Pet Shop Boys Community

The thing about The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On is that it doesn't really go anywhere, and in that sense I agree with them that it's throwaway. I can see why they relegated it to a b-side. On the album it probably replaces Electricity in the sequence/

NotInvisible wrote: Thu 02 Apr 2026, 10:15 am The thing about The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On is that it doesn't really go anywhere, and in that sense I agree with them that it's throwaway.

I always felt it had a cute little story. The lady in the middle interrupts his night, and reality comes crashing in. He's probably asking himself "why am I dancing?" and feeling like he's leaving his old life behind. As she's shouting at him the jungle tempo get's heated, but then she leaves and there is a refrain release at the end... he's still dancing!

Isn't The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On about Victorin?

Tom Angel wrote: Tue 31 Mar 2026, 7:33 pm I agree - one of the standout b-sides that should have been on the album. Their taste in their own songs is often askew.

I've always wondered who the woman skat singing was - does anyone know - she's not credited. I wonder if Neil wrote the lyrics?

There seems to be : International Club Mix (6:09) and Original version (aka "Main Vocal Mix") (5:44)

It's been discussed here
viewtopic.php?t=38754&start=30
I suspect it's Tenaglia

Track 108: Disco Potencial
Chronology: Bilingual, Further Listening, Track 14

Lots of debate about "the boy..." and little about "the view..." Next!

Potential Disco

A dance track in the style of the mid-90s, reminiscent of the Chemical Brothers or the Prodigy. It's perhaps the hardest and heaviest electronic track they've ever made. I personally love it! This song and "How I Learned to Hate Rock and Roll" take you to another level.

Great track. Apparently inspired by U2's Pop era outings which I rather like in U2's portfolio.

Disco potential is pretty dire, one of the very small handful of PSB tracks I would have been happier not to hear.

The boy who couldn't keep his clothes on is the most effervescent and joyous of the south of the border tracks in this era, and yet is still suffused with melancholia for that added piquancy and touch of intrigue. He's a stripper, but is it his clothes or the layers of his life that are being peeled away?

I have always loved the sheer romance of The view from your balcony. It's yet another example of the dominant theme of Neil's post-80s writing, that of romantic sincerity. But when you are lazily known as a post-modern ironist, it's an uphill battle to change perceptions.

Drico.

Disco Potential - quite like the music, don't like the vocal. tbh its very throw away, just them messing about in the studio trying to sound like the Prodigy.

Is this the one they recorded after a night out with Chris Evans? That says everything about that era.

I'd put it in the Top 5 of their worst songs, right alongside "Atom" and "Wedding".

Disco Potential is Electric 16 years early

Easily in their bottom five.

Disco potential is one of the very few tracks I always skip

Track 108: Somewhere
Chronology: Bilingual, Further Listening, Track 15

The boys needed a single to boost album sales and released "Somewhere." Again, a great cover that hasn't had as much impact as Always On My Mind, Where the streets have no name o Go West. It led to the concerts at the Savoy theatre in London and the corresponding DVD.

I think it's a great, high-energy version of a classic song of West Side Story with the intro "One hand, One heart" and the outro "I feel pretty". Love the extended version and love the mixes of Bilingual Remixed.

This was the moment I thought PSB were desperate. I lost interest in them for a while, but it didn't help I went through a rough period myself. No positive associations with that song.