{"id":862,"date":"2026-05-29T17:42:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=862"},"modified":"2026-05-29T17:42:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:42:41","slug":"40-years-on-synth-icons-book-of-love-and-boy-still-hit-like-a-spell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"40 Years on, Synth Icons Book of Love and \u201cBoy\u201d Still Hit Like a Spell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
\n

\n\tBook of Love \u2014 the Philadelphia-bred synth-pop quartet best known for the hypnotic 1985 single \u201cBoy\u201d \u2014 are releasing a 40th anniversary reissue of their landmark debut album on June 26, just in time for Pride.<\/p>\n

Read more Damien Leone Sets Post-\u2018Terrifier\u2019 Future With \u2018Tortures of the Damned\u2019 for Lionsgate, Sam Raimi (Exclusive)<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe band emerged from Philadelphia\u2019s art school scene in 1983, relocating to New York\u2019s East Village at a moment when the downtown creative world was colliding with the nascent synth-pop revolution. <\/p>\n

\n\tTheir early break came as the opening act for two Depeche Mode tours in 1985 and 1986, exposing them to massive audiences who recognized a kindred sensibility. Their music built on tubular bells and deadpan vocals and an emotional undertow that felt unlike anything else in the American pop landscape. They never became household names, but in queer clubs and on college radio they built a following that has proven remarkably durable<\/p>\n

\n\tAhead of a sold-out 10-city fall tour with all four original members, The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> caught up with songwriter and keyboardist Ted Ottaviano and lead singer Susan Ottaviano (no relation) over Zoom.<\/p>\n

\nI want to start with \u201cBoy\u201d because it means so much to me. Every time I hear it, I have to stop whatever I\u2019m doing, turn it up and listen to the end. There\u2019s not many songs that have that hold on me. What is it about that song?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nTed Ottaviano:\u00a0<\/strong>We\u2019ve been trying to figure that out for 40 years. For some reason that one has a magic. It\u2019s got some sort of voodoo in it. But I do think there\u2019s no fat on it. It\u2019s a trim-the-fat cut.<\/p>\n

\nThe bells, the singing, the message. Who wrote it?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nTed:\u00a0<\/strong>I did. I wrote the lyric.<\/p>\n

\nBut you\u2019re a boy. So what were you thinking? What was in your mind?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nTed:\u00a0<\/strong>I was a disenfranchised boy trying to find myself. At that point I became a gay man, but at that point I was just a very confused young boy. \u201cBoy\u201d is ostensibly about a girl who wants to be a boy, but it\u2019s really just about belonging. Feeling misaligned with the rest of the people around you and wanting to be accepted: I feel like that\u2019s the message that gets people, whether it\u2019s overt or not.<\/p>\n

\nSusan Ottaviano:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s for all the outsiders. People who felt left out and who felt different in some way. And Ted has written many songs from a female point of view.<\/p>\n

\nThere\u2019s a sadness to it. It\u2019s not a triumphant gay anthem \u2014 a \u201cset me free, I\u2019m walking out the door\u201d kind of song. It\u2019s \u201cI want to be somewhere I\u2019m not allowed to be.\u201d That\u2019s a melancholy feeling.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nTed:\u00a0<\/strong>Totally. Peter Rauhofer, the great remixer who passed away a few years ago, he remixed the song in 1999 and got it to No. 1 on the Billboard dance charts. But he called me and said, in his cute German accent, \u201cThey wanted it to be a peak-hour record, Ted, but the chords are so sad.\u201d He was able to make both things happen at the same time \u2014 the sadness and the peak.<\/p>\n

\nSpaces and gender have become a huge political flashpoint since then. Has the song taken on new meanings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nSusan:\u00a0<\/strong>Absolutely. What\u2019s genuine for us is that we wrote from our point of view \u2014 life in New York City in the mid-\u201980s, things going on in our lives. But the song still speaks to people because there\u2019s such a question about gender now. For us, we were writing from what we knew and what we were experiencing, including about women being left out of things.<\/p>\n

Read more Travis Scott\u2019s Camp Worked With Alleged Smear Conspirators<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\u201cPretty Boys and Pretty Girls\u201d \u2014 I\u2019ve seen it said that was the first song to address AIDS head on. Is that true?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nSusan:\u00a0<\/strong>That\u2019s what we were told. It was the first major label artist to address the AIDS crisis. They kind of tried to make us tone it down a bit, but we\u2019re very proud of that.<\/p>\n

\nTell me the story behind it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nTed:\u00a0<\/strong>When people think of \u201980s music, there\u2019s always this exuberant feeling around it, which is true. But in New York City in the \u201980s, it was a very dark time. That\u2019s when the AIDS pandemic really hit the city hard. We lived in the East Village, which was a real multicultural artist neighborhood, and it affected all types of people.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I think of our first decade in New York, I have a real mixed set of emotions because of that. So I wrote \u201cPretty Boys and Pretty Girls.\u201d It\u2019s got two levels. You can hear it as a fun pop track, but if you put another filter on, it\u2019s basically saying \u201cwe live in a dangerous world right now. Keep safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWe got asked to use that song for a Sunkist commercial and we were like, no. We can\u2019t have a bunch of people in bathing suits bopping around the beach to this song. Our managers were thoroughly frustrated with us.<\/p>\n

\nSusan:\u00a0<\/strong>People were dying around us. In cities, that\u2019s where AIDS hit the hardest.<\/p>\n

\nYour music has ended up in some interesting films. Book of Love member Lauren Roselli had a small part in The Silence of the Lambs<\/em>, and one of your songs ended up in it through her relationship with the director<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\nTed:\u00a0<\/strong>Jonathan Demme heard an advance of the album and clicked with \u201cSunny Day.\u201d It\u2019s actually used in her scene \u2014 and it\u2019s a pivotal scene. It\u2019s a small scene but a really important one. She gives Jodie Foster\u2019s character the clue that leads them to Buffalo Bill\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

\nSusan:\u00a0<\/strong>Lauren used to say, \u201cThey can\u2019t cut my part \u2014 she gives them the clue.\u201d Demme used a lot of musicians and friends in small parts in his movies. He used a lot of Chris Isaak.<\/p>\n

\nAnd then \u201cI Touch Roses\u201d in American Psycho<\/em>. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a coincidence \u2014 Silence of the Lambs<\/em>, American Psycho<\/em>, the \u201cTubular Bells\u201d cover you did with its Exorcist<\/em> connection. There\u2019s a tension and sadness in your music that fits horror. You don\u2019t make happy music.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nTed:\u00a0<\/strong>I didn\u2019t realize we had this horror category happening in our catalog.<\/p>\n

\nSusan:\u00a0<\/strong>Well, Ted said \u201cI Touch Roses\u201d is about empowerment, and \u201cBoy\u201d is about empowerment too \u2014 especially the way it was used in Companion<\/em>, which just came out. The roles reverse. At the beginning the girl is on the bottom, and at the end she\u2019s on the top.<\/p>\n

Read more Director Jorge Gutierrez Drops Out of Generative AI Series for Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

’80s synth-pop band Book of Love interview about "Boy" song, queer anthems, AIDS and why their music keeps ending up in horror movies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[836,837,371,147,838,839],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-companion","tag-depeche-mode","tag-lgbtq","tag-music","tag-pride","tag-pride-2026"],"yoast_head":"\n40 Years on, Synth Icons Book of Love and \u201cBoy\u201d Still Hit Like a Spell - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=862\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"40 Years on, Synth Icons Book of Love and \u201cBoy\u201d Still Hit Like a Spell - 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