Please (1986)

The Pet Shop Boys released their first album, Please, in 1986. Neil has said that they chose that title because they got a kick out of imagining thousands of teenagers "forced to be polite" by asking record-store clerks for "the Pet Shop Boys album, Please." A worldwide bestseller, its high-quality, fully developed display of songwriting skills—not generally recognized at the time—seems all the more amazing for a debut album coming "out of the blue," as it were.

The album cover's design, with its tiny photo of Chris and Neil and even smaller typeface, arose from designer Mark Farrow's observation that the smaller he made the image and type, the more eye-catching they became—which is exactly the opposite one would expect. In the years since its release, that design has come to be recognized as a classic unto itself. (album: UK #3, US #7)

The first track on the first album by the Pet Shop Boys was partly inspired by a "talking calculator" that Neil had bought for his father for Christmas; the song was built around the "voice" of the calculator. Also, as he states in the 2006 documentary Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop, he was also inspired by his teenage years in his hometown of Newcastle, where he and his friends used to visit the train station late at night and fantasize about hopping a train and escaping to London. This longing to escape pervades the song.

As any mathematician will tell you (or even anyone who ever paid attention in their arithmetic classes), you can't divide by zero. It's a nonsensical, meaningless proposition. How can you divide something by nothing? It violates the very definition of the word "divide." So with this underlying mathematical concept as his theme, the narrator tries to persuade his lover to "run away" with him to New York City. There's no reason for them not to since, after all, nothing (zero) divides them (two). In short, it's as absurd to try to keep them apart as it is to try to divide 2 by 0. It's an ingenious lyrical conceit, and although the music is hardly of the first rank, it's nevertheless an auspicious beginning.

West End Girls

The Pet Shop Boys' first (and biggest) true hit single is famous for its unforgettable bass-synthesizer hook, its ambisexual lyrics (not only the "East End boys and West End girls" reference but also the line "Which would you choose: a hard or soft option?"), and its "Brit-rap" innovation. The lyrics are at times cryptic and full of relatively obscure references that betray a variety of far-flung inspirations. Neil has stated that he wrote the lyrics as a stream of consciousness with different narrative voices, influenced in this respect by T.S. Eliot's great poem The Waste Land. He has also cited the influence of the early (1982) rap hit "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Not only is there a stylistic influence—"The Message" seminally influenced all rap and "rappish" tracks that followed—but a lyrical one as well, with both tracks graphically depicting urban decay, particularly in their respective first verses. And the ominously suicidal opening lines—

Sometimes you're better off dead
Thre's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head

—were inspired by an old James Cagney gangster film that he watched at his cousin's home one evening in the early 1980s.

Certain lines in "West End Girls" seem to reflect an aimlessness and lack of identity ("We've got no future, we've got no past") commonly felt by members of the Boys' generation in the 1980s. That decade's rampant acquisitiveness ("How much have you got?") is touched upon. Neil also plays around with opposites, such as rich and poor, upper class and lower class, London's East End and West End (with the West End characterized as a "dead-end world"). Certain lines ("Have you got it? Do you get it?" among others) also seem to refer to the growth of street drug culture in Thatcherite Britain.

Meanwhile, Neil's well-known interest and background in history (his major in college), particularly that of Russia, is evident in the line "from Lake Geneva to the Finland Station," which refers to the train route taken by Lenin when he was smuggled by the Germans to Russia during the First World War, a pivotal event in the Russian Revolution. Some of the lengthier mixes include additional Russian references, such as the bizarrely comic "Who do you think you are—Joe Stalin?" (Speaking of mixes, "West End Girls" has the distinction of being the PSB song with the greatest number of "official" remixes: at least twenty, maybe more.) What all of these references have to do with the song's primary scenario of social and sexual conflict in London is, however, anybody's guess. Perhaps they're simply meant to evoke images of revolution.

At any rate, "West End Girls" was first recorded with American producer "Bobby O" Orlando and, in that version, became a minor hit in some countries (most successfully in Belgium). It was subsequently re-recorded and released after the Boys moved to EMI, and this second version proved a huge international success, hitting #1 in many nations, including the U.S. and Britain. (single: UK #1, US #1, US Dance #1)

Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)

A "cynical joke song" (as Neil has described it) that many people misunderstood and forever caused them to despise the Pet Shop Boys or at least view them with intense suspicion. Much of the problem lies in many listeners' inability to distinguish between the singer of a song and the lyrical persona that he or she has adopted while singing it. But the narrator of "Opportunities" is hardly Neil himself. (For one thing, he never "doctored in mathematics.") In fact, Neil has referred to the narrator as "a pathetic character" who, in the end, isn't at all likely to make "lots of money."

