Originally released on this day in 1989 and sticking around in the charts at the beginning of the 1990s, Electronic‘s ‘Getting Away With It’ is a wonderful and timeless collaboration, and a classic pop moment.
“One minute he was Bernard from New Order, I’m Johnny from The Smiths, we’re writing,” says Johnny Marr. “The next, there’s this wave of activity and culture and change and creativity. And we’re right in the middle of it with a bunch of our mates—it’s kind of amazing.”
His mates were pretty well known, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of Pet Shop Boys and ABC drummer David Palmer.
Opening with a trademark pianos motifs, underpinned by a bouncing bassline:
“I always try to come prepared with some ideas when I’m collaborating with people. That was something I learned to do from being a boy, joining different bands. “ Remembered Marr “So in the afternoon [before PSB arrived], I came up with a chorus, the chord change, the bassline and the topline. Then Neil and Chris arrived. Bernard came up with the piano chords for the verse. Then Neil kind of arranged it. And Chris said, ‘Well, the bassline should do this.’ And before we knew it, we had this single. It really helped define what Electronic was going to be about. It helped when it was a real huge hit.”
It went hand in hand with a sweeping and lushly drawn string section arranged by Anne Dudley. Dudley is a keyboardist, composer and arranger who made a mark on string arrangements on pop records and soundtracks throughout the ’80s and ’90s and beyond from working with the Art of Noise, Frankie Goes to Hollywood to ABC, Pulp and Pet Shop Boys. She also scored films like The Crying Game and The Full Monty amongst many others; she is another unheralded figure in music.
Talking about Electronic’s ‘Getting Away With It,’ the Guardian noted, “her accomplished arrangements and classically-trained playing have lent these artists an aura of finesse they could never have achieved alone. Without Anne Dudley, ABC’s The Look Of Love would be a mundane sequence of chords plodding up a keyboard in search of a flourish.”
‘Getting Away With it‘ marries the hooky, bittersweet melodies of Sumner and Tennant. With the unmistakable guitars of Johnny Marr, synth textures of Chris Lowe and a elegant arrangement. The final three stings offering a dramatic full stop to the track.
Folklore says the lyrics in the verse written by Neil Tennant are about Morrissey. In the liner notes for the Behaviour’s reissue, he confirmed he wrote lyrics for ‘Getting Away with It‘ from the same perspective as the track ‘Miserabilism.’ He wrote, “‘Getting Away with It’ is looking at Morrissey’s persona of being miserable and all the rest of it, and saying that he’s been getting away with it for years. It’s meant to be humorous.”
While on the addictive chorus line, Tennant and Sumner’s voices ping pong back and forth, capturing the melodrama of a one sided relationship, maybe referring to Morrissey and Marr? Maybe not. It taps into a unversal feeling of introspection and unrequited love with a unforgettable melodic line. (“However I look, it’s clear to see / That I love you more than you love me“). A fantastic pop song.
An extended extract from: https://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2024/04/18/strings-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-orchestral-pop-sound-of-the-1990s-part-one/
