Dead Boys by Sam Fender

Album: Dead Boys EP (2018)

License This Song

lyrics

artistfacts

Songfacts®:

This guitar anthem finds Sam Fender singing about a social stigma among men in his hometown of Newcastle in which they're unwilling to discuss suicidal thoughts.

We close our eyes
Learn our pain
Nobody ever could explain
All the dead boys in our hometown

"It's a song about male suicide, particularly in my hometown," Fender explained to NME. "I lost some friends very close to me because of that. This song came from that place."
The song was partly inspired by The Cure's 1979 track "Boys Don't Cry."

"It's the same today," Fender told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column. "As a boy you're not meant to show your emotions, but if you don't have a job or any prospects, you're going to be depressed and it will be much worse if you can't express that. I hate the term because it's become a buzzword, but it's toxic masculinity."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

My Name IsEminem

Eminem's first hit was "My Name Is," which introduced his alter ego, Slim Shady.

Passionate KissesLucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams wrote and recorded "Passionate Kisses" four years before it was a hit for Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Gives You HellThe All-American Rejects

The first US Top 10 hit with the word "hell" in the title was "Gives You Hell" by The All-American Rejects in 2008.

Papa Don't PreachMadonna

Madonna didn't write "Papa Don't Preach," which deals with abortion. What drew her to the song was the singer standing up to male authority.

Station to StationDavid Bowie

David Bowie's "Station to Station" is over 10 minutes long. Bowie was doing a lot of drugs at the time and later said, "I have only flashes of making it."

Hound DogElvis Presley

The songwriting team Leiber and Stoller wrote "Hound Dog" for a blues singer named Big Mama Thronton, who first recorded the song in 1953. Elvis covered it in 1956, and it became his biggest hit.