Was That What It Was?
Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1986
Original album - Alternative
Producer - Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - Please 2001 reissue Further Listening 1984-1986 bonus disc
Other releases - b-side of 1986 single "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"
In the souvenir booklet for their 1999 Nightlife Tour, Neil rephrased the title question of this song as "Do you know why we broke up?" The narrator tries to figure out with his lover what has gone wrong with their relationship. As they go over one possibility after another (such as "Did you need something more in your life?"), he pauses and asks, "Was that what it was?" Really, a terribly sad song.
Neil and Chris have pointed out that this track was more "assembled" than "recorded": "This is a classic example of tons of edits. If you were to watch it going around in the tape recorder, there were thousands of white bits where it had been stuck together." Neil has also identified this as one of his least favorite of their songs.
List cross-references
- The key signatures of selected PSB songs
- PSB songs that have been used in films and "non-musical" TV shows
- PSB songs that they themselves apparently dislike
- Burning questions posed by the titles of PSB songs
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