Antony and the Johnsons – I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy

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  My Interpretation:I hadn't heard of Antony and the Johnsons until today and watched the live version on you-tube, This was their second song I watched and listened to. The first Antony was at the piano, before he started singing, I thought it was a girl. When I listened to 'I fell in love with a dead boy' to me I thought he was singing about finding and loving himself and telling the world. When I read the post about the french movie about transgender to me it makes sense this way. In a world where we appear to be dictated to what we should or shouldn't be this song transcends the belief that others opinions of us are what matter.

  Flag joanneeaon January 25, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:Id like to edit my previous post as the person I meant to refer to was Candy Darling who featured in the same song and who was a transgender who dies in 1974.

  Flag Aleckoon July 09, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I came across this artist on a friends library and Im pretty sure the picture on the ep cover is the Holly of Holly came from FLA fame,a person who was part of the Any Warhol coterie.

  Flag Aleckoon July 09, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:youtube.com/…

  Flag Coowon February 24, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:This song means a lot to me. I am so in love with my boyfriend who has depression. He always says that he feels like an empty, souless person... like he's already dead inside. He is so beautiful, and when I listen to this song, I think of my dead boy who I fell in love with.

  Flag exothermicon October 09, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I commented this in the wrong place last year, and I just looked at this page recently when I heard this song again. FloydFixation, I saw the movie tooo....and thats what I thought. Well this is what I wrote above that may not have appeared for everyone to see:
  
  I watched a French film, "Wild Side" that opened with this song. It was based on transgendered prostitutes. They sold themselves not just for money, but to show the world that there are differences out there and it should not be feared--most people don't even understand how common it is to be born with more than one gender. The film was shocking and opened my eyes to the lifestyle of a transgender prostitute more than anything. In this movie, a thirty something year old woman, was once a man her whole life. I believe more than anything that she was this "dead boy" along with the rest of the people in this world who are born into an uncomfortable body and life with the choice of changing their sex their entire lives. This song could be interpreted in many ways, but the most obvious and the deepest view would have to be through what I saw in this film. She may have a penis, she may look like a boy on the exterior, and people may not believe her when she says she is really a woman, and people may fall in love with her as this boy but nothing in life, even gender, is constant.

  Flag numbereighton June 01, 2010   Link

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  My Interpretation:It's Antony's homage to Leigh Bowery.

  Flag bartnon April 10, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:This song appears in "Wild Side". A movie based on a man who undergoes a sex change operation and then becomes a prostitute. I saw the movie on Netflix yesterday and I believe that the song was made for the movie. Hope that helps someone.

  Flag TheFloydFixationon March 28, 2010   Link

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  My Opinion:This is breathtaking... It reminds me of infatuation with deceased singers or members of bands, and just the general hype with the mystery and tragedy of that person, and how not knowing/understanding clearly can make you obsessive. Just look at Kurt Cobain, etc.

  Flag Shanibandangleon August 10, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:Antony fell in love with a dead boy, and I fell in love with a gay man... well, at least his music ;)
  
  I think the "are you a girl" part is adding a slightly straight, or at least bisexual, spin to this gay song, since "beautiful" is generally applied only to men who have childlike, vulnerable faces that give them a somewhat feminine appearance, so it's like he's saying the boy was so beautiful he looked like a girl.
  
  This song kinda reminds of a guy I knew a couple of years ago who was one of my best friends but also had a huge crush on me. When I first met him, he was totally ostracized by cruel middle school society; he had almost no friends, and he was not a happy person ("I find you with tears in your eyes"); I wanted to be one less bully to him, so I made a serious effort to see through his awful reputation, really get to know him and eventually become one of his only good friends ("...held your hand").
  But life soon sent us separate ways, and I realized too late that I had similar feelings for him. I recently found out that he (unsuccessfully) attempted suicide, and I have reason to believe it had more than a little to do with me. Since our (geographical) separation (and after his suicide attempt), we have both hurt each other in various little ways, and I see now how much he has changed since we were friends. Even though he's still alive and I still miss him, he's as good as dead to me now because I know that even if we could be together again, it would be impossible to share again the friendship and trust we had before. Since I realized both my feelings for him and the growing invisible wall between us at around the same time , it's like I fell in love with a dead boy because he is no longer the boy I came to love: that boy no longer exists.
  Most of my close current friends know this story even though they never met him ("Now I'll tell all my friends/I fell in love with a dead boy"), and I wish my parents, who have prohibited me from talking to him, could have understood what a great guy he used to be ("Now I'll tell my family/I wish you could have met him"). Sometimes I think about things I should have said to him when I had the chance ("Now I throw bottles out to sea"), and I know I will never forget him ("No one's gonna take you away from me").
  
  Well, tmi... But this is a beautiful song nonetheless.
  I <3 Antony
  

  Flag HiOnMusicon August 03, 2009   Link

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    I just heard this song and immediately connected to it because I fell in love with someone who wasn't there. He was on drugs, drank too much, and for a while I did, too, but when I stopped I realized he didn't have the capacity to love. He escaped too much and for the longest time I felt I fell in love with dead boy.
    
    Thanks for sharing your story. Over 3 years later and it has moved someone out here in cyber land. Hope all is good...

    Flag Fidelio01on February 03, 2013  

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