Pet Shop Boys – Paninaro
#quotefromthe80s
Passion and love and sex and money
Violence, religion, injustice and death
Paninaro, paninaro, oh oh oh
Girls, boys, art, pleasure
#Paninaro #PetShopBoys
If you don’t live in Milan, or at least in Italy, this song might still sound a little obscure to you. Pet Shop Boys came to Milan during the 80s and they were absolutely fascinated by a town that was unexpectedly bloomin with art, fashion, lifestyle, and an incredible youth living the best period of their lives: cool dresses, great discos and clubs, very few problems and responsibilities. These supercool guys were called “Paninaro’s”. In Italian, “panino” literally means sandwich, or burger, and there was a minor burger shop in a small square aside from the cathedral of Milan, called “Al panino” (“At the burger”). The first cell of this social identity used to gather in front of this shop, and they were called “Paninari” (“those who eat burgers”, roughly speaking). By the way, in that same square today there is one of the most iconic Apple stores in Italy.
From here, the Paninaro’s culture spread all through Italy and the Italian-speaking zone of Switzerland.
And Pet Shop Boys, cult band for disco clubs people, wanted to tribute this young subculture, and after their great hits like West End Girls, It’s a Sin, Suburbia, they dedicated this song to the group of “Paninaro’s”, and released it in September of 1986 as the B-side of Suburbia, only in Italy, with a mini-production of five thousand records.
The video clip is filmed in Milan and we clearly identifiable landmarks (in you know Milan), like the entry of the underground station of Porta Venezia, or the big Candy advertisement which appeared for decades on the west side of the Cathedral squadre. And we also see one of the burger shop chains, Quick, actually a sort of third runner after Burghy and Wendy, the most famous burger shops at the time. McDonald’s had no presence in Italy in the 80’s.
Neil Tennant, singer of Pet Shop Boys, commented in this way: “actually we were not expected to appreciate Paninaro’s, we were considered alternative music, they looked more like Madonna’s or Wham’s fans. But we liked their dress code, it looked like something that Chris could have dressed at those times. So when we had the inspiration for a hit with a chorus like “oh-oh-oh”, which Italians could easily appreciate, in that moment we decided for this title.
This hit is curiously sang by Chris Lowe, not Neil tennant, and lyrics consist of mainly eight words repeated: passion, love, sex, money, violence, religion, injustice and death.
A curious final notice: Paninaro’s melted like snow under the sun during Summer of 1987. The reasons of such quick and simultanoeous event (just like they had all agreed on it, excluding some professional delayers) are still unknown, but it was quite embarrassing to see what came next: leather jackets, studs and Dr. Martens’ combat boots, inherited by other youth groups.
But we were in the 80s, and you could change everything!
Pet Shop Boys on Wikipedia
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