Alternative (1995)

The Pet Shop Boys released their double-CD collection of b-sides, Alternative, in 1995. Neil says that he had originally hoped they would put out a single disc with just the "best" b-sides, but he and Chris had failed to narrow the list down to just those that would fit on one CD. Besides, the fans would have been disappointed with just one disc, so they opted for two. The title is something of a pun on the fact that a b-side of a single is by definition an "alternative" to the a-side, while at the same time playing upon the term "alternative" that was being used generically to refer to the style of pop music dominant at that time among British and American teenagers and young adults. (Author, critic, and literary theorist Ian Balfour has also suggested that it could also be viewed as a sly allusion to the term "alternative lifestyle.") The album was released in two editions, one of which features a lenticular photo that "alternates" (oh, how they love punning on multiple levels!) between Neil and Chris in fencing masks. (album: UK #2, US #103)

In the Night

A Man Could Get Arrested

In the booklet that accompanied the Alternative collection, Neil states that this song (which first appeared as the b-side of "West End Girls") was inspired by the events that took place the evening that he and Chris met their friend Peter Andreas. The three of them were walking through London and somehow became involved in an altercation with some "yobs" in Russell Square. Afterward, Neil and Peter were briefly detained by police (Chris had escaped). PSB fans familiar with London have pointed out that Russell Square has long been a popular nighttime "cruising area" for gay men. But Neil has stated that the underlying "story" of the lyric is heterosexual: it's about a guy who can't get his girlfriend to go to bed with him. "He's so frustrated that 'a man could get arrested.' … It's a song about sexual frustration."

That's My Impression

Neil adopts the role of someone who goes out on the town in search of his straying lover. Among the "impressions" that he gets during the course of the evening is just how much of a lying cheat his lover is and how their relationship is doomed. The "Serpentine" referred to in the lyrics is a famous man-made lake in London's Hyde Park, located apparently not too far from where Neil and Chris were staying when they wrote this song. According to the Boys, this was their first self-produced recording. (US Dance #10)

Was That What It Was?

The narrator tries to figure out with his lover what has gone wrong with their relationship. As they go over one possibility after another (such as "Did you need something more in your life?"), he pauses and asks, "Was that what it was?" Really, a terribly sad song. Neil and Chris have pointed out that this track was more "assembled" than "recorded": "This is a classic example of tons of edits. If you were to watch it going around in the tape recorder, there were thousands of white bits where it had been stuck together." Neil has also identified this as one of his least favorite of their songs.

Paninaro

Jack the Lad

In an interview with Andrew Sullivan, Neil stated quite clearly what this song is about: "'Jack the Lad' is about being an individual, daring to do what you want to do. The song refers to Lawrence of Arabia, Oscar Wilde, and Kim Philby. It's also about the application of the idea of individuality to masculinity and not worrying too much about falling down." Elsewhere Neil has said that each of the historical figures referred to in the song "followed their own instincts and philosophies rather than simply obey rules or follow accepted practice." Obviously the Boys find this quality extremely admirable. (Editor's note: I've often thought that, with the line "Breaking codes at home," the song might be alluding to Alan Turing as well; each of these points made by Neil apply equally well to him.)

A British correspondent tells me that "Jack the Lad" is a common British expression for what Americans might call an "Regular Joe"—except Jack the Lad is very much a man on the move. Generally a working-class guy, he's more successful and has more money than you'd expect. Popular with men and women alike, he's streetwise and may not be entirely trustworthy, but he's so likeable that he's always forgiven. As Neil puts it, "When you're a Jack the Lad type, you can be the fool." In short, he seems to get away with it, whatever "it" is. On a purely musical note, the opening piano motif is, in Neil's words, "a pastiche of Erik Satie." In fact, the chord progression around which the song is built comes from the French composer's Trois Gymnopedies.

You Know Where You Went Wrong

As noted in the Alternative booklet notes, these lyrics were inspired by an incident in which Chris was walking through Covent Garden and noticed two tramps lying in a doorway. He overheard one of them saying to the other, "You know where you went wrong…." The "Rough Mix" of this song (not the version on Alternative) features a woman angrily berating and belittling someone—probably her husband or lover. Meanwhile, the music arose from Chris's conscious efforts to write another hit like their first. "I was always trying to rewrite 'West End Girls,'" he confesses.

A New Life (Lowe/Springs/Tennant)

Co-written with singer Helena Springs—who has also collaborated with Bob Dylan, among others—an early acetate pressing of this track was reportedly titled "New Life, New Love." And Neil once referred to it in a pre-release (1986) interview as "New Love," stating that the song might appear as a solo track for Ms. Springs. As it turns out, she did record her own version, although the album on which it appeared—a 1987 German release also titled New Love—is now an extremely obscure rarity. But according to Neil, comparing versions, "Hers was much more complicated."

In many ways a very positive song, it was given a somewhat dark edge via the downbeat music primarily written by the Pet Shop Boys themselves. Because they had envisioned a female singer, the lyrics were originally written from the point of view of a woman about to leave her husband—indeed embarking on the new life of the title. But, as Neil puts it, "she doesn't know whether she's doing the right thing"; therefore she's leaving surreptitiously, under the cover of night. As she hops aboard a plane and flies away, she looks forward to her new life with the moving lines, "Then rise the daylight sky—how do you get to heaven if you never try?"

In light of Neil's own vocal performance and his stated assertion that he imagines Boy George singing it, it's probably not inappropriate to consider this song from a male perspective as well. On the other hand, it hardly matters; it's equally poignant regardless of narrator's gender.

I Want a Dog

Do I Have To?

Neil says that the title was inspired by one of the phrases Chris often uses when complaining about something. (On a promo trip in Japan, for instance, Neil reports that Chris said it "about 15 times a day.") He wrote the lyrics as if he were talking to a person who's dating someone who already has a steady boyfriend. This track served as the b-side of the "Always on My Mind" single.

