stated that their song "A Red Letter Day"
had inspired him to continue making music at a time when he had felt like giving
up on it.
- They remade "In
Private" (originally written and produced by PSB for Dusty Springfield)
as a duet between PSB and Elton.
- Neil
interviewed Elton in a 1998 issue of Interview magazine.
- Neil
unsuccessfully auditioned for Elton's Rocket Records label way back in the early
1970s, years before there even were "Pet Shop Boys."
Quirky,
jazzy, wildly inventive music from a woman who gives every impression of having
lived the lowdown she writes and sings about. I think her first four albumsRickie
Lee Jones, Pirates, Girl at Her Volcano (actually an EP), and
The Magazineare her best. She seems, however, to have at least partially
burned out after that. The enduring curse of the "Best New Artist" Grammy,
I suppose. But, oh, what wonderful albums those first ones are!
Favorite
album: Rickie Lee Jones (1979) Favorite
songs: - "Last Chance
Texaco" (1979)
- "Living
It Up" (1981)
- "Woody
and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" (1981)
Recommended
DVD: Live at the Wiltern Theatre (1992) is about all that's out there. PSB
connections: Jon Pollak, who was the lighting designer for the Boys' Somewhere
shows at the Savoy Theatre in 1997, also designed the lighting for a Rickie Lee
Jones tour in the late 1980s. (Hey, it's the only thing I could come up with!) What
can you say about her that hasn't already been said? The woman's as smart as they
come: she knows her strengths and, even more importantly, she knows her weaknesses
and how to work around them. If it's amazing that Elton is the third most successful
artist in rock history, it's even more remarkable that she's #4. But just get
a load of the singles catalog on that girl! And anyone who doubts her artistic
chops should, if nothing else, remember "Live to Tell," one of the most
poignant, emotionally devastating ballads of the 1980s.
Favorite
album: Ray of Light (1998) Favorite
songs: - "Vogue"
(1990)
- "Deeper and Deeper"
(1992)
- "Get Together" (2005)
Recommended
DVD: The Confessions Tour - Live from London (2007) PSB
connections: There are many. Madonna was among the artists interviewed by
Neil back in his days with Smash Hits. In 1986, after the Boys hit it big,
they attended her birthday party at London's Groucho Club, where she asked them
to be the opening act on her next tour; they politely declined. Still later, Neil
and Chris considered offering their song "Heart"
to Maddie but, by their own admission, they chickened out. They also allude to
her in "DJ Culture" (she's the "she"
in "she after Sean") and mention her by name in their unreleased track
"Tall Thin Men." Interestingly,
although Neil has confirmed that he is indeed a Madonna fan, he once said that
the only album of hers that he actually likes is her first. Then again, in the
December 1992 issue of the PSB Fan Club publication Literally, he stated
that he was enjoying her album Erotica at the time. More recently, Stuart
Price, the producer of Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor, noted that
at one point while they were working on the song "Jump"which is
built around the classic "West End Girls"
chord progressionshe cried out, "Pet Shop Boys! I fucking love them!"
Of course, our heroes did a remix of "Sorry,"
the second single from that very album. And when Neil presented Madonna with a
BRITS Award in February 2006, she thanked various British artists, including the
Pet Shop Boys, for their influence on her music. Neil and Madonna even did a radio
interview together before the awards show. Most recently, Chris and Neil collaborated
with Robbie Williams on the song "She's Madonna"
for Robbie's album Rudebox. Snicker
if you want, but we're all allowed at least one guilty pleasure. Not only were
they at their peak the tightest harmony vocal ensemble in the biz, but they could
swing their asses off when they wanted to. And while they're all excellent singers,
top chops go to the incredible Janis Siegel, a virtuoso in both the pop and jazz
idiomsand there's only a handful of vocalists you can truthfully say that
about. Favorite album:
Extensions (1979) Favorite
songs: - "Birdland"
(1979)
- "Until I Met You (Corner
Pocket)" (1981)
- "Sassy"
(1991)
Recommended DVD: Vocalese
Live (1986) PSB connections:
The Manhattan Transfer's biggest U.S. hit was their 1981 remake of the doo-wop
classic "The Boy from New York City." And, of course, we all know about
the Pet Shop Boys' "New York City Boy." He's
an acquired taste, but I've definitely acquired it. The terms "alternative"
and "indie" were made for artists like Stephin Merritt, whose hangdog
baritone, stark arrangements, and deceptively simple musical structures can make
for a challenging aural experience. But once you tap into his aesthetic, you're
rewarded with some of the greatest songs of modern pop. A master of mixed emotions,
he's by turns forlornly romantic, charmingly lewd, poignantly seductive, jadedly
frustrated, and comically caustic. Recording both solo and with collaborators
under a bewildering array of identitiesthe Magnetic Fields, Future Bible
Heroes, the Sixths, and the Gothic Archies, not to mention his own nameit
all boils down to a highly accomplished songwriter carving a unique niche for
himself in contemporary music.
