Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[daveid]

Wow! I’m surprised that few people don’t like Jack the Lad. One of my all-time favorite PSB B-sides ever. I love the piano riff, the orchestral stabs, lyrics, vocals… I guess everything.

Not to mention the rearrangement of Satie's Gymnopédie №1, which the song is based on!

Blimey, so it is. I either didn't know this or had forgotten. For me JtL is one of the best b sides from the 85/6 era, maybe third best. It has a melancholy beauty and a more polished feel than earlier B sides.

[telys]

It's a beautiful song... the melody at "don't let them try to restrain you..." is one of their best. And the lyrics are great, a perfect Neil story... one of those history stories he's so good at. To mention a few:

In The Night
Jack The Lad
Don Juan
October Symphony
Up Against It
The Resurrectionist
Auf Wiedersehen

The other part of Neil's lyrical world I like is the urban jungle (sorry for the Stones quote), like West End girls...
The third lyrical world I like is the political commentary/protest song, like Shopping, On Social Media
What I don't like are the lyrics about sex, even though the music sometimes is so good that I don't bother, like We All Feel Better... As an AC/DC-fan I am aware how an artist can get away with tacky/crappy/indecent/cringy lyrics when they're set to great music.

"Jack the lad" is I'm certain as evidenced by Neil's clever wordplay in other contexts, a sexual double entendre...

Hang on.... do you mean "jack" as in... aha, now I get it. Took a few years, to say the least.

[leesmapman]

Hang on.... do you mean "jack" as in... aha, now I get it. Took a few years, to say the least.

I just got it too...

[daveid]

Neil would say he hadn't realised the double entendre a la So hard and Did you see me coming?. We're a much more sex-obsessed culture since the internet and social media took off so look for suggestions everywhere, rather like McCarthy saw communists in his cornflakes and DNA magazine sees gay references in every song.

[tottenhammattspurs]

As Said by Neil himself :- Sade meets PSB.

[Sandy Shaw]

As Said by Neil himself :- Sade meets PSB.

He's a smooth operator...

[jasonjohn]

deleted

[y3potential]

As Said by Neil himself :- Sade meets PSB.

He's a smooth operator...

No need to ask...

[Drico One]

Track 16: Paninaro

Chronology: Please, Further Listening, Track 13

Oh-oh-oh!

If Please is the PSB manifesto, Paninaro is their statement of intent. For the following four decades, they would regale us with tales of passion, love, sex, and money. By now, Violence had already been covered. Religion would get its due on Actually - and how. Injustice has been a constant companion, while death has always stalked us, from King's Cross, Your funny uncle, Being boring, and Dreaming of the queen to Fundamental, Elysium, and beyond.

Paninaro encapsulates their attitude. "Don't like much really, do I? But what I do like I love passionately" says everything.

The remake in 1995 is worthwhile in its own right.

Drico.

[Neilatrone]

Love Paninaro, especially live.

[Patrick Bateman]

I always felt like Paninaro elevated PSB above their peers. Can you imagine Vince Clarke doing a similar thing? It's such a cool track and the Disco mix still sounds incredible.

[TallThinMan]

You can’t really go wrong with timpani.

The first time I heard ‘Paninaro’ was when a mate lent me an unlabelled cassette copy of ‘Disco’. At first I thought it was a remix of ‘It’s a Sin’ because the first three chords are the same! Then I had no idea what Paninaro meant.

[Pinhead44]

WHICH PSB 'B-SIDE' IS ALSO THE ONLY TRACK THEY HAVE EVER RELEASED ON TWO SEPERATE OCCASIONS AS AN 'A-SIDE', AND CAN'T BE FOUND ON ANY OF THEIR STUDIO ALBUMS ?

PANINARO OH OH OH

The Disco version (Italian Remix) is the definitive version here. The intro is just goose-bumps amazing ! I still remember hearing that high pitched synth melody for the first time and thinking 'WOW' !

Blessed to have seen them perform it live, the second time I went to the Dreamworld show, after they had added it to the set-list.

[D.J.]

Paninaro Italian Remix has always been one of my favorite PSB songs ever. It’s such a hypnotic song and I love all the sounds in it. I’ve particularly been obsessed with that one squeaky sound they repeatedly use in this song for almost 40 years now.

[daveid]

Paninaro Italian Remix has always been one of my favorite PSB songs ever. It’s such a hypnotic song and I love all the sounds in it. I’ve particularly been obsessed with that one squeaky sound they repeatedly use in this song for almost 40 years now.

Isn't that just a vocodered voice?