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Somebody Else's Business

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2003
Original album - Disco 3
Producer - Chris Zippel
Subsequent albums - Nightlife 2017 reissue Further Listening 1996-2000 bonus disc
Other releases - (none)

Recorded in Berlin with Chris Zippel during the same sessions that produced "London" and "Positive Role Model," this song was originally built around a sample from the Isley Brothers' recording "Behind a Painted Smile," though the sample was later removed and doesn't appear in the final version. Its happy, upbeat sound would seem to belie the song's lyrical content: a surprisingly moving portrait of a heterosexual couple in which the woman suffers from bipolar disorder and/or manic depression. Despite this, the man loves her, enduring her "violent mood swings" complete with otherwise inexplicable bursts of screaming, shouting, crying, and laughing. I say "otherwise inexplicable" because Neil does explain it using an ingenious metaphor: "She's minding somebody else's business." In other words, one part of her bifurcated personality is preoccupied with "minding the business" of the other part (or perhaps parts, plural).

Regardless, this song presents anything but a bleak depiction of their love affair. For one thing, "life is never boring." And although the lyrics acknowledge that she could easily be perceived as "crazy," they also point out that "some say it's just being free." That is, her mental state could be viewed as a "disorder" only in its relationship to the "outside world," which generally demands conformity to certain social standards of behavior. But the female protagonist of this song is "free" of those constraints. The Pet Shop Boys seem to suggest that, though a part of us might pity and/or disapprove of her, another part of us might be more than a little envious.

Incidentally, it has been suggested that this song might be about F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. To be sure, the line "life is never boring" does echo "Being Boring," the title of which was inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, who indeed suffered from bipolar disorder or something very much like it. But Neil has specifically refuted this interpretation. On the other hand, he has confirmed that "Somebody Else's Business" does contain brief vocal samples ("oooh, oooh…") from the Boys' own "Love Comes Quickly."

Annotations

"Life is never boring" – This (or expressions much like it, such as "At least it's never boring") has it recent years become something of an idiomatic means of putting a positive spin—which hardly anyone else actually believes—on an otherwise rather negative situation.
As noted above, the sample (excised from the final version) around which this song was originally built was taken from the 1967 Isley Brothers record "Behind a Painted Smile," written by Ivy Jo Hunter. The sample in question was, according to Chris, "just the first two chords"—a recurring electric guitar riff, the simple chord structure of which—though not the guitar sample itself—can still be discerned in the PSB track. The Boys decided, however, to retain samples of their own "Love Comes Quickly."

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Mixer: Chris Zippel
- Album version (3:30)
  - Available on the CD edition of Disco 3 and one of the "Further Listening" bonus discs accompanying the 2017 Nightlife reissue
- Extended Mix (5:33)
  - Available on the vinyl edition of Disco 3 and one of the "Further Listening" bonus discs accompanying the 2017 Nightlife reissue

List cross-references

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