| Pet Shop Boys – King Of Rome Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This is without question one of the most beautiful and haunting songs ever written by the PSB. The sadness and loneliness of the singer is palpable as he cries out in despair "Oh baby, come back to me..." The singer is crying out for the love of a lost lover (male or female) without whose love and companionship all the riches of the world are as nothing... The "King of Rome" is a reference to the son of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was crowned with this title as an infant. He grew up amidst stunning material riches, yet died at the age of 21. Neil describes him as "an emblem of loneliness in the midst of wealth"... Neil sounds utterly emotionally prostrated in this song. All the beauties of the world are hollow and empty as he wanders across the world, searching for "his lost magic" (the man or woman with whom the singer cannot live without). The line "Last night I lost a day" probably refer to his crossing the International Date Line, literally losing a day in his travels around the world in his lonely search for the love that he lost... The reference to "Away from Manderley" is less clear. What did he mean by this? Manderley is the fictional estate of the character named Maxim de Winter (from Daphne du Maurier's novel "Rebecca"). The novel (and the film made in 1940) describes a mansion in Cornwall that is burned to the ground and remains only as a ruin... Is this an indirect reference to the death of the relationship which the singer mourns? Was their home named Manderley (this became the most popular name given to houses in the UK)... The grief and pain in the singer's heart is expressed poignantly in the closing lines "I long for your inscrutable face / I hunger for your beautiful embrace..." The singer wants his lover to return... What more can one possibly add to such a raw, emotional cry for mercy? |
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| Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song is about a man from an well-to-do background who falls in love with another man ("and which do you choose, a hard or soft option?") and who struggles to acknowledge that what he feels is gay attraction -- love for another man... I think that this is certainly a good (and entirely plausible) interpretation. I remember when I came out -- how terrified I was, but at the same time how wonderful it felt to stop hiding and to start living; to start being who I really was, and who I really had been all along. That is what this song means to me... PHILIP |
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