Favorite
album: 69 Love Songs (1999) Favorite
songs: - "Busby Berkeley
Dreams" (1999)
- "Papa Was
a Rodeo" (1999)
- "The Night
You Can't Remember" (1999)
Recommended
DVD: None that I'm aware of. PSB
connections: In a 1998 interview, Gail O'Hara (cofounder of Chickfactor
magazine) asked Merritt, "Who is the best lyricist in an electropop group?"
He cited three: "Me. Neil Tennant. Gary Numan's lyrics are underrated."
Also, Merritt's most prolific band, the Magnetic Fields, was slated to take part
in the Pet Shop Boys' ill-fated 2001 touring "gay music" summer festival
"Wotapalava." On a somewhat more esoteric note, both Stephin and the
Boys have shown a recurring concern with vampiresmetaphorical if not literal.
Merritt's songs "I Have the Moon," "Crowd of Drifters," and
(obviously) "I Am a Vampire," among others, are about the undead, while
a Future Bible Heroes album title, Eternal Youth, refers to that particular
vampiric trait. As for PSB, there's of course "Vampires"
and the "Heart" video starring Ian
McKellan as a bloodsucker clearly based on Count Draculaalthough, curiously,
Neil professed that he's "not remotely interested in Dracula" during
a 2007 visit to Romania. Are
there any artists whom you really don't want to like, but you do? I have
several, but George Michael is the biggest and best of the bunchthe one
I like the most, despite myself. It's difficult to say why I don't want to like
him. Maybe I just can't get those horrible "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"
and "I Want Your Sex" videos out of my head. Or perhaps because the
title "I Want Your Sex" itself sounds like a line from a bad paperback
sexploitation potboiler of the 1950s. Or maybe even because, in my opinion, Wham's
"Last Christmas" just might be the worst Christmas song ever.
But I know precisely why I do like him: he's a truly great singer and,
while I'm not sure I can actually call him a great songwriter, he does have flashes
of undeniable brilliance.
Favorite
album: Faith (1987) Favorite
songs: - "Freedom"
(aka "Freedom '90") (1990)
- "You
Have Been Loved" (1996)
- "Amazing"
(2004)
Recommended DVD: Twenty
Five (2006) PSB connections:
Social acquaintances (who once enjoyed, as Neil put it, a "riotous"
time together on an airplane), George Michael visited the Boys in the studio while
they were recording Bilingual, and he was especially intrigued by the song
"It Always Comes as a Surprise."
It's likely that it proved an influence on him during his recording around the
same time of his album Older, which included a number of tracks with a
similarly "bossa nova-ish" feel. George has listed PSB among his own
favorite artists and "Hit Music"
as one of his favorite songs of theirs, although in 2007 he instead chose "Being
Boring" as one of his Desert Island Discs. Chris and Neil were
sufficiently impressed by Chris Porter's and, more significantly, Pete Cleadell's
previous work with George Michael to work with them as well. George also invited
the Boys to be his opening act at his 2007 Wembly Arena concert, but they politely
declined. And, oh yes, the PSB song "Bet
She's Not Your Girlfriend"or at least its titlewas inspired
in part by a photo in a tabloid paper of George on the arm of an attractive young
woman. Hands
down, the greatest standalone (words and music) female songwriter in rock/pop
music history. And sometimes I'm tempted not even to use the qualifier "female"
there. Her songs have more layers than the earth's crust, and are about as deep.
