@honestfi: "nothing in here about being gay" For the record, I heard this song as being about gay history long before I self-identified as queer, and before I even had heard PSB was thought of as a gay band. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but sometimes when other people keep seeing something other than a cigar, you might be missing a reference.
Obviously any song can and should have multiple meanings. I'm glad this song speaks to lots of people about growing up; the artists stated that as their intention. I want to see 80 different "It's about"s. I'd rather never see "It's not about" or "It's only about" again.
I didn't find out about the Zelda Fitzgerald quote and its context until last year, which changed my impression of the first verse from the Roaring 20s to the late 60s. I still love my 20s version of the first verse, where the singer finds a cache of his grandparents' letters and discovers that sexual exploration is not just a modern craze, but the glitz and the glamour and the free love runs in cycles. That version doesn't go away just because I learn more about the song.
Here's the text from the beginning of the music video: "I came from Newcastle in the North of England. We used to have lots of parties where everyone got dressed up and on one party invitation was the quote 'she was never bored because she was never boring'. The song is about growing up - the ideals that you have when you're young and how they turn out."
Here are the specific parts that support a queer interpretation for me:
"Dress in white" -- White Parties are a collection of AIDS benefits, heavily associated with GLBT people. They started in 1988, two years before this song was released, and had their roots in a long history of style-focused social events. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Party
"Find inspiration in anyone who's ever gone and opened up a closing door" -- Coming out of the closet is a powerful metaphor because it implies not only becoming visible, but going from a claustrophobic space to an open one. Many GLBT people, including Stephen Fry and Sir Ian McKellen, talk about young experiences of combing literature and history for queers and rebels, to know that someone else felt out of place and lived loudly.
The second verse starts the 1970s with an ominous warning, but the narrator is young, has left home with a haversack, is dressed in fashionable shoes and has just "scored." (In either the sexual or drug sense, both were popular club pastimes and both have helped spread HIV.) Looking forward! All is hopeful!
"Bolted through a closing door" -- especially with the haversack and the (train?) station, this suggests a coming-out to parents that wasn't pleasant. Again, lots of people's coming of age can match this, but getting kicked out of the house for being gay is a common story that, in context, comes quickly to mind.
"All the people I was kissing / Some are here and some are missing in the 1990s"... This is the line that first made me go listen to the rest of the song as a possible gay history.
I've heard the 1980s called 'the plague years' by gay men who survived the decade. In the gay club communities in big cities, sometimes it was multiple funerals a week. I cannot wrap my mind around losing that many friends and lovers, that young. This was not just one person's experience or the usual angst of college friends going their separate ways. This was the tragedy of a generation.
"The creature I was always meant to be" -- Remember, the first two verses mentioned the door. This one doesn't. We're grownups, we're out of the closet in ways that were unimaginable in 1970, we're doing exciting stuff with our lives. It's amazing.
"But I thought in spite of dreams / You'd be sitting somewhere here with me" -- Tragedy of a generation.
In light of all that, this part of the chorus is full of joy and melancholy at the same time:
"We were never holding back or worried that
Time would come to an end
We were always hoping that, looking back
You could always rely on a friend"
@gement Thanks for your essay on Being Boring. You got it. For me, interpretations of this song that obviate its dedicated and carefully constructed queerness, are... BORING, and not just in a tedious sense, but in a phobic, full of shame and denial way. This song deserves dedicated listening.
@gement Thanks for your essay on Being Boring. You got it. For me, interpretations of this song that obviate its dedicated and carefully constructed queerness, are... BORING, and not just in a tedious sense, but in a phobic, full of shame and denial way. This song deserves dedicated listening.
@gement Thanks for that. I guess as a straight person those kind of details pass right by me, but reading your interpretation and listening to the song I can totally see that's what the song's about.
@gement Thanks for that. I guess as a straight person those kind of details pass right by me, but reading your interpretation and listening to the song I can totally see that's what the song's about.
