TOY BOY - Lyrics Discussion

[AnnaMariaPetra]

I've been listening to TB again. ("Again?" "Yes, again!":wink2:)

And I now think Mika really sings:

 

Baby you'll be better with a Barbie girl.

 

 

And perhaps he doesn't sing:

You left me in Georgia

but:

You left me and Georgia

 

 

Anyone has an idea about this?

[Marilyn Mastin]

That's a very valid point and would make a lot of sense, it also slants the story another direction. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

I am loving this thread, it's like a bookclub discussion.

Yes I agree, it makes more sense to say, "with Georgia", rather than "in Georgia."

[silver]

 

A female person (a generation older than TB) is trying to shape Toy / Boy into an archetypical male. Toy / Boy is fully confused and his heart is torn apart:

She’s the meanest hag that has ever been

Pulled out my insides with an old safety pin

I’m the sorest sight, now I feel like trash

Clothes are made of rags and they don’t even match

 

Toy / Boy loses not only his identity but also his soul:

So she dressed me up as the man she loved

Then threw me in a box when she had had enough

Now the light of day I no longer see

She stuck her voodoo pins where my eyes used to be

 

Toy / Boy realises he cannot go to back to his own self, feels completely destroyed:

Accidentally tragic

Victim of her black magic

 

Have to say here that "hag" originally meant "witch", with no connotations of age. With the references to black magic, I think this is the meaning Mika is playing on here, so the woman isn't necessarily older.

[AnnaMariaPetra]

Have to say here that "hag" originally meant "witch", with no connotations of age. With the references to black magic, I think this is the meaning Mika is playing on here, so the woman isn't necessarily older.

 

Thats kind of funny: I asked earlier if hag meant witch; I asked because the dutch word for witch is heks. And as what I understand from the song the woman is kind of a witch.

[silver]

 

I’m a wind-up toy in an up down world

 

At first, I thought the first line simply sets the scene for the whole song.

The most prominent and obvious meaning is that toy boy is a excitable, happy-go-lucky wind up toy in a world that is up, down and all over the show.

Looking at it closer, though, perhaps I’m picking holes but I see this;

‘wind-up in up-down’. This could be a different way of hinting toy boy is gay (for example up = gay, down = straight, up-down = bi) if I’m making sense.

So its saying; the world is up-down; it is full of all these different types of people with different sexualities. I, personally, am wind-up (gay.)

 

All that from one line!

 

I think you have to take the first verses together

 

I’m a wind-up toy in an up down world

If you leave me all alone, I’ll make a mess for sure

I’ve a heart of gold in the smallest size

Leave me in the dark, you’ll never hear me cry

 

More than an illustration

Points of articulation

Come to life on a brass spring

Such a wonderful plaything

 

If you remember the studio tour, there was a brief glimpse of a Jack-in-the-box,, and I think this is the toy Mika is alluding to here . It's an up down world because that's the movement the toy makes, it's left in the dark when the lid is closed, and it moves on a spring.

 

That's the level one interpretation.

 

Not sure I can post the level two interpretation on an open forum.

[silver]

Thats kind of funny: I asked earlier if hag meant witch; I asked because the dutch word for witch is heks. And as what I understand from the song the woman is kind of a witch.

 

It's from the same root word (also German hex)

[suzie]

Have to say here that "hag" originally meant "witch", with no connotations of age. With the references to black magic, I think this is the meaning Mika is playing on here, so the woman isn't necessarily older.

 

I added the age reference based on the lyrics and NOT the meaning of hag

 

..... ("she dressed me up as the man she loved" )

[lollipop_monkey]

I've been listening to TB again. ("Again?" "Yes, again!":wink2:)

And I now think Mika really sings:

 

Baby you'll be better with a Barbie girl.

 

 

And perhaps he doesn't sing:

You left me in Georgia

but:

You left me and Georgia

 

 

Anyone has an idea about this?

 

I'm really hearing "maybe". When I watch the video, I just don't hear a "b" sound at all. Of course, Mika's not the best at enunciation, so it's hard to tell.

 

I'm definitely not hearing "with Georgia" - it sounds like "me in Georgia", but he sings that line quite quickly. So it might actually be "you left me and Georgia," but it sounds comes out as "you left me 'n Georgia."

 

Knowing our luck, he'll change all the lyrics up in the album version, and then print outdated or inaccurate lyrics anyhow, like in LICM.

[suzie]

So it might actually be "you left me and Georgia,"

 

 

I think we should write new lyrics now as we keep hearing new words.

I'd actually prefer "the smartest eyes" instead of "in a smaller size"

Mika, if you are reading, can you change it, please:naughty:

[sienna]

Thats kind of funny: I asked earlier if hag meant witch; I asked because the dutch word for witch is heks. And as what I understand from the song the woman is kind of a witch.

 

It's from the same root word (also German hex)

 

And the Swedish word is Häxa!

 

 

Not sure I can post the level two interpretation on an open forum.

 

What is stopping you?

 

I think the things we heard and saw in the LGG discussion has paved the way for almost anything!

[silver]

I added the age reference based on the lyrics and NOT the meaning of hag

 

..... ("she dressed me up as the man she loved" )

 

I don't think that's necessarily an age thing - a lot of girls choose their boyfriends' clothes

 

I'm really hearing "maybe". When I watch the video, I just don't hear a "b" sound at all. Of course, Mika's not the best at enunciation, so it's hard to tell.

 

I'm definitely not hearing "with Georgia" - it sounds like "me in Georgia", but he sings that line quite quickly. So it might actually be "you left me and Georgia," but it sounds comes out as "you left me 'n Georgia."