I Get Excited (You Get Excited Too)

This song dates back to their pre-fame Bobby O days, but the Boys re-recorded it early during the Introspective sessions and released it as the b-side of the "Heart" single (so it therefore saw release before Introspective). I've always regarded it essentially as a song describing mutual lust in a rather grimy urban setting, though uplifted by its oblique lyrical reference to Oscar Wilde, paraphrasing one of his most famous epigrams in the line "We're lying the gutter, but we're looking at the stars."

One of my site visitors, however, has noted something more in it, particularly in the recurring "I don't know why, I don't know why" and the narrator's apparent anxiety about what others will think ("the neighbors are talking"). Could these be the thoughts of a gay man only now becoming aware of his sexuality? His realization that his friend—the "you" to whom he's speaking—is probably sharing those same thoughts and feelings serves to heighten his "excitement." If that's indeed the case, then it adds a whole new dimension of poignancy to this song.

By contrast, in the Introspective re-release booklet, Neil denies that it has anything to do with sex, instead suggesting that it expresses his excitement about being in New York City for the first time. It's enough to make you wonder how firmly his tongue may have been planted in his cheek. As Chris perceptively added at the time, "I think it's safe to say that Neil's subconscious is very active."

Don Juan

A song that rivals and perhaps even exceeds "DJ Culture" in obscurantism. If it weren't for the fact that Neil has affirmed that this song is an allegory of "the political situation in the Balkans before World War Two," it might have been difficult to figure out. The figure of Don Juan—the legendary Spanish nobleman who lives exclusively for himself, caring nothing for the harm he may do to others in his pursuits of pleasure—is apparently a metaphor for Hitler, who is courting his "bride" (Germany, or perhaps even all of Europe), leading her to disaster. "Clues" are offered in the form of various lesser-known figures from pre-war Europe who are mentioned in passing, such as King Alexander of Yugoslavia, King Zog of Albania, and Madame Lupescu.

In the 2001 reissue booklet for Introspective, Neil states that when he wrote the gist of this song—back in 1978, before he met Chris!—he was striving for "lyrics in the style of Façade by Edith Sitwell." (Chris then quipped, "Was it slightly pretentious?") Neil also noted with some admitted embarrassment his error in referring to "Marie Lupescu." Madame Lupescu's first name was actually Magda.

But perhaps Neil hasn't noticed his other major lyrical mistake in this song. He writes of "films for a Warner brother or Mister Goldwyn-Mayer." But there's no such person as "Mister Goldwyn-Mayer." The famous movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (more popularly known as MGM) was formed by the merger of three smaller studios—logically enough, Metro, Goldwyn, and Mayer—the latter two of which were run by Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer, respectively. Then again, one of my site visitors has suggested that maybe "Mr. Goldwyn-Mayer" isn't a mistake at all—that perhaps it's simply a snide way of referring to a movie executive, much as one could refer to an automobile executive as "Mr. General Motors." But then wouldn't it more properly be "Mr. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer"? Let's just chalk it up to artistic license.

The Sound of the Atom Splitting (Tennant/Lowe/Horn/Lipson)

Quite possibly the least popular track in the entire PSB catalogue, though definitely a cult favorite among some of the fans. The flip to the "Left to My Own Devices" single, heavily influenced by the "acid house" style of dance music, was written and recorded in collaboration with Trevor Horn and Steve Lipson. The track originated as a conscientiously experimental "jam" in which Tennant, Lowe, and Horn all played keyboards while Lipson "played the desk," manipulating the recording controls. The result is a song essentially devoid of melody. Neil, who admits that it's "a funny-sounding track," says that "the lyrics are meant to be a dialogue between a reasonable person and a fascist."

The title, which the song employs as something of a refrain and comes across as a non sequitur, was taken from a line in Derek Jarman's film The Last of England. And just what is the sound of the atom splitting? It's apparently supposed to be an "atomic age" metaphor for the end of the world.

One of the seeming mysteries of Pet Shop Boysdom is the fact that the 12-inch version of this song is an edit more than a minute shorter than the full-length 7-inch b-side version featured on Alternative—a complete reversal of the usual pattern. But as one of my U.K. site visitors has noted, this oddity can be explained by the rules of the British singles charts. At the time that "Left to Own Devices" was released as a single, the total length of all the tracks on any one format of a single couldn't exceed 20 minutes. The long version of "The Sound of the Atom Splitting," together with the 7- and 12-inch versions of "Devices," would have been about 21½ minutes. So "Atom" was edited (it's tempting but inaccurate to say it was "split") for the 12-inch disc and CD. But since the 7-inch disc didn't include the 12-inch mix of "Devices," the full-length version of "Atom" could be used there.

Incidentally, "The Sound of the Atom Splitting" was played as an instrumental during the Boys' first full-fledged concert tour, a fact briefly documented on their Highlights concert video. I've been told by someone who attended one of those shows that it came across much more spectacularly "live" than it does on record, thanks at least in part to its embellishment through imaginative concert lighting and clever use of the sound system, replicating a "rave environment." I can certainly imagine how exciting that would have been.

One of the Crowd

This one might have been subtitled "The Philosophy of Chris Lowe." The rather shy Chris has often stated that he feels little or no need for recognition and, in fact, would prefer not be recognized in public. (The hats and dark glasses that he usually wears in PSB photos and on stage are essentially his "public costume," allowing him to be relatively unrecognizable when he goes out without them on.) Further, he claims to have little use for the frequent perks and expectations of wealth and fame: "I don't want to meet the Royal Family just 'cause I've paid my tax." As a "musical symbol" of this professed shyness, Chris sings-speaks his lyrics not in his true voice but rather highly distorted via a vocoder or some similar electronic device, sometimes rendered almost unintelligible. Thus he hides his voice in much the same way that he so often hides his eyes. Of special interest is Chris's sexual metaphor—"When I go fishing with my rod…." Meanwhile, Neil is left with little to do but sing the title in the chorus. This track was one of the two b-sides for the "It's Alright" single.