It seems that the Boys are satirizing the mercenary attitudes that they suspect (with good reason) that many performers have in their pursuit of success as pop stars. It can also be viewed as a more general commentary on the prevailing "greed is good" mentality (not to mention outright larceny: "If you have the inclination, I've got the crime") of the Thatcherite/Reaganite era, of which the somewhat socialistically inclined Boys undoubtedly disapproved. It was a message that much of the public—particularly in the United States—didn't want to hear, enamored as they are of the great mythology that rock music is (or should be) somehow above such pecuniary concerns. Musicians who are "only in it for the money" are thus viewed as fakes and traitors. By laying bare this very sentiment, in however a satirical fashion, Tennant and Lowe alienated rock fans who didn't want to hear it and thus turned it back on them. In short, the messengers were condemned on account of the message. Fortunately, this probably didn't matter much to Neil and Chris, who have never considered themselves "rock stars" and detest the mythologizing impulses that made so many listeners turn against them in the first place.

At it happens, "Opportunities" was the first Pet Shop Boys single on Parlophone/EMI, and although it gained little attention the first time around, it became a major hit when it was re-released in the wake of the tremendous international success of the second version of "West End Girls." Interestingly, it's the only PSB single that turned out to be a bigger hit in the U.S. than in the U.K. On Please it appears in two forms: the song proper (which is somewhat different from the single version) and later a brief "Reprise." (single: UK #11, US #10, U.S. Dance #3)

Love Comes Quickly (Hague/Lowe/Tennant)

"Sooner or later, this happens to everyone." A surprisingly direct song, "Love Comes Quickly" describes how love can come suddenly and unexpectedly—no matter who you are, no matter what you try to do to avoid it—throwing you for the proverbial loop. "You can't stop falling." It happens to the rich, the powerful, the well-educated, the well-traveled, the sophisticated. Even a "taste [for] forbidden pleasures" doesn't render you immune. Neil and Chris suggest, in fact, that it is in the very nature of love to strike "when you least expect it."

Of course, it's just like the Pet Shop Boys to take something that, in hands more prone to cliché, would be simply wonderful and cast it in such ominous terms. It is this strange sense of foreboding—love as a scary, disturbing thing—that makes this song exceptional, if not unique. Producer Stephen Hague contributed to the middle portion ("I know it sounds ridiculous…"); hence his co-writing credit. (single: UK #19, US #62, U.S. Dance #10)

Suburbia

The Boys have described this song as an "epic of mad dogs and hooligans" that was inspired by a film of the same name by Penelope Spheeris about aimless, disillusioned young toughs running rampant in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Very much the urbanites, Tennant and Lowe use this track as an opportunity to express what they consider to be "the full horror" (as the subtitle of one of the remixes puts it) of suburban life, where nastiness and evil lurks just beneath a superficially attractive surface.

The dogs mentioned in the lyrics and whose barking frames the track probably symbolize the underlying beastialism of humanity. (One site visitor has pointed out that wild dogs inhabiting the L.A. suburbs play a significant role in the Spheeris film. The opening scene, for instance, depicts a dog mauling a baby. This probably gave Chris and Neil the idea in the first place to use dogs so prominently in the song.)

"Suburbia" proved a very successful single in Britain, though considerably less so in the States. Chris has noted, by the way, that the bassline for this track is "virtually the same" as that of Madonna's "Into the Groove." (single: UK #8, US #70, US Dance #46)

A very brief (0:32), somewhat cacophonous segment of music edited out from an instrumental break of an earlier, longer version of "Opportunities." Not much to say about it, really, except to speculate as to why Chris and Neil felt the need to put this on the album in the first place. Just being a bit avant-garde, perhaps?

Absolutely subversive. It takes the old cliché about "love forever" and turns it completely on its head. Simultaneously a seduction and a threat, the narrator of this song both tempts and warns his prospective lover/victim as he describes how exciting, irresponsible, and tenuous life with him could be: "The money's short and time is tight …. I never have enough. It could be like this forever if we fall in love." The upbeat, danceable environment in which these lyrics are placed cleverly disguises their deeper implications, just as the narrator's carefree lifestyle hides the tremendous potential for self-destruction lurking just beneath the surface.

