Pet Shop Boys - A Red Letter Day

A red letter day?

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This has quietly crept up to become one of my all-time PSB faves. Such a beautifully written slice of grand PSB-melancholy.
I think it's suffered somewhat from being named 'A Red Letter Day' which is quite an antiquated term these days. I do think it would be better remembered, and probably dusted off more often, if it was called 'All I Want' instead.



Also really into this deep dive into the song from this amazing PSB LOON SITE http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/bilingual/redletter.htm
It's a little long, so I'll spoiler it - but basically explains how the song has pro-Labour POLITICAL implications which totally passed me by at time of release many moons ago :D

One of my U.K. site visitors, however, has offered a most interesting and thoughtful alternate interpretation of the song, one that I can't deny makes a great deal of sense in spite of what Neil himself has said about it. (As I always say, it's the mark of great art to invite multiple sound interpretations.) I can actually do no better than to quote at length some excerpts from the detailed explication provided by this visitor, Oliver Topham:

Back in 1996 when the song was released, the Labour Party had been out of power for 17 years and the U.K. public itself was just waiting for the next year, 1997, for the General Election so that they could vote the Conservative government out.… [W]hen I saw Neil and Chris… on Top of the Pops surrounded in red light and singing, "Go to work and take your calls/Hang the fruits of your labour on the walls," I naturally thought the song was about, amongst other things, New Labour (as the Labour Party had been rebranded).

This was confirmed to me when I saw the video, which was based around the Saatchi and Saatchi advertising campaign from the 1979 General Election for the Conservative Party…. It's of an endless queue of people waiting at an unemployment office. The video cleverly reverts this so that the people queuing look like they're queuing to vote out the Conservative Party at a polling station. It shows people from all parts of society waiting patiently…. These pictures of the British public queuing are interspersed with pictures of the poster in question changed to say "How Long?" "Why are we waiting?" and "Too Long!"
As I said, a most interesting alternate interpretation, one that holds a lot of merit. While I believe it hinges primarily on the video—in much the same way that the alternate "fall of Russian communism" interpretation of "Go West" hinges upon that song's video—it can't be ignored. In fact, it's distinctly possible that, just as they had done to tremendous effect with "Go West," the Boys had very consciously decided with the video to subvert or deconstruct the original meaning of the song with their own alternate interpretation—albeit much, much more subtly this time around. In fact, these two interpretations (the longing by gay people for full equality vs. the longing for a Labour victory in the election of 1997) are by no means mutually exclusive, particularly in light of the somewhat anti-gay stance at the time of the Conservative Party and the contrasting comparatively pro-gay stance of Labour. Lending credence to the "Conservative vs. Labour" interpretation is the fact that, as another of my site visitors has pointed out, the final date that year on which the current prime minister, John Major (of the Conservative Party), could call an election was March 17—which just so happened to be the date on which "A Red Letter Day" was released as a single. PSB Fan Club members were even sent a postcard that simply read, "17 MARCH IS A RED LETTER DAY." As it turned out, Major indeed announced the election that very day. This all seems like much more than a mere coincidence.


Also not related to this song in particular, but I'm always AMAZED 'Discoteca' wasn't released as a Bilingual single. I'm not sure which of the four existing singles I would have switched out (probably NONE), but it's SUCH a PSB standout from that period.
 
The curse of having a career with so many incredible songs is that tracks like this, strong enough to be a key moment in a lesser act's discography, get lost in the shuffle somewhat

Like Christmas morning when you're a kid
Admit you love me and you always did
Baby, I'm hoping for that red letter day

:love:
 
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Yeah, I love it but it's not quite top tier PSBs.

Also surely their worst video ever? Well, after Home & Dry anyway...
 
Special mention to the naturally amazing remixes by Motiv8 and Trouser Enthusiasts (the "Autoerotic Decapitation Mix" :D)

OMG YES! Honestly one of my favourite PSB remixes. The TWISTED backwards Neil vocals are borderline DEMENTED :disco:
(it's also quite tonally similar to many of the All I Wanna Do by Dannii remixes :D )


Don't know them. Diving in now.
 
Yeah, I love it but it's not quite top tier PSBs.

Also surely their worst video ever? Well, after Home & Dry anyway...

Re. the video, explanation from the site I mentioned -

the video, which was based around the Saatchi and Saatchi advertising campaign from the 1979 General Election for the Conservative Party…. It's of an endless queue of people waiting at an unemployment office. The video cleverly reverts this so that the people queuing look like they're queuing to vote out the Conservative Party at a polling station. It shows people from all parts of society waiting patiently…. These pictures of the British public queuing are interspersed with pictures of the poster in question changed to say "How Long?" "Why are we waiting?" and "Too Long!"

POTENTIALLY why this track seems to be resonating with me at the moment :D
 
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If you listen to their video commentary in the Pop Art DVD, Chris is distinctly UNIMPRESSED with this video: "It's just people standing in a queue huh?" Poor NEIL and his LOFTY IDEAS :D

I really love this song, it's really HOPEFUL like a lot of Bilingual.
 

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