Pet Shop Boys Rate. Part 1: 1985-1991. Winner.
- Thread starter Ray
- Start date
I'm really going to be the lowest scorer for quite a few songs, aren't I? To have that dubious honor.
Not a comedy guess (although I do think they're unpopular). I was thinking of what could constitute a weird PSB song.
Behaviour did somehow just make the top of my averages, but it was mighty close ... It is my favourite album and it always seems to be the clear favourite in my mind because of the sum of it’s parts ... It contains a couple of weaker tracks but both of those still have their merits (I scored everything based on original mixes) …
Judging by folks album averages, I might be joining you ... When a perfect song is a 10, there has to be subjectivity about the rest ... my scores (hopefully) reflect that …
I was actually trying to do this, but I couldn´t bring myself to go as low as 1 or 0.
Even their less inspired songs (in this era) don´t merit a 0. There is always something there to be admired: lyrics, structure, key-change, bridge, melody, ideas and effort!
Some songs might have only one or two of those things, but that´s usually enough to set it apart from a deserved 0 (Like some of Depeche Mode´s later efforts)
I didn't even give a zero, which is weird considering how I'm popping up on the Lowest Voters score quite frequently thus far.
Agree 100% … I have 2 low scores, but no zeroes ...
Mess. Also, amazing.
I think this must be the only rate I have participated in where I didn't give a single 0. Everything is just too good.
My lowest score was a 3 which was for the first song out, from here on in I pretty much like to love everything. I had to be really strict with my 9s and 10s to differentiate between them!
My lowest score was a 3 which was for the first song out, from here on in I pretty much like to love everything. I had to be really strict with my 9s and 10s to differentiate between them!
Thank heavens (@Ray) for decimals!
57.
The absolute low point of this rate
You have to love how the song moves along
You know.
57. You Know Where You Went Wrong
6.2944444444
B-side to "It's A Sin"
Highest score: 10 (@Farnaby, @Eric Generic)
Lowest score: 1 (@DominoDancing)
Neil: This song was started by a totally true story. You remember this, Chris, it's your story. You were walking through Covent Garden one day, and there were two tramps lying in the doorway and you heard one say to the other, "Well you know where you went wrong..." We did this with Shep Pettibone while recording Actually. [...] [You] told me this and we thought it was really funny. It was like a New Yorker cartoon.
Chris: I thought it was rather more Glen Baxter myself.
Neil: That was about a year before we wrote the song; I'd always remembered it. Then the 'y'know' came from our friend Pete.
Chris: You'd say something and he'd go 'y'know'.
Neil: It's to agree with what someone is saying but to emphasise it in a slightly sarcastic way. [...] It was originally a rap song but Chris didn't like the rap and so I think he suggested this tune that I should do.
Chris: I had this chord change which I thought was moody in a "West End Girls" kind of way. I'm always trying to rewrite "West End Girls".
Neil: When Shep Pettibone came over to work with us, he said, haven't you got another song like "West End Girls"? [...] Why don't you do another record where you talk, because everyone loes that in America?
Chris: We used the same backing singer on this, Helena Springs...
Neil: We did this song as a rap [see "first demo" below – Ray], and the "you know" bit was based on Pete, as we said before. It was going to be on the album. Actually, Shep was rather disappointed that it wasn't on the album. At the same time we did "I want to wake up", and "Heart" with Shep which we scrapped and did again. [...] We spent ages working on it. I think we thought it might be a single, but it became the b-side of "It's A Sin".
Ray: I adore this. There's something very interesting about having melody in the verses, then essentially a spoken chorus – y'know – before the OTHER chorus kicks in. I love Helena Springs on it. And the production. Boink-BOINKBOINK-boink-BOINK-BOINK. Eighties in two sounds.
@Jóga: I love how there are multiple voices in the chorus. And the backing vocalist ad-libbing.
@One Stop Candy Shop: I don't like the vocals that much.
Someone get those two a mud pit. I'll film it for YouTube.
@Future Lover: This grade is for the somehow better "Rough Mix" version. The original B-side is somehow annoying me, can't pinpoint why. Sounds so... dated? The intro in particular. Also an obvious attempt to rewrite "West End girls". [Chris blushed – Ray]
@Mikey1701: This was Dame Chris’ attempt to replicate the sound of West End Girls [Chris blushed again – Ray] and there are quite a few moments where it really shows. Once you notice the similarities, they are inescapable. Sure, it’s a derivative track, but there is something about it I respond really well to. I appreciate the Extended “rough track” version (the lads were nothing if not generous with their B-sides!) and I suspect, I will be coming back to this again in the near future.
@TrendyMüller: You have to love how the song moves along. It meanders at first and then goes full throttle over the top and back again. Who would expect THIS chorus in such a subdued song. You know!
