Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[NOBODY75]

They considered One One Make Five as the first single. I'd read that before. But is that confirmed?

Because it really puzzles me

[Drico One]

Track 71: "To Speak is a Sin"
Very: Further Listening, CD1, Track 9

I've always loved this and the clandestine atmosphere it evokes. It reminds me of the film Victim and a world before homosexuality was legalised in the UK. A fantastic melody again.

The second side of Very did seem like a statement. One and One Make Five asks who's that man you've been seen with, then this, Young Offender, One in a Million (Men) and Go West. That's a pretty gay sequence. It was always obvious when you looked at them but now the music seemed less coded than ever.

The second half showcases the last vestiges of the previously-defining tension between ambiguity and disclosure. "Who's that man you've been seen with it?" is brilliantly ambiguous - the question of a rattled heterosexual man to his girlfriend or of a gay man to his boyfriend. The same can be said for One in a million, where it's clear that the one in a million is "me" - not the love interest. But nobody's really fooled anymore. Can you forgive her? and Go West have been released by the time we even start listening to Very. Was it worth it? wasn't leaving too much room for ambiguity either. I remember thinking at the time that this was all fairly inevitable and a natural development in Neil's songwriting. What surprised me more was that some people were surprised by the 1994 interview... I thought the only interesting thing about that was people thought it a statement. Yet, as you rightly say, Neil had been making statements for years. I suppose, subtlety is lost on many.

Drico.

[Drico One]

To speak is a sin is a great tune, but I've always found it grimly depressing. There's a lonely agony to the whole scene, beautifully illustrated by the tourtured backing vocal.

The reference to "sin" always seemed slightly clunky to me in that it evoked their smash hit from 1987. But it probably suited the sense of inevitable, grinding decline evinced in this 1993 song. "We've been around forever..."

It had only been eight years - but it felt apposite.

Drico.

[TallThinMan]

The reference to "sin" always seemed slightly clunky to me in that it evoked their smash hit from 1987.

It’s worth remembering that it was written four years before that smash hit.

[Drico One]

The reference to "sin" always seemed slightly clunky to me in that it evoked their smash hit from 1987.

It’s worth remembering that it was written four years before that smash hit.

That's interesting indeed from this juncture - but couldn't really change my personal and rather narrow perception from 1993: "There's Neil taking about sin again. How very 1987." Of course, the fact that "sin" was such a preoccupation should have appealed to me as a lapsed Catholic. While referencing it in 1993 might have seemed "backward-looking", it really was a common preoccupation - at least in theory - in Catholic life. Furthermore, homosexuality was only decriminalised in Ireland in July 1993 - so this track was rather more timely than perhaps I gave it credit for in the moment.

Drico.

[CroMagnon]

Track 71: "To Speak is a Sin"
Very: Further Listening, CD1, Track 9

I've always loved this and the clandestine atmosphere it evokes. It reminds me of the film Victim and a world before homosexuality was legalised in the UK. A fantastic melody again.

The second side of Very did seem like a statement. One and One Make Five asks who's that man you've been seen with, then this, Young Offender, One in a Million (Men) and Go West. That's a pretty gay sequence. It was always obvious when you looked at them but now the music seemed less coded than ever.

The second half showcases the last vestiges of the previously-defining tension between ambiguity and disclosure. "Who's that man you've been seen with it?" is brilliantly ambiguous - the question of a rattled heterosexual man to his girlfriend or of a gay man to his boyfriend. The same can be said for One in a million, where it's clear that the one in a million is "me" - not the love interest. But nobody's really fooled anymore. Can you forgive her? and Go West have been released by the time we even start listening to Very. Was it worth it? wasn't leaving too much room for ambiguity either. I remember thinking at the time that this was all fairly inevitable and a natural development in Neil's songwriting. What surprised me more was that some people were surprised by the 1994 interview... I thought the only interesting thing about that was people thought it a statement. Yet, as you rightly say, Neil had been making statements for years. I suppose, subtlety is lost on many.

Drico.

See also 'Nervously', where there is ambiguity as to whether the "nervous boy" is just Neil himself, or also the subject of his affection:

"We don’t talk of love
we’re much too shy
but nervously we wonder when and smile
knowing why I approved of you
right from the moment you turned to face me
a nervous boy"

[CroMagnon]

Track 71: "To Speak is a Sin"
Very: Further Listening, CD1, Track 9

I've always loved this and the clandestine atmosphere it evokes. It reminds me of the film Victim and a world before homosexuality was legalised in the UK. A fantastic melody again.

The second side of Very did seem like a statement. One and One Make Five asks who's that man you've been seen with, then this, Young Offender, One in a Million (Men) and Go West. That's a pretty gay sequence. It was always obvious when you looked at them but now the music seemed less coded than ever.

