Hey Bro last video i saw a comment saying about a song of brinsley schwarz "the ballad of a has been beauty queen" and ive been requesting that song for a long time bro and i woul like to see your reaction bro
can you react to 2 early Journey songs from their 1st album both are instrumentals this was right after Neal and Gregg had left Santana. "Kohoutek" and "Topaz"
The West End London girls were posh and the East End boys were the working class. This is the English synth-pop version of Billy Joel's Uptown Girl! The Pet Shop Boys were awesome!!
@@roxannemoser I'm not comparing which is the better song, I am comparing the meaning of the songs which was the privileged and unattainable girl who was attracted to the bad boy.
I am married to a very rare specimen...an east end boy who is from a somewhat posh family but was very laddish in his youth...best of both worlds for this girl 😊
I always love and respected Chris Lowe for being so humble and always quiet and cool in the background. It's almost like he shuns the limelight, so cool in his own skin.
Everything about this song is dope. I guarantee you will be never get that line "Oh West End boys a dead end world" out of your head. 33 years later, it's still in my head.
Best part was NO SOCIAL MEDIA🤣🤣🤣!. Thank goodness for that, because my kids think I was an ANGEL as a teen 😇👀🤣. Little do they know. One of my absolute FAVORITE memories was partying backstage with the groups INXS and PIL. My mom's cousin was the bass player for PIL, and I got to meet/see them in SF when they toured together. The experience lived up to many a teen idea about what happens backstage. Again that goodness there wasn't social media 🤣🤣
Including the pervasive classism in the U.K... I always got the vibe that it was a longing for something that you can’t have, and the music reflects that as well.
@@MichaelScheele Yes, but look at Canary Wharf, Canning Town, even Deptford. Not that way at all. Mile End, Barking, & Bethnal Green are exceptions, at least the last time I was in London.
@@TuckertonRR In the USA we call the up-scaling of a neighborhood "gentrification." Eventually the immiserated or their landlords sell out to new money, resulting in further displacement of the underclass. Ones satisfaction with this process is determined by which side of it one is on.
Couple of other 80's suggestions of this type: "It's My Life" - Talk Talk "Send Me an Angel" - Real Life "Wild Wild West" - Escape Club "You Spin Me Right Round (Like a Record)" - Dead or Alive "I've Been Thinking About You" - Londonbeat
When i was in the Navy in the mid 80's we would port all over Europe, and no matter where we were you would hear this track ( malls, clubs,bars it did not matter) this track was HUGE back then in EUROPE!
Pet Shop Boys: "Opportunities" "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" "Suburbia" and more... No, the other guy doesn't say anything. They are the Pen & Teller of music.
This song brings tears of joy to me EVERY TIME I hear it!! The 80s for me were EPICALLY OUTSTANDING!!❤❤❤😊😊😊 All of the 80s groups and bands and Especially the English bands!!!❤❤
Neil Tennant is the singer. Chris Lowe the musician. For years he was like Teller to Penn, never speaking. The Eastenders are working class. The West End is London's Broadway. Posh, cultured, expensive. I was in London a year before this song was released. Every time I hear it is a sense memory flashback to London. Blondie did Rapture in 1979-80. This song was 1985.
"What Have I Done To Deserve This" featuring the late great Dusty Springfield, "Rent", "Love Comes Quickly", "Opportunities", "It's A Sin", "Domino Dancing", "Suburbia", "Left To My Own Devices" and many other great hits by The Pet Shop Boys, brings back so many memories for me. Thanks for reacting to "West End Girls".
Their style is called kitchen sink realism, a style that originated in England depicting every day life usually focusing on the working class. PSB have a rich catalog. Bigger in The UK than America, but well known in the dance club circuit in the States. Reminiscent of another English band that came before them, Soft Cell who had one hit in America- Tainted Love (but more in the UK).
PSB refer to Soft Cell in their lyrics. Speaking of kitchen sink, "I want to wake up" has these lines: I stood at the kitchen-sink, my radio played Songs like "Tainted Love" and "Love Is Strange" As I listened and the words hit my ears I cried sudden tears
@@rogerlie4176 I didn’t realize they had five top ten singles in the States. Still they were huge in the UK, and revered there till this day while being mostly forgotten about in the US.
The actor David Tennant (Dr Who, Harry Potter etc) is actually called David Mcdonald and chose his stage name as Tennant after Neil Tennant from The Pet Shop Boys
The singer, Neil Tennant, was a staff writer/editor for a pop music magazine called Smash Hits around the time this was recorded (and in the US, that magazine had all the lyrics to the top 40 songs; I think the UK version had more substantial content). If anyone should know how to put a hit together, it'd be a guy like him.
And “Talk Talk” is a favorite. And “Such a Shame” and “Living in Another World”. “Live at Montreux 1986” was such a great show. I watch that often. Mark Hollis was genius. RIP 💜💜💜
A song that could have been number one except for its long instrumental introduction. It's still the one of the best young love songs ever. But its really about a married man a few years out still as strongly in love as he was when he was young and dumb.
So funny, I hear as "rapping" now too... But not when it was new. It was so different and seductive... Would love to drive around listening to it over and over...