I mean, I could write a few dozen pages about the astounding "Amelia"
alone, in which the repeated refrain "It was just a false alarm" becomes
a cry of simultaneous anguish and relief over the realization of having narrowly
escaped becoming as lostspiritually, if not physicallyas the doomed
aviatrix of the title. Favorite
album: Court and Spark (1974) Favorite
songs: - "A Case of You"
(1971)
- "Shades of Scarlet Conquering"
(1975)
- "Amelia" (1976)
Recommended
DVD: Woman of Heart and Mind - A Life Story (2003) PSB
connections: Neil has listed Mitchell's Hejira (on which one of my
faves, "Amelia," appears) as among his own favorite albums, describing
that album's "Coyote" as "the song I like most from that period."
Also, in the June 2005 issue of the U.K. magazine Word, he said of Joni,
"We met her once, in a hotel in L.A. when the Oscars were on.
She was very
sexy! I told her I loved her records and her reply was, 'I love your videos.'
I'm sure she meant to be nice but I thought, 'Agh! You bitch
.'" The
favorites of my teenage years, just the thing for a sensitive, somewhat brainy
little nerd like me.* Yeah, the "mystical" stuff sounds like drivel
to me now, but much of the rest has stood the test of timeand, regardless,
they'll always claim a warm spot in my heart. Whatever else you might say, when
Justin Hayward was good, he was very good: such songs as "The Actor,"
"Lovely to See You," "Question," "It's Up to You,"
and "The Story in Your Eyes" are superb by any reasonable standards.
My pet peeve: they deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and it's simply
rockist snobbery that they aren'tthe same rockist snobbery, not so incidentally,
that will probably keep PSB out as well. Then again, I suspect the Pet Shop Boys
(who have repeatedly expressed their utter contempt for the very concept of a
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) have a better chance of making it than the
Moody Blues; rock critics tend actually to like the Pet Shop Boys. Favorite
album: A Question of Balance (1970) Favorite
songs: - "Lovely to See
You" (1969)
- "Dawning Is
the Day" (1970)
- "New Horizons"
(1972)
Recommended DVD: A
Night at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (1992) PSB
connections: I admit that it's not exactly the passing of the torch, but the
Moody Blues had their last U.S. Top 10 hit, "Your Wildest Dreams," in
the same year (1986) that the Pet Shop Boys had their first, "West
End Girls." *A true story: It was the Christmas
shopping season of 1970. My parents knew that I loved rock/pop music and wanted
to buy me a record album, but they didn't know enough about my specific tastes
to know what to get. They went to the music section of our favorite department
store and asked a clerk for recommendations. He asked them to describe my personality.
They did (undoubtedly it would have been the equivalent, as expressed by loving
parents, of "a sensitive, somewhat brainy little nerd") and, based on
their description, the clerk recommended the Moody Blues' recently released A
Question of Balance. They bought it and gave it to me for Christmas, and I
loved itmy very first and still my favorite Moody Blues album. Quite
possibly the most curmudgeonly of all songwriters, with an incredible ear for
melody and arrangements, not to mention a nasty satiric streak that somehow, sometimes
manages to be too subtle for his own good.* And when he's not being particularly
satirical, as in "Marie" and "Louisiana 1927," he can be as
deeply moving as songwriters get. All in all, a man after my own heart. Favorite
album: Good Old Boys (1974) Favorite
songs: - "Sail Away"
(1972)
- "Marie" (1974)
- "I
Love L.A." (1983)
Recommended
DVD: Live at the Odeon (1993) PSB
connections: Neil once described the song "I Don't Want to Hear It Any
More," written by Randy Newman (and as performed by Dusty Springfield) as
a particular favorite: "It just breaks my heart to listen to it.
Ah!
It's a great record." (Not surprisingly, he selected Dusty's rendition of
that song as another of his Desert Island
Discs.) Interestingly, one of my own favorite Newman songs, the lovely
"Marie," is sung from the perspective of a man who can tell his wife
that he loves her only when he's drunkwritten nearly thirty years before
Chris and Neil covered similar territory from
the other angle. Finally, one of Newman's most famous compositions
is titled "Sail Away"not the same "Sail
Away," however, that the Pet Shop Boys recorded. That one was
written by another great songwriter, Noël Coward. *Often
it's not just a matter of subtlety but of complexity as well. Newman is the master
of double-edged satire, where he turns the joke around in the opposite
direction. For instance, in "Rednecks" (infamous for its repeated use
of the "n-word") it's obvious that he's satirizing U.S. Southern racists.
