Being Boring At 30

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scousepsbfan
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Being Boring At 30

#1 Post by scousepsbfan »

With the 30th anniversary of the release of Behaviour this week, it's 30 years since I first heard Being boring and it has remained my all time favourite song ever for all this time. I still listen to it fairly frequently and still see it as the high point of PSB's output. I still get the odd shiver down my spine at the last verse as it felt like it was written about my life at the time, being 18 and struggling with my sexuality and with an unbearable loss. Of course, the amazing video just reinforces the beauty and sadness of the song. After all this time, I wonder if anyone else feels the same about the song?
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Re: Being Boring At 30

#2 Post by TallThinMan »

It’s a masterpiece. Not my favourite Pet Shop Boys’ song, but top three. I’ve asked for it to be played at my funeral. What better way to go out? I don’t wanna go out.
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onzio
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Re: Being Boring At 30

#3 Post by onzio »

It's healing.
The Onzio on Spotify
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Expressing passion, explaining pain
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Re: Being Boring At 30

#4 Post by scousepsbfan »

TallThinMan wrote: Thu 22 Oct 2020, 8:10 am It’s a masterpiece. Not my favourite Pet Shop Boys’ song, but top three. I’ve asked for it to be played at my funeral. What better way to go out? I don’t wanna go out.
Me too!
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Sage
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Re: Being Boring At 30

#5 Post by Sage »

I always find it suspicious when the official PSB social media reflects what happens on this forum. I'm sure they must be reading our posts. (Something I'm not that comfortable with, to be honest)

Image

There have been a lot of anniversaries like this recently. Think about it, any release has an anniversary every year. I saw a post somewhere about Bilingual's anniversary too.


As for the song having a deep personal meeting, unfortunately I don't relate to this. Brandon Flowers of course can relate. Remember what he says in Live In Pop.
I'm probably in the boat of the initial reception of the track, it's too down tempo and Neil's vocal style isn't really PSB.
With that said it does have a good sort of early 90's madchester sound with the bass and breakbeat.
I re-watched the clip in Life In Pop and they point out the song has the PSB hallmark of joyful melancholy, so I think that's a reason why it's generally considered a good song.

I don't know, I probably view Friendly Fire higher. Even maybe The Performance Of My Life, or Run Girl Run. I find the general consensus fairly arbitrary.
Video I find off-putting with the naked muscly man's ass and generic shots of people partying. I prefer the video for So Hard or What have I done to deserve this?.

The song has grown on me a bit though, it's not bad! I think generally I tend to hit skip because the 92 second intro dries my patience.
Last edited by Sage on Thu 22 Oct 2020, 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Being Boring At 30

#6 Post by rashomon »

Hands down my favourite PSB track.

I think like others have mentioned it resonated with me at the time of release - I was 19 at the time so in that awkward stage of leaving teens and entering a more adult and serious world.

The poetry of the lyrics, the vocal delivery, the melancholy, the video, that electronic harp! ... love all of it. What I also love is that the song remains brilliant whether it's the classic album version, the single edit, the extended version or the sublime Marshall Jefferson remix.

It's beautifully aching and I never tire of hearing it.

p.s. I know it's a weird but I never listen to this song casually in the background. I'd rather stop it playing/switch radio stations - I only listen when I can give it my 100% attention.
you could say conventional ... and I could claim intentional

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Re: Being Boring At 30

#7 Post by leesmapman »

This must be the place... is hands down my favourite track from Behaviour. I'm not a big fan of the album, but I love most of the "further listening" stuff connected with the album.

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Re: Being Boring At 30

#8 Post by Scottydog »

One of my all time favourite songs and it never ages. It’s perfect in every way. I could never choose a favourite PSB track but if I did then this would definitely be a contender. Behaviour was also released at a particularly strange time in my life. I remember listening to the whole album in the dark in my car alone. There isn’t a track on it that isn’t a masterpiece. I love the Behaviour video. The more naked bottoms the better!
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Pod
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Re: Being Boring At 30

#9 Post by Pod »

Being Boring and Behaviour are pretty much PSB perfection for me. This was the album where they ‘grew up’ as George Michael and Depeche had done with listen without prejudice and violator. As a 17 year old, this album and this song in particular spoke to me like no other - still does.
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Re: Being Boring At 30

#10 Post by negative_0ne »

being boring, bores me to death.

but i love the remix, and its one of their best ever.

so there's that.

later
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hotspotnot
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Re: Being Boring At 30

#11 Post by hotspotnot »

One of their best tracks and I never tire of hearing it. I only got into PSB around the time and I would have been 10 when Behaviour came out. The lyrics are heartbreaking.

