live at leeds specifically

now i do not mean to imply that any members of the who are or were secretly transmasc. HOWEVER

Me and my brother were talking to each other
'Bout what makes a man a man
Was it brain or brawn, or the month you were born
We just couldn’t understand

One girl was called Jean-Marie
Another little girl was called Felicity
Another little girl was Sally-Joy
The other was me, and I’m a boy

My name is Bill and I’m a headcase
They practice making-up on my face
Yeah, I feel lucky if I get trousers to wear
Spend evenings taking hairpins from my hair

I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But my ma won’t admit it
I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But if I say I am I get it

  • KnilAdlez [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    32·
    9 months ago

    “I’m a Boy” is a 1966 rock song written by Pete Townshend for the Who.[3] The song was originally intended to be a part of a rock opera called Quads, which was to be set in a future in which parents can choose the sex of their children.

    The song is about a family who “order” four girls, but a mistake is made and three girls and one boy are delivered instead. The boy dreams of partaking in sports and other boy-type activities, but his mother forces him to act like his sisters and refuses to believe the truth

    That’s hard to read as anything but a metaphor for being transmasc

  • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.neteesti
    7·
    9 months ago

    For sadness: listen to I’m a Boy by the Who and then read songwriter and guitatist Pete Townshend’s Age of Anxiety. You will realise that anything cool in I’m A Boy is an accident and actually he has freakish boomer takes about gender. Guy should have never written a novel, it’s ghastly.

    Favourite Pete from his novel: the one where his 60something art dealer self insert is eyeing up this under-20 girl with a diamond tooth for some reason who is gay, and he reflects that women turn lesbian as a tantrum of sorts in reaction to not getting the men they want. Or maybe the bit where he uses the book’s entire plot as a bit to excuse the concept of sexual assault…? or just the part where his narration spends several pages staring at a lady’s ass. A special type of guy.

    Signed, a lifelong and way-too-committed Who fan. If you ever hear something in the Who’s albums that sounds surface level kind of weird, it’s absolutely that weird.

    Cursed special interest agony-acid

    • Cromalin [she/her]@hexbear.netOPMEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      that sucks but it’s not surprising. i just think it’s very funny/cool that listening to the who might have lead some dude to discover himself back in 1970

      im not a massive massive fan of the who but i listen to them a fair bit

      (also idk what’s up but this comment only shows up in my inbox but not on the actual post)

      • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        If the comment got removed good riddance lmao.

        I like the new lore for I’m A Boy a lot, the song on its own is pretty rad even if Quads probably would have done something stupid with it. You only get the odd post about it because the cross section between insufferable boomers and internet trans people is pretty low.

        I wish I could unlearn all the stuff I know about the Who agony-wholesome

        • Cromalin [she/her]@hexbear.netOPMEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          the comment is still there if i open it in an incognito tab? i think hexbear is just busted. and your 2nd one is visible just fine

          the who were good at making music. is won’t get fooled again kinda libshit? yeah, but that scream still hits decades after csi tried to ruin it

          • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
            3·
            9 months ago

            Won’t Get Fooled Again woulda been a weird endcap to Lifehouse, which was basically an album about classic POWER OF ROCK N ROLL and MUSIC UNITES THE PEOPLE MAAAN stuff, suffice it to say it probably doesn’t bear thinking about Townshend’s political tendencies. Shame since he’s prone to writing real beautiful lil lines…

            I kinda like how the Who as a project is basically four total assholes who hate eachother to death, and once a year they’d just barely tolerate eachother in the studio to produce some of the hardest bangers you have ever heard. Quadrophenia is the goat d@m

            • Cromalin [she/her]@hexbear.netOPMEnglish
              2·
              9 months ago

              I kinda like how the Who as a project is basically four total assholes who hate eachother to death, and once a year they’d just barely tolerate eachother in the studio to produce some of the hardest bangers you have ever heard

              many such cases