Interpretation and analysis of songs written or performed by Pet Shop Boys(geowayne.com)
geowayne.com
Interpretation and analysis of songs written or performed by Pet Shop Boys
http://www.geowayne.com/psbhtml.htm
37 comments
... and here's the Fairlight in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0mF9soHA8M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0mF9soHA8M
Which one is it? I see a Yamaha DX1, an EMU emulator II and Technics PX.
There are some screens that look like Fairlight control screens. Is the Fairlight used for the background drums and base etc?
There are some screens that look like Fairlight control screens. Is the Fairlight used for the background drums and base etc?
2 Fairlight CMI's in the background behind Chris Lowe:
The off-white CPU units are immediately to the lower right of the video-wall, then to the right of them, you can see the same light colored musical keyboards, one on top of the other. On the top one you can see the 2 QWERTY keyboards (black case white keys) in front of their green screen monitors.
Saying "in action" may have set expectations a little high ;)
The off-white CPU units are immediately to the lower right of the video-wall, then to the right of them, you can see the same light colored musical keyboards, one on top of the other. On the top one you can see the 2 QWERTY keyboards (black case white keys) in front of their green screen monitors.
Saying "in action" may have set expectations a little high ;)
It’s pretty remarkable that they attempted to perform this live. Fairlight CMIs weren’t exactly renowned for their reliability.
As legend has it, there were several mishaps during setup and the gear wasn’t working until minutes before the performance (and what they had was completely bodged together). This may explain why they look so nervous during the start.
As legend has it, there were several mishaps during setup and the gear wasn’t working until minutes before the performance (and what they had was completely bodged together). This may explain why they look so nervous during the start.
Really the only review that matters for most of us casuals:
http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/please/westendgirls.htm
Surely you meant http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/very/gowest.htm ?
This should not be a debate.
Take a note from the pet shop boys: they never argue.
They also never calculate the currency they spend.
Take a note from the pet shop boys: they never argue.
They also never calculate the currency they spend.
I feel honor-bound to correct your typo where you meant to post http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/actually/sin.htm
Not in the US (as is even mentioned on that page).
This song is transcendent in so many ways.
Actually, what matters is "Rent".
Pun intended and all... :)
I’m a big PSB fan. Their subversive mix of clever lyrics, dark humor, and leftist politics under the veneer of highly commercial pop and dance music has long appealed to me. I’ve also been a long time visitor to this site. I can always count on it for thought-provoking and insightful analysis of their work. Design-wise, the site is a delightful throwback to the uncomplicated and messy glory days of the web in the early 2000s.
It’s worth nothing PSB is still going strong. They continue to release new and interesting material and tour the world. I saw them twice in 2022 when they were co-headlining with New Order and they haven’t lost a step after all these decades.
It’s worth nothing PSB is still going strong. They continue to release new and interesting material and tour the world. I saw them twice in 2022 when they were co-headlining with New Order and they haven’t lost a step after all these decades.
Finally got to see the Pet Shop Boys live a few years back and they put on a great show. If you took a survey of the biggest influences on electronic music acts of the early 2000s, my guess is that Depeche Mode and the Pet Shop Boys would be at or near the top of the list.
Surely there have been (lots) more than 800 visits to this site since March 2001! Love the counter though!
Wow, I remember reading this site over twenty years ago. It’s neat that both PSB and this fan site are still going strong.
There was a time around 1994-96 when almost every website was like this: dense, tightly focused, produced by someone with an amateur passion for the topic.
Today it seems that content in that mold is much more likely to be walled inside social media sites, shared with relatively small like-minded groups.
There was a time around 1994-96 when almost every website was like this: dense, tightly focused, produced by someone with an amateur passion for the topic.
Today it seems that content in that mold is much more likely to be walled inside social media sites, shared with relatively small like-minded groups.
Today, the info would be in wikia packed with ads/autplaying videos, or maybe a discord that is impossible to find.
I searched "Pet shop boys go west" in google, and this page was below the fold, despite me having just visited it. Ahead of it was a bunch of videos (ok), lyrics pages (I only need one), a wikia page, a few ways to buy the album, two (!) different links to quora, and a bunch of ways to stream the song.
