"Ponyboy" is a song performed by SOPHIE. It is the second track from SOPHIE's debut album, OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES. It's serves as the second single from the album released on December 8, 2017.
Background[]
In April 2017, an instrumental demo version of Ponyboy leaked online, subtitled Elephant.
Prior to its release, it was performed by SOPHIE several times, most notably at her live “debut” in October. The single was premiered on Triple J on December 6th, 2017, and was released alongside a music video the next day. Most of the vocals on the track are performed by Mozart’s Sister, under the pseudonym Cécile Believe, who is also credited as a co-writer of the song. The song is bold and brash, featuring squelching bass and metallic percussion, two features that would become staples of the OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES era.
Music and composition[]
SOPHIE about the title of the track:
"Well, it was a range of things actually. I heard it from a friend of mine who told me about a group of people where he grew up in Detroit who called themselves Pony Boys that souped up Nitro cars. Those are particularly a role in some sexual deviance dynamics as well. I was interested in them because it was a kind of short narrative and also the sounds I was trying to make it sound like. A mechanical pony is in-between an animal and a car, and it’s like bodily temptation, things like that. Somewhere in that world, which is really one of the central things for what the record seems to be like."
SOPHIE about the track:
"It's a playful song, but it's a bit hard. It's bodily and sexual. It also plays a bit with characters in the same way that you might do in certain sexual dynamics. I wanted to give it that feeling to people."
Critical reception[]
Pitchfork opined:
"SOPHIE’s debut album, OIL OF EVERY PEARL’s UN-INSIDES, adapts many of the technical strategies heard on her previous work to looser, more sprawling compositions. Instead of chaining together compact singles as on 2015’s PRODUCT, the album builds and releases narrative tension. Beat-heavy romps like “Ponyboy” and “Faceshopping” nestle together at the top of the tracklist after “It’s Okay to Cry,” giving way to celestial swells of synthesizer and voice."[1]
i-D Vice opined:
"Ponyboy and Faceshopping, the album’s two other singles follow next, forming essentially Chapter One of Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides: the new Sophie we’ve come to know in the last eight months. If these three tracks were simply released as an EP, you could be convinced that you know everything you needed to about Sophie as a musician."[2]
Lyrics[]
[Intro]
Ponyboy
Pony, pony, boy, boy, boy
Pony, pony, boy, boy, boy
[Verse 1]
Lock up the door
Put the pony on all fours
Crack down the whip
Make the pony bite the bit
Spit on my face
Put the pony in his place
I am your toy
Just a little ponyboy
[Chorus]
Pony, pony, boy, boy
You can call me ponyboy
Pony, pony, boy, boy
Just a little ponyboy, boy
Pony, pony, boy, boy
You can call me ponyboy
Pony, pony, boy, boy
Just a little ponyboy, boy
[Verse 2]
Step on my clutch
Can you feel the hot blood rush?
Switch out the light
Make the pony trot two times
Pull up the reins
Make the pony grease his mane
Harness your toy
Just a little ponyboy
Well gimme that fast!
[Chorus]
Pony, pony, boy, boy
He's my little ponyboy, boy
Pony, pony, boy, boy
So I treat him like a ponyboy, boy
Pony, pony, boy, boy
He's my little ponyboy, boy
Pony, pony, boy, boy
So I treat him like a ponyboy, boy
[Bridge]
Pony-ponyboy
It's the one that he did it
Pony-ponyboy
My baby boy, ponyboy
He is just a pony
She is just a pony
They is just a pony
Pony-ponyboy
[Chorus]
Pony, pony, boy, boy
He's my little ponyboy, boy
Pony, pony, boy, boy
So I treat him like a ponyboy, boy
Pony, pony, boy, boy
He's my little ponyboy, boy
Pony, pony, boy, boy
So I treat him like a ponyboy
[Outro]
Ponyboy, boy
Ponyboy, boy
Ponyboy, boy
Ponyboy, boy
Video Credits[]
Visual credits[]
- Director: SOPHIE
- Co-Director: Nicholas Harwood
- Production Co: Industry Plant
- Executive Producers: Imogene Strauss, Nicholas Harwood
- Producer: Imogene Strauss
- DP: Luke Hanlein
- 1st AC: Michael McClure
- Steadicam Operator: David Shawl
- Lighting Designer: Sam Paine
- Playback: Ben Long
- Motion Graphics: Aaron Chan
- Art Director: Eric Wrenn
- Choreographers & Dancers: FlucT (Monica Mirabile, Sigrid Lauren)
- Stylist: Louby Mcloughlin
- Jacket Painter: Abigail McCreary
- Make-up: Cristina Waltz
- Make-up Ass't: Annie Tagge, Ching Tseng
- Hair: Fitch Lunar
- Editor: Nicholas Harwood
- Colorist: Arianna Shining Star
- Visual Effects: Griffin Frazen
- PA: Jake Agger
Official versions[]
- Album version — 03:08
- Single version — 03:16
- Ponyboy (Megadog) — 05:00
- Ponyboy (Faast Boy Remix) — 05:45
- Pony Whip Ft. BC Kingdom — 04:14
Also Sampled In[]
- Push Emission (Whore Moans) — 05:30
- Faceshopping (Lipstick Gel Remix) — 02:48
- Not Okay (Machine World) — 01:47
Trivia[]
- In the original single release for the song, it ends after the final noise, but the version featured on OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES transitions directly into Faceshopping.
- The song was featured in Calvin Klein's February 2020 commercial.