real men

If you know me, you know I am a huge fan of Tori Amos. That's an understatement. Anyway, her album entitled Strange Little Girls was released in 2001 and consisted entirely of cover songs originally recorded by male artists...so the album was more or less her musical take (as a female) on each song that had been written by a man. And of course it's a brilliant album, as all of her albums are. I really love all the songs from the SLG album, but the song "Real Men" (originally recorded by Joe Jackson) fell through the cracks and I just recently listened to it all the way through. I love it, the lyrics (which I have posted below) are just really thought provoking. It seems like, among Christians especially, everyone is always trying to define what a "real man" is...seems like there's so much confusion, so many labels that society has created. I could probably write a fifty page paper on this thanks to the Gender & Society class I took in college. But it's a good song for however you choose to take it, and you can find it on itunes. The video is a live performance of the song by Tori on the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn.




take your mind back
I don't know when
sometime when it always seemed to be just us and them
girls that wore pink
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
cultural and clean
now it's all changed
it's got to change more
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 guys are macho
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
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
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
and so it goes, go round again
but now and then we wonder who the real men are
and so it goes, go round again
but now and then we wonder who the real men are