Pet Shop Boys Rate. Part 1: 1985-1991. Winner.
- Thread starter Ray
- Start date
36.
love this, feels like watching a film
I can picture Kermit singing this
36. Your Funny Uncle
7.4875
B-side to "It's Alright"
Highest score: 10 (@Ray, @Farnaby, @Sweet Music, @Vive Indifference, @etienne, @Bleu Noir, @slurmjunkie, @Sally_Harper)
Lowest score: 3 (@funkyg)
Neil: It's a very, very sad song. It was written at exactly the same time as "Nothing Has Been Proved". It's about my friend Chris Dowell's funeral. I had to read out this bit of the Bible, and it's all in the coda of the song, "no more pain, no tears... these former things have passed away" – that's actually from the Book of Revelations.
Chris: IS IT??? I was so impressed that you'd written that, as well!
Neil: I changed it a bit, but it's based on that, yeah. The line I like is, "these former things have passed away". I had to give a reading, and the bit I read [...] started 'I, John, saw a new Jerusalem', and at the end it says there's somewhere where there's no pain or fear, and I found it a really moving piece of prose, and attached it to the end of the song. The words are about one of my best friends who died of Aids. The same person who had the party in 'Being Boring'. He died in 1989, and this is a description of his funeral. All the details are true: the cars in slow formation, and so on. Christopher had an uncle, his father's brother who had been in the army, very military character, Uncle Arthur – was he really called Arthur? – and he came up to me after Chris' funeral. We had a little reception at the Hyde Park Hotel, and right at the end of it, Uncle Arthur came up to me and shook my hand and we talked about Chris, and he was very correct, and Chris himself had this way of behaving, that one should be very polite, write thank-you letters or whatever. This funeral made a big impression on me, because I hadn't been to a funeral of anyone I'd ever known as a friend. I had to organise it as well, actually...
Chris: I don't know how you managed to read that out.
Neil: If you remember I burst into tears at the time. I broke down while I was reading it.
Chris: I remember you not doing that. I thought, how did you manage to do all that? I thought, he's very strong.
Jon Savage: It's probably one of the most personal songs in your repertoire.
Neil: It is because it's a chunk of life. The title comes from a poem by John Betjeman called "Indoor Games near Newbury". You know these records Betjeman did with Jim Parker? We used to listen to those when we were teenagers, all of us, and one says "Your funny uncle saying dance until it's tea o'clock," or something. I can't remember the line exactly but it's stuff I used to listen to with Chris. For a long while after recording that song I couldn't listen to it. I felt very embarrassed recording it, the vocal isn't that great, I only sand it once or twice.
Chris: We used to end the first tour, the Performance one, with that, but only the last verse, and only at the end. I kept thinking that you had forgotten that it had other verses, and it always came as a shock to me. Great way of ending a show. I used to love going to bed thinking, 'I've got nothing more to do and Neil still has to sing a song'.
Neil: It was during this song in San Francisco that one night a man jumped onstage and kissed me, and the next night another jumped on Chris's bed. The music for this I played all on samples. I first played it on the piano at Sarm West with a metronome click in my ears very loudly – you get a gap between verse two and verse three because I couldn't think of what to do between them. Then I took each of the instruments of a strong quartet on the keyboard and separately played a line: a cello line, two violin lines, a viola line, and then a clarinet sample near the end. It didn't take very long. It was done at abuot midnight one night. Danton Supple, the assistant, mixed it. Chris was asleep on the sofa.
Chris: I wonder if I was dreaming of the Queen.
Ray: This will be played at my funeral – the Performance version.
@Jóga: Poignant. I don't listen to it a lot, it makes me sad.
@One Stop Candy Shop: Funeral anthem. So understated and sad. The same theme was later revisited in Requiem In Denim And Leopardskin (also great!!). Also very effective/affictive as a closer on Performance.
@DominoDancing: As important as this song is to Neil and Chris, emotionally it never hit me as hard as you'd think it would. Very pretty though, and the lyrics are obviously coming from the heart.
