Postscript
Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1993
Original album - Very
Producer - Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - (none)
This brief hidden track appears at the end of Very after roughly two minutes of silence following "Go West." Nowhere is it mentioned in the original album notes, and even the name "Postscript" was conjectural until it was confirmed by the 2001 reissue. (The first words, "I Believe in Ecstasy," had also been suggested by fans as a possible title.) It's a highly atypical number in which a chorus of Chris Lowe's heavily multi-tracked vocals sing about the conflicting senses of joy and sadness at remembering a close friend or lover who is now lost. ("It's a reversal of roles," says Neil, pointing out that he plays most of the keyboards on this track while Chris sings and plays piano.) Prominent use of a synth/sampler harmonica lends it a surprisingly folksy feel, evoking friendship or perhaps even domesticity. The song ends with an unresolved chord and the words, "And I know we'll meet again."
Of course, it's no accident that it follows, after that period of respectful silence, the largely AIDS-inspired deconstruction of "Go West." In fact, it's been widely interpreted that this "Postscript" is Chris's tribute to his close friend and roommate (and rumored lover) Peter Andreas, who was in the final stages of AIDS at the time the track was recorded. He died shortly after the album's release. An alternate interpretation—one that Chris has strongly denied—is that this song is an ode to the drug Ecstasy. Although I don't necessarily take songwriters at their word when they talk about their songs, in this case I wholeheartedly believe Chris.
It hadn't occurred to me until I had read it on more than one other website, but the decision to precede "Postscript" by approximately two minutes of silence may have been more than simply a means of "hiding" it. After all, offering two minutes of silence is a traditional means of paying tribute to fallen soldiers and other honored dead, particularly in Great Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations. (One minute of silence is more typical in the United States and elsewhere.) From this perspective, we can readily view "Postscript" as a tribute not just to Chris's friend, but also to the all the countless others who had suffered and died from AIDS. Considering this subject lay at the very heart of the Boys' remake of "Go West," this seems especially apt.
Annotations
- I don't have first-hand knowledge about this, but as best I can tell, "Postscript" does not appear on the official (that is, non-bootleg) vinyl and cassette editions of Very released in the 1990s. For quite some time it only appeared on CD. Later, when authorized digital and streaming editions of albums became a thing, "Postscript" resurfaced, again following two minutes of silence at the end of "Go West," just as on the CD editions of the album.
List cross-references
- Songs written by PSB that were inspired by AIDS (plus a few more debatable interpretations)
- Songs on which Chris sings (or "speaks") lead
- 3 PSB "Easter eggs"
- PSB songs with lyrics that don't contain the title
- Notorious rumors about the Pet Shop Boys
- The 10 shortest PSB tracks
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