Released 12 November 1990 Genre Synthpop | Recorded Munich, 1990 | |
B-side "We All Feel Better in the Dark" Format 7", 12", cassette single, CD single Length 4:50 (7" edit)
6:48 (album version)
10:40 (extended version) | ||
"Being Boring" is a song by the British pop group Pet Shop Boys, the opening track from their fourth album Behaviour.
Contents
- Live
- Video
- B side
- 7 Parlophone R 6275 UK
- 12 Parlophone 12 R 6275 UK
- 12 Parlophone 12 RX 6275 UK
- Cover versions
- References
As the second single release from the album, following "So Hard", "Being Boring" was not particularly successful upon release, only reaching number twenty in the UK Singles Chart and being the first single released by the group not to get into the Top 10 since "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" four years previously.
The song is concerned with the idea of growing up and how people's perceptions and values change as they grow older. The title apparently materialised after someone in Japan accused the duo of being boring. The title is also derived from a Zelda Fitzgerald quotation, "she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring".
Rated highly by Pet Shop Boy aficionados, in a 1993 interview Neil Tennant described "Being Boring" as "one of the best songs that we've written", and explained that "For me it is a personal song because it's about a friend of mine who died of AIDS, and so it's about our lives when we were teenagers and how we moved to London, and I suppose me becoming successful and him becoming ill."
The track was originally pieced together in a studio in West Glasgow, where the music for "My October Symphony", "The End of the World" and the unreleased "Love and War" were also done. The track was also played in 1990–1991 Brazilian soap opera Meu Bem, Meu Mal.
Live
In spite of the track's moderate commercial success, "Being Boring" has been played regularly at concerts and is widely considered amongst the greatest, most beautiful Pet Shop Boys songs by fans. Ironically, due to various factors (including it being hard to sing), it was not initially performed on 1991's Performance tour; leading to many fans, including Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses, complaining about its omission. As a result, it was added as an encore late in the tour with the band commenting that it "invariably got the best reception of the night." It has since become a mainstay of their live performances.
Video
The video, the first by fashion-photographer Bruce Weber, totally in black and white, shows a house party and begins with a nude swimmer and a message: "I came from Newcastle in the North of England. We used to have lots of parties where everyone got dressed up and on one party invitation was the quote 'she was never bored because she was never boring'. The song is about growing up - the ideals that you have when you're young and how they turn out".
B-side
The B-side, "We All Feel Better in the Dark" was written around a piece of music Chris Lowe had composed and features him as the lead vocalist. As he explains, "The idea came from a tape I bought from a health food shop round the corner from the studio: The Secrets of Sexual Attraction. The words are terrible. Awful. Embarrassing."
The track proved to be a fan favourite and was performed live during their Performance Tour in 1991. The remix 12" includes two mixes of the track by Brothers in Rhythm.
7": Parlophone / R 6275 (UK)
- "Being Boring" – 4:50
- "We All Feel Better in the Dark" – 4:00
12": Parlophone / 12 R 6275 (UK)
- "Being Boring" (Extended Mix) – 10:40
- "We All Feel Better in the Dark" (Extended Mix) – 6:45
- "Being Boring" – 4:50
12": Parlophone / 12 RX 6275 (UK)
- "Being Boring" (Marshall Jefferson Remix) – 9:05
- "We All Feel Better in the Dark" (After Hours Climax) – 5:30
- "We All Feel Better in the Dark" (Ambient) – 5:20