Your Funny Uncle

The other "It's Alright" b-side, a short, poignant, downbeat song with a lovely melody, unusual in that there's not a trace of percussion to be found. Inspired by the recent funeral of a friend who had died of AIDS-related illness (the same friend whose death had inspired "Being Boring"), Neil adopts the role of an observer at just such a funeral, watching the others in attendance. The "funny uncle" of the title is one such person, who, "with military bearing," meets and greets the young friends of the deceased. Perhaps there's a sense of irony in this older, repressed relative—quite possibly himself gay (after all, isn't that a common connotation of the term "funny uncle"?)—meeting the gay friends of his nephew, who has died in his prime. Amidst the spare but harmonically lush instrumentation, a lead clarinet—a musical echo of the uncle's heyday and personality—takes us to the conclusion. The closing words ("…no more pain, no fear…. These former things have passed away….") are derived from the biblical book of Revelation, an excerpt that Neil himself had read aloud at his friend's funeral.

It Must Be Obvious

An intentional double-entendre, "hardly coded" as Neil puts it. He liked the idea of singing, "Everyone knows when they look at us. Of course they do—it must be obvious!" The double-entendre is in regard to what it is that must be so obvious. In the context of the lyrics, it clearly refers to the fact "everyone" can tell that the narrator is in love with his companion—everyone except his companion, that is. "You're the only one who doesn't know." But in light of Neil's subsequent openness about his sexual orientation, it also refers to the fact that it was rather "obvious" to many observers that Neil is gay long before he was willing to acknowledge the fact publicly. Yet he certainly wasn't above dropping little "hints" like this. It amused him to do so, essentially telling those "in the know" while keeping others in the dark, so to speak.

We All Feel Better in the Dark

Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend

This fast-paced track was originally inspired, as the Boys have put it, by seeing a newspaper photo of George Michael with woman (Chris: "We can say that now"). But then Neil turned it into a song about his close relationship as a young man with an absolutely gorgeous young woman. Friends and acquaintances couldn't figure out what she saw in him, who was (as his own lyrics put it) "shy and dry and verging on ugly." (Now you mustn't be so hard on yourself, Neil.) Although the two of them were just close friends who enjoyed going out together, they delighted in making others thinking there was more to it than that. Neil imagines them guessing the truth (as it were), prodding him with the title line. But, as far as Neil is concerned, it's none of their business: "I'd rather die than satisfy their curiosity." With its clever lyrics and exciting house-style arrangement, it's amazing that this tour de force was for so long relegated to the b-side of the "Where the Streets Have No Name/I Can't Take My Eyes Off You" single.

Losing My Mind (Stephen Sondheim)

Neil shares Liza Minnelli's great fondness for musical theater, so when the Boys agreed to produce her Results album, it was only natural that they would decide to collaborate on a song written by one of the giants of contemporary musical theater, Stephen Sondheim. The Minnelli version was released first, later followed by the PSB version on the b-side of the "Jealousy" single. Interestingly, the backing tracks of the two versions seem virtually identical, and they well could be. Aside from the lead vocals themselves, the most notable difference is the inclusion in the Boys' version of what can probably best be described as "mad screams" suggestive of one who is indeed losing his mind. Liza felt that these screams were inappropriate and distracting, perhaps even somewhat disrespectful of the song itself, and requested that they be deleted from her version. Neil and Chris decided to keep the screams in their version, although, in retrospect, they've conceded that Minnelli's instincts were correct and that the track is better without them.

The song itself is quite direct. Taken from Sondheim's 1971 musical Follies, it describes the extreme disorientation and regret felt by someone over a missed opportunity at love. In the show, a female character is reunited at a party with a man with whom she'd had a brief fling many years before. She now would like nothing more than to renew their relationship on a more passionate, ongoing basis, but her wishes come to naught. In "Losing My Mind" she describes all the pain and anguish she experiences over thinking of what might have been. (Liza Minnelli single: US Dance #26)

Music for Boys

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 was 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, 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 just guess which song got more play in gay dance clubs!

Miserablism

In a song that he says was written from the apparent viewpoint of the public persona of former Smiths lead singer (and later solo star) Morrissey, Neil reveals here how little patience he has for young people who adopt a self-consciously, perpetually pessimistic or gloomy pose as a fashion or even a lifestyle. He mercilessly lambasts it for being the pretentious, escapist cop-out nonsense that it is, coining the term "miserablism" to describe it. In fact, he maintains that it's more than mere nonsense—it's destructively self-fulfilling nonsense. As the vocoderized voice in the background repeats, "It's what you want, it's what you get."

Instrumentally, this track is notable for its dense analog (as opposed to digital) synthesizer backdrop, which the Boys created with the help of German keyboardist/producer Harold Faltermeyer, best known for his 1985 hit instrumental "Axel F."

Hey, Headmaster

My attitudes about this song have changed somewhat since I first wrote about it here, although it took an email from one of my regular site visitors to inspire me actually to write about those changes. But perhaps my ambivalence is understandable in light of Neil's own admission (in the Alternative booklet) that, regarding this song, he "never quite know[s] what it's about."

For a long time the lyrics struck me as being about a headmaster who has always been rather repressed in his life and behavior, ever sticking close to his school, but who now is seriously considering opening himself up more to travel, socialize with friends (and perhaps even lovers) and, in general, enjoy life more. Those around him, particularly the boys in his charge, notice this change in his attitude and therefore ask, "What's the matter with you?" In other words, this improvement in his personal life is so out of character for him that, ironically, it causes concern among others. In many ways it seemed reminiscent to me of the James Hilton novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

At least, that's what I thought for a long time. But Neil has also stated that, as he sees it, "there's been some terrible sex scandal and the headmaster's about to be arrested or something like that…. Actually, I think that at the end of the song the headmaster is going to kill himself." And there's no denying that there's something terribly wrong at the school, parallelled in the mood of the headmaster himself. He's "always so serious… [and] so blue." Even the football team is experiencing "disintegration." And at the end of the song, when our headmaster hero has a chance to get away from the school to enjoy a "reading party on the coast," he seems very reluctant to do so: "Hey, headmaster, aren't you gonna go?" So while he may indeed be seriously considering opening himself up to more of "life," as I originally believed, I'm much less certain now that he will actually do so. As Neil suggests, the final outcome may be much sadder.

