Neil Tennant revisits songs he’s written since the age of nine

Neil Tennant co-wrote a musical at Primary School and soon decided that “learning other people’s songs was hard work compared with making up your own”. He’s chosen some from the Pet Shop Boys’ 40-year catalogue, hits and obscurities, in ‘One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem’, just out in paperback, and added fascinating notes about their context and composition. This very funny and revealing conversation lands on the following … ... the first song he ever wrote … auditioning for Rocket Records in 1975 … does songwriting have rules?  … how Chris Lowe tamed his inner “musical snob” … rap, Brecht-Weill, Betjeman, Noel Coward, My Fair Lady and the art of “speak-singing” … the decades of lyrics stored in our brains … the Songwriting Bootcamp that produced What Have I Done To Deserve This? … the essence of melancholy (and the chord that expresses it) … “the sound of words is often more important than the sense” … whether Dylan deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature … West End Girls and whether to rap in English or American … the writing of King's Cross, Cricket Wife, Odd Man Out and I Made My Excuses And Left … “Robert Maxwell stole my pension!” … and the “geology of my life” in diaries that one day might make a memoir. Order ‘One Hundred Lyrics And a Poem’ here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571397891-one-hundred-lyrics-and-a-poem/ And ‘Pet Shop Boys: Volume’ here: https://shop.petshopboys.co.uk/gb/pet-shop-boys-volume/9780500027479.htmlHelp us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.