只有旅行和藝術可以自己決定

The music for this week is inspired by a conversation.

"Being Boring" is Pet Shop Boys’ single from 1990 album. The song was not a chart hit at that time. But as many Pet Shop Boys songs, it has charm in melody and meanings in lyrics. The title is derived from Zelda Fitzgerald’s quote “she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring.” The song is concerned with the idea of growing up and how people's perceptions and values change as they grow older.

Being Boring (1990 version with 2003 Digital Remaster) => very nicely made black and white music video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMJijbj_zMY

Now comparing original music to the live performance in 2009 when “boys are no longer boys”. The biggest change is: everything is more “human” now, even Neil Tennant’s voice becomes more human.

PSB Live performance in 2009


Don’t be bored and being boring.

Lyrics

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.

‘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.

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,
and I would never find myself feeling bored.

‘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.

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.

‘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 being boring,
we were never being bored,
‘cause we were never being boring,
we were never being bored.

Extended reading:
Dedicated information site for "Being Boring"
Other Pet Shop Boys classics:
Opportunities
West end girls