WALK LIKE A MAN
(Lyrics and Music by Rick Springfield)
I got so many thoughts jumping
out of my head
And I can't sit still
I'm thinking about the universe
I'm looking at life on earth
I can't shut the camera shutter
I stare at the clock, the years slip away
And I stay confused
I'm dreaming about la raison d'être
I'm frightened by the toxic threat
I can't stop the motor running
People saying I should learn some self-control
I just want to exorcise my soul
Walk like a man, walk like a man
I still feel like a boy and you feel like a girl in my hand
I'm gonna walk like a man, walk like a man
I'm still waiting on the revelation
Here in never-never land
I got so many things jumpin' out of my brain
And I feel so strange
I'm crazy about the car I drive
While people struggle just to stay alive
I can't put the two together
I stare in the bathroom mirror at my face
God, I look so pale
Lines crawl across my face
I'm runnin' in the human race
Yeah, me first, who am I kidding
Where is this peace that comes with age
Someone show me to my cage
Where I can walk like a man, walk like a man
I still feel like a boy
And you feel like a girl in my hand
I'm gonna walk like a man, walk like a man
I'm still waiting on the revelation
Here in never-never land
When it finally hits me then, and only then I'll understand
Waiting for the revolution here
In never-never land
Where is this peace that comes with age
Will somebody take me to the stage
Where I can walk like a man, walk like a man
Walk, walk like a man
Walk like a man
Walk like a man
Walk like a man
Walk like a man
Walk like a man
I still feel like a boy
And you feel like a girl in my hands
I'm gonna walk like a man, walk like a man
I'm still waiting on the revelation
Here in never-never land
When it finally hits me then, and only then I'll understand
Waiting on the revolution here
In never-never land
Walk like a man
(total playing time 4:07)
SONG FACTS:
This song appears on the following albums: Tao, Best of, Legendary, and
Anthology (written in rock).
We've come to my least favorite song on the Tao CD. The title is
what gets me. When I hear "Walk Like a Man" (the words, not the song) I think of
the Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons song...Walk Like a Man. I hear it in that
falsetto voice, and I just can't get that damn voice out of my head! I keep wishing that
Rick had come up with a better title/chorus. But every time I play this CD, there it is
again...sigh. I'm sorry, I can't get past it.
The lyrics themselves are pretty good, just now reading this song
out loud, I could feel a bit differently, but I still find myself saying the damn
things to the beat of the song. The first paragraph alone pretty much sums up my life
right now. "I got so many things jumping out of my head, and I can't sit
still..." I go to bed at night and have to tell my brain to STOP, it's time to sleep.
I'm thinking Rick sometimes has the same problem. Of course, there he is throwing the
"toxic threat" stuff at us again. Sheesh...we got it already, a few songs ago.
My favorite line in this song is, "I still feel like a boy and you feel like a girl
in my hand". I think everyone has those days...sometimes I think and feel the same
way I did as a girl then reality hits me, and I'm the Mom with the kids, job, house and
car wondering what happened to that girl.
For some reason, I remember seeing Rick do this song live on the Cathode Ray tour. The
memory hits me of my disappointment at first (yep, didn't even like the song back then)
but then I waited...for the breath. You know where he goes, "...where I can walk like
a man, uh". Yep, he did the "breath" live too. :-) I live for those
moments.
This is one of my favorite songs on Tao. I think some of
it is coming from Rick’s point between the struggle with Stage persona Rick, and Rick
the person. Especially when he talks about "show me to the stage"...the stage is
the one place where he knows who he is and is certain of what his role is there, but when
it comes to real life there's a struggle. He's living a good life, but it’s almost
like he feels guilty about it when there's so much wrong with the world. |
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I really like this song. I like it even more having really
listened to it. I love the way it starts. I love the beat, and I like the message
(whatever it is). Except for the one line about toxic threat, it seems more about inner
struggle than impending doom. I also like the "never never" land reference,
which I took to be a reference to Hollywood.
My favorite line in the whole song is: "I'm running in the human race -Yeah, me first
who am I kidding..."
"Where is this peace that comes with age" This line really gets me. I actually
think there is a kind of peace that comes with age. Yet, I also think Rick wrote the
angriest song he's ever written at the age of 52, so maybe peace isn't coming as easy for
him, as it does for some.
"Someone show me to my cage" I always thought he was saying "someone show
me to my page", which meant to me he had lost his place and needed to get back, but
this is very interesting. Does he see the stage as a prison of sorts, yet later he says to
show him to the stage where he can walk like a man, indicating that he's most comfortable
there, and that's where he feels like he's in control and has the power. Maybe a double
edge sword?
"When it finally hits me then, and only then I'll understand" I absolutely love
this part. The line flows so smoothly....I just love the way he worked that in. I also
like the way he interchanges revelation and revolution.
To me, this song is as depressing as "Walking On The
Edge" because instead of "waiting for the big bang", Rick seems to be
experiencing a ton of self doubt. I know this was 17 years ago, but I have the urge to
yell "Hey Rick, don't be so hard on yourself for goodness sake! You are a good
guy!" Jeez.
