Boys Keep Swinging: The Video (1979)
Eight years after Bowie’s death, it is easy to think of his songs, albums, and videos as existing all at the same time. But that’s not how we experienced them as they were released. In a somewhat weak attempt to recreate that, I’ve been slowly watching Bowie’s videos in order and occasionally writing about them, as I am here today. In that respect, the video for “Boys Keep Swinging” (1979), directed by David Mallet, marks a seismic change from its predecessors.
Released two years before the launch of MTV, “Boys Keep Swinging” telegraphed the type of videos—often called promos at the time—that would become a global obsession in the 1980s. Bowie had previously released six official promos from “John, I’m Only Dancing” in 1972 through “Heroes” in 1977, directed either by Mick Rock or Stanley Dorfman (yes, yes, he also did the Love You Till Tuesday project earlier, but we’ll leave that aside for now). The Rock and Dorfman videos are classics, but each mostly consists of Bowie fixed in one spot, with the camera moving, while Bowie never takes so much as a step in any direction (there are some minor cutaway shots in “Space Oddity” and “The Jean Genie”). I think of the technique as a “living photograph,” as if Bowie was constrained by a picture frame. While both Rock and Dorfman do quite a bit within that frame, they didn’t use the format like the type of mini movie that would become more commonplace during the MTV heyday. Mallet would change all that.
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the video (hey, it’s embedded in this post in case you want to watch it). And if you’ve seen it, the part that probably sticks out the most is Bowie appearing in drag as three separate female backup singers. The makeup is excellent—though it’s been decades since I first saw this, I vaguely remember being surprised at the initial reveal, thinking, “Hey, that lady is Bowie.” Also, the three women do seem to be standing right next to each other, which wasn’t necessarily groundbreaking even at the time, but most music promos then didn’t use special effects at all. The overall impact is stunning—even today, even if you’ve seen the video many times.
It also adds meaning to the song itself. The words are playful, and paradoxically both straightforward and mysterious at the same time. I recently read a description of the song as being about male privilege, and while I doubt Bowie would have described it that way, I kinda get it. I also remember reading somewhere that the title suggests this might be one of Bowie’s gay-themed songs, but the lyrics don’t support that. I agree with this for the most part—the swinging boys never show more interest in each other than their inclination to check each other out.
But the visual elements of the video underscore the song’s central question of what constitutes gender identity in the first place. Like most questions Bowie raised, he doesn’t answer it here.
This question about gender identity isn’t just posed by the three images of Bowie in drag, but also by the masculine lead-singer version of Bowie. This is the nearest Bowie came to what a typical male rock star was expected to look like up to this point in his videography. He appeared as Ziggy in the Mick Rock videos, which was an especially odd look at the time. In “Be My Wife”, Bowie appears like a nerdy Buster Keaton, while in “Heroes”, he looks like a tortured angel. Here, his lead-singer persona looks… normal.
Add to all this: the video is colorful and kinetic, the song is fast-paced and short, and the series of reveals punctuates the whole thing. The overall effect is to leave the viewer wondering what Bowie would come up with next.
And that would turn out to be “D.J.”, but I’ll save that for another day…