#435: Pet Shop Boys, ‘Actually’

EMI MANHATTAN, 1987

I have never been a big synth gal but one of my best friends is. I don’t know if she likes the Pet Shop Boys but I know she loves the sound of metal on metal and all that orb-y stuff. I would never have given this band the time of day without knowing and loving my friend.

Because I love her, I want to know why she loves the things she loves. Loving her has widened my horizons and made me look at things a second time with more curiosity and generosity. 

Now, I relish waiting in long lines in my car so I can lean back and groove to the synth-pop vibes of the PS Boys (as I call them).

This is what community does. This is what love does. It pushes us outside of our little fenced-off neighborhoods. 

The big stand-out story about this album is the song, “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” They wanted Dusty Springfield on the song. The label called her “a nightmare,”  said she was a diva and couldn’t sing anymore. Once the PS Boys reached out and actually interacted with her face-to-face, it became clear that none of the rumors were true. Not only was she generous, but she still had that voice. 

The Pet Shop Boys ignored the rumors and spoke to the woman. They actually looked her in her eyes. This revitalized Springfield’s career and set the duo apart as a group that really recognized their legacy and the importance of contributing to Britain’s musical history.

Over the past couple of weeks, social media has exploded with 140 character damnations or loyalties surrounding Hamas and Israel. It has been incredibly stressful. My silence has been interpreted as complicity by people I love.

Let’s just get real — at this point in the game, I am not into using an app designed to share vacation pics to deconstruct my limited understanding of the nuance of Israel and Palestine. To assume the most extreme and worst things of those not performing on social media is asinine.

It seems we went from saying everything in real life and nothing online to saying nothing in real life and everything online. This imbalance is unhealthy. 

Just so, we don’t get confused about what we are doing here – I’ll lay it out: Genocide is evil. War is evil. My country’s role in every currently reported genocide is evil. 

But Pet Shop Boys are good. They are great. And it is wonderful to find joy and a lil’ groove time in the middle of the horror. 

I challenge each of us, myself included, to seek out real-life interactions and interpret each other’s words with good faith. It may lead to each of us taking a second look at something and finding a little bit of glitter that wasn’t there before. 

---

Top songs: What have I done to deserve this?, It couldn’t happen here, It’s a sin, I want to wake up, Rent