Thanks for the correction, Basil. I’ve amended the article.

The musicians have been credited on the officail Bowie website:

“This take was recorded by Tony Visconti in Soho in London on the 9th April 1979 and features Sean Mayes on keyboards, Tony Visconti on bass, Simon House on violin, Andy Duncan on drums, Brian Robertson (of Thin Lizzy) on guitar and Ricky Hitchcock on guitar. The Kenny Everett Video Show was filmed on the following day and broadcast on 23rd April, 1979.”

I think it’s an ode to youth — you believe you can do anything when you’re a boy, or to quote another songwriter of note, ‘When I was a boy / Everything was right’.

However, it could also be seen as Bowie mocking the idea that males are particularly special at all: ‘You’re always first on the line’ references the fact that men are the first to die in violent conflicts and wars, while the sheer overblown-ness of statements such as ‘Heaven loves ya / The clouds part for ya / Nothing stands in your way when you’re a boy’ are a gentle dig at the idea that those things could be true. ‘When you’re a boy, you can buy a home of your own / Learn to drive and everything’ — these are things anyone can do, they’re not particularly special.

As he himself put it, ‘The glory in that song was ironic. I do not feel that there is anything remotely glorious about being either male or female. I was merely playing on the idea of the colonization of a gender.’