take your mind back, i don't know when

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
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