Not less than 3 songs by Pet Shop Boys in this week’s compilation, a nice live performance by Heaven 17, a great video by The Specials and some uplifting stuff as well.
In the Night was first released as a b-side to the first ever Pet Shop Boys single, “Opportunities”. It is also present as an extended mix on the Pet Shop Boys album “Disco” – their second album, with remixes of songs from the first album and a couple of b-sides.
Lyrically, it is an interesting song, inspired by the book Paris in the Third Reich: A History of the German Occupation, 1940-1944 by historian David Pryce-Jones (1981). Find out more here: http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/alternative/inthenight.htm
Heaven 17 – “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” was from their debut album “Penthouse and Pavements”, and was actually banned by the BBC, which of course just makes it much more interesting.
The Specials – Ghost Town was released in 1981 when riots were common around in England. This song was a great example of social commentary.
The Dictator Decides
No proper video for this song, but you can find it live on the blu-ray / DVD “Inner Sanctum” from 2019. I lovely song about a sad dictator; with descriptions that could fit many of today’s evil men.
“It was a whimsical idea of a dictator like Kim Jong-un of North Korea or Assad in Syria and he’s inherited this job and thinks it’s rubbish because he would really like to go off in his private jet,” he recalled to The Sun. “He’d give it all up and there’d be democracy and everyone would be happier.”
And now for some easier material:
Sparks – The Girl is Crying in Her Latte
We just love their new video – and the song is just very cool and Sparksy.
Alphaville / Schiller – Summer in Berlin
We have a huge collection of Alphaville albums at home, and we’ve seen several concerts with Schiller (admittedly, he was much more interesting 10-15 years back than now). Schiller very often works with different singers and artists, and this version of Summer in Berlin is just brilliant, both musically and as a video.
Pet Shop Boys – Living in the Past
This brand new song by the epic duo is hard to mistake – it is about Putin. This is not an official video, but we thought it was very nice put together. It works very well with the song, describing the hostile, belligerent, dogmatic and worthless character of Russia’s leader.
As a nice little curiosity, I found this incredible list on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ylKyDB3FG7ILtj9Zv8Uic
Not familiar with too many of these, but as long as they annoy Trump (and probably thereby his supporters) its worth a good listen.