Home > Actually >

Rent

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1987
Original album - Actually
Producer - Julian Mendelsohn
Subsequent albums - Discography, Concrete, PopArt, Smash
Other releases - 1987 single (UK #8)

Undoubtedly one of the most controversial songs ever written by the Boys, yet also one of their most frequently covered. Commonly viewed as a narrative by a "rent boy" (British slang for a male prostitute), Neil has directly denied this interpretation, stating that he wrote the lyrics from a female viewpoint. (Indeed, Liza Minnelli later covered this song on her Results album.) Then again, in his essay "Queen Theory: Notes on the Pet Shop Boys" (published in the 2002 critical anthology Rock Over the Edge), British scholar and critic Ian Balfour claims that an early, unreleased version contained such pointed allusions to Elton John's alleged and refuted dealings with rent boys that our heroes felt the need to rewrite the lyrics to avoid legal difficulties. Neil and Chris, however, told Chris Heath (as related in his book Pet Shop Boys, Literally) that they had changed some lyrics specifically to prevent people from thinking the song was about Elton since, in fact, it wasn't. That being said, in an April 2007 interview on the British TV program Hardtalk Extra, Neil conceded that he and Chris quite enjoyed being "provocative" with the title, which, as he put it, "obviously came from the phrase 'rent boy.'" So the ambiguity was consciously "built in" from the very start.

Whatever the case, the lyrics focus on the narrator's mixed feelings about being "kept" by the person with whom s/he is in love. Alternatingly mercenary and tender, the song invites the listener to share these mixed feelings, blurring the moral lines between sexual and financial arrangements. Released as the third single from Actually and a major hit in Britain and elsewhere, "Rent" wasn't even offered as a single in the U.S., probably because the Boys and/or their record company realized how misunderstood it would be.

One site visitor, incidentally, has offered an extremely novel take on the song, interpreting it from the perspective of Chris and Neil directly addressing their record-buying listeners. After all, they have good reason to love us since, at least in a manner of speaking, we do pay their rent. Personally, I don't at all think that's what this song is about—there are too many lyrical references that don't fit the scenario—but you can't deny the basic appeal of the concept.

An interesting sidenote is that the Boys had originally recorded "Rent" as a faster "HI-NRG" track but decided to scrap it for this comparatively staid rendition.

Annotations

In the 2014 book The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters, Neil tells interviewer/author Daniel Rachel that "Rent" was inspired by his having heard or read about U.S. politician Edward Kennedy keeping a mistress in an apartment in New York City, stating that he wrote the lyrics from that woman's point of view.
"You took me to a restaurant off Broadway…" – There are many Broadways, but only one Broadway, if you know what I mean. New York City's Broadway is one of its most important streets; in fact, it's the city's oldest thoroughfare running north-south, extending the entire length of Manhattan and beyond through the Bronx. It's of course best known for the segment that serves as the heart of the city's theater district—so much so that when people (especially those outside New York) refer to "Broadway," they're generally talking about the theater district (or even to the very institution of American musical theater) rather than to the street itself. Chances are excellent that a restaurant just off that stretch of Broadway would be quite good and also quite pricey.
Neil has observed that the line "The currency we've spent" carries a double meaning, which becomes clearer when you consider the immediately preceding line, "Look at my hopes, look at my dreams." In other words, "currency" isn't just money (its conventional meaning in a context of "spending"), but even more the narrator's hopes and dreams—in effect, the goals and aspirations of her/his life—which the narrator and her/his lover have "spent" in this relationship.
Neil has noted on several occasions that he purposely avoided the use of any linking word or phrase between the lines "I love you" and "You pay my rent" because he very consciously wanted to leave the relationship between the two statements ambiguous and open to interpretation. As has been noted elsewhere (such as in Dorian Lynskey's essay in the booklet for the Boys' July 2016 "Inner Sanctum" residency at London's Royal Opera House), the choice of conjunction—such as "I love you and you pay my rent," "I love you so you pay my rent," or "I love you because you pay my rent"—could make a world of difference in meaning. Not using such a conjunction leaves the precise nature of the relationship more to the imagination of the listener.
As noted above, Neil told Chris Heath that he had changed the lyrics. The lines in question originally went:

You phoned me in the evening on hearsay to tell me who you are
You took me to a restaurant on Broadway and introduced me to a star

But Neil changed them to:

You phoned me in the evening on hearsay and bought me caviar
You took me to a restaurant off Broadway to tell me who you are

Heath went on to describe how Neil would later sometimes use those original lyrics while singing "Rent" on their 1989 tour.
During his February 23, 2023 appearance on the BBC Radio 2 show The Piano Room, Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears performed "Rent" live with Neil Tennant as a surprise guest star. The two duetted on the song using the Angelo Badalamenti orchestral arrangement first employed in Liza Minnelli's rendition on Results and later repurposed on the Boys' 2006 live album Concrete.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Pet Shop Boys rendition:

Mixer: Julian Mendelsohn
- Album version (5:08)
  - Available on Actually
Mixer: Stephen Hague
- 7" Mix (3:36)
  - Available on Discography and on the Further Listening bonus disc with the Actually reissue
Mixer: François Kevorkian
- Extended Mix (7:09)
- Dub (6:05)
Mixer: unknown

Demo (4:26)

Mixer: Tim Weidner
- Live Concrete rendition (4:15)

Liza Minnelli rendition:

Mixer: Julian Mendelsohn and Pet Shop Boys
- Album Version (3:54)

Official but unreleased

Performed by Pet Shop Boys:

Mixer: unknown
- First (?) demo (4:13)
- Early 1980s demo (3:40)
- Bobby "O" demo (4:06)
- In addition, at least three other demo-type versions of "Rent" have come to light on bootleg releases.
Mixer: Pet Shop Boys
- November 24, 2003 XFM radio session version (3:09)

List cross-references

All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2024 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images are copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary, thereby constituting Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Billboard Media, LLC.