"I still feel like a boy and you feel like a girl in my hand" is one of my very
favorite lines. Hey, how did I get here with the mortgage, 2 cars, too many cats and laugh
lines? I still walk hand-in-hand with my husband and it does feel like we are still in
college, as if our biggest worry is what movie to see next or what course we are going to
take. And then wham! I realize that half of all those people I watch on TV are younger
than me! Life is cruel!
"I'm crazy about the car I drive while people struggle just to stay alive, I can't
put the two together"......another great line. I think this shows just what a decent
human being Rick truly is. I can imagine (just from seeing TV interviews, etc.) that many
of today's stars don't give what they drive a second thought. Then to think about what
they drive and connect it to people starving, unheard of. Rick is a celebrity and he is
financially comfortable but he does not lose himself in that unreal life. It is this
approach to life, Rick's way of seeing things, that makes him so personable and so easy to
admire. It is one of the MANY things that makes me so proud to be a Rick Springfield fan.
So, on Behind The Music Rick says something about rock stars and
terminal adolescence. Well, this song says to me, "It's time for the adolescent to
grow up".
"I'm still waiting on the revelation here in Never Never Land".....well, Peter
Pan was the boy who never grew up. So, what's being implied here is it's time to become a
man, but he's still waiting to feel like a man. Really, how does a man really feel?? Don't
we all feel like we're still 18 or 21 or 25. I know I still don't feel that I've grown up.
I'm in terminal adolescence!!! I love Disneyland, I'm always in some kind of Fantasyland!
LOL
"I stare in the bathroom mirror at my face, I look so pale, lines crawl across my
face." This is the reality of it all, yes we do get older even though we feel no
older.
"Where is this peace that comes with age"..... do we really ever feel
comfortable with getting older? Does anyone? Is it just something that one accepts? Yes,
we have to live with it, but we don't have to be comfortable with it. I don't like getting
older, I especially don't like seeing my parents get older. Junk, I still have to learn to
accept. So, this song really hits a spot in me. Maybe I'm totally off in what Rick meant
it to be, but it's my interpretation.
Another transitional song. That new awareness of the world. He
says it right in the first verse. "I'm thinking about the universe. I'm looking at
life on earth". (Dance This World Away/Walking On The Edge anyone??) Like this whole
time he has been sort of looking inward and all the sudden he looks outward and there are
all these things he is suddenly aware of. Things beyond himself. "I'm crazy about the
car I drive While people struggle just to stay alive I can't put the two together"
Like he is straddling two versions of himself.
I love the Peter Pan reference with the "here in never never land" line. A land
where Peter and The Lost Boys never grow up..... Like he's saying, "everyone says I
should act and think a certain way because I am a certain age or at a certain point in my
life, but I
don't feel it."
I always used to think when he used the word "stage" that second time instead of
"cage" that he was referring to the performing stage. But in going over this
song again for reviewing, lately I have begun to wonder if he wasn't talking stage as in a
"stage" of life. Like he was asking for help to get to that place that everyone
thought he should be in. Like straddling "little Ricky" and "big boy
Ricky" was driving him crazy, but he also seemed to know no one could put him in that
place but himself and that things would come together. Eventually. I think all those
things were starting for him with the evidence of all the spiritual things he was
exploring at that time and the songs on this album that came from these explorations.
Well, once again I guess I’ll show why I wasn't exactly in
the "in" crowd...wasn't, isn't. I LOVE this song. "waiting for the
revelation, waiting for the revolution here in never-never land" omg! never-never
land. For whatever reason, people weren't getting it, and he's in Hollywood, etc, where
"Nero fiddled while Rome burned in strife" has got to be at it's highest. For
me, I was in high school, and I worried about so many things that other people just didn't
get. They were so busy with their own fantasies of how life supposedly is; well, honestly,
so was I and I would still like to have that revelation. never never land. omg.
"Feel like a girl in my hand" (sigh). On the one hand, this is a great line.
It's a great thought to hold on to while reality is intruding (hmm, sort of the opposite
of the neverland thought...). At the same time, this always brought "catcher in the
rye" to mind for me, which was the first graphic description of (ahem) fondling that
hit me as a teen.
And of course, "I’m so crazy 'bout the car I drive
while others struggle just to stay alive" not a lot of subtlety here, but this
certainly hasn't changed much, as far as society is concerned, as far as I can tell. Daily
I work with people who can't afford the $5 for their meds, and then I go home and wonder
what SUV I’ll end up buying (sigh) and it segues into my absolute favorite song: Tao
of Heaven (double sigh).
He’s giving us that toxic threat stuff again. This is part
of the song that throws me. Though I do like this song, some of the visuals are a little
disturbing, depressing. Not that I think all the songs should be about happy things and
how wonderful everything is...He just seems like a man confused by everything that is
going on in the world.
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