But he also uses it to excoriate the condescension and hypocrisy of Northern liberalsrather
ferociously, I might add. In "I Love L.A." he simultaneously parodies
and celebrates Los Angeles, turning the joke back on himself because he
in fact does love L.A. despite his tacit acknowledgment ("Look at
that bum over thereman, he's down on his knees!") that he really shouldn't. There's
a reason why The Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best-selling albums
of all time: it's that damn good. But, as great as it is, there's so much more
to Pink Floyd than that one album. Everything from Meddle through The
Wall is terrific. Some of the most thoughtful, melodic, haunting, andespecially
in the later material before Roger Waters leftdownright angry rock
ever made. And, no, you don't have to be stoned to enjoy it.
Favorite album: The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) Favorite
songs: - "Time"
(1973)
- "Have
a Cigar" (1975)
- "Comfortably
Numb" (1979)
Recommended
DVD: Pulse (1994) PSB
connections: For their Nightlife tour, Chris and Neil used a lighting
engineer who had formerly worked with Pink Floydimpressive creditials when
you consider Pink Floyd's longstanding reputation for state-of-the-art stage lighting.
And it was the Scissor Sisters' outrageous Bee Gees-on-ecstasy remake of the Floyd
classic "Comfortably Numb" that helped persuade the Boys to tap them
(the Sisters, that is) for remixing "Flamboyant."
During the Fundamental sessions, producer
Trevor Horn thought that "Luna Park"
sounded like Pink Floyd. But Neil has noted on more than one occasion that he
has no fondness for Pink Floyd's music. The
biggest case of career suicide ever*which I, perverse being that
I am, find strangely compelling. Then again, his 2006 single "Black Sweat"
mightily affirms the potential for full-fledged resurrection. But none of it would
mean a thing if it weren't for the fact that, back in the eighties, before he
changed his name to a glyph and morphed into a punchline, he unleashed a string
of jaw-droppingly innovative singles (most notably "Little Red Corvette,"
"Kiss," "U Got the Look," and the greatest jaw-dropper of
them all, "When Doves Cry") that forever cemented his place in the pantheon
of popular music.
Favorite
album: Purple Rain (1984) Favorite
songs: - "Do
It All Night" (1980)**
- "When
Doves Cry" (1984)
- "U
Got the Look" (1987)
Recommended
DVD: Sign 'o' the Times (1987) - Out of print, but worth finding. PSB
connections: Neil and Chris attended a party thrown by Prince in August 1986
to celebrate his first U.K. shows in five years. At various times Neil has cited
specific Prince albums or songs as favorites, including Music from Grafitti
Bridge, "Money Don't Matter 2 Night," and "If I Was Your Girlfriend."
Of the latter, he told New Musical Express, "I think it's very brave
for such a heterosexual man as Prince to imagine he's a woman." *One
might quibble with my "biggest case of career suicide ever" claim for
Princeespecially when you consider Michael Jackson. But MJ is a special
case. The term "career suicide" hardly does it justice. Perhaps "career
apocalypse." **Another true story, this time from the
summer of 1981several years before Prince became a superstar with Purple
Rain. Living in Minneapolis at the time, I used to hang out quite a bit with
a gay softball team. (The stories I could tell about thatbut not in a public
forum like this.) We had just completed our annual "Gays vs. Cops" all-star
game. The police team had won (unlike a year or two before), so they were feeling
good about it. Anyway, everybodythe gay players, the cops, and their wives
and girlfriendsheaded down to one of the local gay bars to celebrate. When
the DJ put on local wunderkind Prince's "Do It All Night," the
place erupted into a frenzied communal dance boasting every conceivable
combination of partners, including cops dancing with gay guys and gay guys dancing
with the cops' wives. I ended up dancing with one of the wives, but there was
this one cop that I would much ratheroh, never mind. That memory alone,
if nothing else, guarantees the song a ranking among my favorites. Kinda
like the Moody Blues, but without the mellotron and with much, much stranger lyrics.
