Come on, come on, come on, come on
(Together) We will go our way
(Together) We will leave someday
(Together) Your hand in my hand
(Together) We will make our plans
(Together) We will fly so high
(Together) Tell all our friends good-bye
(Together) We will start life new
(Together) This is what we’ll do
(Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) In the open air
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West) This is what we’re gonna do
(Go West, this is what we’re gonna do, Go West)
(Together) We will love the beach
(Together) We will learn and teach
(Together) Change our pace of life
(Together) We will work and strive
(I love you) I know you love me
(I want you) How could I disagree?
(So that’s why) I make no protest
(When you say) You will do the rest
(Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) In the open air
(Go West) Baby you and me
(Go West) This is our destiny
(Go West) Sun in wintertime
(Go West) We will do just fine
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West, this is what we’re gonna do)
There where the air is free
we’ll be (We’ll be) what we want to be
Now if we make a stand
we’ll find (We’ll find) our promised land
(I know that) There are many ways
(To live there) In the sun or shade
(Together) We will find a place
(To settle) Where there’s so much space
(Without rush) And the pace back East
(The hustling) Rustling just to feed
(I know I’m) Ready to leave too
(So that’s what) We are gonna do
(What we’re gonna do is
Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) There in the open air
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West) This is what we’re gonna do
(Life is peaceful there) Go West
(In the open air) Go West
(Baby, you and me) Go West
(This is our destiny)
Come on, come on, come on, come on
(Go West) Sun in wintertime
(Go West) We will feel just fine
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West) This is what we’re gonna do
(Come on, come on, come on, come on)
(Go West)
7 replies on “Go West (Pet Shop Boys, 1993)”
Although the lyricists didn’t originally intend it, “Go West” is widely understood as a song about San Francisco being a refuge for the 1960s-1980s gay liberation movement. Some have referred to this as the Great Gay Migration.
In this vein, the first verse seems to be talking about a couple (or several people) who are moving to California. where they will be more accepted and “start life new.”
The phrase about “peaceful” life, although fairly straightforward (ha), suggests that queer people moving to California don’t have to worry about oppression or discrimination.
On one hand, the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights occurred in 1979; at the same time, the Stonewall Riots had occurred just ten years earlier, and it was still an uphill battle for gay rights.
When the narrator says “learning and teaching,” it might mean that the gay men moving to California are educating others about their struggle for rights.
Later in the verse, the vagueness of the “I love you’s”–which never specify the gender of the singer’s partner–were partly what enabled it to become a gay anthem so easily.
The good weather in California (“sun in wintertime”) is symbolic for the shelter gay men would receive if they moved to cities like San Francisco. They will “do just fine” there despite the prejudice and discrimination elsewhere in the country.
This verse is the one addition that the Pet Shop Boys made in their cover of the song; however, rather than being hopeful for gay rights, they actually took a much more cynical view when recording the song. Said the keyboardist of the duo, “When the Village People sang about a gay utopia it seemed for real…I knew that the way Neil [Tennant] would sing it would make it sound hopeless.”
This partly could have been in reference to the fac that the AIDS breakout in the 1980s mainly started in California. HIV/AIDS ostracized and demonized the gay community, making the gay utopia envisioned in “Go West” much harder to attain.
Somehow, the references to East and West–coupled with the fact that the song’s tune resembles the Soviet national anthem–helped the Pet Shop Boys cover gain popularity in Russia. Despite the fact that the song’s music video took this and ran with it, many continue to read it as a gay anthem.
Interestingly enough, many “gayborhoods”–such as The West Village in San Francisco–are getting increasingly “straightened” as more non-queer people move into the areas. This is partly due to the rising prices of real estate in such areas. The New York Times has a useful article with more information on the topic.
Increasingly, then, there are fewer cries to “go west” for acceptance, though perhaps that is a sign of progress rather than a setback.