Boys Keep Swinging

"Boys Keep Swinging" is a song by English musician David Bowie, released on 27 April 1979 by RCA Records in the United Kingdom as the lead single from his 1979 album '' Lodger''. It was written by Bowie and Brian Eno and recorded in Montreux and New York City in September 1978 and March 1979. The recording utilised techniques from Eno's Oblique Strategies cards, which resulted in the musicians swapping instruments. Adrian Belew contributed a guitar solo, which he played receiving little guidance and was composited from multiple takes. The song was also built on the same chord sequence as album track "Fantastic Voyage". Musically, "Boys Keep Swinging" contains elements of glam rock, garage rock, funk and new wave, while lyrically, the song deals with the concept of gender identity, featuring various gender-bending lyrics. Bowie himself stated that the song was full of irony.

Bowie filmed a promotional video for "Boys Keep Swinging" alongside an appearance on ''The Kenny Everett Video Show''. Both were directed by David Mallet, marking the first in a series of collaborations with Bowie. The video features Bowie as himself and three backing dancers dressed in drag. The video helped the single reach number seven on the UK Singles Chart, his highest chart placement in two years. Bowie gave an acclaimed performance of the song on ''Saturday Night Live'' in December 1979 and later revived it for his 1995 Outside Tour. Although it received mixed reviews on release, with some finding a lack of payoff, commentators have reacted more positively to "Boys Keep Swinging" in later decades, with some naming it one of Bowie's best songs. It has appeared on several compilation albums and was covered by the Associates in late-1979, whose version earned them their first recording contract.

Recording

"Boys Keep Swinging" was written by David Bowie and Brian Eno during the sessions for '' Lodger'' (1979). Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, the backing tracks were recorded at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland in September 1978, while vocals and overdubs were completed at the Record Plant in New York City in March 1979. The sessions saw Bowie and Eno utilise techniques from Eno's Oblique Strategies cards. According to biographer Chris O'Leary, these cards were "part-fortune cookie, part-''Monopoly'' 'Chance' cards", intended to spark creative ideas. Eno and Bowie used them previously to create some of the instrumentals for '' "Heroes"'' (1977).

After a few takes, Bowie was dissatisfied with the band's progress, finding it "sounds like professionals!" In order to sound like "young kids in the basement ho werejust discovering their instruments", Bowie had the musicians swap instruments, a trick previously utilised during the recording of Iggy Pop's '' Lust for Life'' in 1977. So, guitarist Carlos Alomar switched to drums, drummer Dennis Davis moved to bass guitar and bassist George Murray moved to keyboards. However, Murray's contribution was omitted from the final mix, as only Bowie and Eno are credited, while Davis's part was deemed unsuitable and re-recorded by Visconti, who played an "over-the-top" part in a style similar to '' The Man Who Sold the World'' (1970). Several commentators found the part reminiscent of the Beach Boys' "You're So Good to Me" (1965).

Future King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew contributed a solo towards the end of the song, which was composited from multiple takes. Before he played, Bowie told Belew that Alomar was playing drums but gave little guidance regarding the music. He later stated: "It was like a freight train coming through my mind. I just had to cling on." Speaking with biographer David Buckley, Belew stated that Bowie wrote the lyrics and recorded his vocals for the song in just seven days. He also recalled that after Bowie completed the vocals, "He played it to me and said, 'This is written after you, in the spirit of you.' I think he saw me as a naive person who just enjoyed life. I was thrilled with that."

Music and lyrics

"Boys Keep Swinging" uses the same chord sequence as fellow ''Lodger'' track "Fantastic Voyage", although biographers note that "Boys" is more "tense" and "upbeat"; author Peter Doggett contends that its structure acts "like a bumper car". Musically, ''The Quietus'' found "Boys" to contain elements of glam rock and garage rock; O'Leary similarly states that the song represents "an end to Bowie's glam years". Some commentators found elements of funk in the track, with ''Uncut'' calling it "neurotic funk ála Talking Heads", and ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' finding it "updates Bowie's funk era via a punk attitude". On the other hand, Dave Thompson found that the song was indebted to the then-rising new wave scene. Simon House plays violin on the track, whose contribution O'Leary calls a "sawing background drone" and compares it to the Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man" (1967). Mike Powell of ''Pitchfork'' compared the song to the Village People, but noted that "Boys" is "less secure about its sexuality".

Lyrically, "Boys Keep Swinging" deals with the concept of gender identity, featuring numerous gender-bending lyrics such as "when you're a boy, other boys check you out". Doggett states that the song reinforces the "male gang mentality", a concept Bowie was familiar with during the 1960s. Various commentators have provided interpretations for "Boys". O'Leary interprets the song as "a boy's idea of manhood as being like hinging a Scout troop", evidenced by the lyrics "Uncage the colours! Unfurl the flag!" On release, Jon Savage of '' Melody Maker'' analysed the track as "a vaguely homoerotic, Ladybird look at male adolescence", while in 2008, ''Uncut''s Chris Roberts described it as "a tongue-in-cheek, camp dig at American values". Author James Perone argues that within the context on ''Lodger'', "Boys" presents various stereotypes that are expected of males, such as the idea that all they need to do is keep trying to "work it out" and that feeling militaristic is manly. However, the song itself does not answer questions raised that counteract these stereotypes; he notes that the album's next track, "Repetition", does give an example on how to deal with frustration. Bowie himself later stated that the song was full of irony.

Release

RCA Records issued "Boys Keep Swinging" in the United Kingdom on 27 April 1979, with the catalogue number RCA BOW 2 and album track "Fantastic Voyage" as the B-side. To promote the song, Bowie appeared on ''The Kenny Everett Video Show'' four days earlier. According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, he dressed in a "1950s Mod-style suit" that made him look like a "fresh-faced schoolboy". The director of the programme was David Mallet, whom Bowie chose to direct a promotional video for "Boys", becoming the first in a series of music video collaborations between the two men.

The promo and Everett performance were filmed back-to-back, although the former featured extra backup dancers who turned out to be Bowie in drag. For the first girl, Bowie want "a 50s-type girl from the Midlands, a gum-chewing, working-class 'tart'"; the second was dressed like actress Lauren Bacall; the third was a combination of actresses Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. At the end of the promo, two of the dancers turn to the camera, remove their wigs and smear their makeup in a style Bowie borrowed from Dutch dancer Romy Haag after observing her at a Berlin nightclub. The final dancer simply blows a kiss into the camera. Regarding the smearing bit, Bowie stated: "That was a well-known drag act finale gesture which I appropriated. I really liked the idea of screwing up hemake-up after all the meticulous work that had gone into it. It was a nice destructive thing to do – quite anarchistic." The smearing gesture would later be used in the videos for "China Girl" (1983) and "Jump They Say" (1993). According to Buckley, when the video was broadcast on BBC
...