Pet Shop Boys Community

Are Neil and Chris the only ones credited for this mix?
But what about the female "rap vocals" in the middle section? Did they really write those lyrics, they're completely non-Neilish for that era (he wrote some none-Neilish stuff for CTH but YKWYWW is too early). Or did Helena Springs improvise the lyrics/vocals?
Note that A New Life was co-written by Helena Springs.

I see now that the credits on the 12'' are Tennant/Lowe, but the question stil remains about the writing of those lyrics.

telys wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 10:13 am Are Neil and Chris the only ones credited for this mix?
But what about the female "rap vocals" in the middle section? Did they really write those lyrics, they're completely non-Neilish for that era (he wrote some none-Neilish stuff for CTH but YKWYWW is too early). Or did Helena Springs improvise the lyrics/vocals?
Note that A New Life was co-written by Helena Springs.

This could be a question for the next Annually.
But I think they forgot it all.

The only similar song in this sense is THe Boy Who... with the "Banji" girlfriend tantrum in the middle section. Those are also completely non-Neilish... so one wonders as well, who came up with those words?

telys wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 11:20 am The only similar song in this sense is THe Boy Who... with the "Banji" girlfriend tantrum in the middle section. Those are also completely non-Neilish... so one wonders as well, who came up with those words?

There is nothing wrong if you write a song about a naked boy dancing, the problem is when you try to humillate him, I hate that part of the song but those lyrics haven't been written by Neil obviously.

Nickname wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 12:09 pm

telys wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 11:20 am The only similar song in this sense is THe Boy Who... with the "Banji" girlfriend tantrum in the middle section. Those are also completely non-Neilish... so one wonders as well, who came up with those words?

There is nothing wrong if you write a song about a naked boy dancing, the problem is when you try to humillate him, I hate that part of the song but those lyrics haven't been written by Neil obviously.

Well yes, it's a largely sad song about a closeted guy whose nighttime persona is how he escapes his life. That's the part of the song where he gets rumbled by his partner, who represents the homophobia of the society around him. It's not supposed to be comfortable listening.

It's one of my favourite songs of theirs - this hadn't occurred to me before but surely its themes of nocturnal escape and sex mean it would have been a good fit for Nightlife?

Ramzy wrote:

Nickname wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 12:09 pm

telys wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 11:20 am The only similar song in this sense is THe Boy Who... with the "Banji" girlfriend tantrum in the middle section. Those are also completely non-Neilish... so one wonders as well, who came up with those words?

There is nothing wrong if you write a song about a naked boy dancing, the problem is when you try to humillate him, I hate that part of the song but those lyrics haven't been written by Neil obviously.

Well yes, it's a largely sad song about a closeted guy whose nighttime persona is how he escapes his life. That's the part of the song where he gets rumbled by his partner, who represents the homophobia of the society around him. It's not supposed to be comfortable listening.

It's one of my favourite songs of theirs - this hadn't occurred to me before but surely its themes of nocturnal escape and sex mean it would have been a good fit for Nightlife?

I’d always seen its themes of social dislocation and marginalisation as making it the missing track from Actually.

telys wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 11:20 am The only similar song in this sense is THe Boy Who... with the "Banji" girlfriend tantrum in the middle section. Those are also completely non-Neilish... so one wonders as well, who came up with those words?

I always assumed they were sampled from another record, particularly as the rest of the rough mix is full of James Brown samples. Makes me wonder how they got away with it.

The Roigh mix is a direct descendant of the track “Pet Shop Boys” (the epic records West End girls B-side)

TallThinMan wrote: Thu 18 Dec 2025, 9:02 am

telys wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 11:20 am The only similar song in this sense is THe Boy Who... with the "Banji" girlfriend tantrum in the middle section. Those are also completely non-Neilish... so one wonders as well, who came up with those words?

I always assumed they were sampled from another record, particularly as the rest of the rough mix is full of James Brown samples. Makes me wonder how they got away with it.

The rough mix? Is this one of the versions on the 12" or not officially out there?

trafaelwyr wrote: Thu 18 Dec 2025, 12:06 pm

TallThinMan wrote: Thu 18 Dec 2025, 9:02 am

telys wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 11:20 am The only similar song in this sense is THe Boy Who... with the "Banji" girlfriend tantrum in the middle section. Those are also completely non-Neilish... so one wonders as well, who came up with those words?

I always assumed they were sampled from another record, particularly as the rest of the rough mix is full of James Brown samples. Makes me wonder how they got away with it.

The rough mix? Is this one of the versions on the 12" or not officially out there?

No, it's official - it was on the 'It's A Sin (Remix)' 12": https://www.discogs.com/release/157628- ... HIVEe6rX6w

trafaelwyr wrote:

TallThinMan wrote: Thu 18 Dec 2025, 9:02 am

telys wrote: Wed 17 Dec 2025, 11:20 am The only similar song in this sense is THe Boy Who... with the "Banji" girlfriend tantrum in the middle section. Those are also completely non-Neilish... so one wonders as well, who came up with those words?

I always assumed they were sampled from another record, particularly as the rest of the rough mix is full of James Brown samples. Makes me wonder how they got away with it.

The rough mix? Is this one of the versions on the 12" or not officially out there?

12" remix of It's a Sin, anyone know the significance of Manufactures Property not for sale sticker? Is there any difference to the retail version?

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Promo copy sent to radio stations / djs / journalists, not to be resold or given away for any reason.
We all know that these copies had a "black market" for collectors, expecialky those ones with the "promo copy" printed on them (not stickered).

I always assumed "rough" meant that it was an early mix, "rough" in the sense not polished productionwise for release. But I now tend to lean towards the more edgy sound and the female vocals indicating the meaning of the title "rough".

There are a two basic theories here:
1. Neil wrote the lyrics
2. Neil didn't write the lyrics
If 2 then who wrote the lyrics: 1. Helena Springs 2. Shep Pettibone 3. Somebody else. 3 - doesn't seem plausible.
1 is the most obvious choice. Helena was by 1987 an accomplished songwriter. She co-wrote 19 songs with Bob Dylan (damn, that's cool!). She is American and the "rough" lyrics are very americanish. The "rough" lyrics give an improvised impression.
Furthermore, there are no other lyrics by Neil sounding like this at this stage in their career.

This is a 'rough transcript' of the extra lyrics:
'Hey, you. You know where you went wrong
My father knows where you went wrong, my mother knows where you went wrong, and I know
You went wrong and you’ve done wrong
You can take that television that doesn’t work
That dog that every night goes berserk
All that Cheap perfume and that jewelry that you gave me
They ain’t worth a dime and get on on highway 109
‘cause you’ve been playing your song, too long.'

I can give you that the lines: 'You can take that television that doesn’t work, That dog that every night goes berserk' might be neilish but not the other stuff.
From the wiki article about Helena we get the information that the songwriting collaboration with Dylan started with him playing something on the guitar and asked her to sing something to the chords/tune. That setup is basically what we might have with the Rough mix. "Oh Helena, sing something over this instrumental break here".
Now are these additions enough to warrant a co-writing credit. Well, perhaps not the first three line but I would definately say the other lines are a co-write.

So my hypothesis is that based on Helena's songwriting skills and experience and the nature of the lyrics and singing style there are at least circumstantial evidence that Springs wrote this part but did not receive a credit. Perhaps because this was a remix hidden on obscure releases that weren't in the "public eye".