Be Good Johnny Lyrics
Off to school we go
"Don't you be a bad boy Johnny
Don't you slip up
Or play the fool"
"Oh no Ma, Oh no Da,
I'll be your golden boy
I will obey ev'ry golden rule"
Get told by the teacher
Not to day-dream
Told by my mother:
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good be good (Johnny)
Be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good (Johnny)
Be good be good.
"No!"
"Oh, well you must be going to play cricket this year then, are you Johnny?"
"No! no! no!"
"Boy, you sure are a funny kid, Johnny, but I like you! So tell me, what kind of a boy are you, John?"
All the day long
Where no one is screaming
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good be good (Johnny)
Be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
Be good be good be good
be good be good be good
be good be good be good
be good be good be good
Johnny!
A boy going outside the box.
There's one little brilliant thing about this song. My thoughts.
A kid is told to "be good" through repetition. Simple enough. Millions of things that could mean, the repetition is the important part. Kid promises to be good, who doesn't want their parent's approval. Then, we learn the kid doesn't care about any of that. Johnny talks about how he only likes dreaming, something he was specifically told wasn't good. The "be good be good" comes back after this for a round. Johnny repeats what he said about dreaming.
This is the interesting part. Something you won't see in the lyrics--the lack of them. The tune kicks back in again, but the "be good be GOOD" is gone. I don't know about you, but at this point, I can't NOT hear the "be good be good" repeated somewhere in the back of my mind, for a few bars at least. It shows how being told something again and again can stick around in your mind, even when no one's saying it anymore. Even if you don't want it there.
Classic Men At Work!
how can this song only have 2 comments.... great song about how a kid just wants to get out and does what he has to to do so, hes a dreamer with only that to keep him sane
To me, the song suggests that in all the rules imposed on "Johnny", he was experiencing ill treatment, and he dreamed of not receiving that treatment. And, it proposes that Johnny keep on dreaming, and follow his dreams. I don't totally buy into everything that Colin Hay may have meant, but I think that it makes a valuable point. The world is thoroughly flawed, and we need transcendent goodness in order redeem ourselves and it. I believe that God is the source of that goodness.
c'mon ppl this is a great song i luvs it
just a bout a kid who feels he has too much pressure on him. Stupendous song, though