@Mikey1701: A very Pet Shop Boys title through and through, but the track is not something I look for from them.
@Bleu Noir: love this, feels like watching a film, very Brideshead Revisited, so atmospheric
@ohnoitisnathan: I know people like this, but it sounds like a Muppets song to me. I can picture Kermit singing this.
@Sally_Harper: This is absolutely stunning and I’m outraged that it’s so short, especially when SOME songs on this album drag on torturously for over five minutes.
@TrendyMüller: Musical ahoy! The lyrics are killer, though.
Studio version:
Performance:
Cover by Tom Chaplin of Keane:
Cover by Olivia Hart:
love this, feels like watching a film
I can picture Kermit singing this
36. Your Funny Uncle
7.4875
B-side to "It's Alright"
Highest score: 10 (@Ray, @Farnaby, @Sweet Music, @Vive Indifference, @etienne, @Bleu Noir, @slurmjunkie, @Sally_Harper)
Lowest score: 3 (@funkyg)
Neil: It's a very, very sad song. It was written at exactly the same time as "Nothing Has Been Proved". It's about my friend Chris Dowell's funeral. I had to read out this bit of the Bible, and it's all in the coda of the song, "no more pain, no tears... these former things have passed away" – that's actually from the Book of Revelations.
Chris: IS IT??? I was so impressed that you'd written that, as well!
Neil: I changed it a bit, but it's based on that, yeah. The line I like is, "these former things have passed away". I had to give a reading, and the bit I read [...] started 'I, John, saw a new Jerusalem', and at the end it says there's somewhere where there's no pain or fear, and I found it a really moving piece of prose, and attached it to the end of the song. The words are about one of my best friends who died of Aids. The same person who had the party in 'Being Boring'. He died in 1989, and this is a description of his funeral. All the details are true: the cars in slow formation, and so on. Christopher had an uncle, his father's brother who had been in the army, very military character, Uncle Arthur – was he really called Arthur? – and he came up to me after Chris' funeral. We had a little reception at the Hyde Park Hotel, and right at the end of it, Uncle Arthur came up to me and shook my hand and we talked about Chris, and he was very correct, and Chris himself had this way of behaving, that one should be very polite, write thank-you letters or whatever. This funeral made a big impression on me, because I hadn't been to a funeral of anyone I'd ever known as a friend. I had to organise it as well, actually...
Chris: I don't know how you managed to read that out.
Neil: If you remember I burst into tears at the time. I broke down while I was reading it.
Chris: I remember you not doing that. I thought, how did you manage to do all that? I thought, he's very strong.
Jon Savage: It's probably one of the most personal songs in your repertoire.
Neil: It is because it's a chunk of life. The title comes from a poem by John Betjeman called "Indoor Games near Newbury". You know these records Betjeman did with Jim Parker? We used to listen to those when we were teenagers, all of us, and one says "Your funny uncle saying dance until it's tea o'clock," or something. I can't remember the line exactly but it's stuff I used to listen to with Chris. For a long while after recording that song I couldn't listen to it. I felt very embarrassed recording it, the vocal isn't that great, I only sand it once or twice.
Chris: We used to end the first tour, the Performance one, with that, but only the last verse, and only at the end. I kept thinking that you had forgotten that it had other verses, and it always came as a shock to me. Great way of ending a show. I used to love going to bed thinking, 'I've got nothing more to do and Neil still has to sing a song'.
Neil: It was during this song in San Francisco that one night a man jumped onstage and kissed me, and the next night another jumped on Chris's bed. The music for this I played all on samples. I first played it on the piano at Sarm West with a metronome click in my ears very loudly – you get a gap between verse two and verse three because I couldn't think of what to do between them. Then I took each of the instruments of a strong quartet on the keyboard and separately played a line: a cello line, two violin lines, a viola line, and then a clarinet sample near the end. It didn't take very long. It was done at abuot midnight one night. Danton Supple, the assistant, mixed it. Chris was asleep on the sofa.