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Re: Being Boring At 30

#12 Post by Drico One »

Being Boring is art. By this point, they had mastered the trick of producing superior throwaway pop music designed for maximum commercial impact. Being Boring flopped as a single because it wasn’t remotely throwaway. It was still superior (and how), but it was art.

The fact that they were surprised when it entered at 36 instead of, say, 16 suggests that they’d started to lose that laser-like focus on the charts. They’d also made their name, so it was understandable that they would begin to move in more esoteric directions.

To my mind, Being Boring is one of their greatest tracks, but also one of their weaker singles - if a single’s strength is judged solely on its immediate commercial impact. But, in this case, it shouldn’t be.

Artistically, with its gorgeous video, evocative cover art (replete with Zelda quote), thrilling, contrary b-side, and all-round aspirational magnificence, it is a seductive invitation to the fullest realisation of their own hermetically-sealed world and a landmark single that cut deeper and more indelibly than most of its more commercially-successful peers. A triumph.

When your “failures” are this good, you’ve won.

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y3potential
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Re: Being Boring At 30

#13 Post by y3potential »

Drico One wrote: Fri 23 Oct 2020, 2:35 pm Being Boring is art. By this point, they had mastered the trick of producing superior throwaway pop music designed for maximum commercial impact. Being Boring flopped as a single because it wasn’t remotely throwaway. It was still superior (and how), but it was art.

The fact that they were surprised when it entered at 36 instead of, say, 16 suggests that they’d started to lose that laser-like focus on the charts. They’d also made their name, so it was understandable that they would begin to move in more esoteric directions.

To my mind, Being Boring is one of their greatest tracks, but also one of their weaker singles - if a single’s strength is judged solely on its immediate commercial impact. But, in this case, it shouldn’t be.

Artistically, with its gorgeous video, evocative cover art (replete with Zelda quote), thrilling, contrary b-side, and all-round aspirational magnificence, it is a seductive invitation to the fullest realisation of their own hermetically-sealed world and a landmark single that cut deeper and more indelibly than most of its more commercially-successful peers. A triumph.

When your “failures” are this good, you’ve won.

Drico.

Fully concur with you here.. When you observe the top 20 UK singles chart when Being Boring limped in at 36 you can only weep but also realise that it was beyond the grasp of those that were handing over their cash and indulging in Vanilla Ice, Paul Gascgoine and Rod Stewart..

Great to have you back btw.

Now, when do we get your review of Hotspot..?
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Re: Being Boring At 30

#14 Post by Patrick Bateman »

I don't agree that it's one of their weaker singles. I remember the contemporary reviews acclaiming it and it only ever sounded liked the natural second single from the first play of the album - it's got a strong melody, wonderful lyric, cool video and packaging. One can understand their rush to record and release Streets after this because they were still a Radio 1 band who had hits, but in every other respect its relative chart failure, like Love Comes Quickly, only reinforces that the general public are more often wrong than right. In most respects, it's their commercial success that was the anomaly.

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Re: Being Boring At 30

#15 Post by TallThinMan »

Patrick Bateman wrote: Fri 23 Oct 2020, 4:01 pm I don't agree that it's one of their weaker singles. I remember the contemporary reviews acclaiming it and it only ever sounded liked the natural second single from the first play of the album - it's got a strong melody, wonderful lyric, cool video and packaging. One can understand their rush to record and release Streets after this because they were still a Radio 1 band who had hits, but in every other respect its relative chart failure, like Love Comes Quickly, only reinforces that the general public are more often wrong than right. In most respects, it's their commercial success that was the anomaly.
The single suffers from not having the long intro. I was always a bit sad that we never got more mixes of Being Boring. I would have loved a Domino Dancing-style Alternative Mix with no drums and bass.

Also, I'm very pleased that Drico is alive and well.
TIERGARTEN's debut album BREAKING POINT is out now: https://linktr.ee/tiergartenmusic

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