I dunno if this site has poor SEO or these other sites are gamifying it. The quora links really baffled me, and I'm surprised at just how many different streaming/lyrics sites popped up before I got to a different type of useful info.
I searched "Pet shop boys go west" in google, and this page was below the fold, despite me having just visited it. Ahead of it was a bunch of videos (ok), lyrics pages (I only need one), a wikia page, a few ways to buy the album, two (!) different links to quora, and a bunch of ways to stream the song.
I dunno if this site has poor SEO or these other sites are gamifying it. The quora links really baffled me, and I'm surprised at just how many different streaming/lyrics sites popped up before I got to a different type of useful info.
Google has sharply deranked this type of webpage. I used to run a similar kind of thing and I went from #2-3 to #100 something. (Which means that most of the time it won't come up at all anymore.) The results are absolutely packed with wikias, blogspam, and ebay type stuff. I really miss the old web. This type of content is great.
I obviously have no idea how Google works but I do wonder if it's because they don't index like they use to, so rich content can't be evaluated as such. For example, HN comment pages are typically in the "index", in that you can get them to turn up in a search, but you'll find that +"exact quote from comment" will return 0 results. It's as if Google doesn't care much what the page is actually about.
I obviously have no idea how Google works but I do wonder if it's because they don't index like they use to, so rich content can't be evaluated as such. For example, HN comment pages are typically in the "index", in that you can get them to turn up in a search, but you'll find that +"exact quote from comment" will return 0 results. It's as if Google doesn't care much what the page is actually about.
Those sites are still being made. You just do not find them with google. Maybe it is time to bring back curated lists and web rings.
Along the same vein: https://blog.kagi.com/small-web
> It’s neat that both PSB and this fan site are still going strong.
As legit bearers of the "great white-nerd hope" crown, Pet shop boys never where small in Europe, but they were clearly too much for US. not only gay, but (their worse sin) too much focused in politics and history (socialist history) to be accepted.
In the game of writing catchy songs that are well crafted and don't feel stupid, still can beat most of the current pop stars with both hands tied back. They still show the cool factor here and there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooIWFjD-Y84
Or even better: the magnificient Love Comes Quickly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EuS9iJsdRw
As legit bearers of the "great white-nerd hope" crown, Pet shop boys never where small in Europe, but they were clearly too much for US. not only gay, but (their worse sin) too much focused in politics and history (socialist history) to be accepted.
In the game of writing catchy songs that are well crafted and don't feel stupid, still can beat most of the current pop stars with both hands tied back. They still show the cool factor here and there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooIWFjD-Y84
Or even better: the magnificient Love Comes Quickly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EuS9iJsdRw
Maybe it was too much for your part of the US, but on Long Island in the early 80s, WLIR played them all the time.
New York is the epitome and antithesis of the US simultaneously.
Them being popular in NY is not at all surprising.
Them being popular in NY is not at all surprising.
I’ve seen them live both in the US and several times in Europe. In Europe they are completely mainstream playing large venues in front of evenly mixed gender audiences, whereas when I saw them in the US the venue was much smaller and the audience seemed to consist mostly of men.
I talked to a straight house DJ two decades ago who said that he felt compelled to throw in the occasional PSB remix, among a few other artists, just to maintain the gay following without which no DJ’s career would flourish in clubland. At a time when house music still had this “underground”, “play the music you love” aura, it definitely showed how mercenary set programming could be.
Is sad that they are tagged as a "gay group" now, when the first three albums were simply two nerds doing insanely catchy, state-of-the-art, electronic pop that everybody loved. This ruins the experience a little probably.
> Is sad that they are tagged as a "gay group" now, [...] This ruins the experience a little probably.
It's not so tragic. Being into a "gay group" in the 90s gave one the ability to signal a common interest while retaining deniability.
It's not so tragic. Being into a "gay group" in the 90s gave one the ability to signal a common interest while retaining deniability.