@honestfi: "nothing in here about being gay" For the record, I heard this song as being about gay history long before I self-identified as queer, and before I even had heard PSB was thought of as a gay band. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but sometimes when other people keep seeing something other than a cigar, you might be missing a reference.
Obviously any song can and should have multiple meanings. I'm glad this song speaks to lots of people about growing up; the artists stated that as their intention. I want to see 80 different "It's about"s. I'd rather never see "It's not about" or "It's only about" again.
I didn't find out about the Zelda Fitzgerald quote and its context until last year, which changed my impression of the first verse from the Roaring 20s to the late 60s. I still love my 20s version of the first verse, where the singer finds a cache of his grandparents' letters and discovers that sexual exploration is not just a modern craze, but the glitz and the glamour and the free love runs in cycles. That version doesn't go away just because I learn more about the song.
Here's the text from the beginning of the music video: "I came from Newcastle in the North of England. We used to have lots of parties where everyone got dressed up and on one party invitation was the quote 'she was never bored because she was never boring'. The song is about growing up - the ideals that you have when you're young and how they turn out."
Here are the specific parts that support a queer interpretation for me:
"Dress in white" -- White Parties are a collection of AIDS benefits, heavily associated with GLBT people. They started in 1988, two years before this song was released, and had their roots in a long history of style-focused social events. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Party
"Find inspiration in anyone who's ever gone and opened up a closing door" -- Coming out of the closet is a powerful metaphor because it implies not only becoming visible, but going from a claustrophobic space to an open one. Many GLBT people, including Stephen Fry and Sir Ian McKellen, talk about young experiences of combing literature and history for queers and rebels, to know that someone else felt out of place and lived loudly.
The second verse starts the 1970s with an ominous warning, but the narrator is young, has left home with a haversack, is dressed in fashionable shoes and has just "scored." (In either the sexual or drug sense, both were popular club pastimes and both have helped spread HIV.) Looking forward! All is hopeful!
"Bolted through a closing door" -- especially with the haversack and the (train?) station, this suggests a coming-out to parents that wasn't pleasant. Again, lots of people's coming of age can match this, but getting kicked out of the house for being gay is a common story that, in context, comes quickly to mind.
"All the people I was kissing / Some are here and some are missing in the 1990s"... This is the line that first made me go listen to the rest of the song as a possible gay history.
I've heard the 1980s called 'the plague years' by gay men who survived the decade. In the gay club communities in big cities, sometimes it was multiple funerals a week. I cannot wrap my mind around losing that many friends and lovers, that young. This was not just one person's experience or the usual angst of college friends going their separate ways. This was the tragedy of a generation.
"The creature I was always meant to be" -- Remember, the first two verses mentioned the door. This one doesn't. We're grownups, we're out of the closet in ways that were unimaginable in 1970, we're doing exciting stuff with our lives. It's amazing.
"But I thought in spite of dreams / You'd be sitting somewhere here with me" -- Tragedy of a generation.
In light of all that, this part of the chorus is full of joy and melancholy at the same time: "We were never holding back or worried that Time would come to an end We were always hoping that, looking back You could always rely on a friend"
@gement Thanks for your essay on Being Boring. You got it. For me, interpretations of this song that obviate its dedicated and carefully constructed queerness, are... BORING, and not just in a tedious sense, but in a phobic, full of shame and denial way. This song deserves dedicated listening.
@gement Thanks for your essay on Being Boring. You got it. For me, interpretations of this song that obviate its dedicated and carefully constructed queerness, are... BORING, and not just in a tedious sense, but in a phobic, full of shame and denial way. This song deserves dedicated listening.
That is an excellent essay explanation of this song. Really quite well written.
That is an excellent essay explanation of this song. Really quite well written.
Thank you
Thank you
@gement Thanks for that. I guess as a straight person those kind of details pass right by me, but reading your interpretation and listening to the song I can totally see that's what the song's about.
@gement Thanks for that. I guess as a straight person those kind of details pass right by me, but reading your interpretation and listening to the song I can totally see that's what the song's about.