Shopping
Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1987
Original album - Actually
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - (none)
One of the Boys' most grievously misunderstood songs. People who weren't paying close attention often thought it an exemplar of the supposed superficiality and triviality of the Pet Shop Boys' concerns. But a careful listening reveals that this is hardly about cruising the mall for bargains with credit card in hand. Rather, it's a sly commentary on the privatization efforts of Thatcherite Britain—the selling of government-owned national industries to private corporations—of which the somewhat socialistically inclined Boys heartily disapproved. If you doubt it, consider the opening lines:
When you're buying and selling your history
How to go about it is no mystery
And then these later words:
I heard about it in the House of Commons
Everything's for sale
Still, that simple yet insidiously catchy chorus ("We're S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G, we're shopping") proved so indelible that the verses were easily overlooked. Hence, one of the songs that should have persuaded early observers that PSB was anything but trivial very often had the opposite effect.
Stylistically, this song bears the influence of the "new wave funk" band Cameo, best known for their big 1986 hit "Word Up," which Chris and Neil both loved. They decided to try writing a song in that style, and "Shopping" was the result. They even sought out Cameo's Larry Blackmon to produce the track, but nothing came of that part of the plan.
Annotations
- As noted above, this song was inspired by movements toward privitization of state-owned industries that were taking place in the United Kingdom under Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.
- One of my site visitors reminded me that this track (like the much later "Minimal") belongs to a long and hallowed tradition in pop of "spelling songs," in which the spelling out of a word (usually the title) is a prominent part of the lyric. Among the other numbers in this rather specialized subgenre are Aretha Franklin's classic cover of "Respect" (although Otis Redding didn't do any spelling in his original), Peggy Lee's (and later Maria Muldaur's) "I'm a Woman," Tammy Wynette's "D.I.V.O.R.C.E.," Al Green's "L-O-V-E (Love)," Rhythm Syndicate's "P.A.S.S.I.O.N.," and a track with a profound influence on early PSB, the Flirts' "Passion" (yes, a totally different song from the Rhythm Syndicate track).
- "There's a big bang in the city" – Rather than a reference (except possibly second-hand) to a commonly held theory of the origin of the universe, this line almost certainly refers to the date October 27, 1986, when the new rules enacted by the British government, implementing deregulation of financial markets, went into effect on the London Stock Exchange. It was soon dubbed the "Big Bang" on account of the sudden, tremendous surge in market activity that resulted. Of course, the scientific usage of "Big Bang," dating back to 1949, to describe a theoretical genesis of the universe was already quite widely known in popular culture by the 1980s, so its usage in reference to the 1986 financial event was undoubtedly appropriated from that original source.
- "I heard it in the House of Commons…" – The House of Commons is, of course, one of the two chambers of the U.K. Parliament. It's considered the "lower" house, although it actually has more power than the "upper" house, the House of Lords.
Mixes
Officially released
- Mixer: Julian Mendelsohn
- Album version (3:37)
Official but unreleased
- Mixer: [unknown at this time]
- Several early demo recordings of this song, ranging in length from only a few seconds to nearly five minutes, have surfaced through the years displaying various stages of "completeness," including instrumental tracks, vocals-only tracks, and song segments.
All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2012 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary; it is therefore believed that they constitute Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Nielsen Business Media, Inc.
