Macho men

I just spent the past couple of hours listening to my rock playlist, and when I had had enough of that, I switched to my all-female playlist, among which were several songs by The Go-Go's, an '80s band whose brand of rock and roll I enjoy, partly due to its being "uncomplicated" (for lack of a better term). Add to that the absence of anger and too much angst which characterize much of today's music, including songs by female artists.

Turn to You was among the songs on my playlist and one that I had always liked for its rhythm, upbeat tempo, melody, and of course Belinda Carlisle's vocal style. In other words, it was all about the music. But tonight I absently gazed at the lyrics on the screen as the song played and realized that they're kind of interesting. I had never paid attention to what the song was actually about. The beginning caught my attention:

You act so tough
But I know what you're doing
You think falling in love
Means falling to ruin
You build your walls so high
You act your life out all alone
You don't want to let me see
That your heart's not made out of stone

Talk about keeping up a "macho" facade. Well, I do like a man who can be relied on to be the rock even as everything around him collapses (figuratively speaking), but then maintaining a heartless demeanor isn't that attractive.

Before I launch into a whole discourse on the wonderful differences between the natural qualities of men and women, what I think of masculinity in today's world, the idea of men's being "in touch with their feminine side" and other such concepts, I just want to say what prompted this post in the first place: how amazing it is to be able to appreciate things when one takes a deeper look into them, even if it's only a rock and roll song from decades ago.

Here are the lyrics of the entire song, followed by a video of the group performing it in a TV show from the same decade. Real vintage stuff from the era characterized by big hair and big shoulder pads. I was going to post a video that showed only the album cover concerned ("Talk Show"), then I stumbled on the video that shows the band performing, though it doesn't have the same energy as a live performance since the music is exactly as it is on the album (in other words, it's lipsynching and strumming along to the music that's happening here). Still, it's fun to watch them on stage, particularly Belinda Carlisle who always looks like she's really having fun.

Okay so here goes...

Turn To You

You act so tough

But I know what you're doing

You think falling in love

Means falling to ruin

You build your walls so high

You act your life out all alone

You don't want to let me see

That your heart's not made out of stone

[Chorus:]

There may be some explanation

Why you feel the way you do

The world makes its rotations

But I just want to turn to you

Come on let me turn to you

Please let me turn to you

Why not let me turn to you

Just want to turn to you

It has a lot to do

With the first time that we met

The wild dance in your eyes

Made up for what was never said

Gotta get my message

Stop spending all our precious time

Because before you know it

We'll be down to our last dime

[Chorus]

This version has better sound quality, sans video