Pet Shop Boys "It's A Sin"

Like most everyone else, I sat up and took notice of the Pet Shop Boys when they hit the scene with "West End Girls." The song is a classic for a reason, but I was in fourth grade when it came out, so I was still very young and undeveloped when it came to my music tastes.

"It's A Sin" came out in the summer of 1987, between my middle school years, and it was during this time that I was establishing my own likes/dislikes beyond my parents, the formation of my own sense of identity was really picking up steam. I don't know if the song was playing somewhere of if it just popped into my brain at the time, but I have a distinct core memory of walking into my eighth-grade science class with this song on my mind.

Why?

Because I was 10 when their first hit song came out, and I admit I was not familiar with others they released, but "It's A Sin," with its explosive beginning, myterious voiceover of "20 seconds and counting...", and lightning strikes really grabbed my attention. This was also the nascent beginning of my drift away from the faith I had know my whole life, so I still had (and continue to experience) a fair amount of Catholic guilt.

Hearing that everything the song's narrator had done had been a sin, well, that intrigued me. It's only as I got older than I realized that this entire song is an allegory for the queer experience, but that subtlety was lost upon my 13-year-old ears. In fact, I always assumed the "Father forgive me..." line was speaking to a member of the clergy, and perhaps that's how it was written, but looking back this could be a young Neil talking to his father.

Regardless of the focus, the song spoke to me, despite the fact that I was not a gay teen. I've always been in touch with my feminine side, and have always had a certain amount of defiance in my nature. If anything, this song is defiant and I hear it less of an apology and more of a statement of "this is who I am, accept it or don't."

I'm listening to it again right now as I write this and I am again in middle school going to that science class, smiling at the thought of this song.

What can I say, this track is fire!

Enjoy!