Music for Boys
Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1991
Original album - Alternative
Subsequent albums - Behaviour 2001 reissue Further Listening 1990-1991 bonus disc
Other releases - b-side of single "DJ Culture"
This Chris Lowe virtual instrumental was inspired by an observation he made one evening while listening to similar high-energy music at a dance club. It occurred to him that the aggressive, boisterous music he was listening to was music written and designed implicitly for "boys" as opposed to "girls." So he simply made explicit what had previously been implicit.
This is one of the very few PSB tracks with no indisputably discernable trace of Neil in it. (For all we know, some of the distorted or sped-up vocals may indeed be Neil's, and he may be playing some keyboards as well and have contributed in other ways, but we wouldn't know for sure unless we're told so.) Although the b-side to the "DJ Culture" single, "Music for Boys" actually proved to be equally popular in the States, where as a double-sided 12" single they reached #13 on the Billboard dance sales chart. And it wouldn't be hard to guess which song got more play in gay dance clubs.
Annotations
- The repeated "Oh, yeah!" was sampled from the 1991 track "Sanctuary of Love" by Zhana’ (full name Zhana Saunders). As it appears in the PSB recording, it's sped up a bit to raise it to a higher pitch.
Mixes
Officially released
- Mixer: Pet Shop Boys
- 7" mix (3:36)
- Available on Alternative
- Ambient Mix (6:13)
- Available on the Further Listening bonus disc with the Behaviour reissue
- 7" mix (3:36)
- Mixer: Chris Lowe
- Chris Lowe Mix (6:42)
- Mixer: Altern 8
- "Part 3" (5:40)
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