 

Knowing our luck, he'll change all the lyrics up in the album version, and then print outdated or inaccurate lyrics anyhow, like in LICM.

 

What he sings may not have been what he wrote - that's why I said about him being forgetful with lyrics

 

PS I agree it's "Maybe".

[willywonka]

All that from one line!

 

I think you have to take the first verses together

 

I’m a wind-up toy in an up down world

If you leave me all alone, I’ll make a mess for sure

I’ve a heart of gold in the smallest size

Leave me in the dark, you’ll never hear me cry

 

More than an illustration

Points of articulation

Come to life on a brass spring

Such a wonderful plaything

 

If you remember the studio tour, there was a brief glimpse of a Jack-in-the-box,, and I think this is the toy Mika is alluding to here . It's an up down world because that's the movement the toy makes, it's left in the dark when the lid is closed, and it moves on a spring.

 

That's the level one interpretation.

 

Not sure I can post the level two interpretation on an open forum.

 

 

 

And again the Circus imaginary comes alive as the toy coming out of a Jack-in-the-box is normally a clown...

 

That's why "Then threw me in a box when she had had enough

Now the light of day I no longer see"...

[Christine]

I don't think that's necessarily an age thing - a lot of girls choose their boyfriends' clothes

 

I think she means that this woman loved a man and not a boy, which is where the generation gap comes in.

[silver]

I think she means that this woman loved a man and not a boy, which is where the generation gap comes in.

 

Ah - I see

 

But .. you could even interpret the line as meaning not that the hag dressed up the toy boy in the image of someone else, but that she presented the toy boy to the world as the person she was in love with.

 

Though that would echo the idea that she was older - toy boy in another sense.

[sariflor]

I've been listening to TB again. ("Again?" "Yes, again!":wink2:)

And I now think Mika really sings:

 

Baby you'll be better with a Barbie girl.

 

 

And perhaps he doesn't sing:

You left me in Georgia

but:

You left me and Georgia

 

 

Anyone has an idea about this?

 

 

I'm sure that he says 'maybe' and not baby.

[katydid1994]

 

I think we should write new lyrics now as we keep hearing new words.

I'd actually prefer "the smartest eyes" instead of "in a smaller size"

Mika, if you are reading, can you change it, please:naughty:

 

Yay another eyes person. I keep hearing eyes everytime.

 

 

I don't think that's necessarily an age thing - a lot of girls choose their boyfriends' clothes

 

 

 

What he sings may not have been what he wrote - that's why I said about him being forgetful with lyrics

 

PS I agree it's "Maybe".

 

I also hear maybe everytime. I should ask my neighbor across the street, I was blasting it last night, forgot the window was open.

 

I think she means that this woman loved a man and not a boy, which is where the generation gap comes in.

 

Maybe this woman wanted a man, but all that she was getting was a boy

[lily]

I think ToyBoy is originally owned by a boy who he loves but is given up by because his "mother" makes him. At which point, ToyBoy becomes "owned" by a girl who is definetly older than him and also a witch. She doesn't really like who he is though, she just "dresses him up," then puts him in a box when she's had enough.

 

 

"Had a boy who once loved me,

Now he's so afraid of me."

I think it means that ToyBoy's original owner has been turned against him by society.

 

sorry, I don't know if that makes any sense, but it's what I first thought the song was about. . . .

 

But after reading everybody else's, I don't know. They all make sense.

[katydid1994]

Listened again and now I want to submit "smallest" eyes as a possibility.

 

and now I feel more certain of cruel "little" cross

 

if you "come a little close I'm going" to pull your hair

 

 

And now I feel like the hag is a girl he was left with and the girl tore him apart.

 

One thing I am sure of, in the beginning, he's sorry to be a d*** lolololol

[sienna]

 

I also hear maybe everytime. I should ask my neighbor across the street, I was blasting it last night, forgot the window was open.

 

 

Haha, yes they would know!

 

 

But after reading everybody else's, I don't know. They all make sense.

 

It's the beauty of being able to talk about this together!

 

 

One thing I am sure of, in the beginning, he's sorry to be a d*** lolololol

 

Yeah!

And we thank you for that Mika!

[laura*]

 

This new song is definitely too difficult for me...

[silver]

I think ToyBoy is originally owned by a boy who he loves but is given up by because his "mother" makes him. At which point, ToyBoy becomes "owned" by a girl who is definetly older than him and also a witch. She doesn't really like who he is though, she just "dresses him up," then puts him in a box when she's had enough.

 

 

"Had a boy who once loved me,

Now he's so afraid of me."

I think it means that ToyBoy's original owner has been turned against him by society.

 

sorry, I don't know if that makes any sense, but it's what I first thought the song was about. . . .

 

But after reading everybody else's, I don't know. They all make sense.

 

Nothing wrong with this interpretation, Lily.

 

But that's what I love about this song, that there are so many ways to look at it.

[silver]

 

This new song is definitely too difficult for me...

 

It's not difficult - just complex

[Suzy]

Since YouTube took down Christine's Toy Boy vid, I put her new link on the front page of this thread:

 

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=56425071

 

I've just listened and watched again for the 742nd time...and Toy Boy is really such a very sad song. *sniffle*

[racinghorse83]

All that from one line!

 

 

But I did say - i was writing down all the things that could be read into it.

[suzie]

I've just listened and watched again for the 742nd time...and Toy Boy is really such a very sad song. *sniffle*

 

Good morning, Suzy:cool: