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I'm with Stupid

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2006
Original album - Fundamental
Producer - Trevor Horn
Subsequent albums - Disco 4, Ultimate, Smash
Other releases - single (UK #8, US Dance #7)

We've probably all seen t-shirts bearing this inscription, a comic insult to anyone accompanying the wearer. With its busy uptempo arrangement—complete with producer Trevor Horn's trademark synth-orchestra blasts and percussion flourishes —"I'm with Stupid" is on one level simply an amusing song about a love relationship with a rich, famous person who's not exactly gifted in the brains department. But, like the Release track "I Get Along," it was actually inspired by events surrounding the administration of U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In this case, it concerns the close international political relationship between Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush—the titular "Stupid"—particularly with regard to the Iraq War. Consider these lines coming from the lips of the prime minister:

See you on the TV
Call you every day
Fly across the ocean
Just to let you get your way

No one understands me…
Why would I be with someone
Who's obviously so dumb?

Yet Tennant and Lowe leave open the possibility that what passes for stupidity may in fact be a ruse: "Is stupid really stupid, or a different kind of smart?" They wouldn't have been the first to suggest that Bush may have been cleverer than he let on—that his "dumb" persona was simply a device that he often used to his political advantage in the notoriously anti-intellectual U.S. cultural climate. They also leave open the possibility that the allegedly "stupid" one may not have been the stupider of the two. As Neil told an interviewer, "In the end is Blair the stupid person?—because there is a feeling that he has been hoodwinked…."

Regardless of whether you interpret him as Tony Blair or as anyone else, the narrator certainly seems to be getting the raw end of the deal in this relationship ("I never thought that I would be a sacrifice in love"), yet he endures. Of course, no names are actually mentioned—the Boys are themselves too smart to automatically "date" the song like that—and the lyrics are vague enough to readily accommodate the nonpolitical interpretation. (It again resembles "I Get Along" in that respect.) Yet, conversely, this very quality only serves to heighten the comedy of the political reading by lending it a distinctly homoerotic air. Once more Neil and Chris show themselves to be masters at writing songs that not only invite multiple interpretations but which also derive much of their strength and meaning from the interplay of those different readings.

"I'm with Stupid" was the first single from Fundamental, although that honor was originally planned for "Minimal." As widely rumored in advance, the video features Matt Lucas and David Walliams (the latter himself a diehard PSB fan) of the wildly popular U.K. television comedy Little Britain. Interestingly, as the Boys have done before (the most famous instance being "Go West"), they use the video not to illustrate what might be termed the "primary interpretation" of the song but instead to provide an entirely distinct meaning—or even layers of meaning. With Neil and Chris depicted as a captive audience of an earnest but low-budget and not very complimentary parody of themselves and two of their most famous vids (the aforementioned "Go West" and "Can You Forgive Her?"), some fans have suggested that the video shows how the Boys may feel somewhat trapped by public misconceptions of them—misconceptions that they themselves have unintentionally fueled. In this case, could "I'm with Stupid" be a commentary on how the public mistakenly reads the relationship of Neil and Chris? Or perhaps on the relationship between the Pet Shop Boys and the public? In either case, who are the "stupid" ones?

By the way, one of my site visitors astutely noted a pun (which the Boys are known to love) in the line "Are you not Mr. Right?" George W. Bush was, after all, widely considered to be a right-winger, though some might view him as having been more as a "corporatist" who was equally willing to adopt "conservative" or "liberal" stances depending on whether they advanced the cause of multinational business interests. A debatable editorial point, to be sure.

