Smalltown Boy


Information:
  • Smalltown Boy is originally by Bronski Beat and is about the issues of being gay in the 80's - concentrating mostly on family rejection and bullying.
     
  • Sharon heard the song playing in a disco while on holiday and decided to cover the song. Here's a video of her discussing the song: Sharon Corr - EPK Part 2 - at about the 2:15 mark.
    Transcript of the quote regarding Smalltown boy: "I was lying in bed in France last summer trying to get to sleep, and there was a disco booming downstairs and on came Bronski Beat and Smalltown Boy. And I though 'God, I love that song, I absolutely love that song.' I thought, 'I'm gonna cover that song.' The thing about it is I think the version they did I absolutely adored, but I didn't notice the lyrics as much in that version. So I wanted to slow it down and do a different sort of version of it because the lyrics are truly phenomenal, and it's the first true description I've come across that really puts you in touch with how it feels to be gay in a predominantly heterosexual society. So the lyrics are very, very sad and there's an anger there and there's a resignation that's just very moving."
     
  • A slightly longer, but similar, quote from a 2012 interview with Australian radio JOY 94.9 starting at 6:45: "It was one of the biggest anthems of my teenage years. I absolutely loved it. Bronski Beat were an absolutely amazing band. I loved Jimmy Somerville, I loved his vocals. But it's very much sort of technology era; it's very electronic.

    Maybe two or three years back I was lying in bed one night in France, and there was a great big booming disco going on downstairs. I couldn't get any sleep, and I had really young kids at the time. I was cursing this old disco all night, and about 5:00 in the morning on came 'da da da da da, da da...'. And I thought that's why I'm up all night, because I love that song and I'm going to cover it. And I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I wanted to turn it on its head.

    I feel it's an anthem for gay people all over the world, because I feel it transcends all barriers, and any perceived barriers that people have. It goes to the true heartache of being outcast socially for your natural sexual preference. It's a hideous thing, and it just broke my heart listening to those lyrics, and it gave me a really true insight, which is difficult to have when you're heterosexual naturally. It's kind of like, how do you identify with childbirth before you go through it. Do you know what I mean? It you haven't been outcast yourself, you can have a lot of empathy. But his lyrics suck you right in: 'Alone on the platform. In the rain, sad and lonely...' It's immense. It's a beautiful song. I wanted the music to follow the lyrics. So that's what I did with it, and it's quite orchestral and it's quite dark. And I love singing it. Jimmy Somerville actually contacted me to say that he loved it.

    I think it's one of the best tracks on the album. There's something very liberating about covering somebody else's music because you don't follow your own constraints. It's a very strange thing; it just opens you up to that music. In some ways, vocally, I identify more with what Jimmy Somerville wrote than sometimes I identify with maybe a Corrs song. It's just so soulful, and he's a very soulful singer."
     
  • Sharon also plays double-stops (two notes at the same time on the violin) near the end of Smalltown Boy.
     
Written By:
  • This song was orignally written by Bronski Beat.
     
  • Sharon covered Smalltown Boy for her Dream of You solo album.


Lyrics:
You leave in the morning
With everything you own
In a little black case
Alone on a platform
The wind and the rain
On a sad and lonely face

Mother will never understand
Why you had to leave
But the answers you seek
Will never be found at home
The love that you need
Will never be found at home

Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.

Pushed around and kicked around
Always a lonely boy
You were the one
That they'd talk about around town
As they put you down

And as hard as they would try
They'd hurt to make you cry
But you never cried to them
Just to your soul
No you never cried to them
Just to your soul

Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.

Cry , boy, cry...

You leave in the morning
With everything you own
In a little black case
Alone on a platform
The wind and the rain
On a sad and lonely face

Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.
Run away, turn away, run away, turn away, run away.



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