Too Many People
Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1993
Original album - Alternative
Producer - Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - Very 2001 reissue Further Listening 1992-1994 bonus disc
Other releases - b-side of "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing"
A song about what Neil refers to as "role strain"—the sense of being overwhelmed by the many tasks, duties, responsibilities, and roles (sometimes seemingly contradictory) that one must perform in modern-day society. The way this is commonly expressed in everyday parlance is that we "wear many hats." But Neil goes a step farther and suggests that he is "too many people." He adopts a different identity—becomes, in effect, a different person—for each role he fills, which causes not merely "strain" but a great deal of internal conflict. That conflict is at the heart of this song.
There's a perhaps unintentional irony in that such role strain may be exacerbated for lyric-writers like Neil, who frequently assume different personas in their songs. For that matter, we can't even assume with any great confidence that Neil himself should be taken as the "narrator" of "Too Many People."
Annotations
- "The intellectual and bon viveur" – Bon viveur is pseudo-French for "good liver" or "one who lives well"; that is, someone who enjoys "the good life," especially with regard to food and drink. Although bon viveur has long been used by many English-speakers, it's not used in French at all. The correct phrase in French is "bon vivant," which is familiar to many if not most English-speakers as well.
- "… or naive simpleton, so immature" – The word "simpleton" hails from old English folklore, Simpleton being the name of a recurring character in folk tales, known for being extremely naive or downright stupid. The name is clearly derived from the word "simple" (as in "simple-minded") combined with the common English -ton suffix for family or place names, as in "Chesterton" or "Edmondton." Thus the generic "simpleton" has come to refer to anyone who proves himself foolish or lacking in common sense.
List cross-references
- The key signatures of selected PSB songs
- PSB lyrics that include non-English words and phrases
- PSB songs that have been used in films and "non-musical" TV shows
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