"Boys Keep Swinging" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released as a single from the album Lodger on 27 April 1979.
[edit] Recording and release
During the Lodger recording sessions, Bowie had wanted to capture a garage band style for the track, and decided the best way to achieve this sound was to get the band to swap instruments. Guitarist Carlos Alomar played drums and drummer Dennis Davis played bass. The final result had a post-punk feel.
"Boys Keep Swinging" has exactly the same chord sequence as the song "Fantastic Voyage" from the same album ("Fantastic Voyage" was also the B-side to the single of "Boys Keep Swinging"). Bowie's deep voice satirised machismo, while the lyrics juxtaposed depictions of male privilege and homoeroticism ("When you're a boy, other boys check you out"). When this was combined with David Mallet's video, which featured a suited Bowie backed by three "female" vocalists who were revealed to be the singer in drag, RCA decided against releasing the single in the US, choosing "Look Back in Anger" instead. Bowie performed the track with a puppet body special effect on Saturday Night Live on 15 December 1979, joined by Klaus Nomi as backing singer. During the broadcast NBC censors muted the "other boys check you out" line, but failed to notice the puppet's bouncing phallus at the close of the song.
The song reached #7 in the UK, returning Bowie to the top 10 of the Singles chart for the first time since "Sound and Vision" in February 1977. It has only been performed on one of Bowie tours to date, the 1995 Outside Tour. Interviewed in 2000, Bowie said the following about the song: "I do not feel that there is anything remotely glorious about being either male or female. I was merely playing on the idea of the colonization of gender."[1]
[edit] Track listing
- "Boys Keep Swinging" (Bowie, Eno) – 3:17
- "Fantastic Voyage" (Bowie) – 2:55
[edit] Production credits
[edit] Other releases
- The song appeared on the following compilations:
- It was released as a picture disc in the Fashions Picture Disc Set.
[edit] Cover versions
- A Camp - 'Colonia' (Feb 2009)/'Love Has left The Room' (EP) (May 2009)
- AFX - Ashes to Ashes: A Tribute to David Bowie (1998)
- The Associates - Released as a single in 1979 without copyright permission as a publicity stunt (it worked, the band landing a record deal soon afterwards). This version is included on Starman: Rare and Exclusive Versions of 18 Classic David Bowie Songs, CD premium from the March 2003 issue of Uncut magazine.
- The Dambuilders - Crash Course for the Ravers - A Tribute to the Songs of David Bowie (1996)
- Mr Russia - .2 Contamination: A Tribute to David Bowie (2006)
- The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower - INRI (2006)
- Sarah Harding - St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (Original Soundtrack) (2009)
- Screamfeeder - Home Age (1999)
- Shihad - Single
- Susanna Hoffs - When You're a Boy (1991) and David Bowie Songbook
- Blur's 1997 track "M.O.R." heavily borrowed the rhythm and harmonic structure of the song, and after legal intervention, was credited to "Blur/Bowie/Eno".
- Duran Duran in We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie (2010).
[edit] References
|
|
|
| 1960s |
|
|
| 1970s |
| 1970 |
|
|
| 1971 |
|
|
| 1972 |
|
|
| 1973 |
|
|
| 1974 |
|
|
| 1975 |
|
|
| 1976 |
|
|
| 1977 |
|
|
| 1978 |
|
|
| 1979 |
|
|
|
| 1980s |
| 1980 |
|
|
| 1981 |
|
|
| 1982 |
|
|
| 1983 |
|
|
| 1984 |
|
|
| 1985 |
|
|
| 1986 |
|
|
| 1987 |
|
|
| 1989 |
|
|
|
| 1990s |
| 1990 |
|
|
| 1991 |
|
|
| 1992 |
|
|
| 1993 |
|
|
| 1994 |
|
|
| 1995 |
|
|
| 1996 |
|
|
| 1997 |
|
|
| 1999 |
|
|
|
| 2000s |
|
|
| 2010s |
|
|
|
|
|