Chris: I wonder if I was dreaming of the Queen.
Ray: This will be played at my funeral – the Performance version.
@Jóga: Poignant. I don't listen to it a lot, it makes me sad.
@One Stop Candy Shop: Funeral anthem. So understated and sad. The same theme was later revisited in Requiem In Denim And Leopardskin (also great!!). Also very effective/affictive as a closer on Performance.
@DominoDancing: As important as this song is to Neil and Chris, emotionally it never hit me as hard as you'd think it would. Very pretty though, and the lyrics are obviously coming from the heart.
@Mikey1701: A very Pet Shop Boys title through and through, but the track is not something I look for from them.
@Bleu Noir: love this, feels like watching a film, very Brideshead Revisited, so atmospheric
@ohnoitisnathan: I know people like this, but it sounds like a Muppets song to me. I can picture Kermit singing this.
@Sally_Harper: This is absolutely stunning and I’m outraged that it’s so short, especially when SOME songs on this album drag on torturously for over five minutes.
@TrendyMüller: Musical ahoy! The lyrics are killer, though.
Studio version:
Performance:
Cover by Tom Chaplin of Keane:
Cover by Olivia Hart:
Last edited:
Always makes me cry.
This is a track I really shouldn't like, since it bears all the hallmarks of PSB that I don't enjoy very much. But it's such an affecting, beautiful thing.
Oh fuck! I confused you with @Farnaby. You gave it 4. Monster.
35.
another lost opportunity for an amazing single
decent, but also rather boring
35. Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend
7.5777777778
Criminally omitted from Behaviour to become a b-side to "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?"/"Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)" Which Is Really Enough Words To Put On The Back Cover Of A 12" Single.
Highest score: 10 (@Ray, @Mikey1701, @RaggedTiger, @Jóga, @slurmjunkie, @tylerc904)
Lowest score: 2 (@Peer_Gynt10)
Note: We have now entered averages higher than 7.5.
Neil: Inspired by George Michael.
Chris: We can say that now.
Neil: One of us saw a photograph in a newspaper of George Michael and a woman and said, 'bet she's not your girlfriend'. People always assumed that George Michael was gay but we didn't know for sure. When I actually wrote the lyric I made it about me. When I was 16 and I went out with Krysia, who I still know [she used to run the PSB fan club – Ray] who was fantastically pretty, she really was, and all of the boys at St Cuthbert's could not understand that I was going out with the most desirable girl in Newcastle, because I was this bespectacled poof as far as they were concerned, and people used to say snidey things, actually. The song is really about people being bitchy. It describes me as 'shy, dry and verging on ugly'; that's definitely how I thought of myself. It was recorded with the Behaviour sessions, although it wasn't produced with Harold Faltermeyer.
Chris: We wrote the music in the studio in Notting Hill.
Neil: Then we recorded it with Pete Schwier in the gap between our two Munich trips, at the same time as 'It Must Be Obvious'. It's Chris music, I can tell that. I think I considered it for the album, but Chris didn't.
Chris: I don't like having fun tracks on the albums. I remember driving home from the studio listening to it and laughing but thinking, that can't go on the album. I thought it was embarrassing. I was making sure the car windows were shut because I didn't want anyone hearing it outside the car. When we pulled up at traffic lights I would either turn it down or put the windows up. One of the complications that we should mention here is that with CD singles coming in, you didn't get just the a-side and the b-side, sometimes you ended up putting almost an album's worth of material onto a single. So round about here it starts to get a bit complicated. They're "other tracks".
Ray: Aaaaand this is how I found out Neil was gay. I love the song but aye, it's way too fun for Russian Revolutions, Domestic Violence And Becoming Old Only To Die Soon Album. (Coincidentally, if you're about to turn 30, do NOT listen to the lyrics of "Being Boring". I did that. Big mistake. Huge.)
