SUBURBIA - THE PET SHOP BOYS

"Suburbia" is a song by English synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was remixed and released as the fourth single from the duo's debut studio album, Please (1986), and became the band's second UK top-10 entry, peaking at number 8

The Boys have described this song as an "epic of mad dogs and hooligans" that was inspired by a film of the same name by Penelope Spheeris about aimless, disillusioned young toughs running rampant in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Very much the urbanites, Tennant and Lowe use this track as an opportunity to express what they consider to be "the full horror" (as the subtitle of one of the remixes puts it) of suburban life, where nastiness and evil lurks just beneath a superficially attractive surface.

The dogs mentioned in the lyrics and whose barking frames the track probably symbolize the underlying beastialism of humanity. (One site visitor has pointed out that wild dogs inhabiting the L.A. suburbs play a significant role in the Spheeris film. The opening scene, for instance, depicts a dog mauling a baby. This probably gave Chris and Neil the idea in the first place to use dogs so prominently in the song.

LYRICS 

Suburbia

where the suburbs met utopia

where the suburbs met utopia

Lost in the high street, where the dogs run

roaming suburban boys

Mother's got her hairdo to be done

She says they're too old for toys

Stood by the bus stop with a felt pen

in this suburban hell

and in the distance a police car

to break the suburban spell

Let's take a ride

and run with the dogs tonightin suburbia

You can't hide

Run with the dogs tonight

in suburbia

Break the window by the town hall

Listen! A siren screams

there in the distance like a roll call

of all the suburban dreams

Let's take a ride

and run with the dogs tonight

in suburbia

You can't hide

run with the dogs tonight

in suburbia

I only wanted something else to do but hang around

I only wanted something else to do but hang around

It's on the front page of the papers

This is their hour of need

Where's a policeman when you need one

to blame the colour TV?

Let's take a ride

and run with the dogs tonight

in suburbia

You can't hide

run with the dogs tonight

in suburbia

Suburbia

where the suburbs met utopia

What kind of dream was this

so easy to destroy?

And who are we to blame

for the sins of the past?

These slums of the future?

suburbia

where the suburbs met utopia

suburbia

where the suburbs met utopia