from the LP Please, Parlophone Records, 1986Some songs have the uncanny ability to stop you wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, and instantaneously transport you backwards through time to a methodically configured memory from your past. This version of the song was the single that turned the Pet Shop Boys into superstars, but it’s actually a total reconfiguration of the original Hi-NRG version Bobby Orlando produced a couple years before this. From the moment that high-hat begins marching away and the synth comes washing in like waves, my mind becomes cluttered with days long ago, spent at the beach, young and free of responsibilities. There was a clubhouse at the beach near where I lived, with a pool and lounge-chairs, kitchen, etc… They had this little room next to where the men’s & women’s locker room/bathroom/showers were, I suppose to keep bored kids at bay while there parents were out sunning themselves or getting drunk or whatever. Anyways, there was a jukebox in that room, and it was rigged to play tunes without having to cough up any quarters. This was one of a handful of songs I would always play when I was in there alone; swirling around in circles and imagining some adult world I would one day belong to and take part in. The detached vocals and melancholy chord progression evoke inside my mind the waves hitting the beach not far from the jukebox, sand between my toes and getting yelled at later for carrying it into the floormats of my folk’s car with me, the redolence of humidity, saltwater, coconut-scented suntan lotion. Somehow, when I heard this tune back then, it wrapped me in delusions of grandeur and mighty adventure that was out there, waiting for me, around some corner. “Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often? Which do you choose, a hard or soft option? (How much do you need?)” Hmmm, I liked a little of both I suppose…
