4.
Neil explains how Che Guevara had been someone 'I'd been wanting to put into a song for a while' and only found his way into 'Left To My Own Devices'
after being shunted out of a verse of 'Domino Dancing' that went:
A threat of distant thunder
The sky was red
And Che Guevara hung
Above your bed
I am SHOCKED at this only getting 5th Place! Could
@DominoDancing really be taking this??
But even
@DominoDancing would have wanted This Must Be The Place to take this!
Oh good.
4. Domino Dancing
9.1486111111
AUS #36 AUT #19 BEL #6 FIN #1 FRA #40 GER #3 IRL #4 ITA #6 NL #9 NZ #9 NOR #5 SPA #1 SWE #6 SWI #5 UK #7 US #18 US Club #5 US Modern Rock Tracks (WHAT) #22 JAP #4
Highest score: 11x1 (
@Peer_Gynt10),
10x14 (
@Scoundrel_Days,
@KingBruno,
@etcetera,
@TrendyMüller,
@JonBcn,
@idratherjack,
@chris4862,
@funkyg,
@SmashHitter,
@etienne,
@Vive Indifference,
@Jóga,
@VeryPSB,
@RaggedTiger)
Lowest score: 6 (
@Auntie Beryl)
Pete Andreas, mentioned later, took the picture of Neil and Chris on the single covers on holiday in Miami. 'I like that the horizon looks slightly drunken', says Neil. 'That's his style,' adds Chris. 'It is on a bit of a slant and I could have straightened it up but I was quite determined it should stay on a slant...the remix sleeve is also on the same slant', says Mark Farrow. 'Again, that's like a Factory sleeve, but rather than finding something really obscure, it was a Polaroid of Neil and Chris. It was presenting everything to do with the record in a very matter-of-fact way.' In keeping with this simple approach, none of the sleeves had any identifying text on the front, their first time since 'Suburbia'. The back of the 7", the reverse of the 12" outer sleeve and both sides of the 12" inner sleeve showed the information read-out from a mixing desk's computer.
In the video, two good-looking young boys lounge in the park and gaze at a beautiful passing girl; shots of street murals and a deserted colonnade can be seen reflected in Chris's sunglasses. One of the boys follows and ends up dancing tenderly with the girl. Later, in a disco, Chris is the DJ and Neil sings as the crowd dances. The boy comes looking for his new girlfriend but she is happy to dance suggestively with another boy and ignores him. In the next scene, the second boy and the girl embrace in a waterfall, passionately. Then the two boys are seen fighting over the girl [sure Jan – Ray] in the surf on the beach, while the girl walks around without a care. 'We wanted somewhere full of really pretty young people so I suggested Puerto Rico,' said Eric Watson. 'I had the bee in my bonnet about women being objects, so I did this thing about this girl older than the boys having them both on. It was a bit like those magazine photo stories, but more stylish. It was the video that everyone liked. [Except America – Ray] Neil and Chris pop up every so often – they were basically sunbathing and every so often they'd turn up, say 'this is good fun' and about an hour later they'd go away again.'
Rolling Stone magazine calls the video “probably the most homoerotic pop video ever made,” citing the slow-motion shots of the boys wrestling on the beach: '(T)he video exemplified the mainstream exploitation of gay sex in the Eighties, most evident in Calvin Klein ads and feature films like “Top Gun.” Unfortunately, “Domino Dancing” was every bit as dishonest, titillating the straight world with images it could never acknowledge, then doubling the repression by keeping openly gay expression closeted.'
Tony Grima, popcultureexperiment.com: 'Aside from the beach wrestling, the moment in the video that most captured my gay imagination comes at the very end, in the shot reflected in Chris Lowe’s sunglasses. As the song fades out, the two young men – the apparent rivals – slowly approach each other near the bonfire on the beach. What exactly should we make of that shot? Throughout the video, whenever the boys start displaying some homoerotic attraction, we see that same close-up of Chris Lowe peering at them through those sunglasses. It represents society constantly monitoring these two young men, to the point where the only acceptable way for them to work out their attraction to each other is by fighting. It’s an actual male gaze being titillated by the physical contact between these young men. It’s a sly acknowledgement by the still-publicly-closeted gay artists who made the song – a nod to those in the know. It’s sort of ominous. And all of that is kind of what it felt like to be a young gay man in 1988.'
Neil: We wrote this in the studio in Wandsworth a year and a half earlier, but we could never think of a chorus for it. We thought it was a bit like 'La Isla Bonita' by Madonna.
Chris: Only in that it's Latin. I love this song.
Neil: We wanted to write something Latino because we used to go to America and hear all these Latin hip hop records and like them. We worked on it some more in a Los Angeles demo studio. We'd just been on holiday to Antigua, then flown to America to do some promotion, and booked this studio in Los Angeles. This guy had a really neat demo studio, and, being imperial, we used to drive over every morning in a stretch limousine. We were working on this song, and we needed a chorus, and Chris went 'well, you could just go like that...'
Chris: Put in another obvious chord change.
Neil: ...and I immediately sang 'all day, all day...' When we had been in Antigua, playing dominoes, our friend Pete would do a dance when he won and Chris said to him, 'stop doing your domino dance', and I wrote in my notebook: 'watch them all fall down, domino dancing'. I was thinking of the domino theory: push one and they all go down. [...] In the song the idea is that someone is so attractive that everyone fancies them, and how difficult it is to go out with someone who's fantastically attractive because you feel jealous. The people falling down are the people she dances with; she's totally bowling people over. [...] At the end of the song the singer has decided it's not working – he's going to tell her to stop messing around or he'll leave.
