we were never being boring

it’s raining out today and i am relieved by this for some reason. I think it could be because i am relieved whenever something changes. i get antsy. the weather was nice yesterday and it spooked me for some reason.
hey this morning they were testing the fire alarms at 7 AM in this building. is that sooooooooooo cool or what!?
umm i am going to do an Argonauts – Sommertag edit. it is going to be huge, it’s been in my head for the last couple years! last night i worked several hours on Emerald Green – Reach Out and i think it is done. music’s been on the down-low production wise in the last little while as myself and Justin take care of some of the music-label-exec type stuff, but I have a feeling .. you know the feeling when you know you have the creative juices in you because you can feel the change in the air. and it is inspiring.
i am also thinking of doing an edit or complete remix of the Pet Shop Boys – Being Boring. i think i fell in love with this choon and it became a huge part of my credo in or around 1990 — flying high in the sky from Calgary to Toronto on the way to Trinidad. this was the one standout tune that Air Canada was playing on their in-flight radio rotation and myself or Krishen would notify the other whenever it came back on and we’d enjoy the tune as we gazed out over the infinite expanse of the great Canadian prairies. when Krishen took the plunge and bought a CD Ghetto Blaster not long later, his first CD was the Pet Shop Boys – Discography and it had Being Boring on it. we regularly pointed the ghetto blaster out the front window of the kitchen or living room and play basketball in the driveway. i listen to it now and it is really progressive house from 15 years ago. it hard marked, at the time, a departure (surprise surprise) for the Pet Shop Boys from their previous Disco style into a more sophisticated contemporary sound, one which they would take with them and evolve into their trademark sound for years to come.
still hearing the opening pads reminds me of elevating in a plane, clouds and land far beneath and awesome blue skies above. and those pads are in a lot of the progressive house and progressive breaks and progressive trance that i play and continue to produce..
for a lot more information on this track, check out www.10yearsofbeingboring.com. for now, here are the brilliant brilliant lyrics, especially humbling to one who is writing lyrics now:
I came across a cache of old photos
And invitations to teenage parties
Dress in white one said, with quotations
From someone’s wife, a famous writer
In the nineteen-twenties
When you’re young you find inspiration
In anyone who’s ever gone
And opened up a closing door
She said: we were never feeling bored

When I went I left from the station
With a haversack and some trepidation
Someone said: if you’re not careful
You’ll have nothing left and nothing to care for
In the nineteen-seventies
But I sat back and looking forward
My shoes were high and I had scored
I’d bolted through a closing door
I would never find myself feeling bored

Now I sit with different faces
In rented rooms and foreign places
All the people I was kissing
Some are here and some are missing
In the nineteen-nineties
I never dreamt that I would get to be
The creature that I always meant to be
But I thought in spite of dreams
You’d be sitting somewhere here with me

’cause we were never being boring
We had too much time to find for ourselves
And we were never being boring
We dressed up and fought, then thought: make amends
And we were never holding back or worried that
Time would come to an end
We were always hoping that, looking back
You could always rely on a friend

And we were never being boring
We had too much time to find for ourselves
And we were never being boring
We dressed up and fought, then thought: make amends
And we were never being boring
We were never being bored
’cause we were never being boring
We were never being bored

in my opinion, this is one of the best songs ever, by anyone. lyrics in bold changed my life from the age of 12 on. there have been those who have accused me of being too busy or doing too much or appearing to be careless with myself but this is it. this is your life, are you going to be boring? this is why i don’t hold back. everything is made up of these fleeting moments.

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4 Comments

  1. you’re right. this song sums up sooo much.. I really appreciate you pointing it out to me… and the video ROX. I was blown away by its profoundness. A re-mix would be the Kool (capital K to emphasize coolness).

  2. this and “bright young things” are my two favourite psb songs, and that’s from a plethora of favoured psb tracks. psb conspired with harold faltemeyer (sp?) on the album this comes from, many of the synths are vintage analog models programmed patiently by harold and psb, giving all the tracks an interesting edge.
    i love the video too, jamie. i have somewhere an old vhs of psb on muchmusic when they came to the studio to debut the video for canada, when neil tennant says in his proper english voice “there’s a lot of almost-nakedness in it”, to which chris lowe responds in his london burly “uh fink if ew watch ih closfly thehs a nippoh ih it.”
    anyway jamie, i’ll see about getting you “bright young things” through davin, a similarly themed song from a couple of years ago, written by psb for the movie of the same name, but while it was recorded by someone else for the movie, there was a psb version which is stellar, and i think not actually released.

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