Bubadubadubadum
(aka All My Wasted Time)
Writers - Tennant/Lowe
Unreleased
Definitely a period piece, and New Wave is the period. One of the earliest Tennant-Lowe collaborations, written and recorded in the early 1980s, well before they hit it big—and included (along with "Oh, Dear" and an early version of "Jealousy") on a 1982 cassette tape that they employed in their early efforts to obtain a recording contract—this melodic, infectiously bouncy synthpop track may remain suppressed, so to speak, because of Neil's repeating "bubadubadubadum" background vocal, which he may possibly find embarrassing nowadays. It's just Neil singing along with Chris's synthesizer, but it works quite well. In fact, that potentially embarrassing "bubadubadubadum" motif is so outrageous that it comes across as charming, if naive. Regardless, Neil has reportedly asserted that they will never release it.
Lyrically spare (the same verse and chorus repeated three times), it appears to be about a guy losing patience from being "put on hold," so to speak, by a hesitant lover: "Waiting through the afternoon, one thing on my mind. But there's no way to recompense for that."
By the way, the number of "dubas" in the title seems to be a matter of dispute. It's also been written as "Bubadubadubadubadubadum." But, at least in my opinion, a few dubas go a long way
List cross-references
- "Documented" officially unreleased songs written by the Pet Shop Boys
- The early tracks that the Pet Shop Boys recorded with Ray Roberts and Bobby 'O'
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