In fact, resident wordsmith Keith Reid is responsible for some of the most weirdly
poetic stanzas in pop music history (such as the one from the bizarrely erotic
"Luskus Delph" that concludes, "Make me split like chicken fat").
Singer-pianist Gary Brooker took his tales of drunkenness, venereal disease, undead
sailors, gluttonous infants, pathologically jealous siblings, and homicidal cowboy
hat-wearing felinesall couched in metaphors so thick that nearly every line
seems to carry multiple meaningsand set them to stately and/or melodramatic
music that makes it easy to forget just how warped some of this stuff really is.
And when guitarist and eventual Hendrix emulator Robin Trower occasionally got
his hands on those lyrics, all hell could break loose. Frankly, I'm surprised
that "Poor Mohammed" hasn't earned them a fatwa.
Favorite
album: Broken Barricades (1971) Favorite
songs: - "A
Salty Dog" (1969)
- "Simple
Sister" (1971)
- "Bringing
Home the Bacon" (1973)
Recommended
DVD: Live at the Union Chapel (2004) PSB
connections: Friends and pets play a role in both bands' names. The Pet Shop
Boys, after all, were named for petshop-owning friends. And Procol Harum borrowed
their name from a friend's Burmese cat. This
one snuck up on me. If anyone had asked me, "Are you a fan of Queen?"
I would have said, "Not especially." And yet, as I look at my music
collection, I have to admit that Queen is well represented. As with George Michael,
I think I like them in spite of myself. In addition to their democratic approach
to songwriting (all four were highly capable songwriters), I think what finally
won me over was their relentlessly tongue-in-cheek style coupled with an equally
relentless devotion to quality. I don't think they ever took themselves seriouslyalthough
I'm sure they were very serious about their music. Here's where I commit
heresy: I don't actually like any of their studio albums overall, but they were
a killer singles band. Hence my choice of favorite album.
Favorite
album: Greatest Hits I & II (1995) Favorite
songs: - "Somebody
to Love" (1977)
- "Radio
Ga-Ga" (1984)
- "A
Kind of Magic" (1986)
Recommended
DVD: Greatest Video Hits 2 (2003) PSB
connections: Queen concluded the original vinyl edition of their 1989 album
The Miracle with a song titled "Was It All Worth It." Two years
later, the Pet Shop Boys would end Discography
with "Was It Worth It?" Undoubtedly
a coincidence, but an interesting one. There are a number of other interesting
connections as well, perhaps most significantly that both released collaborations
with another musician in this list, David Bowie: Queen with "Under Pressure"
and PSB of course with "Hallo Spaceboy."
And, like a number of other artists listed here (the Beatles, David Bowie, Kate
Bush, Genesis, and Pink Floyd), Queen shares with the Pet Shop Boys the honor
of receiving the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
Interestingly, while Neil has said on more than one occasion that he has never
been a fan, Chris chose Queen's "The Show Must Go On" as one of his
selections on their 2005 Back to Mine various artists compilation. So
he's a notorious multi-culti dilettante. I can excuse it when the results have
been so consistently satisfying. And he's one of the three or four greatest songwriters
of his generation, which is saying quite a bit. A lot of musicians would give
their left armwell, maybe at least one or two of their fingersto write
something as good as "Something So Right." Favorite
album: There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973) Favorite
songs: - "Me and Julio
Down by the Schoolyard" (1972)
- "Something
So Right" (1973)
- "Graceland"
(1986)
Recommended DVD: Graceland
- The African Concert (1991) PSB
connections: Paul Simon, Neil Tennant, and Chris Lowe have an interesting
characteristic in common: they all share their names with other prominent figures.
