One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem

Description: Featuring a new introduction by Jon Savage, Faber presents a beautiful paperback edition of One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem by Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys.

Everything I've ever done
Everything I ever do
Every place I've ever been
Everywhere I'm going to

Over a career that spans four decades and fourteen studio albums with Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant has consistently proved himself to be one of the most elegant and stylish of contemporary lyricists. Arranged alphabetically, One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem presents an overview of his considerable achievement as a chronicler of modern life: the romance, the break-ups, the aspirations, the changing attitudes, the history, the politics, the pain.

The landscape of Tennant's lyrics is recognisably British in character - restrained and preoccupied with the mundane, occasionally satirical, yet also yearning for escape and theatrical release. Often surprisingly revealing, this volume is contextualised by a personal commentary on each lyric and an introduction by the author which gives a fascinating insight into the process and genesis of writing.

Flamboyant, understated, celebratory and elegiac, Neil Tennant's lyrics are a document of our times.

Brief description: Jon Savage is the author of England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock and Teenage: The Creation of Youth, 1875-1945. He is the writer of the award-winning film documentaries The Brian Epstein Story (1988) and Joy Division (2007), as well as the feature film Teenage (2013). His compilations include Meridian 1970 (Heavenly/EMI 2005) and Queer Noises: From the Closet to the Charts, 1961-1976 (Trikont 2006)

Review Quotes:

"Over a career that spans four decades and thirteen studio albums with Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant has consistently proved himself to be one of the most elegant and stylish of contemporary lyricists. Arranged alphabetically, One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem presents an overview of his considerable achievement as a chronicler of modern life: the romance, the break-ups, the aspirations, the changing attitudes, the history, the politics, the pain." --Rough Trade BOOKS OF THE YEAR

"A lyricist every bit as distinctive as Brett Anderson, the Pet Shop Boys singer's nearly-memoir is both absorbing and tantalising. Beneath each of the 100 song lyrics he selects, Tennant offers nuggets of observation, commentary and context that, together with his waspish, affectionate, sharply drawn preface, leave you tickled but wanting more, and searching for further clues. Which is Tennant to a T: cautiously candid, fleet of foot, wielding his pen like a rapier." --Dans Cairns, Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR