Neil said that when he was young, he and his friends sometimes had this fabulous costume parties, where everybody dressed up. By chance he came across a box that contained photos and invitations, among other items from his past.
“I came across a cache of old photos and invitations to teenage parties...”
Neil discovered an old invitation to one of these costume parties. On the invitation it was quoted a few lines from Zelda Fitzgerald.
“She covered her face with powder and paint because she didn’t need it and she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring. She was conscious that the things she did were the things she had always wanted to do.”
This was written by Zelda Fitzgerald in 1922.
“The song is about being young, and the goals and ideals you have, and how they turn out,” says Neil Tennant.
The first versus tells us about when Neil finds this invitation, and starts thinking about his past. The chorus of the song, refers to how it is to be young and without worries, you have all the time in the world. You never really think about that you’re making your own future, and you don’t think of that you may come to a time, when it’s too late.
The second versus describes this young man that suddenly discovers his identity and his goals for the future.
“When I went I left from the station...”
The station is a symbol of life he used to know with few worries and no specific goals. Then he starts his journey towards his goal and to the man he wants himself to be.
“Someone said if you’re not careful, you’ll have nothing left and nothing to care for...”
This may be the well meant warnings from his friends and family. But he had scored, his shoes were high, and nothing was going to stop him.
“I bolted through a closing door...”
In the third verse and last, Neil takes us back to the present. He realizes that his past is far away, and that his life has grown very different from his teenage days in Newcastle, England.
“All the people I’ve been kissing, some are here and some are missing...”
He talks about all the people who have been close to him, the word “kissing” indicates that. If he means that those who’re missing are lovers that have left him, or friends that have since passed away, or have just moved onto different directions. A close friend of Neil and Chris died a short while before this song was released. But after all, he realizes that he has a bit of all the people he has been “kissing.” Because they’ve all influenced him in one way or another.
“And in spite of dreams, you’d be sitting somewhere here with me...”
“I never dreamt that I would get to be, the creature that, I always
meant to be...”
Neil once said, “I always wanted to be a star when I was a teenager, I remember walking around in Newcastle thinking about it, when I was seventeen.” He has achieved it, needless to say.
T. C. Wattne.
Edited for clarity and grammar by Farhan Yousaf.
Created and maintained by Marcin Wichary.
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