Lyrics for What A Good Boy as interpreted by ojms

What A Good Boy Lyrics
Words by Steven Page
Music by Steven Page & Ed Robertson
When I was born they looked at me and said
What a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy
And when you were born they looked at you and said
What a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl

We've got these chains that hang around our necks
People want to strangle us with them before we take our
first breath
Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same
When temptation calls we just look away

Chorus
This name is the hairshirt I wear
And this hairshirt is woven from your brown hair
This song is the cross that I bear
Bear it with me, bear with me, bear with me
Be with me tonight
I know that it isn't right
But be with me tonight

I go to school, I write exams
If I pass, if I fail, if I drop out, does anyone give a damn?
And if they do, they'll soon forget
'Cause it won't take much for me to show that my life ain't
over yet

I wake up scared, I wake up strange
I wake up wondering if anything in my life is ever going to
change
I wake up scared, I wake up strange
And everything around me stays the same

Chorus

I couldn't tell you that I was wrong
Chickened out, grabbed a pen and paper, sat down and I
wrote this song
I couldn't tell you that you were right
So instead I looked in the mirror watched tv laid awake all
night

We've got these chains that hang around our necks
People want to strangle us with them before we take our
first breath
Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same
When temptation calls....

Chorus

When I was born they looked at me and said
What a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy
And when you were born they looked at you and said
What a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl, hey

Andy Creeggan: Organ, piano
Jim Creeggan: Double Bass
Steven Page: Guitar, Lead vocal
Ed Robertson: Guitars, vocals
Tyler Stewart: Drums

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  • 43 Comments
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ELS24
01-24-2002

Rated 0 
First of all, what the hell is a hairshirt?? lol

This song completely describes my transition from college to the working world. After graduation and spending so many years in a place that often felt more like home to me than my childhood home ever did scared the heck out of me. I knew though it was time to move on with my life, but like this song says--"Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same"-- Welcome to the new world, take a step into it!

BNL--especially before they got big via "One Week"--rock!!

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NtoTheDrk
05-03-2002

Rated 0 
This is a great old BNL song, along with Brian Wilson, and of course, If I had $100000

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NtoTheDrk
05-07-2002

Rated 0 
What is a hairshirt?

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savolax
05-30-2002

Rated 0 
Main Entry: hair shirt
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 : a shirt made of rough animal hair worn next to the skin as a penance
2 : one that irritates like a hair shirt

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xArcanum
08-23-2002

Rated 0 
This song is a classic. Its about the sterotypes put on people

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dmbmets88
08-27-2002

Rated 0 
this song is about being afraid of the real world, and just sort of sinking into your stereotype whenever things become uncomfortable. so often thats what we do.

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sarahmansour
09-11-2002

Rated 0 
When you're born, people look at you and say things like "this one will be a doctor" and such. As you're a child, if you show some talent somehow they try to develop a personality for you. They decide your life, sign you up for ballet or something and have big dreams for you.
Ultimately, you want to live your life. You don't want to live up to the expectations of parents, teachers etc. You do things to try change that.
For some reason, the protagonist's love for her "isn't right" but he wants to break the chains by being with her.

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dag88
03-08-2003

Rated -1 
Along the lines of many of their songs, this song is about being a teenager, trying to get himself laid. He is pleading with his girl to give in to the temptation and give up her virginity. "Hairshirt" is the sexual label(virgin) that his friends have put on him.

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bouncybluepenguin
04-13-2004

Rated 0 
This is a great song- which, like most of BNL's songs, can be taken a lot of different ways, but my preferred interpretation is somewhere along the lines of sarahmansour's.

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River Wolf
05-04-2004

Rated 0 
A very wicked song. Steven Page said that it was about, "an idealistic twenty-one year-old's view of gender roles." Regardless of the meaning intended by Steven Page the song can still hold so many different meanings, which can be helpful in so many ways because the lyrics are some strong. Steven Page said that he likes hearing different people's ideas on what this song is about and what it means to certain people.

