Tuesday, October 14, 2014

The Who's "I'm a Boy"

Yester-day, I listened to a compilation album of the Who.  "I'm a Boy" got stuck in my head, and I got thinking about the names of two of the girls mentioned in the song, Felicity and Sally-Joy.  Both of their names indicate the well-being that the speaker/singer doesn't have.  Felicity means happiness, and Sally-Joy's name obviously contains joy.

Also, in transcribing the lyrics (which I've decided to do to all of the songs I write about here, provided I'm commenting on the lyrics), I discovered that the first word of each line of the second verse starts with P:
Put your frock on, Jean-Marie
Pluck your hair, Felicity
Paint your nails, little Sally-Joy
Put this wig on, little boy
(It might technically be the third verse, if "My name is Bill, and I'm a headcase..." is an-other verse, but I think that's a bridge.  I might be wrong; I'm bad at structural terminology.)

I think the words that start with P are too far away for it to be alliteration (at least in a strict sense), but it still indicates how the boy is forced into conforming with the girls.