@Mikey1701: Kylie’s Rhythm Of Love meets Black Box. Laminate my stan card! If this was one of the attempts at recording a “KYLIE” track for the Behaviour track, they succeeded- even if the title is quintessential PSB. Strong enough to have been included on Behaviour and another lost opportunity for an amazing single. The definition of “poppers o’clock”. [Interesting that it would be Chris that wouldn't want it on the album, right?]
@Bleu Noir: this gallops along nicely, I assume its from the point of view of the gay boy who is friends with the hottest girl in school.
@Sally_Harper: This reminds me of Girls Aloud doing I’m Every Woman and I have absolutely no idea why or how.
@TrendyMüller: Amazing! This is Was It Worth It done right [look at that @Mikey1701]
@One Stop Candy Shop: It's decent, but also rather boring.
@DominoDancing: This song is so much better than it's a-side (Where The Streets Have No Name), it's a real shame that the sides weren't switched. I really love how the pre-chorus with its 70s strings flows into the groovy chorus. My favourite b-side from that era! [There's too much material on that particular release. If I were in charge of that CD single, it would be 7" of Streets, THE BLOODY VIDEO MIX FFS NEIL of Seriously, 12" of Streets, Seriously (Classical Reprise). Oh dear, I re-triggered myself AGAIN.]
Indictment mix (bootleg):
another lost opportunity for an amazing single
decent, but also rather boring
35. Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend
7.5777777778
Criminally omitted from Behaviour to become a b-side to "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?"/"Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)" Which Is Really Enough Words To Put On The Back Cover Of A 12" Single.
Highest score: 10 (@Ray, @Mikey1701, @RaggedTiger, @Jóga, @slurmjunkie, @tylerc904)
Lowest score: 2 (@Peer_Gynt10)
Note: We have now entered averages higher than 7.5.
Neil: Inspired by George Michael.
Chris: We can say that now.
Neil: One of us saw a photograph in a newspaper of George Michael and a woman and said, 'bet she's not your girlfriend'. People always assumed that George Michael was gay but we didn't know for sure. When I actually wrote the lyric I made it about me. When I was 16 and I went out with Krysia, who I still know [she used to run the PSB fan club – Ray] who was fantastically pretty, she really was, and all of the boys at St Cuthbert's could not understand that I was going out with the most desirable girl in Newcastle, because I was this bespectacled poof as far as they were concerned, and people used to say snidey things, actually. The song is really about people being bitchy. It describes me as 'shy, dry and verging on ugly'; that's definitely how I thought of myself. It was recorded with the Behaviour sessions, although it wasn't produced with Harold Faltermeyer.
Chris: We wrote the music in the studio in Notting Hill.
Neil: Then we recorded it with Pete Schwier in the gap between our two Munich trips, at the same time as 'It Must Be Obvious'. It's Chris music, I can tell that. I think I considered it for the album, but Chris didn't.
Chris: I don't like having fun tracks on the albums. I remember driving home from the studio listening to it and laughing but thinking, that can't go on the album. I thought it was embarrassing. I was making sure the car windows were shut because I didn't want anyone hearing it outside the car. When we pulled up at traffic lights I would either turn it down or put the windows up. One of the complications that we should mention here is that with CD singles coming in, you didn't get just the a-side and the b-side, sometimes you ended up putting almost an album's worth of material onto a single. So round about here it starts to get a bit complicated. They're "other tracks".
Ray: Aaaaand this is how I found out Neil was gay. I love the song but aye, it's way too fun for Russian Revolutions, Domestic Violence And Becoming Old Only To Die Soon Album. (Coincidentally, if you're about to turn 30, do NOT listen to the lyrics of "Being Boring". I did that. Big mistake. Huge.)
@Mikey1701: Kylie’s Rhythm Of Love meets Black Box. Laminate my stan card! If this was one of the attempts at recording a “KYLIE” track for the Behaviour track, they succeeded- even if the title is quintessential PSB. Strong enough to have been included on Behaviour and another lost opportunity for an amazing single. The definition of “poppers o’clock”. [Interesting that it would be Chris that wouldn't want it on the album, right?]
