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Up Against It

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1996
Original album - Bilingual
Producer - Pet Shop Boys, Chris Porter
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - (none)

Neil borrowed the title of this song from a proposed screenplay that Joe Orton wrote for the Beatles (but was of course never filmed). The setting of the lyrics is late 'forties postwar Britain, in which the populace, though victors in the war, must now struggle with the product shortages and severe winters that followed in its wake. But the lessons of the song are equally applicable to much more recent times.

Ever the student of history, Neil also cites "so deep in quicklime, the bones of an old crime," referring to the remains of the royal Romanov family, slain during the Russian Revolution. He seems to be describing how momentous historical events reverberate long after, haunting the people who survive them by years and even decades. These are people who are "up against it," facing the consequences of political events and deeds over which they had no control but must nonetheless suffer for. "In a way," says Neil, "the song is just saying politics is shit." This, indeed, is a timeless message.

Annotations

As noted above, the title is borrowed from a screenplay that British playwright Joe Orton (1933-1967) wrote in 1966 for a prospective film starring the Beatles. After the screenplay was rejected, Orton revised it substantially as a possible vehicle for other performers. In fact, he had an appointment to discuss possible film options for it the morning that followed his murder by his lover Kenneth Halliwell, who had then committed suicide.
"Long after the war has ended we're still in fatigues" – The war referred to is the Second World War; therefore the song is set lyrically during the postwar period. The reference to "fatigues" constitutes a scathing pun, associating a familiar word for military combat uniforms with the weary lives and mindset of the postwar populace, who faced economic hardships and other socio-cultural challenges. Although on the war's winning side, it left the United Kingdom in economic ruin, with a devastated infrastructure and social disarray.
"Such a cold winter…" – In his book One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem, Neil describes this line as a reference to "the famously cold winter" experienced by Britons in 1947, which only added to their hardships.
"… with scenes as slow as Pinter" – A perhaps not altogether complimentary reference to British playwright and screenwriter Harold Pinter (1930-2008), whose plays are often punctuated by lengthy, portentous pauses and periods of silence.
"Back to Trafalgar" – A reference to Trafalgar Square, a famed public square in London, named in honor of the Battle of Trafalgar, a decisive 1805 British naval victory over France and Spain during the Napoleonic Wars.
"So deep in quicklime, the bones of an old crime" – Again, a reference to refer to the discovery in 1979 (and exhumation in 1988) of the remains of the Romanovs, the Russian royal family, murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 during the Russian Revolution. Apparently their bodies had been tossed in an abandoned mine and doused with quicklime, an extremely caustic chemical (calcium oxide) that has a corrosive effect on flesh. The objective was to destroy the bodies utterly. However, while quicklime does have an initial superficial "burning" effect on flesh, its longterm effect is more one of drying out, resulting essentially in a degree of mummification. Ironically, an act intended to destroy the bodies actually helped preserve them somewhat.
"The more that it hurts, the less that it works" – This flawed couplet at the very conclusion of the song is almost certainly a pointed subversion of the slogan "It hurt but it worked," which was used by the U.K. Conservative Party (the Tories) during the campaign of 1995, the year immediately before the song's release. In other words, the Tories were campaigning on their record, maintaining that their tight fiscal policies may have caused some suffering, but they ultimately proved beneficial to the British economy. The slogan was widely criticized at the time by more liberal commentators as being both socially callous and factually questionable. It's safe to say that our musical heroes felt much the same about it; hence the subversion.

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