The Boys Light Up (song)
| "The Boys Light Up" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Australian Crawl | ||||
| from the album The Boys Light Up | ||||
| A-side | "The Boys Light Up" | |||
| B-side | "Boot Hill" | |||
| Released | May 1980 | |||
| Format | 7-inch single | |||
| Genre | Australian pub rock | |||
| Length | 4:41 | |||
| Label | EMI | |||
| Writer(s) | James Reyne | |||
| Producer(s) | David Briggs | |||
| Australian Crawl singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"The Boys Light Up" is the second single and title track released by Australian rock band Australian Crawl from their debut album The Boys Light Up (1980). The song was written by lead singer James Reyne [1][2]
Australian Crawl's producer David Briggs was the Little River Band's guitarist, and had helped them to a recording contract with EMI.[3] "The Boys Light Up" peaked at #22 on the Australian Singles Chart.[4]
The song contains the neologism "dorseted", to rhyme with "corseted".
"People aren't used to hearing 'Dorseted', and it's not actually a word - it's from the Dorset Gardens - I'm trying to be as suburban as possible, and it rhymed with 'corseted'." - James Reyne, 2003[5]
Dorset Gardens hotel is a pub in Croydon an eastern suburb of Melbourne.
The single was almost banned from radio play and some TV shows due to its explicit lyrics.[6] Reyne makes observations about cocktail parties that his parents attended and one of his teachers was caught in the garden with someone else's wife.[5] Many listeners believe the chorus lyrics are about smoking marijuana but Reyne has stated that it was about smoking tobacco cigarettes when he was in Form Four at The Peninsula School.[5] In an interview with Peter Thompson on the ABC Television program Talking Heads, broadcast 31 May 2010, James Reyne stated that the song was about fellatio.
Track listing
Charts
| Chart (1980) | Peak Position [4] |
Weeks In |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 22 | 18 |
References
- 1 2 3 "Australasian Performing Right Association". APRA. Archived from the original on January 24, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
- ↑ Holmgren, Magnus; Warnqvist, Stefan; Draper, Oliver; McDonough, Bill. "Australian Crawl". Australian Rock Database. Passagen.se (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
- ↑ McFarlane, Ian (1999). Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (doc). Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86448-768-2. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
- 1 2 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- 1 2 3 "Love is in the air Episode 5: "National Anthems"; transcript of interview with James Reyne". ABC-TV. 2003-11-09. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
- ↑ "Memorable TV Oz Rock: Australian Crawl entry". Memorable TV / Little Acorns Publishing. Retrieved 2008-03-02.