Posted by The very young generations may not know who the Pet Shop Boys are and how famous they have really been over the last forty years. For those who want a short answer, we could offer some very simple schematic coordinates: there are the 80s, one of the most lively decades ever in music; the 80s means above all electronic pop, born in those years and never dead since then, still today it is the form in which pop is mainly expressed; and anyone wishing to delve into the electronic pop of the 80s will come across the name of Pet Shop Boys almost immediately, as one of the best known and most popular realities of that period. In short, if you would like to discover the names that advocated the new pop in the 80s, you might come across Depeche Mode, The Human League or Soft Cell first. But then Pet Shop Boys would come immediately.
The interesting thing is that Pet Shop Boys are still active. Their latest album, Hotspot, was released in 2020 and the world tour, postponed due to the pandemic, started on May 10, 2022, in Milan. Throughout this year Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe will travel the world, closing the tour in October in Canada. All tour dates are here, with the links to buy tickets next to each date.
Pet Shop Boys Dreamworld Tour 2022 – All dates
It is therefore the right moment to rediscover one of their most classic hits: Opportunities, from their first album Please released in 1986.
Opportunities: the lyrics and the meaning of the song
Opportunities is a sharp song about the consumism and the obsession to get rich, that we can see in many people still today. An always relevant song, which sends a message to those who concentrate all their efforts on making money. As Pet Shop Boys often do when they want to distance themselves from something, in the song they do nothing but impersonate what they attack in the most direct way possible.
I’ve got the brains
You’ve got the looks
Let’s make lots of money
The lyrics continue in the form of an agreement that two parties make, working together and trying to get rich. It is understood that the goal is to unite the strengths of both parties, and to do so by aiming just to success, without worrying about enhancing any particular values on one side or the other. Even if you have an important education, or if you are capable of doing great things (programming a computer, in the 1980s, was like flying a rocket today), it doesn’t matter. This is simply about making money.
I’m looking for a partner
Someone who gets things fixed
Ask yourself this question
Do you want to be rich?You can tell I’m educated
I studied at the Sorbonne
Doctored in mathematics
I could have been a don
I can program a computer
Choose the perfect time
If you’ve got the inclination
I have got the crime
Hedonism and materialism are therefore the targets of Pet Shop Boys’ critique. The song ends with a return to an external point of view, which wonders why so much effort in accumulating material goods, if you then lose sight of the important things.
All the love that we had
And the love that we hide
Who will bury us
When we die?
Small curiosity related to the video: there are two versions, a main one, more “commercial” and suitable for distribution, which you can find here. And a more sophisticated one, which you can find above, directed by one of the most visionary directors of the time, the Polish Zbigniew Rybczyński, a virtuoso of the special effects available at the time, a sort of Michel Gondry of the 80s.