The second half showcases the last vestiges of the previously-defining tension between ambiguity and disclosure. "Who's that man you've been seen with it?" is brilliantly ambiguous - the question of a rattled heterosexual man to his girlfriend or of a gay man to his boyfriend. The same can be said for One in a million, where it's clear that the one in a million is "me" - not the love interest. But nobody's really fooled anymore. Can you forgive her? and Go West have been released by the time we even start listening to Very. Was it worth it? wasn't leaving too much room for ambiguity either. I remember thinking at the time that this was all fairly inevitable and a natural development in Neil's songwriting. What surprised me more was that some people were surprised by the 1994 interview... I thought the only interesting thing about that was people thought it a statement. Yet, as you rightly say, Neil had been making statements for years. I suppose, subtlety is lost on many.

Drico.

See also 'Nervously', where there is ambiguity as to whether the "nervous boy" is just Neil himself, or also the subject of his affection:

"We don’t talk of love
we’re much too shy
but nervously we wonder when and smile
knowing why I approved of you
right from the moment you turned to face me
a nervous boy"

Hasn't Neil said that he wrote Nervously (or at least the lyrics to it?) before PSB formed, at a time when he was dating / living with a woman? If so, I wonder if his girlfriend was aware of the song, and what she made of it?

There's no reference to this on GeoWayne's site though, only to the song originating in 1981 before being honed for Behaviour.

[Drico One]

See also 'Nervously', where there is ambiguity as to whether the "nervous boy" is just Neil himself, or also the subject of his affection:

"We don’t talk of love
we’re much too shy
but nervously we wonder when and smile
knowing why I approved of you
right from the moment you turned to face me
a nervous boy"

Nervously is a masterpiece of ambiguity and self-awareness. Magnificient.

Drico.

[markus]

I can think of three kinds of “sins,” depending on how you look at it:

1. Breaking a rule in an organised religion.

2. Acting carelessly or violating someone else’s rights.

3. Doing something socially awkward or embarrassing.

To speak a sin probably fits into the third one.

When Olly Alexander and Elton John performed It’s a Sin, it struck me that- 35 years later—it’s not always clear what the song is actually calling a “sin.” The Pet Shop Boys wrote it from a place shaped by Catholic guilt, but in today’s more secular world that isn’t obvious anymore. The word sin doesn’t have one fixed meaning now. And sometimes, the way Neil uses it in his lyrics feels like it leans toward the old religious idea of sin rather than breaking away from it—especially in a song like To Speak Is a Sin.


-

[Drico One]

Even the title of "It's a sin" is a masterpiece of PSB ambiguity, prompting the obvious question: "What is this "It" you are referring to?"

Now, it seemed obvious to me at 15 what the sin they were referencing was - but only because of their notoriety (which was, of course, exaggerated into parody with reference to small rodents). The song itself is relatively chaste, implying impure thoughts and other coy deviance. Its great theme is guilt-ridden confusion, which is a massive part of its appeal. Like all great songs, the canvas is blank. The answer to the earlier question is really "whatever you're having yourself." The listener is invited to put the picture they wish to paint together: Insert "sin" here.

So, for me at 15, at an all-boys Catholic school, this "sin" was basically...everything: "Everything I've ever done, Everything I ever do, Every place I've ever been, Everywhere I'm going to." Because that's what it was like. We were born with "original sin", after all...

Drico.

[CroMagnon]

See also 'Nervously', where there is ambiguity as to whether the "nervous boy" is just Neil himself, or also the subject of his affection:

"We don’t talk of love
we’re much too shy
but nervously we wonder when and smile
knowing why I approved of you
right from the moment you turned to face me
a nervous boy"

Nervously is a masterpiece of ambiguity and self-awareness. Magnificient.

Drico.

So beautiful and fragile. As a painfully shy teen just beginning to even vaguely consider the possibility of romantic relationships at that time, Nervously perfectly captured the tension of that moment of ‘spark’ - can I actually bring myself to articulate how I am feeling?

[jasonjohn]

To Speak and As A Surprise are the prominent saxophone solo tracks? Any other?

Probably the most prominent woodwind solos, generally?

[markus]

Track 74: "Go West"
Very: Further Listening, CD1, Track 12

Looking back, 1993 marks a turning point where Pet Shop Boys positioned themselves in direct opposition to what could be described as an invisible nemesis — the combination of bigotry and moral conservatism. In the Go West video, they adopted the imagery of divine gatekeepers, symbolically defending ideals of openness and personal freedom. Their strategy became to “offend the offender,” and the 1994 tour expanded on this through an explicit celebration of Western hedonism. This moment of catharsis, however, also triggered an identity crisis within the band that continued through much of the following decade.

By 2006, things felt more focused again. And when they performed “Go West” in Moscow’s Red Square during Live 8, in front of a global audience, again urging everyone to go west, it also hinted that their nemesis hadn’t vanished but was simply playing hide and seek. Almost as if they knew - the cold war never really ended in 1991.

In the years that followed, that once-invisible nemesis began to take clearer shape, gradually materializing in the figure of Vladimir Putin and the political direction Russia was heading. What had been a symbolic adversary in the early ’90s had now become a visible one.

[Patrick Bateman]

What about the Take That! duet?

[Drico One]

What about the Take That! duet?

Ah yes, the fifth number one that never was, vetoed by Chris. Probably for the best, really.

Drico.