@Bleu Noir: this gallops along nicely, I assume its from the point of view of the gay boy who is friends with the hottest girl in school.
@Sally_Harper: This reminds me of Girls Aloud doing I’m Every Woman and I have absolutely no idea why or how.
@TrendyMüller: Amazing! This is Was It Worth It done right [look at that @Mikey1701]
@One Stop Candy Shop: It's decent, but also rather boring.
@DominoDancing: This song is so much better than it's a-side (Where The Streets Have No Name), it's a real shame that the sides weren't switched. I really love how the pre-chorus with its 70s strings flows into the groovy chorus. My favourite b-side from that era! [There's too much material on that particular release. If I were in charge of that CD single, it would be 7" of Streets, THE BLOODY VIDEO MIX FFS NEIL of Seriously, 12" of Streets, Seriously (Classical Reprise). Oh dear, I re-triggered myself AGAIN.]
Indictment mix (bootleg):
They/them, he/him
Chris has demonstrated- much like Benny & Bjorn have with ABBA- that his opinions on their music are not be trusted!
Oh bitch no. Somebody hold my god damn weave because I'm about to go IN.
34.
34. Do I Have To?
7.5875
B-side to "Always On My Mind"
Highest score: 11 (@Sweet Music), 5x10 (@slurmjunkie, @Bleu Noir, @etienne, @Farnaby, @Ray)
Lowest score: 4 (@Epic Chocolat, @funkyg)
Neil: The title was suggested by Chris complaining. 'Do I have to?'
Chris: Is that where it comes from?
Neil: That's where it comes from. This is literally at the height of us doing promotion all the time. When we did those Italian things, or our legendary tour of Scandinavian countries in four days... Anyway we'd recorded "Always On My Mind", and Julian Mendelsohn was mixing it, and we had two days to do a b-side, and for some reason I wanted to do a track like David Sylvian. Actually I've always liked David Sylvian. I originally had the idea of writing a song called 'Break his heart, don't break mine', the idea being that someone you're going out with is two-timing you, saying 'Do I have to love you?' It's a really bitter song. I love the way that it's bitter and very romantic at the same time. You're telling your lover what to say: 'say this to them, say that to them, say what you like but you're not finishing with me and that is that'. [I don't know if that's romantic, sounds more restraining orderish to me – Ray] I like the line, 'it's a fatal mistake that you're dying to make' [Yup, restraining order – Ray] I wondered if I'd nicked it from Elvis Costello or Bob Dylan or someone like that. The words were about going out with someone who turned out to have a regular boyfriend. He finally admitted that he did. I made the words of that like me talking to him.
Chris: The bit before the chorus has the same chords as 'King's Cross'.
Neil: Don't think that wasn't pointed out at the time. If we were making it now, I would suggest making it shorter. It faffs about a bit. It was the first time we worked with Bob Kraushaar. Chris wrote the chorus and I wrote the verse. At the beginning, that's Chris Lowe playing the piano live. [...] I once went into a pub and this was playing. I was thrilled.
Ray: I might have mentioned this was the first time I heard a Pet Shop Boys b-side and I was so excited it immediately went to number one on my personal chart. That's how I found out b-sides and 12" mixes even existed. Yes, that's how much exposure to pop music one got during communism.
Obviously we should start with the commentary from @Sweet Music, who gave it their 11:
This was the commentary from @Sweet Music, who gave it their 11.
The rest of you:
@One Stop Candy Shop: Pandemonium Tour demonstrated how this is just a lesser version of King's Cross melody.
@DominoDancing: I've always liked this song, but it repeats a couple too many tricks used elsewhere on the Actually album (the pre-chorus for example is a bit close close to the chorus on King's Cross).
@Mikey1701: I’m struggling to find something to say about Do I Have To which is probably an indication of the quality of the song in my eyes. It’s not a bad song, it’s just not a very good one.
@Sally_Harper: It’s nice, but nothing spectacular.
Yes, but did anybody notice the similarities to "King's Cross"?!?!???!!?????
