A Powerful Friend

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

One of the tracks recorded for their appearance on The John Peel Show in October 2002, this has been described by the Pet Shop Boys as "a kind of rock 'n' roll song" that, like "If Looks Could Kill," dates back to their pre-hitmaking days of two decades before. In fact, Chris and Neil wrote the two songs on the same day back in 1983. And, sure enough, it "rocks" like relatively few other PSB tunes. You might call the Peel version "hard synth-pop." It reportedly remained without lyrics and unfinished for more than a decade, but Chris and Neil apparently finally got around to completing it for the Peel sessions, if not much sooner.

Shortly thereafter they went into the studio to record another, more elaborate version as part of the Disco 3 sessions, although they elected not to include it on that album—which is hardly surprising because it emerged as one of the least "disco-ish" things in the PSB canon. No longer "synth-pop" (although it still has synthesizers), it's perhaps the closest they've ever come to "hard rock," complete with thick swashes of harsh, distorted electric guitar chording and feedback. Yet it can claim a beauty and grandeur absent from the much simpler, "poppier" Peel rendition. This alternate version was temporarily made available for listening on the official PSB website. The Boys finally decided to give it "physical release" (so to speak) in April 2010 as the b-side of a special limited-edition vinyl single sold exclusively in independent record shops in Britain. (Their recording of "Love Life" is the a-side.) Both versions subsequently appeared among the bonus tracks with the 2017 reissue of Release.

The lyrics provide a fascinating—and, as we shall see, somewhat ambiguous—portrait of a very strange relationship between two people, apparently both men: "He's got a powerful friend who owes him nothing and knows how to spend." As the song progresses, we learn of the inner workings of what would seem to be a rather unhealthy symbiosis. As Neil has described it, "It's definitely a sexual liaison based on power and money rather than love." One man lives in the other's apartment "for free"—"waits on the table at tea, lives on the coffee and cream." And he doesn't seem entirely happy with this arrangement since he sometimes finds himself crying, sometimes screaming. Yet the relationship continues; clearly the two get enough out of it to tolerate the dissatisfactions. Neil slips in some rather lascivious innuendos, such as a reference to the fact that "pizza boys deliver what he needs on demand."

As for the aforementioned ambiguity, it may seem on first listen that the titular "powerful friend" is the dominant partner of the relationship, the one who is "waited on" by the other. But the lyrics are worded in such a way that that's not necessarily the case. It's entirely possible that the "powerful friend" is a man who is indeed powerful in his public persona—possibly a politician, which the song hints at—who adopts a dependent, subservient role in his private life. Such relationships are well documented in the realms of clinical psychology. With such goings-on, it's a small wonder that this song was repressed and/or left unfinished for nearly twenty years.

Annotations

"Spends all his days à coucher" – À coucher is a French expression derived from the verb coucher, which has various meanings related to lying down, going to bed, or going to sleep. It apparently is most commonly used to mean "asleep," which is probably how it's meant to be interpreted in this context, although "in bed" certainly wouldn't be far off, either.
Although I personally disagree with his alternate reading of the song—and, as noted above, it runs counter to what Neil himself has said about it—one of my site visitors has offered an intriguing interpretation in which the narrator's "powerful friend" is actually another side of himself, perhaps even a split personality, essentially a different character inhabiting the same body. The narrator's "powerful friend" is, in effect, an "inner demon" that manifests the darker, far more negative sides of his personality. As I said, I don't ascribe to this interpretation myself, but I find it fascinating—and, once again, it demonstrates how very effectively Pet Shop Boys songs (and, for that matter, all art worth its salt) can mean different things to different people.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Mixer: [unknown at this time]
- Studio Mix aka "Demo Version" (3:25)
  - Released as a limited-edition vinyl single (b/w "Love Life")
  - Also on one of the "Further Listening" bonus discs accompanying the 2017 Release reissue
Mixer: Guy Worth
- "Peel Sessions" version (3:16)
  - On one of the "Further Listening" bonus discs accompanying the 2017 Release reissue

List cross-references

All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2023 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images are copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary, thereby constituting Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Nielsen Business Media, Inc.