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Beautiful Boys
"Beautiful Boys" is a song written by Yoko Ono that was first released on Ono's and John Lennon's 1980 album Double Fantasy. It was later released as the B-side of Lennon's #1 single "Woman." The first verse of "Beautiful Boys" is directed at Ono and Lennon's young son Sean, culminating in the line "don't be afraid to cry."[1] On the album this comes off as a companion piece to Lennon's song "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)," which Lennon directed to Sean.[1] The second verse is directed at her husband John, with lines such as "your mind has changed the world."[1] Finally the last verse is directed at all men and she tells them not to be afraid to "go to hell and back" as they go through life.[1] Music critic Johnny Rogan sees this line as encouraging exploration and notes that the last line "don't be afraid to be afraid" serves as a "gentle warning."[2] Lennon said of this line:
The last verse is sung over backward noises and sounds that give the verse an "uneasy atmosphere," according to music lecturers Ben Urish and Ken Bielen.[1] Urish and Bielen see the last verse as a response to "Woman," which in their view Lennon directed towards all women.[1] Beatle biographer John Blaney also sees this song as a companion to "Woman" stating that "Ono's analysis of her relationship with Lennon was insightful and honest. It flattered and encouraged, expressing everything that a loving wife would wish for her husband."[3] Urish and Bielen contrast this song, which challenges people "to accept that a well-lived life will have heartbreak and danger" with Lennon's songs on the album whose themes are reassurance and acceptance.[1] Music journalist Charles Shaar Murray similarly stated that Ono's verse about Lennon showed that "her love and admiration for her husband are considerably more clear-eyed than his for her; he writes about her as an omnipotent, benevolent, life-giving Natural Force; she writes about him as a gifted human who is still a child."[4] Rogan feels that the verse about Lennon reveals an interesting aspect of his psychology with the line "You got all you can carry/And still feel somehow empty."[2] Ono biographer Jerry Hopkins sees the first two verses as illustrating that Sean and John are much alike despite Sean being 4 years old when the song was written while John was 39.[4] Tom Sowa of The Spokesman-Review described the song as a "tender, melancholic comment with a light musical touch."[5] Orlando Sentinel critic Noel Holston regarded "Beautiful Boys" as the most beautiful song on the entire album.[6] New Musical Express critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler describe "Beautiful Boys" as "an eerie lament which is not so much a gloomy feminist assessment as an instinctive matriarch's perception of 'Man-as-child.'"[7] In an interview with Playboy Ono said of the song that:
Keyboardist George Small stated that he regarded "Beautiful Boys" as the most avant garde song on Double Fantasy because of Hugh McCracken's "flamenco, Spanish-flavored guitar solo," as well as some backwards guitar that reminded him of Beatles' songs such as "I'm Only Sleeping."[9] Assistant engineer Jon Smith stated that they incorporated sound effects from Star Wars battles into the song.[9] Originally they did so by playing the movie soundtrack through noise gates that were triggered to turn on when drummer Andy Newmark hit his tom-toms, thus timing the sound effects to the drums.[9] Ono thought this ruined the mood of the song and so they simply left the sound effects low in the mix without timing them to the drums.[9] References
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