Then again, it's an artistic fiction in which nothing of the story truly exists aside from what we're actually told. There is no real "final outcome." To put it another way—what happens to Horatio after Hamlet is all over and done with? Nothing, really. When the play ends, Horatio ceases to exist.

By the way, in the booklet accompanying the 2001 reissue of Very, Neil notes that "Hey, Headmaster" is one of those occasional PSB songs written almost totally by himself, with minimal input from Chris.

What Keeps Mankind Alive? (Brecht/Weill)

This song, taken from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera—the same 1928 musical that features the much more famous "Mack the Knife"—was originally recorded in 1988 by Neil and Chris for a British radio program commemorating the musical's 60th anniversary. They didn't choose the song; rather, they were specifically asked to perform it. Richard Coles, formerly of the Communards, assisted them with the difficult chords. Although they had some trouble with the music (at this relatively early stage of their career they weren't yet as musically adept as they would eventually become), the Pet Shop Boys' own well-documented political sympathies no doubt enabled them to appreciate the socialistic bent of Brecht's lyrics, which describe man's proverbial inhumanity to man in distinctly economic—and culinary—terms.

Shameless

The Pet Shop Boys at their most outrageous and uninhibited, five minutes of sheer, unadulterated fun. Yet, as fun as it is, it's not without a serious point. There's no denying the implicit criticism of modern-day shock-value "celebrity for celebrity's sake" as voiced in the chorus: "We're shameless—we will do anything for our fifteen minutes of fame! We have no integrity…." To their credit, Tennant and Lowe satirically cast themselves among this shameless lot, writing in the first person (as they did in the equally farcical "Opportunities") and thus inviting all manner of harsh rejoinder. Fortunately, little or none came, either because this track was merely the b-side to "Go West," rather than a high-profile a-side, or because by now everyone who might have cared got the joke. In the Alternative booklet, Chris expresses some mild regret that this track, recorded during the Very sessions, wasn't included on that album and released as a single. As it so happens, a new treatment of "Shameless" eventually found its way into the Boys' theatrical musical, Closer to Heaven.

Too Many People

A song about what Neil refers to as "role strain"—the sense of being overwhelmed by the many tasks, duties, responsibilities, and roles (sometimes seemingly contradictory) that one must perform in modern-day society. The way this is commonly expressed is that we "wear many hats." Neil goes a step farther and suggests that he is "too many people." In effect, he's a different person for each role he fills, which causes not merely "strain" but a great deal of internal conflict. That conflict is at the heart of this song.

Violence

Decadence

As they relate in the Alternative booklet, the Pet Shop Boys had been asked to write the theme music for a film titled Decadence based on a play by Steven Berkoff. Chris began writing a song built around a sample of the opening two bars of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David tune "I Say a Little Prayer" as performed by Aretha Franklin. When the song was finished, however, Neil and Chris decided that the track didn't need the sample and thus removed it. They also decided not to submit the song for use in the film after having seen a rough edit, which they apparently didn't particularly like.

According to Neil, the lyrics directly address "someone who's become a really horrible person because they take lots of drugs and all they think about is money." When once asked whether "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" was about the Boys' former manager Tom Watkins, Neil replied, "No, but 'Decadence' was." Neil has also stated elsewhere that he regrets the reference to "fin de siècle pretense" (fin de siècle is French for "end of the century," commonly a period for decadent behavior), chiding himself for his own pretentiousness in authoring such a line.

Johnny Marr, formerly of the Smiths, played guitar, giving the track a distinctly "unplugged" feel—which undoubtedly inspired the Boys to go all the way and provide an "Unplugged Mix". Chris says the recording "cost a fortune."

If Love Were All (Noël Coward)

By his own admission, one of Neil's all-time favorite Noël Coward songs. Neil realized from close listening that, although it was originally written for a woman to sing, it made for a very powerful gay statement when sung by a man. So he decided to sing it himself. In essence, the lyrics assert that, as important as love is, there's more to life and that one can live well without it: "If love were all, I would be lonely." But love is not all (contrary to the sentiment more commonly expressed in popular songs), and the narrator is not lonely even without it—at least if you assume that you can take his words fully at face value. True, he longs for the constant love and companionship of another man, but that alone is neither a guarantor of nor prerequisite for happiness. While the "gay statement" that Neil sees here may have been more appropriate for an earlier generation, when gay men indeed had a more difficult time finding enduring love, it undoubtedly still resonates among many listeners.

The big-band instrumentation, incidentally, was arranged and conducted by Richard Niles, who around the same time created a delightful swing arrangement for "Can You Forgive Her?"

Euroboy

In Chris's own words, "a very Euro-disco track." Like most of his quasi-instrumentals, there's not much in the way of lyrics; the lines "You wanna lover," "You wanna new lover," and "You was my lover man" are repeated over and over again.

Euroboy is the title of a Continental gay soft-porn magazine, which Chris claims (perhaps facetiously) not to have known prior to the release of this rousing, genuinely exciting dance song as one of the bonus tracks on the "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" single. Although Chris has never commented publically on his sexuality, it's commonly assumed that he's gay, and some fans take this song—particularly the "You was my lover man" line—as a strong piece of evidence. I can't say that I disagree, but it would be remiss of me not to assert that one should never confuse the narrative persona of a song with the person who wrote and/or sings it. Just because a singer or songwriter adopts a certain role in a song doesn't mean that he or she personally fills that role. For instance, Neil has assumed both heterosexual and female personae in certain songs—yet, of course, he's neither.

Some Speculation

Neil, who sings the entire song in falsetto (fairly unusual for him), says this is simply "about someone being unfaithful." Interestingly, the narrator points out that he, too, has been where the person to whom he's speaking is going: "Going away with someone new—yesterday I went there, too." But is "there" an actual physical place, or is it a "state of mind," or even a "state of the soul"? In answering a question submitted (not by me) to the official PSB site in November 2003, Neil responded that it was indeed a "state of mind" to which the narrator has also gone, so to speak. At any rate, Neil concedes that this pulsating, almost ominous track with an extremely heavy bass line sounds "very, very eerie."

