<p>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 …</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>... the first song he ever wrote</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… auditioning for Rocket Records in 1975</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… does songwriting have rules?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;… how Chris Lowe tamed his inner “musical snob”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… rap, Brecht-Weill, Betjeman, Noel Coward, My Fair Lady and the art of “speak-singing”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the decades of lyrics stored in our brains</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the Songwriting Bootcamp that produced What Have I Done To Deserve This?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the essence of melancholy (and the chord that expresses it)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… “the sound of words is often more important than the sense”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… whether Dylan deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… West End Girls and whether to rap in English or American</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the writing of King's Cross, Cricket Wife, Odd Man Out and I Made My Excuses And Left</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… “Robert Maxwell stole my pension!”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… and the “geology of my life” in diaries that one day might make a memoir.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Order ‘One Hundred Lyrics And a Poem’ here: </strong><a href="https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571397891-one-hundred-lyrics-and-a-poem/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571397891-one-hundred-lyrics-and-a-poem/</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>And ‘Pet Shop Boys: Volume’ here: </strong><a href="https://shop.petshopboys.co.uk/gb/pet-shop-boys-volume/9780500027479.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shop.petshopboys.co.uk/gb/pet-shop-boys-volume/9780500027479.html</a></p><br><p><strong>Help us to keep the conversation going: </strong><a href="https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear</a></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>