NEIL TENNANT


"In the '60s Dusty was part of the musical landscape, she was always on the television, she always had hits. You were just completely aware of her. I used to like her but, back then, I didn't own any records by her. When I really got to like Dusty was in the '70s when I bought Dusty in Memphis. I'd read about it, and towards the end of the 70's it had been reissued and I found a remaindered copy for about 99p, and I just thought it was fantastic. And at a similar time they brought out a Dusty Greatest Hits album, the one with the black cover, and I bought that as well, and suddenly realised how fab all these records were. I liked her voice - the yearning and fragile quality in her voice. And also there's a certain kind of Dusty Springfield song and a certain way she sings that just really moves you. It's sort of exciting and sad at the same time. My favourite song was 'I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten' because it's got that very gloomy verse and then it gets very emotional and then goes back to the 'I Close My Eyes...'. You can just imagine it's about someone having a row with someone; it's very emotional. I also like the groovy '60s ones like 'Little By Little'. She has a voice that really, really works, particularly when it's double-tracked. I love Dusty's voice double-tracked. Nearly everything we did with her we did double-tracked, because it's just got an incredible exhilarating quality about it."

In 1986 Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe wrote a duet with an American song-writer Allee Willis (who then was most famous for co-writing 'Boogie Wonderland' and is now most famous for co-writing the 'Friends' theme tune) called 'What Have I Done To Deserve This?'. The day after they finished it, Neil went to New York to interview the pop star Marilyn, Neil's final interview for Smash Hits magazine: "I played it non-stop on the flight on my walkman." But they couldn't think who they should record it with. "Nikke Slight, who worked in our management office,' Neil recalls, "said 'Well, you're always going on about how much you like Dusty Springfield - why don't you ask her?' And we thought, 'what a great idea!' and we stormed out of the office. Orders were issued. And then it didn't happen. It was going to be on the first album. Ages later, we got a call saying that Dusty would do it."

They were recording at Advision in the center of London. Neil and Chris were sitting in the manager's office, a glass-enclosed booth, when Dusty arrived. "We were pretty nervous," Neil remembers "We were: God, there she is. Dusty was all dressed in black leather." They played her the track and talked about what they were going to do. For the next two days the Pet Shop Boys had to go to Newcastle to perform 'Paninaro' on The Tube and when they got back Dusty had done the main part of the vocal. Listening to it, Neil had the idea for the "we don't have to fall apart..." bit at the end. Dusty was a little alarmed; she thought she'd finished. But she did it marvellously.


In 1988 they were approached by film producer Steve Wooley who was making a film Scandal about the Profumo affair. "I was quite intrigued," Neil says, "Because years ago, before I met Chris, I had written a song about the Profumo affair, in 1979 I think, and the music wasn't interesting but the lyric was quite good so I thought, 'Oh, I'll use that'. Then I wrote most of the song in the flat I was staying in at the time on the piano, using a verse idea that Chris had written, and we thought that it would be great for Dusty to do it and Steve Wooley agreed, because she'd been around at that time. Dusty said 'Oh yeah - I met Christine Keeler'. Dusty came over to my flat - the doorman was very impressed. We had recorded a demo on the same two days as we made a demo of 'Losing My Mind' for Liza Minelli, but I think I played it to her on piano as well. Anyway, she liked it. When she heard the finished backing track I think she was slightly disappointed because she was very excited about Angelo Badalamenti doing the strings, because she loved the song 'It Couldn't Happen Here' and, being Dusty, she wanted it to have huge drama and it was more understated than that. She said 'I thought it was going to be bigger'.

Famously she recorded her vocals very, very slowly, though the end result usually flowed together seamlessly. She often actually recorded syllable by syllable. The first line of "Nothing Has Been Proved" is "Mandy's in the paper's . . ." "She got the track started," Neil remembers, "and her cigarette and her cup of coffee, and she gets to 'Ma...' and stops. Wind the tape back and start again. I just looked at all these words - two sheets of them, and we had to double-track them - and I thought I'd go insane. But we got through it. And when she got to the end chorus - it's a great track but not a brilliant melody - but the way she took the melody in the last 'it may be false, it may be true', she just kind of grabbed it by the scruff of its neck. It was a really fantastic moment in the studio. I thought, 'wow, I never thought you could make this song sound like that'. And she'd been building up to it. It was like watching an athlete doing a high jump and missing. And then she did it."


"In Private" was also written for Scandal, this time from scratch. "Chris wrote the melody on his legendary Fairlight that he used to have in his sitting-room. As soon as he played "dee duh" (sings part of tune) I said, 'that's a Dusty song'. That's such a Dusty interval. Dusty thought it was great, and that was when she started to take the whole thing seriously, we all thought that was a big hit record. It's a very under-produced record, though. We made the record in a hurry - we did it in four days because we were doing Liza. Having said that, I think it's a great song and she sings it really well. It annoyed me though because she wouldn't make the words work. It's meant to flow straight into the chorus, and she kept changing the words. The song is supposed to go, 'There's a difference between / What you're going to say in private / What you're going to say in private...' Dusty would go, "There's a difference between . . . AND what you're going to say in private . . .' I said to her, 'why are you singing "and"?' she just blatantly ignored me, because she wanted that pick- up note before she went into the chorus so it's still in there." "So she was stubborn, is what we're leading to" Chris laughs. "Oh was she stubborn or what?" Neil agrees.

