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It's Alright

Writers - Void/Brightledge/Jefferson; additional lyrics by Tennant
First released - 1988
Original album - Introspective
Producer (album version) - Stephen Lipson, Trevor Horn; (single version) - Trevor Horn
Subsequent albums - Discography, PopArt, Concrete, Smash
Other releases - single (UK #5)

The classic house-music track "It's Alright" was originally performed by its co-writers, Sterling Void and Paris Brightledge (along with co-producer Marshall Jefferson, the latter now widely regarded as one of the chief originators of house music), although their original version is spelled "It's All Right." (See more about this below.) Neil and Chris heard it, loved it, and decided to cover it. A powerful song about the immortality of music, its vision is on nothing less than a cosmic scale. Music is sustained "on a timeless wavelength," whereby it asserts and helps to maintain human hope and dignity in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Neil provided (uncredited) some additional lyrics with a strongly ecological bent:

Forests falling at a desperate pace
The earth is dying and desert taking its place
People under pressure on the brink of starvation
I hope it's gonna be alright

Although Neil later observed that he had written these new lines "very hastily," he eventually became quite proud of them.

The album version of the song is dominated by a simple, repetitive piano motif, but Trevor Horn's single remix replaces the piano with a more elaborate synth line. An interesting sidenote emerges from certain extended remixes, which feature even more additional lyrics from Neil, including a reference to "a statesman standing at a crossroads." Although there's been some speculation that this may be a reference to Romania's former dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Neil has stated that he was actually referring to Mikhail Gorbachev and the hopeful changes taking place in the Soviet Union (and the world in general) at that time. As for the video, with its dozens of babies representing hopes for humanity's future, it remains one of the most idiosyncratic that they—or, for that matter, any other pop/rock artist—have ever done.

Annotations

The original recording of "It's Alright" by Sterling Void and Paris Brightledge was released in 1987, only a year before the PSB remake. On that original it was spelled "It's All Right"—which is traditionally considered the more correct spelling. ("Alright" as opposed to "all right" is conventionally regarded as informal and "slangy." But it has become so extremely commonplace that it would be somewhat pedantic to insist on its "incorrectness" in anything but the most scholarly and formal circumstances.) Subsequent re-releases proved more likely to adopt the spelling that the Boys used, "It's Alright," and that's how you most commonly see it spelled today. Why Neil and Chris changed the spelling to be more technically "incorrect" is a mystery, although maybe the copy they originally saw also spelled it that way and they simply adopted it for themselves, not knowing that the "correct" spelling came first. Since both of them, however, correctly referred to the original recording as "It's All Right" in the 1989 edition of Annually (pages 28-29), that seems unlikely. It's been suggested that they changed the spelling to "distinguish" it from the original, but that's certainly not a typical practice for cover versions, not even for PSB. At any rate, as for the Void/Brightledge original, it failed to hit the U.S. Billboard dance charts, though nowadays it's recognized as a genuine house-music classic. Actually, one can easily make the argument that it was largely on account of the Boys having covered it that the original achieved retrospective recognition of its "classic" status.
"Dictation being forced in Afghanistan" – At the time this song was written, the Soviet war in Afghanistan in support of a communist regime had already been going on for about seven years. Despite a number of positive reforms designed to modernize the country, the Afghan regime had also instituted a variety of highly repressive measures, including suppression of religion and the closing of mosques. This is probably the sort of "dictation" that was being referred to.
"Revolution in South Africa taking a stand" – The 1980s saw increased agitation and rebellion against the racist apartheid policies of the government of South Africa. It wouldn't be until the early 1990s, however, that apartheid and other racist legislation would be abolished and democratic rule would ensue.
"People in Eurasia on the brink of oppression" – It's hard to be sure what specifically (if indeed it is anything specific) is being referred to in this line. To be sure, much of Eurasian continent had been under the heel—much more than just the "brink"—of "oppression" for most of the twentieth century and, indeed, even before.
"… the music shall last / I can hear it on a timeless wavelength / Never dissipating…" – These lines probably express both confidence that music will endure culturally as long as humanity survives and the scientific reality that radio waves from Earth—many of them transmitting music—will continue through outer space for, in essence, eternity.
The 10-inch mix of the track includes additional lyrics—again courtesy of Neil himself—that, in hindsight, he once derided as "pretentious":

There's a boy standing by a river
There's a girl lying with her lover
There's a statesman standing at a crossroads
There's a soldier polishing his gun

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Mixer: Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson
- Album version (9:26)
  - Available on Introspective
- 7" version (4:20)
  - Available on Discography, Essential, and the Further Listening bonus disc with the Introspective reissue
- Introspective Version - Edit (3:56)

Introspective Version - Edit (3:41)

A unique shorter edit available only on a rare 1988 Mexican vinyl promo "Left to My Own Devices" single

Mixer: Trevor Horn
- Extended Disco Mix (aka Extended Version) (8:47)
Mixer: Julian Mendelsohn
- 10" version (aka Alternative Mix) (4:47)
  - Available on the Further Listening bonus disc with the Introspective reissue

Extended Dance Mix (10:33)

Mixer: Sterling Void
- Sterling Void Mix (5:35)
Mixer: Tyree Cooper
- Tyree Mix (8:49)
  - Both the Sterling Void Mix and the Tyree Mix were released on a 12" vinyl disc in the U.K. and much of continental Europe; they were also released in several other European countries on a 3" CD single
Mixer: Tim Weidner
- Live Concrete rendition (5:12)

Official but unreleased

Mixer: Joe Smooth
- Deep House Mix (timing unknown)
Julian "Jumpin'" Perez

It's Jumpin' Mix (timing unknown)
- The existence and authenticity of these two mixes was confirmed by the Boys in Issue 2 of their official Fan Club magazine Literally, but they said that they will "probably never be released."

Mixer: Peter Schwartz
- Nightlife Tour studio arrangement for rehearsal (7:00)

List cross-references

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