"Dear Boy" is the fourth track on Paul McCartney's second solo album (credited to both he and wife-at-the-time Linda) Ram, released all the way back in 1971.
Paul believed he was very lucky to have Linda as his wife, and wrote this song as a tribute to her. It is also an address to her former husband; they married years earlier in 1962 before divorcing in 1965. McCartney 'tells' him that he was a silly man to let Linda go, and that he will never find another one like her.
Although most of it is in a minor key, the dramatic, layered backing vocals and airy rhythm make things a little lighter. You can probably imagine the smugness he had when writing and singing this: "I hope you never know, dear boy, how much you missed/And even when you fall in love, dear boy, it won't be half as good as this".
"The Boy Who Ran Away" was Mystery Jets' third official single in 2006. Their first album "Making Dens" was out, and they were played a minority of the time on MTV2. Most of their airtime came in the NME Chart, before NME up and went to go and have their own channel.
At first, "The Boy Who Ran Away" wasn't to my liking. I would always skip the channel everytime the video came on. I take that back - it's not that it wasn't to my liking, it was just that I barely gave it a chance.
I did like their other songs though. "Alas Agnes" was a good one, as was "You Can't Fool Me Dennis" which weirded me out because the lead singer looked very similar to a friend I had in primary school. "The Boy Who Ran Away" must be alright then, shouldn't it?
Well, yes it is. I wouldn't be wasting my time on writing about a song I didn't like. The majority of people in the UK liked the song too; it reached #23 over here and remains to be the band's highest charting single.
The song tells a story about... a boy who runs away. From home apparently. But he ends up in a rubbish place, and goes home back to his parents even though he knows they don't like him. Pretty miserable. It's an upbeat song, so you probably wouldn't realise the tragedy.
Look out for the 'lo-lo-lo' bridge singalong too. That's catchy as hell.
Nice. A song by "The Who" that's not on "Who's Next" for me to talk about.
"Quadrophenia" was the first Who album I downloaded in 2010. It was that year when I randomly started to listen to them when I started watching videos on YouTube.
I had briefly heard of it before when I was 13, when a member on YouTube - 'sxewill2' I think was the name of the channel - uploaded the album in sepearate parts. I can remember listening to "The Real Me" for a few seconds, but at that time I was a naive and foolish boy and went onto a different video. That person's account was later terminated from the website later that year.
"Quadrophenia" is another concept album written by Pete Townshend. The story of the album follows the protagonist "Jimmy", a Mod with multiple personality disorder. It's not just two personalities, or three, but four, with each one representing the personality of one member of "The Who". Now you see where the "Quad" comes in the album title.
In regards to the story, "Bell Boy" comes in after Jimmy goes to Brighton to remember the good old fights between the Mods and Rockers and sees a notable Mod that he looked up to back in the day. However, this Mod now works as a... you might have a guessed, a bell boy, and Jimmy is pissed off and dissappointed. What does he do next? You have to listen to the album.
Townshend also incoporates all these musical 'leitmotifs' which occur at different points during the album, depicting the clashes between the personalities. "Bell Boy" is Keith's theme, noted for being 'a bloody lunatic' in the liner notes of the album. "Bell Boy" was the first song I really got into when I listened to the album for the first time. I think the fact that it contained lead vocals by Keith himself played a large part, but also because for me, it was the easiest one to memorise and it's just got this thumping beat to it that doesn't quit. Especially in the verses and the instrumental breaks.
That's about it, guys. Hope you liked the post. Give me feedback, tell me whether you like the song, whether you like the blog or not. Anything really.