They began to work on her album. "The only reason we didn't produce the whole album," Neil says "is because it took ages for her to get the record deal together, and we did Liza's album." "Also," says Chris, "I think she had some other songs she wanted to do." "We knew we wouldn't get the iron control we were going to get with Liza" Neil says. "Or if we did get the iron control, Dusty would hate us. Because the truth of the matter is, by the end of our relationship, she found it slightly oppressive, and I don't blame her, because she felt she always had to do what we wanted. Or we wouldn't play." "Our bat and our ball" Chris says. They executive-produced the album Reputation, and produced three more songs for the album. "Daydreaming" was a song they had started writing for Liza Minelli, but which they'd decided they didn't like and hadn't finished. "Then we came back to it," Neil says, "and thought, why don't we like this - it's fantastic. She loved that track - she was absolutely thrilled to pieces that she did a rap." "Occupy Your Mind" was some music inspired by the Sunrise raves and which Chris had played as an instrumental on the 1989 tour. "I Want To Stay Here" was an old hit for Steve and Eyde in 1963, which Neil persuaded Dusty to do.


As executive producers they tinkered with a few other songs. On "Arrested By You" they were so horrified by a saxophone solo that they removed it and Neil played something to replace it on the Emulator. "I play a very sad oboe solo," Neil reveals. "I did it without even telling Dusty".

Towards the end of the album, they had a disagreement because Neil and Chris wanted all their songs to be grouped together. But, says Neil, "I always thought that we would work with her again."

In fact they didn't, though when Neil was told she was looking for songs for an album she was recording in Nashville, he sent her an old country song of his, "Betrayed" which later appeared in a very different form as an extra track on the first "Se A Vida E" single. (She didn't record it). He was subsequently told that, although she was recording in Nashville, she wasn't making a country album. Later, she expressed enthusiasm with the idea of recording a song for the Noel Coward album. In the end she was too ill. During her illness she sent the Pet Shop Boys a very sweet, long letter. "A really touching letter," Neil says.

The funeral was at 12:30 in the morning. Neil and Chris arrived at 12:25 after stopping for a drink so that Neil could have a calming glass of white wine before his speech. (Chris had a vodka and tonic and a ham sandwich). "We arrived with Dusty actually," Neil says. "We just made it in before the coffin," Chris says. The hearse was glass and had "Dusty" in flowers on it. Dusty songs were playing outside the church and there was a big crowd. "There was a silence," Neil says, "and then suddenly, in the church 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' started, and it was so unbelievable, and the coffin came into it. You didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Both really. Because it was very camp and very moving at the same time".

There was a religious service and various speeches. "Lulu gave her eulogy and was very tearful," Neil says. "She said this really good thing: 'She was always so brave...' - then she paused and said - 'Of course, if she was here now she'd say "No I wasn't"' That is the real Dusty - they'd have a bicker about whether Dusty was brave or not. Simon Napier-Bell gave a little eulogy and read out a message from Dionne Warwick, then Elvis Costello gave a very beautiful speech and read out a message from Burt Bacharach, and then Dusty's friend and backing singer sang. He's the guy who could do Dusty's voice, and could do Dusty's high notes when she couldn't do them live. And he sang 'You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings', which Dusty had chosen. They were watching the telly together and she said 'You've got to sing this at my funeral'. And then I did my speech, and then there were prayers and then her next-door neighbour gave a fantastic speech - some old guy who owned a bank or something, very much a normal person, Chairman of the Rotary Club type. And he didn't know Dusty until she moved to Henley when she was ill, and he spent a lot of time with Dusty and he was very honest about her moods and everything, and it was a very strong insight into Dusty's life: She couldn't make a decision, and then she'd scream and shout and then be your best friend. He said that when she was told she had cancer there was no 'Why me?', no anger, she just totally accepted it. And he described when she was in hospital and got the OBE, lying in bed, laughing at how ridiculous it was. And then there was a great bit where there was suddenly a silence, the priest did the 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust...' and then they played her singing "I think I'm goin' back . . ." ("Going Back"). Even now, I'm going to start to cry, thinking of it. It was a very appropriate and moving song. It seemed to end a circle of life. And then the choir sung this modern catholic hymn called "Take My Soul" - the most beautiful hymn. My mother said, 'Oh, I've chosen that for my funeral'." "It'd make a good rave record," Chris suggests. "And then that was it," Neil continues. "The coffin went out again and we nipped out the side door of the church rather than go through all the Press. We had a little chat with Elvis Costello. And then there was a very sad moment, driving through the Henley one-way system in our car, and we suddenly saw the coffin by itself in the hearse. There'd been a huge funeral, everyone there, and the Press, and then suddenly there was the coffin all by itself, speeding through the streets of Henley. It seemed rather sad. It suddenly seemed a very lonely moment."


From "Literally", the Pet Shop Boys fanzine.
(Thanks to Kevin for posting this via DustyMail)


BACK TO DUSTY: AS THEY KNEW HER