Bilingual (1996)

Much of the music of Bilingual was inspired by the Pet Shop Boys' visit to South America during their 1995 tour (during which their Rio de Janiero concert was filmed for the DiscoVery video). Neil and Chris gained greater exposure to Latin American music than ever before and were greatly impressed by it, so much so that roughly half of the tracks on their next album would bear pronounced Latin American influences. The album title stems not only from this experience itself (if music is something of a "language" then the Boys were establishing themselves as "bilingual" by so strongly embracing Latin music) but also from one of the songs, "Single," which was retitled "Single-Bilingual" for release as a—you guessed it—single. More than one critic has also suggested a pun of sorts in the title, with Bilingual being a "code word" for "bisexual." Chris himself suggested as much when, in the Nightlife tour booklet he says of "Single-Bilingual": "A play on words. It obviously means bisexual." Of course, one can never be too sure when the Boys are or aren't being facetious. At any rate, a few months after the album's release, a two-disc "special edition" was put out that featured extended remixes of the singles plus "Somewhere" and "The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On." (album: UK #4, US #39)

Discoteca

Bilingual opens with this intense song, ostensibly set in a foreign land in which the lost protagonist is asking passers-by for directions to the nearest discoteque. This scenario actually serves as an extended metaphor about one's sense of alienation and inability to communicate adequately in the modern world. Neil has said that this song was inspired by a young friend of his with AIDS who was having difficulty finding understanding and a sense of belonging in the midst of this medical and emotional crisis. Neil summarizes his thesis as follows: "The point of the song is contained in the lines 'I'm going out and carrying on as normal.' What are you meant to do when something terrible happens to you? You carry on as normal. You go out clubbing or whatever to try and forget." Incidentally, the Spanish line "¿Entiende usted?" literally means "Do you understand?" but reportedly there's another idiomatic meaning, a "code" among gay people in various Spanish-speaking locales: "Are you gay?"

Single

In contrast to the extremely serious track that precedes it, "Single" is meant to be funny. One can hardly hope for a better or more succinct explication of this song than the one that Neil has himself provided: "The narrator is a very glib Euro businessman, a glib Eurocrat who flies business class and likes all his privileges. He tries to pick up chicks at meet 'n' greets. He's pretending to be a sophisticated ladies man: 'Single! Bilingual!'. But he's not really communicating either and he knows it. In actual fact he's a hopeless, tragic wreck."

The reference in the lyric to "UKPLC" has proven confusing to many. In the U.K., "PLC" stands for "Public Limited Company"—that is, a public company limited by shares which may offer those shares for purchase by the general public. I think it unlikely that the song is referring to a specific actual organization called "UKPLC"; there is a "UKPLC Charity," but Neil probably wouldn't purposely cite that. Rather, it's most likely a fictional corporation that Neil created for the purposes of the song. Or it could even be a satirical jab at the the Boys' homeland itself, suggesting that the entire nation has become a PLC in the new economic order of things.

More than one commentator has cited a strong rhythmic similarity between this track and the 1993 Latin hit "El Matador" by the Argentinian group Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. One fan even asked the Boys on the official website (back when they used to respond to fan questions there) whether they had heard this song and if it had influenced "Single." Neil replied that they were indeed familiar with "El Matador," having heard it repeatedly during the South American leg of their "DiscoVery" tour, but said nothing more about it. Personally I fail to find much of a resemblance between the two songs, but enough others have heard one that it's probably worth noting here. But whatever the case, rhythm alone is hardly copyrightable.

The only thing I might add is that, when this song was released as the album's third single, it was retitled "Single-Bilingual" to distinguish it from another song in current release also titled "Single." And it was by that "expanded" title that it would resurface in 2003 on the Boys' PopArt compilation. (single: UK #14)

Metamorphosis

Neil had hinted at and obliquely alluded to his gayness throughout his musical career, but now the coyness was over. If 1991's "Was It Worth It?" was his "virtual" coming-out song, stating the case clearly enough for anyone willing to hear it, 1996's "Metamorphosis" was the "official" version, restating it in such a way that nobody, but nobody, could miss or deny it no matter how much they might want to. It's a fast, almost frenetic "gay rap" number, pure and simple, in which Neil describes how his true sexual orientation gradually dawned on him and, despite his resistance against it, he finally "gave in" so that he might achieve personal satisfaction and happiness. He likens this transformation to biological metamorphosis: "Once a caterpillar, now a butterfly." The instrumental origins of this track lay in a piece that a couple of the Boys' former backup dancers and rappers had been working on with them but abandoned. Neil and Chris thoroughly reworked it with the help of the K-klass production team of Andy Williams and Paul Roberts.

Electricity

In this highly innovative track—with its slow, hypnotic "sleaze groove" that sounds like nothing else the Boys have ever released—Neil breathily adopts the role of a professional drag queen specializing in "live lip-sync" performances. (He had a bad cold at the time of the recording, adding an unusual quality to his voice.) It's a bitchy semi-comic portrayal that nevertheless manages to convey the narrator's pride in what he does: "I'm an artist, honey—you gonna get me a drink?"

Disco-Tex and the Sex-o-lettes, who are referred to in the song's oft-repeated refrain, were a disco novelty act of the mid-seventies, best known for their feather boas, the flamboyance of frontman and former hairdresser "Sir Monti Rock III" (born Joseph Montanez, Jr.), and their biggest hit, "Get Dancin'." (One critic has even credited them, in that particular song, with the single gayest line in popular music history, when Monti gushes, "My chiffon is wet, darling!") Neil chose them for good reason. It surely says a lot about the protagonist of "Electricity" when the standard against which he measures himself is one of the most outlandishly campy acts of the disco era—and, to be honest, not one of the more musically talented.

According to Chris, the sampled voices (such as "What are you doing in San Francisco?") were taken from a television program that they just happened to turn on around the time that they were recording this song. (This echoes how, nearly thirty years earlier, John Lennon had tacked excerpts from a coincidental radio performance of King Lear onto the end of the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus.")