Paul Simon was also the name of the late former U.S. senator from Illinois (serving
19851997); Neil Tennant is the name of a contemporary scholar/philosopher;
and there are a remarkable number of other Chris Lowes of varying degrees of fame,
including a jazz musician (who, coindentally, plays trombone, which "our"
Chris can also play), the bass player for the band Dexter Freebish, a soccer player,
a financier, an actor, and several academicians. Garfunkel's
solo voice and/or the blend of the two of them together were the perfect vehicles
for Simon's wonderful songs. Their actual recorded output was surprisingly small
considering the impact and influence they've hadwhich serves to underscore
the overall quality of their work. Favorite
album: Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) Favorite
songs: - "America"
(1968)
- "The Boxer" (1969)
- "Bridge
Over Troubled Water" (1970)
Recommended
DVD: Old Friends, Live on Stage (2004) PSB
connections: Paul Simon wrote and Simon and Garfunkel recorded "The Only
Living Boy in New York." Nearly thirty years later the Pet Shop Boys wrote
and recorded "New York City Boy."
What is it about boys in New York City? (See the Manhattan Transfer, above.) Before
the perfectionist lethargy set in (you can hear it looming in Aja, but
the songs were just too good to be denied) they were the greatestas well
as most intelligent and comically cynicalrock band of the seventies. In
my humble opinion, Becker-Fagen are in a three-way race with Tennant-Lowe and
John-Taupin for the title of best songwriting duo since Lennon-McCartney. All
cynicism aside, anyone who could come up with the line "The spore is on the
wind tonight" (from "Rose Darling") as a metaphor for sexual desire
is, dare I say, a poet. But you can pretty much forget anything they've
recorded after reuniting in the 1990s; it pales by comparison. Favorite
album: Katy Lied (1975) Favorite
songs: - "My Old School"
(1973)
- "Rikki, Don't Lose That
Number" (1974)
- "Aja"
(1977)
Recommended DVD: There
are a few DVDs, but so far none that I can recommend. PSB
connections: Both are songwriting teams
who fairly drip with irony. Yes, I know the Boys don't like to be called "ironic"in
the immortal words of Neil Tennant, "Irony is shit"but I'm afraid
the shoe does often fit. Here's
the formula: I love late seventies disco music in general (I was there,
baby!), and Donna Summer, usually in collaboration with producer-composer Giorgio
Moroder, consistently made some of the greatest disco music of the late seventies.*
You do the math. But if you want real evidence, look no
further than "I Feel Love," one of the most innovative singles in popular
music historythe mother of all technopop. It may not sound like such a big
deal nowadays but, lemme tell ya, in 1977 it was radical. Favorite
album: Bad Girls (1979) Favorite
songs: - "I Feel Love"
(1977)
- "Macarthur Park Suite"
(1978)
- "Our Love" (1979)
Recommended
DVD: VH1 Presents - Live & More Encore! (1999) PSB
connections: German synthesist-composer-producer
Harold Faltermeyer, who cut his professional teeth working extensively with Summer
and Moroder during their disco heyday, co-produced the Pet Shop Boys' album Behaviour.
When asked which pop record he would like played at his funeral, Chris (appropriately
but perhaps facetiously) chose Summer's "Last Dance." The Boys paid
direct tribute to the "queen of disco" with their collaborative cover
with Sam Taylor-Wood (in the guise of Kiki Kokova) of Summer's first big hit,
"Love to Love You, Baby." (A more
tenuous connection is the fact that the PSB song "New
York City Boy," though a Village People tribute, contains a bridge with
an instrumental arrangement highly reminiscent of Summer's hit version of "Macarthur
Park.") And Donna beat the Boys by two decades in covering Serge Gainsbourg's
"Je T'Aime
Moi Non Plus." *Her
only real competition was Chic, whose brilliant and almost neurotically stylized
"Good Times" is one of my all-time favorite singles. And don't forget
"Le Freak" as well as their writing and production of the equally brilliant
"We Are Family" for Sister Sledge and "Upside Down"/"I'm
Coming Out" for Diana Ross. But Chic doesn't make my favorite artists list
because the number of their songs that I like is relatively small compared to
the other artists listed here. Who'd
have thought that a quartet of such preppy white kids could have created music
that was simultaneously so arty and funky? If you don't get it, listen to their
albums Remain in Light, Speaking in Tongues, and Little Creatures.
