David Bowie is not gay. He may have given bi-sexuality the nod when it was fashionable but let's face it, he's been married twice (both times to ladies) and has sired a couple of little heroes, so all things considered, he's heterosexual.
And yet, and yet - despite this very straight fact - he wrote the most incisive, witty and empowering gay pop song in music history. It's called 'Boys Keep Swinging'.
Before Mr. Jones slipped into his slippers and late 80's decline he delivered two albums of astonishing creativity: Scary Monsters and Supercreeps and Lodger. The host of riches across these two works would shame the entire output of all but a few other artists and SMASC's 'Ashes To Ashes' is rightly seen as a timelessly brilliant single, but jump back to Lodger, find 'Boys Keep Swinging' and hear a track with swagger, poise and an awful lot to say.
This song is extraordinary because Bowie is celebrating a sexuality that simply isn't his own. But not with stereotypes, his character is in no way fey. No, this is strident, stomping queerness - no Brideshead, all Cabaret. And there is no mention of sex here, because it just isn't necessary. The song goes beyond the admiration of the physical male form and errupts into a celebration of young manhood.
Camp? The track is certainly that, but it's marching not mincing, exalting not screaming.
'Heaven loves ya / The clouds part for ya / Nothing stands in your way / When you're a boy'
Phew! You get all that simply for being lucky enough to own a wing-wang! If the Village People were gay men making disco records for hetero parties and clubs, then here was Bowie as a straight man going to the heart of male gay pride and emotion.
Musically, the recording is also a tour-de-force. From the opening thumping snare, we are roused and ready, through the verse insistent machinery rolls us forward, chiming and unfolding into a masterful Adrian Belew backward, howling solo (a trademark sound for both the albums mentioned here). It seems Bowie didn't really embrace punk in the same way he later absorbed and led the new romantics, but on this form he was surely widening the minds and eyes of the new wave stalwarts. I say 'eyes' because it's 'Boys Keep Swinging's video which paints the nail varnish on the nails of this unique song.
We see DB in a sharp suit giving a spirited but straightforward performance. But hang on - what's this? When the camera cuts to his backing singers, we glimpse a fading, aging Bette Davis, a beehived vamp and a flaming, sexy redhead. Each of them is, of course, Bowie - and now the fellas are really confused. This is about the glory of boys, right?
Only Bowie could do this and make it compelling and mysterious rather than silly and irksome. He looks great in drag, Freddie never did. At this point (1979) who else could deploy such subterfuge and provocation with such panache - while creating not only a stream of amazing images, ideas and possibilities but a rock record to leave his contemporaries weeping with frustration? It is really one of Bowie's finest moments.
Magnus Shaw, 2010
