Real Men
So I'm only properly listening to the lyrics on my Tori Amos album now - it's a collection of covers and this is one of them.
This is for all the soon-to-be-in-green Singaporean boys.
Real Men
Joe Jackson
Take your mind back - I don’t know when
Sometime when it always seemed
To be just us and them
Girls that wore pink
And boys that wore blue
Boys that always grew up better men
Than me and you
What’s a man now - what’s a man mean
Is he rough or is he rugged
Is he cultural and clean
Now it’s all change - it’s got to change more
’cause we think it’s getting better
But nobody’s really sure
And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
See the nice boys - dancing in pairs
Golden earring golden tan
Blow-wave in the hair
Sure they’re all straight - straight as a line
All the gays are macho
Can’t you see their leather shine
You don’t want to sound dumb - don’t want to offend
So don’t call me a faggot
Not unless you are a friend
Then if you’re tall and handsome and strong
You can wear the uniform and I could play along
And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
Time to get scared - time to change plan
Don’t know how to treat a lady
Don’t know how to be a man
Time to admit - what you call defeat
’cause there’s women running past you now
And you just drag your feet
Man makes a gun - man goes to war
Man can kill and man can drink
And man can take a whore
Kill all the blacks - kill all the reds
And if there’s war between the sexes
Then there’ll be no people left
And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
This is for all the soon-to-be-in-green Singaporean boys.
Real Men
Joe Jackson
Take your mind back - I don’t know when
Sometime when it always seemed
To be just us and them
Girls that wore pink
And boys that wore blue
Boys that always grew up better men
Than me and you
What’s a man now - what’s a man mean
Is he rough or is he rugged
Is he cultural and clean
Now it’s all change - it’s got to change more
’cause we think it’s getting better
But nobody’s really sure
And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
See the nice boys - dancing in pairs
Golden earring golden tan
Blow-wave in the hair
Sure they’re all straight - straight as a line
All the gays are macho
Can’t you see their leather shine
You don’t want to sound dumb - don’t want to offend
So don’t call me a faggot
Not unless you are a friend
Then if you’re tall and handsome and strong
You can wear the uniform and I could play along
And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
Time to get scared - time to change plan
Don’t know how to treat a lady
Don’t know how to be a man
Time to admit - what you call defeat
’cause there’s women running past you now
And you just drag your feet
Man makes a gun - man goes to war
Man can kill and man can drink
And man can take a whore
Kill all the blacks - kill all the reds
And if there’s war between the sexes
Then there’ll be no people left
And so it goes - go round again
But now and then we wonder who the real men are
posted by leah | 6:46 AM
5 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
*!$*&# comment was miraculously deleted... Below was more or less what I left the first time.
I agree with piglet, Lish. (Not that I mind your comments at all, they're most welcomed)
Technically, your audience is whoever you allow to read your blog anyway so in that sense there is a target, no?
And as for the song, just imagine a dying tune, well not even a tune, chant is more like it. I think Leah might protest, though.
wah! in the couple of hours i took off to hammer at my non-existent paper a lot has happened on my blog. eh, YK, it's not dying lah. well i dont know what the original joe jackson version sounds like, like i said, i only have the tori amos cover. the song itself - and her voice - sounds quite mellow, slightly melancholic. elegiac, even. but that contrasts very strikingly with the naked contempt and anger of the lyrics, which is why i like the song. she also redoes the beatles' happiness is a warm gun, eminem's '97 bonnie and clyde but the most chilling one by far in my opinion is 'i don't like mondays', originally done by Boomtown Rats. go google for the history of that song. it's again done in a very soothing way.. lulled me into not listening closely until quite recently! ok i better stop before i get called a long bag of wind again ;)
no wait i ve just listened to the song again. it's not mellow. it's just melancholic. everytime i hear it i can just see her lips curl up in sneer.
btw tori was a repeat rape victim
does that have anything to do with her lyrics?
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