@TrendyMüller: There are strong moments of King´s Cross in this one.
Phew.
Do I Have To?/King's Cross at Pandemonium Tour:
So that was me losing three 10s in a row. Tomorrow I only lose one, so yay me, I guess. Will the Great B-Side Massacre continue? Tune in in approximately 14 hours!
nothing spectacular
I've always liked this song
I've always liked this song
34. Do I Have To?
7.5875
B-side to "Always On My Mind"
Highest score: 11 (@Sweet Music), 5x10 (@slurmjunkie, @Bleu Noir, @etienne, @Farnaby, @Ray)
Lowest score: 4 (@Epic Chocolat, @funkyg)
Neil: The title was suggested by Chris complaining. 'Do I have to?'
Chris: Is that where it comes from?
Neil: That's where it comes from. This is literally at the height of us doing promotion all the time. When we did those Italian things, or our legendary tour of Scandinavian countries in four days... Anyway we'd recorded "Always On My Mind", and Julian Mendelsohn was mixing it, and we had two days to do a b-side, and for some reason I wanted to do a track like David Sylvian. Actually I've always liked David Sylvian. I originally had the idea of writing a song called 'Break his heart, don't break mine', the idea being that someone you're going out with is two-timing you, saying 'Do I have to love you?' It's a really bitter song. I love the way that it's bitter and very romantic at the same time. You're telling your lover what to say: 'say this to them, say that to them, say what you like but you're not finishing with me and that is that'. [I don't know if that's romantic, sounds more restraining orderish to me – Ray] I like the line, 'it's a fatal mistake that you're dying to make' [Yup, restraining order – Ray] I wondered if I'd nicked it from Elvis Costello or Bob Dylan or someone like that. The words were about going out with someone who turned out to have a regular boyfriend. He finally admitted that he did. I made the words of that like me talking to him.
Chris: The bit before the chorus has the same chords as 'King's Cross'.
Neil: Don't think that wasn't pointed out at the time. If we were making it now, I would suggest making it shorter. It faffs about a bit. It was the first time we worked with Bob Kraushaar. Chris wrote the chorus and I wrote the verse. At the beginning, that's Chris Lowe playing the piano live. [...] I once went into a pub and this was playing. I was thrilled.
Ray: I might have mentioned this was the first time I heard a Pet Shop Boys b-side and I was so excited it immediately went to number one on my personal chart. That's how I found out b-sides and 12" mixes even existed. Yes, that's how much exposure to pop music one got during communism.
Obviously we should start with the commentary from @Sweet Music, who gave it their 11:
This was the commentary from @Sweet Music, who gave it their 11.
The rest of you:
@One Stop Candy Shop: Pandemonium Tour demonstrated how this is just a lesser version of King's Cross melody.
@DominoDancing: I've always liked this song, but it repeats a couple too many tricks used elsewhere on the Actually album (the pre-chorus for example is a bit close close to the chorus on King's Cross).
@Mikey1701: I’m struggling to find something to say about Do I Have To which is probably an indication of the quality of the song in my eyes. It’s not a bad song, it’s just not a very good one.
@Sally_Harper: It’s nice, but nothing spectacular.
Yes, but did anybody notice the similarities to "King's Cross"?!?!???!!?????
@TrendyMüller: There are strong moments of King´s Cross in this one.
Phew.
Do I Have To?/King's Cross at Pandemonium Tour:
So that was me losing three 10s in a row. Tomorrow I only lose one, so yay me, I guess. Will the Great B-Side Massacre continue? Tune in in approximately 14 hours!
You can´t make him happy.
Do I Have To is such an epic track, so dark brooding and atmospheric. Whenever the opening bars start it gives me good tingles.
I just find it too similar to Kings Cross....my brain starts hearing that instead. Inga (Humpe)'s version is lovely, and because of the different voice the similarity to Kings Cross isn't as distracting.
Huh never knew Inga recorded a cover. Turns out it's pretty (and very, very close in style to the Boys) - too bad it's not on Spotify.