The Dark End of the Street
Writers - Moman/Penn
First released - 2024
Original album - Nonetheless expanded edition
Producer - James Ford (?)
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - none
This relatively obscure soul song first released in 1967 by U.S. singer James Carr never got higher than #77 on the mainstream Billboard singles chart, although it did get up to #10 on the R&B chart. It was later covered by several artists, most notably on albums by Aretha Franklin and Linda Ronstadt. It gained a new lease on life, however, in the UK in 2017 thanks to its use in other media (films, television, video games), though even then it managed no more than #70 on the UK charts. So its resurrection by PSB came as a surprise.
Co-writer Dan Penn once said that his and Chips Moman’s objective in writing it was ‘to come up with the best cheatin’ song. Ever.’ The lyrics very much attest to that goal, beginning:
At the dark end of the street
That’s where we always meet
Hiding in shadows where we don’t belong
Living in darkness to hide our wrong
Later we find the words ‘It’s a sin and we know it’s wrong’, a pre-echo, so to speak, of one of Tennant-Lowe’s own most famous songs. This may have been among the appeals it had for them.
Not surprisingly, the Pet Shop Boys transpose the song from its rather slow-paced R&B roots to a thoroughly modern synthpop arrangement. While Neil sings for the most part in his typical fairly restrained manner, the quasi-gospel structure of the melody and the song's rootsy heritage inspire him to deliver an unusually fervent reading of the line "They're gonna find us there someday," as if he were finally giving himself over to wanton recklessness, recognizing the inevitable danger implicit in illicit romance. Just as in Carr's original, the Boys modulate to a higher key for the last verse, although they do so through an imaginative instrumental segment absent from the original. After that final verse, they launch into a playful, mostly instrumental extended coda during which Neil offers a few subtle vocal improvisations. Thanks in no small part to orchestral arranger Anne Dudley, the Pet Shop Boys turn in one of the most inspired remakes in their entire catalogue.
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