Lyrics to
Bell Boy

This version of Bell Boy was released by The Who in 1973.

Our About The Who page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Bell Boy from 1973 as well as all of the other lyrics from The Who that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Who or about the 1970s in general.

The beach is a place where a man can feel
He’s the only soul in the world that’s real,
Well I see a face coming through the haze,
I remember him from those crazy days.

Ain’t you the guy who used to set the paces
Riding up in front of a hundred faces,
I don’t suppose you would remember me,
But I used to follow you back in ’63.

I’ve got a good job
And I’m newly born.
You should see me dressed up in my uniform.
I work in hotel, all gilt and flash.
Remember the place where the doors were smashed?

Bell Boy! I got to keep running now.
Bell Boy! Keep my lip buttoned down.
Bell Boy! Carry this baggage out.
Bell Boy! Always running at someone’s heel.
You know how I feel, always running at someone’s heel.

Some nights I still sleep on the beach.
Remember when stars were in reach.
Then I wander in early to work,
Spend the day licking boots for my perks.

A beach is a place where a man can feel

People often change
But when I look in your eyes,
You could learn a lot from
A job like mine.
The secret to me
Isn’t flown like a flag
I carry it behind
This little badge
What says…

Bell Boy!

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The Who has released many songs over the years besides Bell Boy. The Who released songs from 1965 to 1982 spanning across albums like The Who Sings My Generation, A Quick One / Happy Jack, The Who Sell Out, Tommy, Who's Next, Quadrophenia, The Who By Numbers, Who Are You, Face Dances, and It's Hard. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Who.

If you're a fan of the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1973 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Bell Boy by The Who

The lyrics to Bell Boy are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that The Who used when the song was created in 1973. The lyrics to Bell Boy have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only The Who and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Bell Boy by The Who. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Bell Boy" means the words set to the music of Bell Boy, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Who. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Bell Boy and the lyrics to Bell Boy are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Who who came here looking just for the lyrics to Bell Boy, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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