@Sally_Harper: I can’t for the life of me remember where I read this so I may have made it up (hopefully not!), but all I can think of when I see or hear anything connected to this song is the anecdote by either Neil or Chris, or possibly both of them, when he or they walked past two homeless (and drunk?) blokes just as one said to the other “Well, you know where you went wrong” and this song came about from them wondering what the backstory was. [See above – Ray]
Aaaaand praise frooooom @DominoDancing: The absolute low point of this rate. I actually feel embarrassment listening to this song. What the hell are those lyrics trying to be? Is it social commentary? If so, could it be any slighter? And the "You know where you went wrong/You know?" chorus just sounds like something you'd come up with if you had no idea how to write music. They wrote this specifically to be their next West End Girls? Ugh, do I not get this. Next. Please. [Actually, this was recorded for Actually, actually – Ray]
The absolute low point of this rate
You have to love how the song moves along
You know.
57. You Know Where You Went Wrong
6.2944444444
B-side to "It's A Sin"
Highest score: 10 (@Farnaby, @Eric Generic)
Lowest score: 1 (@DominoDancing)
Neil: This song was started by a totally true story. You remember this, Chris, it's your story. You were walking through Covent Garden one day, and there were two tramps lying in the doorway and you heard one say to the other, "Well you know where you went wrong..." We did this with Shep Pettibone while recording Actually. [...] [You] told me this and we thought it was really funny. It was like a New Yorker cartoon.
Chris: I thought it was rather more Glen Baxter myself.
Neil: That was about a year before we wrote the song; I'd always remembered it. Then the 'y'know' came from our friend Pete.
Chris: You'd say something and he'd go 'y'know'.
Neil: It's to agree with what someone is saying but to emphasise it in a slightly sarcastic way. [...] It was originally a rap song but Chris didn't like the rap and so I think he suggested this tune that I should do.
Chris: I had this chord change which I thought was moody in a "West End Girls" kind of way. I'm always trying to rewrite "West End Girls".
Neil: When Shep Pettibone came over to work with us, he said, haven't you got another song like "West End Girls"? [...] Why don't you do another record where you talk, because everyone loes that in America?
Chris: We used the same backing singer on this, Helena Springs...
Neil: We did this song as a rap [see "first demo" below – Ray], and the "you know" bit was based on Pete, as we said before. It was going to be on the album. Actually, Shep was rather disappointed that it wasn't on the album. At the same time we did "I want to wake up", and "Heart" with Shep which we scrapped and did again. [...] We spent ages working on it. I think we thought it might be a single, but it became the b-side of "It's A Sin".
Ray: I adore this. There's something very interesting about having melody in the verses, then essentially a spoken chorus – y'know – before the OTHER chorus kicks in. I love Helena Springs on it. And the production. Boink-BOINKBOINK-boink-BOINK-BOINK. Eighties in two sounds.
@Jóga: I love how there are multiple voices in the chorus. And the backing vocalist ad-libbing.
@One Stop Candy Shop: I don't like the vocals that much.
Someone get those two a mud pit. I'll film it for YouTube.
@Future Lover: This grade is for the somehow better "Rough Mix" version. The original B-side is somehow annoying me, can't pinpoint why. Sounds so... dated? The intro in particular. Also an obvious attempt to rewrite "West End girls". [Chris blushed – Ray]
@Mikey1701: This was Dame Chris’ attempt to replicate the sound of West End Girls [Chris blushed again – Ray] and there are quite a few moments where it really shows. Once you notice the similarities, they are inescapable. Sure, it’s a derivative track, but there is something about it I respond really well to. I appreciate the Extended “rough track” version (the lads were nothing if not generous with their B-sides!) and I suspect, I will be coming back to this again in the near future.
@TrendyMüller: You have to love how the song moves along. It meanders at first and then goes full throttle over the top and back again. Who would expect THIS chorus in such a subdued song. You know!
@Sally_Harper: I can’t for the life of me remember where I read this so I may have made it up (hopefully not!), but all I can think of when I see or hear anything connected to this song is the anecdote by either Neil or Chris, or possibly both of them, when he or they walked past two homeless (and drunk?) blokes just as one said to the other “Well, you know where you went wrong” and this song came about from them wondering what the backstory was. [See above – Ray]
Aaaaand praise frooooom @DominoDancing: The absolute low point of this rate. I actually feel embarrassment listening to this song. What the hell are those lyrics trying to be? Is it social commentary? If so, could it be any slighter? And the "You know where you went wrong/You know?" chorus just sounds like something you'd come up with if you had no idea how to write music. They wrote this specifically to be their next West End Girls? Ugh, do I not get this. Next. Please. [Actually, this was recorded for Actually, actually – Ray]
THIS GOT 10s?
Every PSB track should have a bit of Helena Springs.
And my 9.
Hooray, I didn't imagine that anecdote!