Seeking a Male Anthem – 2nd Verse

Andrew Smiler lists the nominees for a “Male Anthem” and asks readers to vote for your favorites.

We asked for male anthems, and you’ve provided them. The suggestions have ranged in age and style, from Frank Sinatra to Johnny Cash to Judas Priest to Oasis. The criteria were simple: identify specific songs that celebrate manhood, either in general or some particular piece of men’s lives. In many ways, we’re looking for songs that might be considered parallels to songs like Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman,” or Whitney Houston’s “I’m Every Woman.”

We asked for male anthems because we weren’t sure what songs really celebrate or promote being a Good Man. Several themes have become apparent: One theme is songs that talk directly about being a man, such as “I’m a Man” (originally by Bo Diddley). Several songs talked about making your mark on the world, strength/toughness, rebelliousness, and sexuality. Only two songs explicitly addressed fatherhood.

Some commenters have asked if there’s really a need to identify songs that celebrate men or masculinity. After all, music is and has long been dominated by male performers and as Feminists have argued, the vast majority of people in positions of power are and have been male. But that doesn’t mean that every song—or even most songs – by male performers celebrate maleness. They may very well present the world from a male perspective and thus help make that perspective the default, but there’s a difference between being the assumed default and praising or celebrating something. I’m not sure that Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” or Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1,000 Dances” tell us anything about maleness or masculinity.

Another issue that came up concerns sexuality. As Good Men, should we highlight songs that objectify women? Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” may be viable as a male anthem, but as many folks have pointed out on this site, objectifying girls and women is problematic (as is the objectification of men). If Queen’s song is ok, what about Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”?

Sexual orientation plays into this discussion, of course. Is “Fat Bottomed Girls” different if you know that Queen’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury, was a gay man? When the song was initially released, that was not public knowledge. And given that the audience is primarily heterosexual—or assumed to be—how much does the performer’s orientation matter if we’re talking about songs that are very well known by the general public?

Ideally, we’re looking for songs that are sufficiently popular that most guys recognize them and can sing along, even if they haven’t really thought much about the lyrics.

These are the suggestions we’ve received so far, put into some broad categories. We’re not strongly connected to these categories; feel free to recategorize—or multiply categorize—any song, suggest other categories, etc… Some songs are uncategorized simply because we’re not sufficiently familiar with the songs to have put them into categories. Feel free to suggest more songs.

And, of course, let us also know which of these songs should be at the top of the list.

Men as men
“I’m a Man” (Bo Diddley, Yardbirds, & others)
“The Boys are Back In Town” (Thin Lizzie)
“Lola” (The Kinks)…but possibly just for sexual minority men?
“It’s a Man’s World” (James Brown)
“Mannish Boy” (Muddy Waters, among others)
“Man In Black” (Johnny Cash)
“Lukewarm” (Jonah Matranga)
“Sweet Life” (Jonah Matranaga)
“Men in Black” (Will Smith)
“Grown Ass Man” (Bomani Armah)
“You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” (Judas Priest)
“Rough Boys” (Pete Townshend)
“I’m a Boy” (The Who)
“Young Man Blues” (The Who)
“The Kids Are Alright“ (The Who)
“A Man is A Man” (The Who)
“I Don’t Want to Grow Up“ (Ramones)
“One Man Guy” (Rufus Wainwright, Louden Wainwright III)
“Masculine” (Meatloaf)
“The Gambler” (Kenny Rogers)
“I’m Still a Guy” (Brad Paisley)
“Real Men” (Joe Jackson)
“Good Hearted Man” (Tift Merritt)
“Real Man” (Todd Rundgren)
“My Guy” (Mary Wells)
“Simple Man” (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
“I’m a Man” (Chicago, as Chicago Transit Authority)
“Travelin’ Man” (Ricky Nelson)
“To Be a Man” (Boston)

Making Your Mark in the world
“Big Bad Leroy Brown” (Jim Croce)
“We Are the Champions” (Queen)
“Save a Horse, Rid a Cowboy” (Big & Rich)
“Stray Cat Strut” (Stray Cats)
“It’s My Life” (Bon Jovi)
“Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet“ (Bachman Turner Overdrive)
“Who Do You Love“ (Bo Diddley)
“My Way” (Sinatra)
“(I live for) Cars and Girls” (The Dictators)

Strength/Toughness
“Street Fighting Man” (Rolling Stones)
“Eye of the Tiger” (Survivor)
“I Won’t Back Down” (Tom Petty)
“Don’t Stop Me Now“ (Queen)
“A Boy Named Sue” (Johnny Cash)
“Like a Rock” (Bob Seger)
“American Soldier” (Toby Keith)
“Tougher than the Rest” (Bruce Springstein)

Rebellion/rebelliousness
“Free Bird” (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
“Born to Be Wild” (Steppenwolf)
“Lift Your Fist” (Jazzmatazz/Guru & the Roots)
Sexuality
“Fat Bottomed Girls” (Queen) ??

“Cherry Pie” (Warrant)
“Photograph” (Def Leppard)
“Playing with the Boys” (Kenny Loggins)
“Tom Sawyer” (Rush)
“Youth Gone Wild” (Skid Row)

Fatherhood:
“Cat’s in the Cradle” (Cat Stevens)
“Daddy’s Girl” (Peter Cetera)

Uncategorized
“U Will Know” (Black Men, incl D’Angelo)
“Me and Paul” (Willie Nelson & Johnny Cash)
“Till I Collapse” (Eminem)
“Primetime” (Jay Z & Kanye West)
“Crawlin’ Kingsnake” (John Lee Hooker)
“Voodoo Child” (Jimi Hendrix)
“Inhale Exhale” (Rollins Band)
“Kashmir” (Led Zeppelin)
“I am the Highway,” (Audioslave)
“Fight For Your Right (To Party)“ (Beastie Boys)
“Champagne Supernova“ (Oasis)
“Tower of Song“ (Leonard Cohen)
“Shore Leave“ (Tom Waits)
“Just Got Paid“ (ZZ Top)

“Darkness at the Edge of Town“ (Bruce Springsteen)
“Substitute” (The Who)
“I Shall Be Released“ (Bob Dylan)
“The Shape I’m In“ (The Band)
“In the Army Now” (Status Quo)
“Go West” (The Village People)
“YMCA” (the Village People)
“Street Man, Changed, Man” (Bram Tchaikovsky)
“My Handy Man” (Alberta Hunter)
“Monkey to Man” (Elvis Costello)
“Man Out of Time” (Elvis Costello)
“Salesman” (The Monkees)
“I’m a Ram” (George Hadfield)
“Man With the Golden Heart” (The Stems)
“That’s What Makes a Man” (Vanilla Fudge)
“Debonair” (The Afghan Whigs)
“Handy Man” (James Taylor)
“Balloon Man” (Robyn Hitchcock)

Some good lessons:
“It Aint’ Me, Babe” (Dylan)
“One For My Baby (And One For the Road)” (Sinatra)