Boy - Is A Gay Album

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whilst reading through the new version of the nial stokes book "into the heart" , i was looking at the "boy" section of the book and thought it funny that years after the album a lot of gay people came up to bono and mentioned the gay referances in some of the songs.

bono was oblivious to this obviously as he was writing about childhood innocence and never meant the songs to have double meanings.

can you spot the gay referances?
 
OK, just had a read of the lyrics and they are a bit dodgy. I always thought that the "boy meets man" line was a coming of age thing - ie the uncertain time when a boy becomes a man.

It all sounds a bit pervy the way you guys are interpreting it though!!


"My body grows and grows
It frightens me, you know" :ohmy:
 
karls77 said:
OK, just had a read of the lyrics and they are a bit dodgy. I always thought that the "boy meets man" line was a coming of age thing - ie the uncertain time when a boy becomes a man.

It all sounds a bit pervy the way you guys are interpreting it though!!


"My body grows and grows
It frightens me, you know" :ohmy:

:yes:
 
I don't think you have to look much further than the album cover, the one with the boy on it that is. That cover was banned in the U.S. when the album was released because some of the powers-that-be felt it suggested child pornography. That is why the U.S. copies of "Boy" have the distorted black and white drawings of the band members.
 
my teacher told me why, i laugh when old men cry.

i always thought that one was about child molestation, or something.
 
I think that it’s been labeled as a gay album because of the hidden track ‘YMCA’ that you can only find on the Bulgarian pressings of the album
 
i don't think there's an adolescent out there who hasn't paused and questioned his/her sexuality, and what i think Boy is filled with is the sound of a naive, almost unconscious questioning of self and sex and the body and what it means to change and to shift and to morph from one thing to the next to leave innocence behind (the opposite of HutDab).

yes, i find many references that could be construed as having homoerotic overtones especially if we were to do what is known as a "queer reading" of Boy -- by "queer reading" we seek to fill in the spaces, because it is the "love that dare not speak it's name" homosexuals have always communicated through signs, symbols, "codes," manners of dress, etc. the job of a queer reading is to spot the spaces where the suggestion of that which is queer -- by which we can only mean not heterosexual -- is evident, and then suggest what these spaces can mean within the larger framework of the book, play, novel, or album.




[q]I look into his eyes
They're closed but I see something
A teacher told me why
I laugh when old men cry
My body grows and grows
It frightens me, you know
The old man tried to walk me home
I thought he should have known
[/q]

the last couplet, in particular, is very homoerotic to me. it suggests -- and, remember, it's not important what Bono meant, what is important is how it is interpreted and how valid those interpretations are -- that of a boy becoming a man, of an awakening of sexuality, of the possibility of that sexualty being homosexual (which, in Ireland in 1980 would have to have been as vague as possible), and the fact that many young gay men seek out older gay men as they explore their feelings and attractions. the last line, in particular, what is the old man supposed to have known? is the old man gay and he's misreading the sexuality of the narrator? or is the narrator trying to let the old man know -- and we could get into a big discussion on "coded" language, the symbiotics of queer communication -- that, yes, he is curious and he would like to let the old man walk him home ... home from school, home from the pub, home from a club ... who knows, but what's important is that the suggestion is there, and from the suggestion meaning and intepretation can be created.

and the fact that this is followed by an explicitly heterosexual song, "an cat dubh," the juxtoposition strikes me as evidence of sexual confusion, or at least tension between what is comfortable or formal or expected and the unknown.

more:

[q]There's a picture book with color photographs
There's a comic strip that makes me laugh
Sometimes away he takes me
Sometimes I don't let go
[/q]

one constant theme in Queer Studies is the homoerotic nature of comic books, how the characters are both paragons of masculinity (in tights) and how the characters all have secret lives, secret identities, etc. there's loads of stuff to be read.

i think in the book Paul McG says that he always tought "stories for boys" was about masturbation, and i agree.

and note: it's the "hero" who "takes me" and that "sometimes" not all the time but sometimes "i don't let go" -- the suggestion of homosexual experience is there.

more:

[q]I can't find my way home
I'm alone
I've lost my way home
You know and you know
And you know and you know
And you know[/q]

while this is very vague, within the overall context of loss of innocence and fear and excitment about sexuality, the idea of being lost within the sexual realm could logically be about homo vs. hetero.

so, there's lots going on. i don't think that anyone in U2 is gay, but i think they write from an open, honest, emotional place, and the best artists are the ones who feel more and edit less and it seems entirely natural that adolescence would be aware of sexualty, and ambiguity and uncertainty about sexuality, and why wouldn't that be a part of this particular form of popular self-expression, the album Boy?
 
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:hmm:

I've never payed much attention to what U2 say about their lyrics... and I've never found any homosexual references in boy just because I've never looked for them.

I made an interpretation of "BOY" from my own background, from my own experiences, and what irvine wrote is his interpretation and nobody can't say that he's wrong, but there are more points of view. If I would see BOY as a gay album it wouldn have much to do with me and that's not the case.

A confession cames out: I feel annoyed by those people who think that they know the "real" meanings of the songs (not talking about anyone in particular) . I know that when Bono writes something he has an intention and some images in his mind, but I think that you have the right to make that song yours and that's why U2 has a lot fans: cuz their lyrics can be interpretated from different places.
 
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I stopped trying to find homosexual subtexts in things around seventh grade. I don't know why it's considered good pseudointellectual banter now. It's way too easy.