We don't need any more when we dance
I don't think of the future tonight

Ecstatically romantic, to be sure, but also frightening. And when Neil sings "Open the door, you hold the key," is it a plea to enter into love—or to escape from it? Maybe both. After all, we often find ourselves attracted to self-destructive behavior; if there weren't something terribly appealing about it, no one would succumb. This is the ambiguity that lies at the heart of this remarkable song.

It's hardly surprising that when Tennant and Lowe had Liza Minnelli cover this for her Results album, they slowed it down, added an orchestra, poured on the drama, and made it sound every bit as ominous as it truly is.

Violence

In this somber track—the last one written for the album, and reportedly inspired at least in part by the ongoing troubles in Northern Ireland—Neil and Chris assert that the underlying cause of violence lies in the pervasive aimlessness in the lives of its perpetrators, who long for "anything to give their lives some meaning." Men are identified as the primary perpetrators of violence (it's a statistical fact) who justify their deeds to their uncomprehending wives and mothers as "self-defense." The core of song, of course, is the chorus: "Violence breeds violence." It's the proverbial vicious circle, which will never end until someone makes the conscious decision not to return violence for violence, regardless of any perceived need for defense.

Nearly a decade later the Boys would re-release this song (as a bonus track on the "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" CD single) in its popular Haçienda remix, named for a well-known club in Manchester, England.

It has been observed that the Pet Shop Boys' first three albums (not counting Disco) as well as their Results collaboration with Liza Minnelli each feature a song whose title begins with the words "I Want" ("I Want a Lover," "I Want to Wake Up," "I Want a Dog," "I Want You Now"), thus signifying, at least in the mind of the commentator who first pointed out this fact, an apparent preoccupation with self—the implication being that this music stems from a selfish, self-centered worldview. I personally don't believe this is true; Neil and Chris have provided ample evidence, musical and otherwise, of not being particularly selfish. But we shouldn't overlook the possibility that they might often be using their music to comment on the selfishness and self-centeredness that they observe in the world around them.

But we digress. This is among the earliest PSB songs, written in 1983. To be blunt, "I Want a Lover" is pretty much a song about horniness, although it has an undercurrent of loneliness as well. The narrator isn't looking for love (at least not tonight), but rather for sex, and seeks someone else with precisely the same interests. Just thinking about it is an aphrodisiac: "This anticipation is a stimulation." Very hedonistic stuff—either that or, again, a commentary on hedonistic attitudes and behavior. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

Early on it was reported that this lyric was written from a female perspective—Neil's willingness to approach subjects from the viewpoint of the opposite sex being a distinguishing hallmark even at this early stage in their career—but I personally don't detect anything in the text that necessarily suggests a "feminine" persona. In fact, more recently Neil has described it as "us doing gay disco" as well as an attempt to write a "sleazy" song.

It's perhaps especially noteworthy that on this track Neil plays bass guitar and Chris plays trombone.

This song was performed "live" in the studio, with Chris playing piano and Neil singing, seated on a stool, amidst dimmed lighting. British music journalist John Gill has pointed out that this song has a decidedly gay subtext, which Neil has confirmed: "This is the most gay song we've ever written, practically, and no one noticed at the time."

The predominant metaphor is that of an English boys' school, with its concomitant homoerotic undertones. But it is indeed just a metaphor for what's going on in the mind of the person Neil is addressing in this song (perhaps the narrator talking to himself): "He is the head boy of a school of thought that plays in your intentions…." The object of this person's affections isn't interested in him/her ("That boy never cast a look in your direction"), so from that perspective he's just a fantasy. So what does one wait for "later tonight"? Masturbation, in all likelihood.

Why Don't We Live Together?

Neil and Chris were very bold to insert a sexually ambiguous (if slightly sexist) line like "The woman in me shouts out; the man in me just smiles" in the final track of their first album. In general, this appears to be an unusually direct song amidst so many others that can't be taken purely at face value, such as "Opportunities" and "Tonight Is Forever." It seems to be an honest plea by the narrator to his paramour that they indeed start living together. Of course, there's a touch of cynicism (or just plain realism) in the words "I might not always love you; you might not care," but otherwise it all seems innocuous enough, non-marital cohabitation notwithstanding.