Se A Vida É (That's the Way Life Is) (Tennant/Ademanio/Negra/Do Barballio/Lowe)

Neil says that this song was written to cheer up a depressed friend. The melody and much of the arrangement was borrowed from a Brazilian song—"Estrada Da Paixao" by the group Olodum—that the Boys had encountered and enjoyed during their South American tour; hence they properly gave that song's composers a co-writing credit. The intensely rhythmic percussion was provided by She-Boom, an all-woman drum corps. The words "se a vida é," meant to be translated "that's the way life is," is actually rather bad Portuguese and borders on nonsense. But Neil never claimed to be fluent in the language. (single: UK #8, US Dance Sales #8)

It Always Comes as a Surprise

Simply gorgeous. One of the most romantic, melodically beautiful, and evocatively arranged songs the Pet Shop Boys have written, "It Always Comes as a Surprise" was originally conceived as an "ordinary" ballad, virtually in the mode of Phil Collins. But the producer, Chris Porter, suggested that Neil and Chris move the song in a more Latin direction. Performed in a bossa-nova style, it's another of Bilingual's tracks that shows the powerful influence the Boys' South American trip had on them. They included a sample, played backwards, from the Astrud Gilberto/Stan Getz recording "Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars)," and also brought in a Brazilian musician to play the berimbau, a traditional Brazilian instrument with African roots.

Lyrically, "It Always Comes as a Surprise" expresses the tremendous joy, bordering on disbelief, that anyone (at least anyone with a modicum of humility) feels when seriously contemplating the one they love and how lucky they are to have found each other. Neil has stated that this song, like several others on Bilingual (most notably "Metamorphosis"), is autobiographical.

A Red Letter Day

Very nearly a gay pride anthem. Neil longs for that special day—a virtual holiday marked red on the calendar—when "all of those who don't fit in, who follow their instincts and are told they sin" won't have to justify themselves or struggle anymore just to live ordinary lives. "I want what you want," he sings, asserting the fundamental equality of all people, stressing their similarities, not their differences. Apparently but not necessarily contradicting this interpretation, Neil has specifically pointed out that this song is "about waiting for someone to tell you they love you." Perhaps punning on the "Red" of the title, but also adding greatly to the song's anthemic quality, the Boys commissioned an all-male Russian chorus to contribute support vocals. Also, the chord progressions are very similar to (though not exactly like) those of the "Ode to Joy" in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. (single: UK #9, US Dance Sales #8)

Up Against It

Neil borrowed the title of this song from a proposed screenplay that Joe Orton wrote for the Beatles (but was of course never filmed). The setting of the lyrics is late 'forties postwar Britain, in which the populace, though victors in the war, must now struggle with the product shortages and severe winters that followed in its wake. Ever the student of history, Neil also cites "so deep in quicklime, the bones of an old crime," referring to the remains of the royal Romanov family, slain during the Russian Revolution. He seems to be describing how momentous historical events reverberate long after, haunting the people who survive them by years and even decades. These are people who are "up against it," facing the consequences of political events and deeds over which they had no control but must nonetheless suffer for. "In a way," says Neil, "the song is just saying politics is shit."

The Survivors

With this track Neil and Chris responded to recurring rumors that one or both of them have AIDS. In essence, they simply express how they feel as "survivors" of the epidemic, being able to continue and flourish while so many others, including friends, sicken and die. They're grateful for their good fortune, yet saddened by the loss of so many others. They feel the best thing they—or anyone—can do to commemorate those who have passed on is indeed to survive, carrying on in their stead. "Somehow we'll survive." Neil, by the way, has stated that, of all their "non-singles," this is the one he most regrets not releasing as a single.

Before

As usual, the first single came out several months before the album on which it subsequently appeared. "Before" proved a major dance-club hit for the Boys and bore a marked Latin influence, though not so strongly as a number of other Bilingual cuts. The lyrics, for the most part, are rather forthright, simply noting how love, like so many of life's other events, can happen unexpectedly, striking before you're ready for it. In some ways, it's a restatement of "Love Comes Quickly." Most noteworthy, however, are some rather ambiguous lines telling about "a man who loved too much who ended up inside a prison cell." Many fans thought that these words referred to Oscar Wilde (who, after all, had been referenced in various other PSB songs, such as "I Get Excited (You Get Excited Too)" and "DJ Culture"). But Neil later confirmed that he was actually thinking about O.J. Simpson, whose infamous murder trial was taking place while the Boys were recording much of Bilingual.

Even more controversial were the picture sleeves of a pair of promo 12" singles, which featured a lifesize close-up of a man's flaccid penis (suggesting before….?). Neil and Chris refused to identify the person whose member was immortalized in this way, although they adamantly asserted that it wasn't either of them.

Incidentally, Chris has cited this as one of his own favorite PSB songs. (single: UK #7, US Dance #1)

To Step Aside

It's not a subject that Pet Shop Boys fans want to think about, but it's inevitable: the day that the Pet Shop Boys cease to be. Neil and Chris must of course think about it, too. And that's what's going on in this song, in which Neil ponders what he would do "if I decide to step aside." What first sets him off in this reverie is a scene he witnesses from a hotel room in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, of religious pilgrims converging on a nearby cathedral. He can't help but think that these people experience a depth of meaning in life that he, though living in the lap of comparative luxury ("all the champagne that I drink"), cannot know. From another window (this time in Budapest, Hungary) he sees poor workers, who formerly toiled without reward under the communist system, now struggling just as hard as they wait (in vain?) for the "market forces" of capitalism to reward them.

Interestingly, Neil portrays himself as very much a figurative and literal "insider," kept apart from the more mundane yet conversely much more profound concerns of the masses. He can't help but think that there's much more to life than the pursuit of comfort and pleasure—and much more to his life than his career as musician and pop star. So his mind is filled with questions of what course his life would take if he were "to step aside" and walk away from it all. Despite the upbeat, even bouncy musical setting (including extremely effective use of acoustic guitar), this is one of the most serious, contemplative, and indeed personal songs in the Pet Shop Boys' entire body of work. By the way, the strange background vocals (you either love 'em or hate 'em) are sampled from a recording of Gypsy music.

