The Boy Looked at Johnny is track #9 on The Libertines' debut album, Up the Bracket, and is credited to Doherty and Barat. Although the title and lyrics to the track are often assumed to be about Johnny Borrell - who played bass guitar with The Libertines in their early days - Doherty has gone on record as saying the song was written about The Strokes. The song also shares its title with a scathing classic meditation on punk rock published in 1978 and written by NME journalists Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, which in turn took its name from a lyric in the song "Land" by Patti Smith.
Although the track was sometimes played live by The Libertines, no session versions exist, except a low quality track recorded by Doherty as part of the Conversations in Eden.
Up the Bracket | ![]() | Album | 2002-10-14 |
Horrorshow in London Town | ![]() | Session | Unknown |
![]() | ![]() | 2015-06-27 | |
![]() | ![]() | Glastonbury | 2015-06-26 |
![]() | ![]() | Benicàssim, Spain | 2014-07-19 |
![]() | ![]() | Hyde Park, London | 2014-07-05 |
![]() | ![]() | Glasgow, Scotland | 2014-06-29 |
![]() | ![]() | Ronquières, Belgium | 2012-07-28 |
![]() | ![]() | Brixton, London | 2011-09-23 |
![]() | ![]() | Edinburgh, Scotland | 2011-09-21 |
![]() | ![]() | Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis; Minnesota US | 2004-10-08 |
![]() | ![]() | London (Whitechapel), UK | 2004-07-13 |
![]() | ![]() | London, UK | 2004-03-16 |
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The boy looked at Johnny and said
My word that was fun
When he did it with his hat on
Like in a saddle with his gun
We're in slow motion eating breakfast
At the side view hotel
Oh slipping down fine
Everything's going so well
New York city's very pretty in the night time
But oh don't you miss Soho
Where everybody goes
La de di la de di da diddy
The boy looked at Johnny
Said "Don't you know who I think I am"
He said I did it once before
Now Im trying all I can
He says oh no no
oh yeah yeah
I said oh no no no
yeah yeah yeah yeah
New York city's very pretty in the night time
But don't you miss Soho
Where everybody goes
La de di la de di da diddy
NameThe Boy Looked at Johnny
BandThe Libertines
CreditsCarl Barat
Peter Doherty
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