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Skeezmo
05-13-2004

Rated 0 
dag, you, my good sir, are a complete moron. this song is deeper than a teenager trying to get some, you small minded doofus.how dare you think that BNL would write such a shallow song. let me guess, you probably think the song Alcohol supports drinking. try thinking before you post, alright buddy? thanks.

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Mr.NOD
05-18-2004

Rated 0 
ROFL skeezmo. Like the way you put it ;)
Well.. if you look at his profile you would see that its named dag88 which probably means that he is born in 88 and must therefore be around 16 years of age. I'm sure he's seing tits and vaginas in everywhere he looks. His world just isnt bigger yet but it will come (hopefully).

But anyways, i like the meaning this song holds. About the our surroundings trying to make us the way they want us to be beacause that makes them feel safer.

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Mr.NOD
05-18-2004

Rated 0 
ROFL skeezmo. Like the way you put it ;)
Well.. if you look at his profile you would see that its named dag88 which probably means that he is born in 88 and must therefore be around 16 years of age. I'm sure he's seing tits and vaginas in everywhere he looks. His world just isnt bigger yet but it will come (hopefully).

But anyways, i like the meaning this song holds. About the our surroundings trying to make us the way they want us to be beacause that makes them feel safer.

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wrion
06-03-2004

Rated 0 
let the kid interpret it how he wants. jeez.

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MuSiCfReAk728
06-06-2004

Rated 0 
sarahmansour is so right. i kno how it is cuz everyone looks at young people and they're like "they will be a great blady blady" or somethin like that and they should getta choose. but, wtf IS a hairshirt?

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Dooreatoe
10-26-2004

Rated 0 
I laugh at Skeezmo for trying to insult someone via a comments page. *applauds*

But anyway, this is the truth. Steven stated, and I quote, that "it's an idealistic twenty-one year-old's view of gender roles."

This is also my favorite BNL song.

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fidget12
10-27-2004

Rated 0 
One of my favorite BNL songs.. I always interpreted it as a young man (or woman) who has to deal with the expectations that others have placed on them since the day they were born. Those expectations (that name) became a hairshirt, (like savolax said above: a shirt made of rough animal hair worn next to the skin as a penance) they're uncomfortable, almost painful. You never want to disappoint those people, even if their expectations are unreal. But then you get stuck on a path that someone else paved and you're afraid of change but the temptation is always there. I love this song, I could probably babble about what I think it means for hours LOL :)

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ACY
01-12-2005

Rated 0 
Quick funny story...

I was feeling kinda down a few years ago, so one day I decided to inspire myself by putting the lyrics "I go to school, I write exams. If I pass, if I fail, if I drop out, does anyone give a damn? And if they do, they'll soon forget, 'cause it won't take much for me to show that my life ain't over yet." on the inside of my locker.

Now, any half-wit can tell you those lyrics are kinda uplifting and empowering.

I got called down to the principlas office to discuss my suicide note. Man, some people just can't look at the poetic sides of things.

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Desaparecida
04-23-2005

Rated 0 
i absolutely LOVE this song. my friend had some of the lyrics as her away message one day, and i downloaded the song based just on that, haven\'t regretted it for a moment.

by the way, according to dictionary.com, hairshirt is an adjective meaning \"self-sacrificing\"... *shrug*

i think this song is about someone raised in a very specific but limiting manner, with a very limited viewpoint, and then this person meets someone who\'s very different from him, someone he wants to be with, but feels he can\'t be with, due to how he was brought up. the other person (presumably female) says, hey that\'s stupid, but he still can\'t be with her

i dunno that doesn\'t make a whole lot of sense...it makes sense to Me, anyway..