It's also worth noting that "To Step Aside" earned the Pet Shop Boys a Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Dance Recording." Unfortunately, it lost out to Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's "Carry On." (single: US Dance #1)

Saturday Night Forever

It has been suggested that Bilingual can be viewed as something of a concept album with a loose storyline, its central character looking for meaning and connection in a disjointed world. Regardless of whether this is the case, it's hard to dispute that its final song, "Saturday Night Forever," is a natural outgrowth and outcome of its opening track, "Discoteca." Where "Discoteca" features a narrator superficially in search of a dance club but actually in search of communication and communion with others, in "Saturday Night Forever" he has found it, at least for one night that he wishes would last forever. Neil (or his narrator) admits the superficiality of the dance-club scene, but revels in it nonetheless for the sense of camaraderie, excitement, and sexual energy he finds there. "I don't care!" he cries as he leaps out on the dancefloor. "I go where I go, and I get there fast! Don't stop me—I know that it's not going to last!" Again, the spectre of AIDS. But, as he said in "Discoteca," he wants to "go out and carry on as normal." In "Saturday Night Forever," he does just that.

The music, by the way, is a distinct throwback to the late 'seventies heyday of disco, so much so that it seems to end prematurely after only four minutes. One would have expected an extended 12" mix.

Further Listening 1995-1997
(bonus disc with the 2001 reissue of Bilingual)

The following songs—either previously released only as Bilingual-era single bonus tracks or previously unreleased altogether—do not appear on any Pet Shop Boys album aside from the Bilingual reissue's "Further Listening" bonus disc. Entries for "Paninaro '95" and "Somewhere" appear on the PopArt page.

The Truck Driver and His Mate

Neil recalled from his youth an advertising slogan for a British candy bar, along the lines of "Big enough for the truck driver and his mate." He thought this was delightfully funny, what with its probably unconscious homoerotic connotations. So the Boys decided to build a song around the key phrase, adding still more layers of now-conscious macho homoeroticism, including a breathy, wordless "oh-oh-oh" chorus that one commentator has noted may even be suggestive of an orgasm. This rollicking acoustic-guitar-driven track (very unusual for the Pet Shop Boys), which was originally a bonus track on the "Before" CD single, quickly became a fan favorite.

Could this be the closest the Pet Shop Boys have ever come to pure, out-and-out rock? After all, in the Somewhere concert video, Neil straps on his guitar and cries, "Let's rock!" as they launch into this number. I know the Boys claim to be no longer terribly fond of irony—to quote Neil, "Irony is shit!"—but is this irony or what?

The line "Taking coals to Newcastle," unfamiliar to some, is an oft-used metaphor for doing a pointless job—sort of like taking sand to the Sahara—since Newcastle is in the heart of England's coal-producing region. (In addition, Neil spent much of his youth in Newcastle, which could conceivably provide another layer of meaning.) In short, the song's truck driver finds his work unfulfilling, deriving satisfaction only from the fact that he gets to spend time "talking man to man" with "his mate"—almost certainly his gay lover. After all, you can find them "dancing in the moonlight."

Hit and Miss

This pretty but somewhat morose midtempo track—another bonus track on the "Before" CD single—with its prominently strummed acoustic guitar, was stylistically influenced by the alternative/Britpop scene that was flourishing at the time (1996). The lyrics concern the narrator's sad, even slightly embittered feelings about his life in general and his former lover in particular. The persona that Neil adopts here is kind of a sadsack for whom nothing ever turns out quite right. Even the things that go well for a while tend eventually to turn sour. That's why he describes his life as "hit and miss." This, of course, is quite natural for anyone's life—life is ordinarily full of ups and downs—though to wallow in such an observation borders on manic depression. No, I'm not at all suggesting that Neil is manic depressive; rather, the character he portrays in this song sounds that way. Good lyricists (and, frankly, Neil is one of the best of his generation) can convey all manner of observations, feelings, and characterizations that may have little or nothing to do with their own personal circumstances.

How I Learned to Hate Rock and Roll

This bonus track on the U.K. "Se A Vida É" CD single is the definitive statement of Neil and Chris as "anti-rock stars." In fact, can you imagine any contemporary pop band other than the Pet Shop Boys writing, recording, and releasing a song like this? A monumental act of pop-culture affrontery, not to mention self-assurance, this track outlines some of the Boys' basic antagonisms toward mainstream rock music: conformity amidst the pretense of non-conformity ("Everybody does what everybody does"), ugly sounds expressing even uglier sentiments, the tendency to trash and dismiss beautiful, important things merely for the sake of doing so. While this has all the hallmarks of a "Chris track" (though with more lyrics than most), Neil surely had no qualms about going along for the ride. It's significant that, when "Se A Vida É" was released as a single in the U.S., "How I Learned to Hate Rock and Roll" was not included as a bonus track. Apparently Atlantic Records (the Boys' U.S. distributor at the time) felt that this track would only further damage their reputation in the States.

Betrayed

When this song appeared as another bonus track on the "Se A Vida É" CD single, fans immediately began to speculate who or what it may be about. Was Neil describing his betrayal by a former lover? He quickly squelched such rumors by describing its more prosaic origins. Written years before, it was inspired by an incident that occurred back in his pre-stardom days when he worked at a publishing house. He and his colleagues had been sacked during a labor dispute. Much to his dismay, he discovered that a friend of his, a freelancer for whom he had often provided work, had taken over his job. In effect, she became a "scab." Understandably, Neil felt terribly betrayed, and this song grew out of that experience.

Interestingly, Neil originally wrote "Betrayed" as a country song, inspired somewhat by the film Coal Miner's Daughter about country singer Loretta Lynn, which was in current release (and which therefore pegs the year as 1980). After he and Chris had worked with Dusty Springfield on various projects from 1987 to 1990, he sent the song to her in hopes that she would record it during some Nashville studio sessions, but she declined.