If you don't get it after that, see their amazing concert film Stop Making
Sense.* If you still don't get it, I can't possibly help you. Favorite
album: Little Creatures (1985) Favorite
songs: - "The Good Thing"
(1978)
- "Girlfriend Is Better"
(1983)
- "Television Man"
(1985)
Recommended DVD: Stop
Making Sense (1984) PSB connections:
David Byrne, the Talking Heads' erstwhile
leaderI want to call him the "head Head" so badly I could just
bursthas, like the Pet Shop Boys ("My
October Symphony") and the aforementioned Kate Bush (see above), drawn
upon the services of the Balanescu String Quartet. In 1988, the Quartet joined
Byrne for a series of live concert performances. *I
went to see Stop Making Sense during its first week of theatrical film
release back in the early eighties. It literally had people up and dancing in
the aisles of the movie theater. Now, maybe I lead a sheltered life, but I had
never seen that happen before and I've never seen it happen since.
If
the Moodies were the faves of my teen years, these guysthe greatest and
most enduring of the Italian-American doo-wop groupswere the faves of my
pre-teen years. Like their contemporaries the Beach Boys, they quickly
transcended their initial genre and produced some of the most vivacious music
of the sixties. Frankie's often astonishing voice, boasting the most remarkable
falsetto in the history of recorded music, struck a chord in me even then. Just
take a few minutes to really listen to his incredibly intense performance
in one of his group's lesser hits, "Girl Come Running." It only got
up to #30 on the Billboard singles chart, but it's one of the great
pop vocals of all time. Bandmate Bob Gaudio wrote some terrific tunes, too. In
fact, let's hope the Pet Shop Boys can match the legendary longevity of the Valli-Gaudio
musical partnership, which has lasted more than 40 years. And on a handshake,
no less. Favorite album: 25th
Anniversary Collection (1987) Favorite
songs: - "Dawn (Go Away)"
(1964)
- "Girl Come Running"
(1965)
- "Let's Hang On!"
(1965)
Recommended DVD: The
DVD that accompanies the 2007 boxed set Jersey Beat: The Music of Frankie Valli
& the Four Seasons PSB connections:
Well, the Pet Shop Boys did turn "I
Can't Take My Eyes Off You"which was co-written by Gaudio and originally
performed solo by Valliinto an unlikely hit medley with "Where
the Streets Have No Name." Speaking of which, lest you think that Chris
and Neil were completely original in that irreverent deconstruction of
rock mythos, consider what the Four Seasons did (in the guise of "The Wonder
Who?") more than a quarter-century earlier to Bob Dylan's "Don't Think
Twice": an utterly surreal 1965 hit rendition that Frankie sang in a meta-falsetto,
sounding like little Shirley Temple on uppers. I
haven't felt this enthusiastic over "discovering" an artist for myself
in more than a decadein fact, not since I "discovered" the Pet
Shop Boys. Rufus Wainwright is one of the most original, moving, and imaginative
singer-songwriters I've ever heard, the creator of unexpected melodies, intelligent
lyrics, and eclectic arrangements that owe equal debts to classical, Broadway,
ragtime, rock, pop, and folk. The breathtaking Want One is an instant classic
if there ever was one. And its follow-ups, the even more ambitious Want Two
and the deceptively "poppier" but still absolutely brilliant Release
the Stars, are also spectacular. Favorite
album: Release the Stars (2007) Favorite
songs: - "I Don't Know
What It Is" (2003)
- "Dinner
at Eight" (2003)
- "Sanssouci"
(2007)
Recommended DVD: All
I Want (2004) PSB connections:
Rufus interviewed Neil in the January 2000 issue of Interview magazine.
Neil is a professed Rufus fan, having praised his work highly in print on more
than one occasion, and even going so far as to cite Want One as his favorite
album of 2003. He also appears in several brief interview segments on Wainwright's
DVD All I Want, commenting on the younger artist's work. In the Want
One liner notes, Rufus includes both Neil and Chris in his "thank you"
list. (Apparently our heroes provided some helpful advice and encouragement.)
Further, Neil and Rufus were interviewed together in 2004talking about songwriting
and the state of contemporary pop musicfor the London Daily Telegraph.
Rufus appeared as a guest vocalist at the Boys' special May 2006 BBC Radio concert
with orchestra, singing their "Casanova
in Hell." (This show, including Rufus's performance, was recorded for
the live album Concrete.) And
Neil served a consulting "executive producer" role (and sang backup
and/or played instruments on several tracks) on Rufus's 2007 album Release
the Stars. So it should be no surprise that Neil can be spotted taking
his seat in the star-studded audience near the start of the 2007 DVD Rufus!