Chris: We were really pleased with the demo version we did in Los Angeles.
Below clip features TWO DEMOES of the song
Neil: Even though there were no vocals in the verses of the demo, because I hadn't finished all the lyrics at that point.
Chris: We liked all these great Latin hip hop records made by this bloke in Miami, Lewis Martinée.
Neil: He was having all these hits with Exposé. [...] All the musicians on it are Cuban. There's tons of people playing on it. This trumped player came in who couldn't really speak English and he played loads of notes for the solo, and so I said, 'Can't he play the tune, and then halfway through play loads of notes?' and he did that, and it was great. [...] Lewis Martineé expanded it to the twelve-inch version on the album. Towards the end there are lots of edits, all done by hand. You could see all the white sticky tape going past.
'Domino Dancing' was the first new single released from
Introspective and we were very disappointed when it only reached number seven in the British charts. I remember driving back from my house in Rye and listening on the radio when it entered the charts at number nine and I thought, 'That's that then – it's all over'. I knew then that our imperial phase of number one hits was over.
Chris: I was in Liverpool, I think. I remember stopping the car to listen to the chart.
@Ray: My biggest problem with the video was that the guys look so similar I thought there was only one, and the fight is some sort of hallucination, which really didn't give me any homoerotic vibes. As for the song, I love it, but I don't
love love it. I think it's very clever – the curse of PSB, recording pop music which is much more clever than it sounds. I adore the single cover. When I met Neil and Chris for the first time I was deciding what they would be allowed to sign, and I chose Literally (the book). I considered Domino Dancing CD single, but I thought, this design is so clean, no way is anybody scribbling all over my precious CD single.
The 11 comes from
@Peer_Gynt10, who even provides a comment:
It might have been the single that broke their imperial run, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s an amazing song. I already look forward to discussing the video, Neil’s ridiculous assertion that they didn’t intend for it to be homoerotic, and the nosedive their career took in the US because of it. [This was on video and I am too lazy to look it up and transcribe it, but Eric Watson also argues that the straights 'only noticed the girl had big boobs, that was it'. But unlike Neil he admits it was meant to be homoerotic.]
@JonBcn:
I gave it 10 despite the “when you look around your window...” clunky lyric that has always bothered me. Who looks around their window? Look out of it! [This is a great point and I will never be able to unhear it.]
@Jóga:
One of their best known songs in Spain. The middle 8 is just so good it makes me want to rip my skin off and offer it to them. [Awkward.]
@One Stop Candy Shop:
I always found the title so odd as a child, but it's such a summer bop. I really like the video too. That mash-up with Discoteca and Viva La Vida was also very well done, even though I can't stand Coldplay. [I thought 'Viva La Vida' ruined it to be honest, and I like the Coldplay original. Discovery tour had amazing mash-ups, this one, to me, feels forced.]
BRACE YOURSELVES
@DominoDancing: This used to be one of my favourite PSB songs (yeah I know, big surprise),
BUT!!!
but I'll admit it's lost a bit of its shine over the years. I still enjoy it a great deal though, and it interestingly hints at the latin sound they'd dive into a little bit deeper the following decade. The video of course is hilarious in how obvious the homoeroticism is.
@Bleu Noir:
an Exposé 9!
@Mikey1701:
La Isla Bonita on poppers. When Dame idratherjack [I knew this would happen – Ray]
was guiding me through the lads’ discography last year- this was an immediate standout. Not because of the video featuring a homoerotic fight in the sea (although it helped, the thirsty bitch that I am), but because it was so different to what had come before, while also fitting comfortably with those songs. The chorus is undeniable, the production is so warm and inviting, the stuttering breakdown (with added cowbell!) is fabulous and I love the lyric “I’ve seen you dance with danger/wanting more”. I’ve come to realise that the Latin American influences here work much better than those found on Bilingual.
@Future Lover:
What a muthafuckin classic this is. To think that it was their "flop" single at the time.
@KingBruno:
Of course I don’t mind some Latin pop.
@ohnoitisnathan:
I like that they tried different things with their sounds back then, like this. [I'd argue they still do. It's just that sometimes those different things are shit.]
@Sally_Harper:
This is a bit weird, but in a good way. [So like most of us here then. I mean, look at the concept of a rate on pop music forum. That's a bit weird. But in a good way.]
@Heaven on Earth:
This song has all the right foundations to be a truly excellent song, but for me, it falls slightly away from the top. Sometimes you can acknowledge a good song, but you cannot truly love it. My nine is perhaps too high, but sonically, it is very pleasurable. I simply can’t rate it any higher nor any lower. [9 – Ray]
But I must give a special shout out to the great “I thought I loved you, I’m not sure now” line. It certainly encapsulates what I adore about the Pet Shop Boys: that questioning line combined with the poptastic instrumental. Alas, this song’s appeal currently escapes me somewhat.
@TrendyMüller:
Although I was confused that they would come up with a Freestyle anthem at this point in time, I can´t help loving it unconditionally as this is one of my favourite genres.
I only found out what a Freestyle is through this rate, and thank you for that.
Lewis Martineé alternative version:
Official extended video (love those):
And this is filmed on my 40th birthday, apparently, only in Mexico and not my living room:
The top three represents all three remaining albums (and, obviously,
Discography).
