David Bowie, Boys Keep Swinging | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 180th edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Boys Keep Swinging” by David Bowie.   

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 180^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Boys Keep Swinging” performed by David Bowie.

“Nothing stands in your way when you’re a boy.” That sounds accurate, David Bowie, fair or not. On “Boys Keep Swinging”, the late, great musical icon sings about all the things boys can do.  The possibilities are endless and sexual. Boys enjoy fun! Bowie and Brian Eno penned the classic” while Bowie and Tony Visconti produced.  What stands out about the sound is the rhythmic intensity and the robustness.  The guitars particularly catch the ear.

Even with the sound contributing to the allure of “Boys Keep Swinging,” the bold, outlandish, and unapologetic lyrics ‘take the cake.’ “Life is a pop of the cherry when you’re a boy,” Bowie sings in the first verse. The double entendre is intentional and unavoidable.  Boys seem to be able to have sex whenever they desire; that’s the perception.  In the second verse, Bowie also speaks the truth: “They’ll never clone you, you are always first on the line / When you’re a boy.” While girls have seen progress today, they still aren’t prioritized over boys in many ways.  The double standard is real. In the pre-chorus, he boldly asserts, “(When you’re a boy) Other boys check you out,” a line deemed controversial, aka gay, at the time.  To this day, the reference sounds queer.  Also, Bowie was bisexual. The chorus is sexed-up too: “Boys / Boys / Boys keep swinging / Boys always work it out.” What are the swinging? Use your imagination. “Boys Keep Swinging”, in all its masculine glory (and highlighting toxic masculinity in the process) is a timeless, rock classic.

David Bowie // Lodgers // Jones / Tintoretto Entertainment Company LLC // 1979

David Bowie, Boys Keep Swinging: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 180 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Jones / Tintoretto Entertainment Company LLC; OpenClipart-Vectors, Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Speedy McVroom from Pixabay]