Rufus! Rufus! Does Judy! Judy! Judy! Live from the London Palladium, during
which Rufus performs "If Love Were All."
(Chris was apparently in attendance as well, but he doesn't appear on the DVD.)
Maybe
it's because Who's Next is, in my opinion, a serious contender for the
greatest rock album of all timethat and my (admittedly arguable) beliefs
that Keith Moon was rock's greatest drummer and John Entwistle its greatest bassist.
And while Pete Townshend is hardly rock's greatest guitarist and songwriter, he's
certainly no slouch in either department. As much as I love the Pet Shop Boys,
I have to say that the best concert by far that I've ever attended was
by the Who back in the mid-seventies on their final North American tour before
Moon died. I consider myself blessed. Favorite
album: Who's Next (1971) Favorite
songs: - "Baba O'Riley"
(1971)
- "Won't Get Fooled Again"
(1971)
- "However Much I Booze"
(1975)
Recommended DVD: The
Kids Are Alright (1979) PSB
connections: Pete Townshend is another artist who, like Chris and Neil, supports
the War Child charity. I
know I sound like a broken record (remember them?), but he's a remarkable songwriter,
in spite of his predilection for contorted syntax. His early embrace of and experimentation
with synthesizers pushed the envelope for electronic keyboards. He is, quite simply,
an incalculable influence on half of everything from the seventies on. And if
that weren't all, with "Isn't She Lovely" he wrote and sang the single
happiest song in the known universe. That alone is enough for me. Favorite
album: Innervisions (1973) Favorite
songs: - "Living for
the City" (1973)
- "Boogie
On Reggae Woman" (1974)
- "Isn't
She Lovely" (1976)
Recommended
DVD: Not much available, and nothing really worth recommending. PSB
connections: Neil has cited Innervisions as one of his favorite albums,
too. Another
guilty pleasure. Yes, there was excess. (Tales from Topographic Oceans,
anyone?) Yes, Jon Anderson's lyrics often bordered on nonsense. Yes, those asteroids
did look a lot like giant floating mushrooms. But these guys were virtuosos who
transcended the dross through the sheer weight of their talent. And they can take
credit for some of the most transcendently beautiful passages in all of prog rock. Favorite
album: Close to the Edge (1972) Favorite
songs: - "Roundabout"
(1972)
- "Siberian Khatru"
(1972)
- "Going for the One"
(1977)
Recommended DVD: Keys
to Ascension (2001) As with the Pet Shop Boys' Montage, the
video inserts can be annoying, but it's still a superb performance. PSB
connections: Trevor Horn, who has worked quite a bit with the Boys (he co-produced
"Left to My Own Devices," remixed
the single version of "It's Alright,"
co-wrote and -performed "The
Sound of the Atom Splitting," and, last but certainly not least, produced
their albums Fundamental and Concrete,
on which he also performs as a supporting musician), was briefly a member of Yesthe
lead singer, in factaround 1980, during the recording of their album Drama.
After he left the band, he continued for a while to serve as their producer and
was largely responsible for Yes's biggest radio hit, "Owner of a Lonely Heart."
Somebody
asked me, "Out of all your favorites, who would be in your 'Top Ten'?"
I tried to choose subjectively, but found it extremely difficult. So I decided
to use a far more objective method: I would base my Top Ten choices on the number
of CDs (including singles andgasp!bootlegs) and DVDs that I own by
each artist. Therefore, using that "purely scientific" criterion, here
are my Top Ten favorite artists in descending order:
- Pet Shop Boys
- Beach Boys/Brian Wilson
- Madonna
- Manhattan
Transfer
- Beatles
- Genesis
- Steely Dan
- Erasure
- Elton
John
- Moody Blues
Incidentally,
if I didn't count CD singles, the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson would easily replace
PSB in first place.
In
addition, I count a number of other albums among my favorites despite the fact
that I wouldn't place those who created them among my favorite artists. (Most
of them would, however, make it into my "second tier," so to speak.)
Please note that I don't include my favorite "best of" or "greatest
hits" albums here; otherwise this list would be damn near interminable.
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