It's interesting to note that the chorus incorporates the line "With all the love we had and all the love we hide," which had previously appeared at the very end of the original single version and video of "Opportunities," but was deleted from the album and second single versions. Meanwhile, the bouncy, staccato music is a delight, as are the agitated, improvisational-sounding background vocals. This probably could have been a successful single if the Boys and/or their record company had seen fit to release it as such.

Further Listening 1984-1986
(bonus disc with the 2001 reissue of Please)

Entries for most of the b-sides of the Please-era singles can be found under Alternative, although "In the Night" and "Paninaro" can be found just ahead under Disco.

Disco (1986)

The Pet Shop Boys asserted their proud self-identification as a dance-oriented group with their second album, which consisted of extended dance mixes of their four hits from Please and two of those singles' b-sides. Titling the album Disco was a bold, almost reckless statement that must have made certain record-company executives wince. After all, it was still 1986, and the extreme backlash that occurred against disco music circa 1980 was a relatively fresh memory. (album: UK #15, US #95)

In the Night

Neil has stated that this song (the 7" version of which was the b-side of the Boys' first single, "Opportunities") was inspired by his reading of a book by David Pryce-Jones about Paris during the German occupation of World War II. In it, Pryce-Jones wrote of les Zazous, long-haired proto-beatnik dissidents who conscientiously chose not to take sides with either the Nazis or the Resistance, but instead "opted out." As a result, they were distrusted and hated by both sides—especially the Resistance, which viewed them as collaborators. Obviously Neil was intrigued by the dramatic possibilities of being in such an ambiguous and precarious position.

Stylistically the song betrays the influence of American producer "Bobby O" Orlando, with whom Neil and Chris were working at the time. (In particular, note the strong musical similarity to the cult classic "Passion" by the Flirts, written and produced by Bobby O.) A British TV program devoted to fashion, The Clothes Show, used "In the Night" as its theme song, which prompted the Boys to record a new version in 1995; the newer rendition replaced the old one as the TV theme music and was released as a bonus track on the "Before" single.

Suburbia

Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)

Paninaro

The 7" version of this track previously appeared as the b-side of the "Suburbia" single. It was also released as a single in its own right in Italy, where this song has its thematic roots. Italy in the early 1980s boasted a "youth cult" consisting primarily of young men dedicated to fashionable clothes (particularly baggy jeans), Timberland boots, motor scooters, and large sandwiches known as "panini" (the plural of "panino"). These youngsters were referred to as "paninari"—or singular "paninaro."

Chris learned of this phenomenon while in Italy promoting "West End Girls," and a bizarre sequence of events then led to the creation of this cult classic in tribute to it. He and/or Neil had mentioned their interest in the "Paninaro cult" to a journalist friend, Peter Martin, who then made note of it in a Rolling Stone article about them. Another journalist, Dylan Jones, had apparently heard about this second-hand and subsequently misconstrued the Boys' interest sufficiently to state in an article for i-D magazine that they had written a song called "Paninaro." But at that point they hadn't yet done so! Our heroes read the Jones article and felt that, error notwithstanding, it was a terrific idea. So they took a track that they had already been working on—more about that in a moment—in which Chris listed his own particular loves and obsessions (including specific fashion designers and "girls, boys, art, pleasure") and added a new "Paninaro" chorus. Hence the final song was born from a remarkable misunderstanding and the Boys' decision to act upon it.

It wasn't until May 2007, in an issue of the PSB Fan Club magazine Literally, that Neil revealed another surprising fact. "Paninaro" (presumably with a different title) was originally something that he and Chris were writing for their manager at the time, Tom Watkins, who happened also to be part of a recording duo called "The Hudsons." Its lyrics included the lines—

I never thought that I would leave you
But I'm in love with a woman

—which would have been somewhat risqué for the period. But nothing came of Tom's duo, so Neil and Chris tossed out the old lyrics and repurposed the track into "Paninaro."

A virtual instrumental, basic and repetitive, it seems very much a "Chris Lowe track" from beginning to end and has been cited by Neil as indicative of his musical partner's fondness for simplicity. (As he said in an interview with Andrew Sullivan, "Chris likes very simple, repetitive dance music, with a single uplifting phrase.") Neil has little to do except sing "Paninaro…oh, oh, oh" over and over. Some mixes feature excerpts from a television interview in which Chris expostulates on his likes and dislikes—mostly dislikes.

The Boys obviously think a lot of this song; nearly a decade later they would release an entirely new version as "Paninaro '95."

Love Comes Quickly

West End Girls

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

Copyright © 2001-2007 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.