13/100 Video - "West End Girls" - Pet Shop Boys (1986)

 

Recorded in one take, "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys originally missed the UK Top 40 in 1984 until re-recorded with producer Stephen Hague. Once slowed down and the story told a little clearer, the single vaulted to #1.

"West End Girls" isn't just another synth-pop song: it's intellectual pop. For me, the song creates a cityscape in your mind. 

The music was inspired by hip-hop artist Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" while the lyrics inspired by TS Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land'. The lyrics recount the class tensions and inner-city pressure in London, specifically how the boys from the East End of London pine for rich girls from the West End.

The street chatter and car horns intro followed by hypnotic synths before Neil Tennant's dead-pan vocals immediately grab our attention. But it's that unforgettable bass-synth hook and cryptic lyrics that keeps bringing me back to live vicariously in the "dead-end world". 

Watching the video as a 17-year-old verified that a much bigger world laid out there waiting to be explored.

When Joelle and I visited London in 2012, I couldn't help but point out the many famous London landmarks shown in the iconic video:

• Waterloo Station
• a No 42 red double-decker bus to Aldgate
• Tower Bridge
• Westminster Palace Clock Tower
• the South Bank
• Leicester Square

2009 - "Love etc." - Pet Shop Boys

Just another big and bouncy mid-tempo slice of synth-pop to brighten up the world.

Just another brilliant day at the office from the masters of clever pop. 

Other favourites from 2009: 

"Did You See Me Coming?" - Pet Shop Boys

"Gold Guns Girls" - Metric

"Sweet Disposition" - The Temper Trap

"This Momentary" - Delphic

"Fireflies" – Owl City

#8. "West End Girls" - Pet Shop Boys (1986)

Recorded in one take, "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys originally missed the UK Top 40 in 1984 until re-recorded with producer Stephen Hague. Once slowed down and the story told a little clearer, the single vaulted to #1.

"West End Girls" isn't just another synth-pop song: it's intellectual pop. The song creates a cityscape in your head. 

The music was inspired by hip-hop artist Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" while the lyrics inspired by TS Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land'. The lyrics recount the class tensions and inner-city pressure in London, specifically how the boys from the East End of London pine for rich girls from the West End.

The street chatter and car horns intro followed by hypnotic synths before Neil Tennant's dead-pan vocals immediately grab our attention. But it's that unforgettable bass-synth hook and cryptic lyrics that keeps bringing me back to live vicariously in the "dead-end world". 

Watching the video as a 17-year-old verified that a much bigger world laid out there waiting to be explored.

When Joelle and I visited London in 2012, I couldn't help but point out the many famous London landmarks shown in the iconic video:

- Waterloo Station

- a No 42 red double-decker bus to Aldgate

- Tower Bridge

- Westminster Palace Clock Tower

- the South Bank

- Leicester Square

Fave lyrics: "Which do you choose. A hard or soft option"

In 1993, New Zealand-based artist Flight of the Conchords paraodied "West End Girls":

#49. "Suburbia" - Pet Shop Boys (1986)

In spring 1986 after hearing the phenomenal "West End Girls", I immediately bought the debut album Please by The Pet Shop Boys. I wore out the cassette.

I grew up in a suburban neighbourhood full of barking dogs and bored teenagers similar to the one the Pet Shop Boys sang about in “Suburbia”. 

Back in the mid-80s most suburban kids I grew up with (including my brother) rebelled with metal. 

I preferred electronic tunes like “Suburbia” and dreamed of leaving the white picket fences and manicured lawns of Dartmouth. I always wanted to move to the city, not just Halifax, but somewhere even bigger. That became Vancouver and is another story.

“Suburbia” pulls me in with a yearning piano melody. The Boys admit to lifting the bassline from Madonna's "Into the Groove", so there's that too. The sample of dogs barking is particularly nostalgic.

The melody may sound somewhat whimsical but the bridge hints at resentment: "I only wanted something else to do but hang around". 

Fave lyrics: "Leeeeeeet's take a ride, and run with the dogs tonight"

An excellent live version from their 2009 tour is worth the view: