Love Life

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2003 (Alcazar); 2010 (PSB)
Original album - Alcazarized (Alcazar); Release 2017 reissue Further Listening 2001-2004 bonus disc (Pet Shop Boys)
Producer (PSB version) - Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - single (Alcazar); limited-edition single (PSB, U.K., didn't chart)

This song was originally titled "Can I Be the One?" and was first recorded by the Pet Shop Boys in 2001 during the Release sessions. They thought poorly of it, however; Neil even later dismissed it as "rubbish.… like a boy band song." Yet they obviously regarded it highly enough to turn it over to someone else to record. (More about that in just a moment.) And the Boys eventually came to think even better of it. They decided in 2010 to make their own rendition of the song the a-side of a special limited-edition vinyl single released exclusively through U.K. independent record shops as part of the April 17 "Record Store Day" promotion. ("A Powerful Friend" serves as the b-side.) As such it's surely destined to become one of the most highly collectible PSB releases, although the inclusion of both songs as bonus tracks with the 2017 album reissues may diminish just how collectible that single continues to be.

Going back a few years, Neil and Chris loved the song "Crying at the Discoteque" by the Swedish band Alcazar from the moment they heard it. Later, as reported by the official PSB site, the Boys met the members of Alcazar in 2002 when they (Alcazar, that is) were performing in London. Alcazar came right out and asked for a new song, and our heroes graciously complied with their apparent "reject," provided in the form of a demo driven by prominent rhythm guitar (either real or sampled). Now retitled "Love Life," the track was produced by Alcazar's fellow Scandinavian(s) Vacuum—either primarily or exclusively Mattias Lindblom—who did a marvelous job of channeling the "PSB sound" through the medium of Alcazar. In fact, the Alcazar rendition is closely modeled on the Boys' demo, though somewhat elaborated with additional effects and instruments, including syndrums. It appears on their album Alcazarized, released in Sweden in mid-May 2003, and was also released as a single there a week after the album. It then faced a long, slow chart climb, but by early November it had reached its peak of #10 on the Swedish singles chart.

In the lyrics—simple and direct, written in the first and second persons—the narrator suggests a long-term love affair with the person to whom he's singing. He's lonely and senses that his prospective lover is, too. "Can I propose a new solution—a revolution for you and me?" Then comes the chorus, composed simply of the repeated line "Can I be the one to share your love life?" (hence the song's original title). After another verse in which the narrator suggests that the two of them live together, we get to perhaps the most interesting part of the song: a bridge in the style of a personal ad. "I'm tall and presentable, well-dressed and clean … with a good sense of humor … non-smoking …" and so on. A delightful lyrical conceit.

Annotations

The track's opening and underlying riff, which serves as its musical foundation, seems greatly inspired by, if not actually sampled from (though transposed to a different key) the dominant riff of the 1978 disco hit "Cuba" by the Gibson Brothers.
As evidenced by Neil's journal entries quoted in Issue 25 (April 2001) of their fan publication Literally, Chris worked on an unreleased track titled "Satisfaction Guaranteed" on November 8, 2000. The very next day, the Boys wrote (as Neil's journal puts it) "the basis of a new song called 'Can I be the one?'" although they wouldn't actually record it until early the following year. As noted above, this would eventually become "Love Life." As it happens, one of my site visitors told me that he had noticed that a 1974 dance hit by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes titled "Satisfaction Guaranteed (or Take Your Love Back)" bears a slight similarity to "Love Life," most notably in the last two notes of its chorus, "…love back," which seem virtually identical (except for the wording) to the "…love life" repeated in the chorus of the PSB number. So perhaps the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" Chris was working on in November 2000 wasn't a Tennant-Lowe original, but instead a remake of that Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes song. Maybe then the Boys abandoned the idea of a cover and used part of the backing track that Chris had created as the "basis" for what eventually became "Love Life." It wouldn't have been the first time (or the last) that Neil and Chris had used an abandoned attempted cover of an old song or a short sample from one as the basis for a brand new song. (For instance, "Decadence" was based on a sample from Aretha Franklin's version of "I Say A Little Prayer," and "Party Song" was based on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit.") Could this be the case with "Love Life"? Or is this just a remarkable coincidence?
One unusual feature of the Pet Shop Boys version of this track is the inclusion in its instrumentation of what sounds like a Fender Rhodes electric piano—or perhaps it's just a keyboard sampler mimicking its distinctive timbre. This is not to say that it's an unusual instrument per se; actually, the Fender Rhodes has been quite commonplace in popular music since the early 1970s. (It was used from time to time even earlier, as in the Beatles' 1969 hit "Get Back," but it wasn't until the following decade that it started to become downright ubiquitous.) But it's most unusual in a PSB recording since, if I recall correctly, Chris Lowe has professed to dislike the instrument.
"Non-smoking, non-scene" – The term "non-scene" may not be familiar to those unacquainted with the "shorthand" language often used in personal ads. It describes someone who isn't a regular habitué of the singles-bar or -club "scene." It's especially common in gay personal ads, where it refers to the "gay scene" not just of bars and clubs but also of circuit parties and the like. "Non-scene" types are generally perceived as being somewhat less sexually promiscuous, though this by no means is necessarily the case.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Alcazar rendition:

Mixer: unknown
- Album version (3:53)
  - Available on Alcazrized by Alcazar
- Extended Version (6:35)
Mixer: FL
- FL Rebirth Club Mix (9:22)

PSB rendition:

Mixer: [unknown at this time]
- Demo version (3:50)
  - Digitally released briefly for download from the Pet Shop Boys' official website
- 2017 Remastered Version (3:44)
  - Released as a limited-edition vinyl single (b/w "A Powerful Friend"); also on one of the "Further Listening" bonus discs accompanying the 2017 Release reissue

List cross-references

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