I was a tiny girl when I first heard this song on an episode of Moonlighting way back in the 80s. I fell in love with it then and I still love this little odd song today. 💚💚💚
Jamel I love the Pet Shop Boys so much that this video inspired me to travel to London. It’s my favorite place in the whole world. I went back a second time to study via college as well as study in France. I wasn’t a West End Girl but that song was clearly in my head! Thank you for all you do!
You just don't know how glad am that I'm you reacted to the Pet Shop Boys. These guys have the most amazing songs even to this day. I have listened to their music since I was 8 years old, in the 80's, in a >800 populated town in West Texas. This is saying a lot about how influential they were and still are. I visited London in 2018 and I was just searching for them everywhere I went. One of my favorite all time bands. Queen, Depeche Mode, OMD....oh so many amazing bands of the 80's, who still are making music today. Thank you for reacting to Pet Shop Boys. It says so much about your character and open-mindedness.
Oh, my brother! You have shot down a rabbit hole here! So many good songs by this duo out there. “Domino Dancing”, “Go West”, “It’s A Sin”, “Opportunities”, “What Have I Done To Deserve This” with Dusty Springfield, and many more.
And here we are on the 80s new wave club culture music. A deep dive into this genre would be very welcomed and worthwhile. I was around when a lot of this music came out and I still find myself intrigued by it. Truly, this is where great music lives.
Love the song, but strangely enough I've come to prefer the Shiny Toy Guns version. The original is still good too though. Really just depends on my mood which version I listen to.
This song always take me back to 6th and 7th grade. I always remember vividly my life at that age when this song was playing on the radio back in the day.
@@elosoguapo8137 How you gonna learn to rap in 1979 when you're white, female, coked up, and you're Blondie? Sugarhill was IT, not much else to learn from.
@@MrRezRising the downtown art scean in NYC had a unique mixing of art, urban music, punk/hardcore, art music, graffiti, clubs like CBGB, The Fever, The Kitchen, Max's Kansas City. Artists like Keith Hearing, Jean Michael Basquiat, Fab 5 Freddy, Madonna, TV soon to be Talking Head's, Beastie Boys, Bad Brains the list goes on and on. It was a mixing pot of culture.
Fun fact, one of the two guys in Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant, used to be the editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics UK and presided over the creation of a lot of their original characters like Captain Britain and X-Men's Psylocke.
Jamel, back then when this came out I didn’t even realise it was a Cowbell that made that sound! But because of you, lately I listen out for it in every song! 😂 Blondie’s Rap was about 3 or 4 years earlier.
The Pet Shop Boys were brilliant, I loved watching them when I was younger.Just ADORE this song. I was in my 20's then believe it or not!! The other guy played on keyboard always.
1984 was the best year of my young adulthood. Went to Germany for 2 years in 85 and would have given just about anything to have lived in London in that time frame. Any song from that era brings back so many memories.
The guy who doesn’t say anything is responsible for most of the keyboard sounds you hear. Blonde was first; Rapture was recorded in 1980 after Debbie Harry met Fab 5 Freddy and others in the then underground hip hop scene.
You're so great... love your openness and appreciation of so many types of music. And your reaction when something stands out and grabs you... just awesome. Take care
We are not old! We are older. We still know great music and appreciate the fact that we grew up in a time with some of the greatest music ever made. Imagine, some of us can still remember when John Lennon and Elvis were still alive! We know there will never be another Michael Jackson, Elton John, Freddy Mercury, Madonna, George Michael or PRINCE just to name a few. No matter how hard they may try. I’m happy that I’m older now, because I got to experience the greatest music from the beginning of modern rock through my mother with the 50’s & 60’s, then the first songs I remember in the 70’s until today and beyond.
We are not old. We get better and better with time. We were lucky enough to have been around during ba glorious time. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Rock on Boomer's Gen Xers Rock on 🤘 🤘
Pet Shop Boys, though forming in 1981, have been consistently been making great dance music with thought provoking lyrics ever since. Last year they released "Hot Spot" which was their 14th studio album. That is an impressive catalog and doesn't even touch a lot of their work released as EPs and singles. Please check out "Adgena" which was released in 2019 and was a biting commentary of the events of our times. Great stuff by PSB already and looking forward to more. Thanks Jamel, for reacting to them and introducing them to a new generation!
This song came out the week my papaw died. I was 9 years old. Everytime i hear it i go back to that night i was awakened from my sleep by my Moma telling me my papaw had just died. I had seen him that night at his home. He was sick. The last thing he told me was “I love you!”. RIP Papaw. I love you!
Jamel, it feels so good to see you bopping to the things we bopped to; songs felt so good in the 80's. Wish I could go back. It's not healthy to live in the past, but today is...... not good. Life was simpler; one on one accountability; no keyboard warriors. Life was REAL.
YASSS!!!! My all time favourite band! I love you ❤ They are also the most successful British duo of all time. They just released their new album last Friday - 40 years in the biz. Jealousy, Heart, It’s A Sin, Always on my Mind, Go West, Domino Dancing, so much !
I love your reactions - you are too cool! This song was one of my faves back in the day and still love it. Gotta love the base, the beat, the vocals, the hornnn !!! Yeah !!!
Not one of my favorite bands but if you stick with them please check out "What Have I Done to Deserve This," which features the amazing Dusty Springfield.
@@mandysmith1756 And "Wishin' and Hopin'" , and "Goin' Back" - like Dionne Warwick and Linda Ronstadt she took other people's songs and made them better.
