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Their final hit together, although apparently they never officially split, they just stopped doing things together. And yes, I always thought "than boy meets girl" was part of the title too, but apparently not; perhaps they thought it was a little bit too controversial or something. Even as part of the phrase though, it offers multiple meanings - the obvious one being the possibility that it might be boy meets boy, girl meets girl, boy meets girl who is actually boy, girl and girl meet other girl, etc... and that's certainly the tack taken by the rest of the lyric "But all around there's violence and laws/ to make me think again/ Maybe one day they will understand." And yet if you're young enough or unfamiliar enough with Jimmy Somerville's work before and after this not to make that connection, or even if you hear it far enough into the future for homophobia not be a problem any more (hey, we all live in hope) there's a broader way to understand the concept too: love isn't only about the brief moments that tend be the staples of pop music (and other music, come to that) but also about the joys and stresses of the longer haul.
So far on this blog I've tended to blow hot and cold rather about Jimmy Somerville's tracks, which tend to leave me feeling rather ambivalent. Maybe it's just the way the album's sequenced but this one has impressed me more than others, even though I don't remember especially liking it at the time. What really strikes me now is how joyful it is, something often tried and rarely attained. It makes this song sound less like a lecture than it might otherwise have done and makes this one of his most effective takes on the subject matter.
Also appearing on: Now 6, 8, 9, 10
Available on: The Singles Collection 1984/1990
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