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jfish
04-26-2005

Rated 0 
This song takes me back to freshman year of college. To me its about breaking out of the labels everyone gave you growing up, about wanting love & about being lonely and wanting to have that physical closeness to someone. Yearning for intimacy. It's about this guy being afraid to let those feelings out because its been so drilled into him that he's a "good boy" and that it's wrong to be have sex "when temptation calls". "be with me tonight. i know that it isn't right". The whole hairshirt reference is that his good boy labels torture him with guilt for having feelings that contradict those labels. I get so nostalgic thinking about this song, it brings me back to a time when I was breaking out of those "good girl" labels and discovering love and sex and myself. I was away at college and no one there knew me and could emerge as whatever I wanted. An exciting, confusing, amazing time. I think about the "good boys" I was attracted to back then and how full of angst they were as they too were fighting these labels & the ever-present guilt. A bunch of conservative, protestant, midwesterner young adults let loose at a very liberal state university. This song gets into my soul.

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ShannyH
05-13-2005

Rated 0 
So powerful this song is to me, that I wrote my son, currently away at college to apologize to him if I ever boxed him in with expectations and pre-conceived notions of what he should, could, would be in his life. Our bond is so special to me and this song caused me to stop and truly appreciate the beautiful man/child I have!

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xx_sunshine
07-01-2005

Rated 0 
What stops us.. prevents us.. holds us back from being who we truly are. Constantly questioning ourselves, regretting, and forgetting.

"Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same"
I think everyone can identify themselve's with that lyric.

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jimfranklin
10-13-2005

Rated 0 
I wish I could agree with fidget12 (who I think best interpreted the song so far), that this song is about, "the expectations that others have placed on them since the day they were born" but for some reason every time I hear this song I think that it is about a boy who has a crush on either his sister or his cousin, and is torn because he can't be with her.

I think of this because of these lines:

1) "This name is the hairshirt I wear
And this hairshirt is woven from your brown hair"

His name is a hairshirt because he is related to her, and "is woven from your brown hair" which means that she is the cause of his hairshirt (or pain, curse).

2) "We've got these chains that hang around our necks
People want to strangle us with them before we take our
first breath
Afraid of change, afraid of staying the same
When temptation calls we just look away"

This verse is implying that the boy and girl are Jewish because they wear chains and "people want to strangle us with them before we take our first breath." Also Steven Page (who wrote the song) is Jewish, so this is a no brainer.
Next it says "When temptation calls we just look away" This means that the boy and girl just looked away because they knew it wasn't right when awkward situations arose.

This verse also implies that this boy and girl can not be together because of their religion. (I am not Jewish, and I don't know much about it, so I wouldn't know.) But I don't think so because why would his name be his hairshirt? His religion would be his hairshirt.

3) "This song is the cross that I bear
Bear it with me, bear with me, bear with me
Be with me tonight
I know that it isn't right
But be with me tonight"

He is telling her that the song (which is about them not being able to be together) is what he bears, and he wants her to bear it with him, and to be with him tonight, altho "I know that it isn't right"

4) "I couldn't tell you that I was wrong
Chickened out, grabbed a pen and paper, sat down and I
wrote this song
I couldn't tell you that you were right
So instead I looked in the mirror watched TV laid awake all
night"

He can't tell her that it is wrong because he still feels for her.

Also the first verse, which is just starting the story about the boy and the girl. In the verse "they said what a good boy..." THEY SAID is probably their family.
_______________________

So, there are my reasons for me thinking it is about a boy who likes his sister/cousin. I hope someone can prove me wrong, because it is a great song and I don't want it to be about a weird brother sister relationship.

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I_LOVE_CAMP
12-07-2005

Rated 0 
DAGG88! I have never been so offended in my whole life! The fact that you can be so niave about the meaning of a song sickens me! Geeze, I'm 15 and I knew what this song was about by listening to the lyrics when I was 12! This song has such a deep meaning that goes way beyond your frame of mind! It's true art unlike your portrail of it! I'm shocked, truly shocked.

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Sammich
12-22-2005

Rated 0 
JimFranklin, there is absolutely no concrete evidence proving that it's about a brother/sister relationship. By your argument alone, we could determine that it's about a man in love with a sheep, as well.

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