Being Boring

Information Page

First released in 1990, this song was the second single from the Pet Shop Boys album Behaviour. "Being Boring" is about how people's perceptions and values change as they grow older, but it has a much richer, much deeper meaning. It was with this song that the Pet Shop Boys gave voice to an entire generation of gay men who had managed to survive the AIDS crisis. The song's lyrics, which speak of the innocence of hope, the excitement of experience, and the pain of self-realization, helps it to eloquently capture the experience of existing between the hopefulness of youth and the harsh reality of gay life in the middle of a global health crisis that seemed to many to be targeted toward gay people.

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

And we were never being boring
We were never being bored
'Cause we were never being boring
We were never being bored

Written by Tenant/Lowe

Works Cited

A large part of this song analysis was attained from the Pet Shop Boys fansite Geowayne: Commentary, Interpretation, and Analysis of Every Song by Pet Shop Boys. Retrieved from http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/introspective/dog.htm

---