And what's wrong with being a "gay group"? Why is that "a shame?"
I mean, you don't get any gayer than this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IXuRCeQKOg
I've seen both Liza and the Boys in concert (and I've seen Follies!) but sadly not at the same time.
I mean, you don't get any gayer than this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IXuRCeQKOg
I've seen both Liza and the Boys in concert (and I've seen Follies!) but sadly not at the same time.
Is not a shame (currently, in the 80's it was a different history), but you can reduce your scope and alienate part of your potential audience.
Pet Shop Boys often write deceptively simple lyrics with a lot of hidden context. Without webs like this page, most of the context, can fly over the radar for non gay people, and the same song, referenced locations etc, will mean also different things to non UK people. Kings Cross is just a song about a train station, Right? If you force the context as gay by default, some songs turn much more clear, but also smaller, less universal, and less accessible to non gay people.
But we talk also about a group that have strong links with computers and nerd life. Computer graphics in the Liberation video for example were notable for a 90's videoclip. nobody was doing that in pop. They even appear in the Tetris film
Pet Shop Boys often write deceptively simple lyrics with a lot of hidden context. Without webs like this page, most of the context, can fly over the radar for non gay people, and the same song, referenced locations etc, will mean also different things to non UK people. Kings Cross is just a song about a train station, Right? If you force the context as gay by default, some songs turn much more clear, but also smaller, less universal, and less accessible to non gay people.
But we talk also about a group that have strong links with computers and nerd life. Computer graphics in the Liberation video for example were notable for a 90's videoclip. nobody was doing that in pop. They even appear in the Tetris film
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I admire the guy's dedication in doing the analysis for each and every song in the band's discography. Despite music's enduring popularity, music "scholarship" seems pretty rare outside of the odd coffee-table book.
I remember in the web 1.0 days, I used to browse similar sites where fans would submit interpretations of lyrics from artists like Tool or System of a Down. I miss those sites. Lyrics are easier than ever to find online now, but not so much if you want to figure out what the song actually means.
I remember in the web 1.0 days, I used to browse similar sites where fans would submit interpretations of lyrics from artists like Tool or System of a Down. I miss those sites. Lyrics are easier than ever to find online now, but not so much if you want to figure out what the song actually means.
Most lyric sites were ultimately supplanted by Genius, which does allow users to annotate lyrics and explain what is meant. Originally Genius was focused on hip-hop and its often arcane lyrics, but it has long since expanded to every popular-music genre. And before Genius there was songmeanings.com, which contains a great deal of commentary on rock and pop which has still not found its way to Genius.
With regard to music scholarship dealing with popular music genres, there are popular book series like 33-1/3, scholarly monograph series like Ashgate’s Popular and Folk Music Series and Bloomsbury’s Ex:Centrics, and articles in the various musicological journals. Obviously the more erudite the artist, the more likely he/she will draw attention from scholars (which is why David Bowie and Kate Bush, for example, have been researched more than most pop musicians). But still, there may be more out there on your own favourite artists than you think.
With regard to music scholarship dealing with popular music genres, there are popular book series like 33-1/3, scholarly monograph series like Ashgate’s Popular and Folk Music Series and Bloomsbury’s Ex:Centrics, and articles in the various musicological journals. Obviously the more erudite the artist, the more likely he/she will draw attention from scholars (which is why David Bowie and Kate Bush, for example, have been researched more than most pop musicians). But still, there may be more out there on your own favourite artists than you think.
That's a pity. It's easy for a smart firm to take over a space like this, but in doing so it kills all the lesser fan-driven versions. The latter are labors of love and vary widely in quality, but I'm not sure that a homogenized platform-product is superior.
They Might Be Giants has a fan wiki with all of that stuff, aptly named "This Might Be a Wiki", which makes sense given the kind of fans the band has.
Another super nerd, super original group, but in this case with a much minor fanbase. Basically a minoritary cult group. The TMBG wiki will deserve a look. Thanks
I've had good success with https://songmeanings.com/
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https://synthroom.com/fairlight-cmi/psb-fairlight-disks/