Oh, and Achtung, Baby is about oral sex.
 
david said:
It is Michael Jackson's favorite U2 album.



pedophilia does not equal homosexuality.

if that was a joke, it was in poor taste.

i find nothing funny about the sexual abuse of children.

:|
 
I find everyone's personal interpretation of Boy valid.

For me at least seeing as I'm close to the age the band was around the time they wrote the songs it has further implications so to speak.

The confusion, sadness, joy and mourning of lost innocence speak to my "soul" in a direct manner, I can relate to Bono's own thoughts at the time and say that even though he is one of my inspirations he felt just as I do now.

At this stage of our lives we all make at the very least allusions to the polar opposites of what we deem our own sexuality, Irvine's interpretation as well as a strictly heterosexual view of the lyrics both appeal to me in that U2s music is universal no one can lay claim to it as their own it is as they the worlds.

It’s an album filled with burgeoning sexuality, religiosity and a downright lust for knowledge.


Plus it rocks.
:wink:

"Monday morning,
Eighteen years of dawning,
I say how long,
You say how long."

It's the best album about being a teenager ever. :drool:
 
Irvine511 said:
i don't think there's an adolescent out there who hasn't paused and questioned his/her sexuality, and what i think Boy is filled with is the sound of a naive, almost unconscious questioning of self and sex and the body and what it means to change and to shift and to morph from one thing to the next to leave innocence behind (the opposite of HutDab).

yes, i find many references that could be construed as having homoerotic overtones especially if we were to do what is known as a "queer reading" of Boy -- by "queer reading" we seek to fill in the spaces, because it is the "love that dare not speak it's name" homosexuals have always communicated through signs, symbols, "codes," manners of dress, etc. the job of a queer reading is to spot the spaces where the suggestion of that which is queer -- by which we can only mean not heterosexual -- is evident, and then suggest what these spaces can mean within the larger framework of the book, play, novel, or album.




[q]I look into his eyes
They're closed but I see something
A teacher told me why
I laugh when old men cry
My body grows and grows
It frightens me, you know
The old man tried to walk me home
I thought he should have known
[/q]

the last couplet, in particular, is very homoerotic to me. it suggests -- and, remember, it's not important what Bono meant, what is important is how it is interpreted and how valid those interpretations are -- that of a boy becoming a man, of an awakening of sexuality, of the possibility of that sexualty being homosexual (which, in Ireland in 1980 would have to have been as vague as possible), and the fact that many young gay men seek out older gay men as they explore their feelings and attractions. the last line, in particular, what is the old man supposed to have known? is the old man gay and he's misreading the sexuality of the narrator? or is the narrator trying to let the old man know -- and we could get into a big discussion on "coded" language, the symbiotics of queer communication -- that, yes, he is curious and he would like to let the old man walk him home ... home from school, home from the pub, home from a club ... who knows, but what's important is that the suggestion is there, and from the suggestion meaning and intepretation can be created.

and the fact that this is followed by an explicitly heterosexual song, "an cat dubh," the juxtoposition strikes me as evidence of sexual confusion, or at least tension between what is comfortable or formal or expected and the unknown.

more:

[q]There's a picture book with color photographs
There's a comic strip that makes me laugh
Sometimes away he takes me
Sometimes I don't let go
[/q]

one constant theme in Queer Studies is the homoerotic nature of comic books, how the characters are both paragons of masculinity (in tights) and how the characters all have secret lives, secret identities, etc. there's loads of stuff to be read.

i think in the book Paul McG says that he always tought "stories for boys" was about masturbation, and i agree.

and note: it's the "hero" who "takes me" and that "sometimes" not all the time but sometimes "i don't let go" -- the suggestion of homosexual experience is there.

more:

[q]I can't find my way home
I'm alone
I've lost my way home
You know and you know
And you know and you know
And you know[/q]

while this is very vague, within the overall context of loss of innocence and fear and excitment about sexuality, the idea of being lost within the sexual realm could logically be about homo vs. hetero.

so, there's lots going on. i don't think that anyone in U2 is gay, but i think they write from an open, honest, emotional place, and the best artists are the ones who feel more and edit less and it seems entirely natural that adolescence would be aware of sexualty, and ambiguity and uncertainty about sexuality, and why wouldn't that be a part of this particular form of popular self-expression, the album Boy?

This may very well be one of the most intelligent posts I've ever read on Interference. Fuck you if you're ripping on Irvine for being not "pseudointellectual," but intellectually inquisitive and insightful, and fuck whoever's doing it for the thinly veiled, backwards gay-bashing which suddenly sprung up in the thread.

Irvine, I've grown VERY interested in notions of sexuality and "otherness" in U2's catalogue and, specifically, in their visual self-representations; the '90s, in particular, are rife for such a discussion. I'm glad that somebody else had the guts to articulate him/herself so wonderfully and to say what I just assumed (correctly, it seems) most people would take the wrong way and get all defensive about before, finally, resorting to prejudicial stereotypes.

The band dressed up like the fucking Village People in '97, folks. There is a CLEAR queer subtext to the identity which U2 has created for itself whether you like it or not. And, as Irvine pointed out, authorial intentionality ultimately doesn't figure into the equation, although as the years go by, I'm pretty sure intentions became quite clear.

Whatever. Try to have open minds, people. It could do you a world of good, even if you're not convinced.
 
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