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Don Juan

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1988
Original album - Alternative
Producer - Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - Introspective 2001 reissue Further Listening 1988-1989 bonus disc
Other releases - b-side of single "Domino Dancing"

A song that ranks at or near the top of the list for "PSB obscurantism." If it weren't for the fact that Neil has affirmed that this song is an allegory of "the political situation in the Balkans before World War Two," it would have been very difficult to figure out. The figure of Don Juan—the legendary Spanish nobleman who lives exclusively for himself, caring nothing for the harm he may do to others (especially women) in his pursuits of pleasure—is apparently a metaphor for Hitler, who's about to take a "bride" (Germany, or perhaps even all of Europe), leading her to disaster. "Clues" are offered in the form of various lesser-known figures from pre-war Europe who are mentioned in passing, such as King Alexander of Yugoslavia, King Zog of Albania, and Madame Lupescu. Ultimately, it would seem that the song is a metaphorical description of the Nazi "seduction" of the Balkans during the 1930s. (With the exception of Greece, all of the nations in the Balkans were, for at least a time, German allies during the Second World War.)

In the 2001 reissue booklet for Introspective, Neil states that when he wrote the gist of this song—back in 1978, before he met Chris!—he was striving for "lyrics in the style of Façade by Edith Sitwell." (Chris then quipped, "Was it slightly pretentious?") Neil also noted with some admitted embarrassment his error in referring to "Marie Lupescu." Madame Lupescu's first name was actually Magda.

But perhaps Neil hasn't noticed his other major lyrical mistake in this song. He writes of "films for a Warner brother or Mister Goldwyn-Mayer." But there's no such person as "Mister Goldwyn-Mayer." The famous movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (more popularly known as MGM) was formed by the merger of three smaller studios—logically enough, Metro, Goldwyn, and Mayer—the latter two of which were run by Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer, respectively. Then again, one of my site visitors has suggested that maybe "Mr. Goldwyn-Mayer" isn't a mistake at all—that perhaps it's simply a snide way of referring to a movie executive, much as one could refer to an automobile executive as "Mr. General Motors." But then wouldn't it more properly be "Mr. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer"? Let's just chalk it up to artistic license.

Annotations

Don Juan – The legend of the amoral Spanish nobleman Don Juan received its earliest known literary treatment circa 1630 in a drama written by the Spanish monk and author Gabriel Tellez under the pseudonym Tirso de Molina. In subsequent centuries artists as diverse as Molière, Mozart, Shadwell, Byron, Browning, and Shaw have told his tale in one way or another. In this song, the Pet Shop Boys are using the figure of Don Juan as a metaphor for German dictator Adolf Hitler (1889-1945).
Neil has stated that he tried to compose the lyrics somewhat in the style of the 1922 abstract poetic sequence Façade, written by the British poet Edith Sitwell (1887-1964).
"Films for a Warner brother or Mister Goldwyn-Mayer" – The Warner Brothers were a family of classic Hollywood film moguls: Albert, Henry, Jack, and Sam Warner. "Mister Goldwyn-Mayer" is either an accidentally or intentionally mistaken reference to one or two other film moguls, Samuel Goldwyn and/or Louis B. Mayer, of the same pre-World War II period in which the song is set. The way it's used in the lyric, "a Mister Goldwyn-Mayer" could simply refer to a "generic executive" from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film studio. It may also be worth noting—though it could well have nothing to do with the song itself—that the Warner Brothers film studio (traditionally referred to as "Warner Bros.") released The Adventures of Don Juan in 1948, with Errol Flynn appearing as the infamous Spanish nobleman. Not surprisingly, Don Juan's negative characteristics were downplayed considerably in this film in order to reframe him as a swashbuckling hero more in step with Flynn's image.
"King Zog's back from holiday" – King Zog occupied the throne of Albania 1928-1939.
"Marie Lupescu's grey" – An accidentally mistaken reference to Elena Lupescu, better known as Magda, the mistress and later (after his abdication in 1940) the wife of Romania's King Carol II.
"King Alexander is dead in Marseilles" – King Alexander I of Yugoslavia was assassinated in on October 9, 1934, while on a state visit to Marseilles, France.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Mixer: David Jacob
- 7" version (3:54)
  - Available on Alternative

Disco Mix (7:35)
- Available on the Further Listening bonus disc with the 2001 Introspective reissue
- There are very slight variations at around 4:50 between the version of this mix that was released on the original CD single and the one that appeared with the reissue

Mixer: Pet Shop Boys
- Demo Version (4:22)
  - Available on the Further Listening bonus disc with the Introspective reissue

Official but unreleased

Mixer: unknown
- At least two other demo-type versions "Don Juan" have come to light on bootleg releases

List cross-references

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