Delusions of Grandeur

"It's about fascism," Neil says of this bonus track on the U.K. "A Red Letter Day" CD single. The song was inspired by a turn-of-the-last-century novel titled Hadrian VII by author Frederick William Rolfe, alias "Baron Corvo." The novel is about an Englishman who becomes Pope and sets about exacting revenge on those who had previously earned his enmity. This is essentially what the song is about as well. As Neil has stated, "It's a fantasy about how you hate people because they've treated you badly, and so you want to rule the world and get revenge on them." (In discussing this song, Neil has also confessed that, as a child, he himself harbored playful fantasies of becoming the Pope someday.) The chord progressions are based on those of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I also wonder whether Neil may have been influenced by a 1976 French film comedy with the same title (when translated) as this song; set in 17th-century Spain, it also has revenge as its central theme.

The Calm Before the Storm

This "Single-Bilingual" CD single bonus track, recorded live in the studio, is a description of the afternoon during which Neil and Chris were anxiously waiting for news about how high on the British charts their Bilingual album had debuted. The sensory images detailed in the song are all completely accurate: there were insects buzzing about, the housekeeper's dog was barking to be fed, and the sounds of 747s from nearby Heathrow Airport roared overhead. Neil has taken some steps in his lyrics, however, to make it all sound a little less mundane, such as the concluding line about how he had figured out where he "went wrong."

As an intriguing side-note, one of my online correspondents has offered a very reasonable alternate interpretation: that the lyrics strongly suggest a couple waiting nervously for the results of their HIV tests. While this interpretation flies directly in the face of Neil's description of the song's origins, one shouldn't simply dismiss it out of hand. After all, artists, for whatever reasons, do not always necessarily reveal the true meanings of their works.

The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On

Like "Music for Boys," a b-side (in this case, for "A Red Letter Day") that gained as much if not greater popularity in gay dance clubs than its a-side. (Hmmm, I wonder why—) In fact, the song itself is set in a gay dance club. Apparently inspired by the frequent (but now former) behavior of a friend of theirs, Neil describes a young man's penchant for removing his clothes while dancing, much to the appreciation of those around him. (He doesn't do this sort of thing anymore, however, largely because of the way in which Neil and Chris teased him about it.) This behavior, though superficially scandalous, is actually a liberating experience: "He is exactly where he wants to be, in a world of his own."

At one point Neil's vocals drop away and we're treated to a spoken monologue by a young woman—apparently the young man's girlfriend (shades of "Can You Forgive Her?")—who tries to discourage him from his exhibitionistic tendencies and voices assorted threats ("I'm telling your mother!"), but to no avail. Funny stuff that was guaranteed—if not calculatedly planned—to prove a huge success with the gay segment of the Boys' audience.

To take an alternate perspective, however, one of my site visitors recently suggested that this song could easily be interpreted from a rather negative angle. Could it actually be a commentary on—or at least an unvarnished description of—what my correspondent referred to as "gay club hell," in which young gay men, new to the scene, can quickly descend into a careless, artificial, and ultimately self-destructive euphoria of drugs, drink, and dance? A very real phenomemon—and a very interesting, thoughtful interpretation. Perhaps there's a lot more to this song than meets the eye at first glance.

The View from Your Balcony

The inspiration for this lovely song—a bonus track on the U.K. "Somewhere" CD single—was inspired, precisely as its title suggests, by a view from a balcony. Neil attended a party at the twentieth floor apartment of a friend who lived in Bermondsey in South London. Its balcony offered a marvelous view of the Thames River. Neil observed the irony of how this tower-block apartment, which at one time (specifically, he notes, back at the height of "punk rock") would only have been thought of as the home of someone who had been abused by "the system," nevertheless had a breathtaking panorama that could make it the envy of far wealthier, far more powerful people. Perhaps Neil is pointing out that there are many wonderful things in life that cannot be denied people simply because they aren't among the elite—and that, in fact, the elite (such as maybe Neil himself?) sometimes can find themselves envying others.

Disco Potential

A dissonant Chris Lowe workout (which originally appeared on the U.K. "Somewhere" CD single) that reveals a belated industrial influence. It also bears some similarity to U2's at least partly tongue-in-cheek "Discothéque," which had recently been a minor hit single, which immediately caused fans to speculate that "Disco Potential" may have been a commentary of some sort on the U2 track, perhaps even a parody. The Boys confirmed this when Neil noted (in the pages of their fan magazine Literally) that it's "supposed to sound a bit like Bono doing disco."

The brief, barely intelligible lyrics, virtually buried beneath the cacophonous mix, refer obliquely to Tamara Beckwith, a well-known young London socialite and heiress. The track's oft-repeated title reportedly came about from words that Neil was singing over and over while he and Chris were drunkenly jamming. (Neil, however, says he doesn't remember this.) On the other hand, one is tempted to think that it just possibly could have been inspired by the kind of comment that Neil (or Chris himself) might have made after listening to a playback of the instrumental track: "Well, at least it's got disco potential." That would be just like the Pet Shop Boys.

Black Sun

You won't find this by looking at any track listing. Rather, it's the brief (1:04) instrumental opening to both the "Moscow Mix" and the "expanded single version" of "A Red Letter Day," the latter of which appears on the Bilingual reissue Further Listening bonus disc. Neil wrote this somewhat Debussy-ish piece of music back in 1989, but the Boys apparently didn't quite know what to do with it until they decided to let it serve as an introduction to these two versions of "A Red Letter Day." Neil concedes that it sounds rather threatening, which may account in part for the fact that they "buried it" in this way.

Essential (1998)

Essential is a limited-edition CD—part of EMI's "Collector's Series"—that was formally released only in the United States and Japan. It consists entirely of previously released material, songs from the period of Please through Behaviour, although some are remixes previously unavailable on compact disc. Now out of print but still available from various retail outlets, it's becoming increasingly hard to find. Whether it is indeed "essential" could, however, be a matter of debate. At least for completists, it undoubtedly is.

Domino Dancing - Alternative Version

West End Girls - Dance Mix

Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) - Original 7" Version

Paninaro - 7" Version

That's My Impression - 7" Version

We All Feel Better in the Dark - Extended Mix

It Couldn't Happen Here - LP Version

It's Alright - 7" Version

Left to My Own Devices - 7" Version

In the Night - Remix

Two Divided by Zero - LP Version

Love Comes Quickly - Dance Mix

Being Boring - Extended Version

All songs were written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe unless otherwise noted.

Copyright © 2001-2008 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.