I recently saw a documentary on their original bass player Killer Kane which featured this video of them doing “Jet Boy”. I hadn’t heard the song since I was a kid and hearing thelyrics, I got to wondering what exactly the song was supposed to be about. On the surface it appears to be some sort of gay love song, specifically the line “Flying around New York City so high/like he was my baby”.
So the question for anyone in the know, is this a gay love song, or something else entirely? I know “All the Young Dudes” is a gay favorite from the period, but despite the clothes and heels and make-up, glam rockers of the period sang about getting girls IIRC, and the Dolls weren’t supposed to be a “gay” band. And there’s nothing in All the Young Dudes that’s anywhere close to being blatantly gay as “like he was my baby”?.
That’s the only conclusion I can come up with, but it seems really odd that a group looking for commercial success in 1973 would release a single, hoping for airplay and chart success, with that line, even dressed like women.
The main goal was club success, not commercial. The reason for dressing like that was to stand out in clubs. You wouldn’t even recognize them offstage. They were certainly not gay.
I know they weren’t gay, that’s why I find the lyrics of the song to be odd, that a straight group looking for success would write an apparent gay love song and release it as a single in 1973.
And they were absolutely looking for commerical success- why else sign to a major label and release singles? I’m not knocking commercial success, thats why you get into music.
To clarify:
In the beginning The Dolls were only looking for local club success. The commercial success just snowballed. But it was not the intent when the group was formed.
It was awesome. Arthur Kane seemed like the nicest and coolest guy, ever, and for him to recapture some of the success and accolades before he died was really quite touching.
Mike Fun, different song. The clincher in that one is the line “he gives me head”, although the title could be a nod to the gayness of the Dolls song.
