Album: Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy (1966)

Charted: 2

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• 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 head case
  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
  
  Put your frock on, Jean Marie
  Plait your hair, Felicity
  Paint your nails, little Sally Joy
  Put this wig on, little boy
  
  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
  
  I want to play cricket on the green
  Ride my bike across the street
  Cut myself and see my blood
  I want to come home all covered in mud
  
  I'm a boy, I'm a boy
  But my ma won't admit it
  I'm a boy, I'm a boy, I'm a boy
  I'm a boy, I'm a boy, I'm a boy, I'm a boy
  I'm a boy, I'm a boy, I'm a boy Writer/s: PETER TOWNSHEND
  Publisher: T.R.O. INC.
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 15

• Oliver from None Of Your Businesstransmasc teen here. this encapsulates my feelings pretty well, albeit a bit simplistically. wonderful song and surprisingly progressive for the sixties :)
• Ben from AustraliaAs a trans man, this song hits really close to home. Really captures the s--ttiness of being misgendered by your own mum.
• Clemence from New YorkI always wondered if this song was autobiographical for Pete Townsend. Sounds like it wasn't.
• Scott from New York, NyChris, it's a French Horn. That was John's first instrument and he plays it on various who songs such as My Wife.
• Guy from Woodinville, WaThis is a great song! I grew up one boy with four sisters, so I could always relate to it. I didn't have the extreme issues portrayed in the song, but it always cracked me up and I felt like it was one of my theme songs. It pays to have a sense of humour. Pete Townshend wrote about real psychology like no other rocker!!
• David from Boerne, TxThis lyric is surprisingly touching. Especially to an adult who might've had "gender identity issues" as a kid, which I understand Townshend did.
• Tomcat from Richmond, VaReply to Zack:
  I think that this means that if the poor kid tries to assert himself, his parents whack the living tar out of him.
• Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScThe description of "Quads" in the above mensioned songfacts sounda little like what happens in the movie "Gattica". has anyone else noticed that?
• Chris from Elk River, MnOne of the few rock songs I am aware of that uses a tuba. At least I'm pretty sure it's a tuba, at the end of the song.
• Zack from Burnley, EnglandCan anyone else here a voiceover on "...but if I say I am I *get it*"?
• Fintan from Cheltenham, EnglandThe family in "Quads" had ordered four girls but had instead gotten three girls and one boy.
• Eddie from Petaluma, Cathis song rocks. the lyrics rock and so does the actual song. god bless the who and pete townshend for coming out with such a great song
• Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScWow pete Townshend was definitely ahead of his time. I mien, I dould the song was about a boy whose mother wanted him to be a girl, but noone else would have written about that in the '60's. Would they have?!
• Ryan from Albion, Nyi thought this song was kind of the opposite..like a girl who acts like she's a boy or something..oh well
• Shana from Detroit Rock City, Canadahaha this song is cool...it starts to rock out a bit into it and I think they should have stuck with that for the rest of the song, or at least made it into a chorus type thing...

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