Annotations

In keeping with the extended double entendre of the lyric, nearly every line can be interpreted to refer to the political relationship of U.S. President George W. Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. Particularly worth singling out are:
- "Why would I be with someone who's obviously so dumb?" – It's no secret that the general intelligence of President George W. Bush was frequently called into question—by those, of course, who disagreed with his policies and positions far more so than by those who agreed with them. His penchant for verbal gaffes was often cited as evidence of his allegedly less-than-stellar intellect.
- "… a billion-dollar kid" – George W. Bush's personal wealth was, during his presidency, estimated in the range of $20-30 million. But he's a scion of an even wealthier "old-money" family, so he stands to inherit his share of considerably more wealth with the eventual passing of his parents. While it would appear that no one branch of the large Bush family can count its wealth in excess of one billion dollars, it seems likely that their total accumulated wealth would indeed exceed that amount. So from that perspective it might indeed be fair to describe George W. Bush as "a billion-dollar kid."
- "… like a hawk chasing a dove" – It's certainly fair to describe President Bush as a "hawk" considering his launching of two wars (in Afghanistan and Iraq). But the simile might be a bit flawed in that Prime Minister Blair didn't exactly come across as a "dove." If so, then that's one dove that was more than willing to wage war alongside the hawk.
- "I never thought that I would be a sacrifice in love" – Early in his administration, Blair enjoyed great popularity in Britain as prime minister. As he had with the preceding U.S. President, Bill Clinton, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair forged a close political relationship with Clinton's successor, George W. Bush. In response to his critics, Blair argued that it was in Britain's interest to maintain such a close relationship regardless of who resided in the White House. But as the Iraq War dragged on, Blair came under increasing fire for what many in the U.K. media derided as his seemingly subserviant position to Bush, some even going so far as describe him as "Bush's poodle." (Consider George Michael's infamous song and video, "Shoot the Dog.") As a result, many former supporters—the Pet Shop Boys among them—turned against him. Blair's public approval rating fell drastically, which would lead to his resignation as prime minister and Labour Party leader in 2007.
- "Is stupid really stupid or a different kind of smart?" – George W. Bush is the only U.S. president to have earned an M.B.A. degree, and that being from Harvard Business School. It has been suggested that Bush's folksy, somewhat naive demeanor—including his Texas accent and perhaps even some of his verbal gaffes—was actually a calculated façade designed to distinguish himself from the "northeastern intellectual establishment" so widely distrusted by much of the American populace (to be sure, a strong streak of anti-intellectualism has always run through American culture), thereby enhancing his popularity with "the common man." In short, it's possible that he "played dumb" for political gain. Blair himself defended Bush as being "very smart."
- "Do we really have a relationship so special in your heart?" – One of my site visitors pointed out that this line almost certainly alludes to the oft-cited "special relationship" between the United Kingdom and the United States. The actual phrase "special relationship" was first used in this particular context by British statesman Winston Churchill in his famed Fulton, Missouri "Sinews of Peace Address"—the same speech in which he first used the term "Iron Curtain" to describe the divide between democratic Western Europe and Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe—during a 1946 visit to the United States following the end of his first term as Prime Minister. (In a very real sense Churchill himself personified this special relationship, being the offspring of a British father and an American mother.) Virtually every U.S. president and U.K. prime minister since then has at one time or another referred to this concept. Given the circumstances, perhaps it only seems that Bush and Blair were especially keen on it.
- "Are you not Mr. Right?" – As noted above, a marvelously punning double entendre: in this case, "Mr. Right" (a common English-language expression for the perfect male partner) also happens to be commonly regarded as a member of the U.S. political right-wing.
"Power can give a man much more than anybody knows" – Essentially a paraphrase of the expression "Power is the greatest aphrodisiac," which apparently originated with (of all people) German-born U.S. diplomat and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (born 1923). His actual wording, however, was "Power is the great aphrodisiac," stated in an 1971 article in The New York Times. In another NY Times article two years later, he revised it to "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Mixer: Robert Orton, Pet Shop Boys, and Trevor Horn
- Album and single version (3:27)
- Instrumental (3:27)
Mixer: Melnyk
- Melnyk Heavy Petting Mix (6:07)
Mixer: Pet Shop Boys
- PSB Maxi-Mix (8:12)
  - Available on Disco 4, on a promo release, and on the Fundamentalism bonus disc accompanying the Japanese limited edition of Fundamental
  - Also on the "Further Listening" bonus disc accompanying the 2017 Fundamental reissue
Mixer: Max Tundra
- Max Tundra Mix (4:23)
  - Available for paid download on various websites
Mixer: Abe Duque
- Abe Duque Mix (5:09)
  - Available for paid download on various websites
- Abe Duque Dub (5:52)
  - Available only on a promo
Mixer: unknown
- Demo version (3:38)
  - Available on U.K. iTunes

List cross-references

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